As most of you know, I’m not getting any younger, and I guess most of my readers are suffering from the same curse: aging.

So, how do we notice our changes? Sore backs in the morning. Knees that need procedures. Retirement from that job we either hated or loved. The loss of friends our same age.

But the biggest curse in my mind is the thing that aging is doing to our memories.

How many times a day do you try to remember someone’s name? Often, you are trying to remember something that happened a while back, but the details and specifics are blurry. We know that there are two types of memory, according to the health care professionals who deal with memory loss: short term and long term. Long-term memory loss is not considered as dangerous as short-term.

If you have taken memory tests with a professional, part of the test is hearing 15 short words read to you aloud. Then, there is a period of conversation, after which the doctor or assistant asks you to recall as many of those 15 words as you can. The average for a 56-year-old is nine, while that of the average 80-year-old is only five.

When I took that test at 80, I got nine. At first, I was ecstatic. No problem here! No dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Then, the doctor shared something with me. The more intelligent one is the better the score, regardless of any onset of a mental problem. The smart ones can find ways to join some of the words as they are read to them and then can recall both instead of perhaps only one of the two. Bummer.

Thus, I have delved a bit deeper into the loss of some of these abilities. Most reasons are quite complex for us nonscientists. It can have to do with brain structure, with thicker cortexes or more unique neurons. Some super-agers have a natural resistance or resilience to Alzheimer’s pathology, and the plaque does not attach to the brain.

Lately, science has started to challenge the long-held belief that cognitive decline is an inevitable part of aging. Researchers have noted that being social and gregarious is a prevention – or at least a stalling – of this doomed future.

Scientists still do not know exactly what causes Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. They have concluded that obesity is a strong contributing factor to memory loss, and even the two dreaded diseases.

There is some research that suggests obesity could fuel Alzheimer’s progression. One study has found that excess fat composition in extracellular cells – cells that are messengers in the body and can signal the buildup of the amyloid plaque – is a key feature of this disease. They found that these cells are different in people with obesity and were a factor in leading this plaque to clump together in lab models.

But let’s leave science and talk about memory. Memory isn’t just a passive recording device. Our brains actually decide what matters. Emotional events clearly help us reach back in time to preserve these otherwise fragile memories. It seems our brains sometimes pluck unremarkable moments from the blur of everyday life and decide to store that memory.

Receiving a life-changing bit of news is not only easily recalled, but if you learned this news at lunch, it is not uncommon that the person can recall what he was having for lunch or what clothes she was wearing. Emotional events can act like memory magnets.

It is like our brain has different rules based on the original memory. Weak memories need more help to be recalled, such as hints or some recorded information. Stronger memories may already be “safe” and don’t need extra help.

My seeing a blue racer snake as a 7-year-old and thinking he was chasing me rather than escaping from me (probably just heading in the same direction) is a memory I will never forget. Although I love most animals, it will never be snakes. That memory is surely in my top 10 of memories easily recalled.

What I find strange is that while I have trouble recalling the names of new people in the community where I now live (it doesn’t help that there are 300 on my new street alone), I can kill crossword puzzles, sudoku squares, and do fairly well on “Jeopardy” if they don’t go too much into current TV shows or modern music. Why some things and not others?

So, we make lists; use our phones as data centers for appointments, phone numbers or addresses; and write down names of the ones whose names are sketchy already. And when that fails and we cannot remember that song, the singer, that movie, or who that pitcher for the Cubs in 1959 was, we ask Siri.

The nice thing about living in an over-55 community is that no one is offended if you have to ask his or her name again – and maybe again. Ah, the blessings of a longer life.

· Dennis Marek can be reached at llamalaw23@gmail.com.