Everyday memory slips, such as misplacing keys or forgetting a name, can feel ominous. Yet Dr. Tommy Wood, a professor of pediatrics and neuroscience at the University of Washington, says these moments often reflect stress, fatigue or poor attention rather than the start of a neurodegenerative disease.

Wood discussed forgetfulness with Fox News Digital at Strong New York, the city’s largest annual fitness and wellness festival. “For most people, it's just because you're stressed or you're tired and weren't paying attention,” he said.

Paying attention is essential when the brain is creating a memory. “If you want to remember something ... you need to actually be focused, be paying attention. You need to tell your brain it's important to remember it.”

Wood described memory formation as a process with three stages. Encoding forms the memory, consolidation stores it and retrieval provides access to it later.

Stress and insufficient sleep commonly interfere with the retrieval stage, according to Wood. The memory has been formed and remains in the brain, but the person temporarily struggles to reach it.

Neurodegenerative disease can produce a different problem. Rather than having difficulty retrieving an existing memory, a person may fail to encode the memory in the first place.

That distinction can make awareness of memory trouble somewhat reassuring. “They don't even remember or notice that there's something going on,” Wood said. “If you're noticing something's not quite right, that's usually a good sign.”

Dementia is clinically defined as a loss of cognitive function severe enough to interfere with someone’s ability to manage daily life independently. Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia account for 70% to 90% of dementia cases, and many people show signs of both.

Research indicates that modifying lifestyle and health risks could prevent at least 50% of dementia cases. Important preventable risks include problems involving heart and metabolic health, along with hearing and vision loss.

Wood said addressing physical health concerns can directly reduce the risk of cognitive decline. His examples included obtaining hearing aids and undergoing cataract surgery when those interventions are needed.

Expectations about aging can also influence whether someone takes protective action. “If you expect decline, you won't do the things that will prevent decline from happening,” Wood told Fox News Digital.

He added, “Believing that it's possible means you'll actually engage in these processes, and then through that, you can prevent a lot of this decline.” His broader message was that cognitive changes with aging are not necessarily inevitable.

Wood’s emphasis on reversible causes is consistent with guidance from Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic. Both organizations note that treatable medical conditions can mimic symptoms of early dementia or contribute to subjective cognitive decline.

Vitamin deficiencies are among the possible causes. Low levels of vitamin B12 or B1 can affect nerve and brain function because both vitamins are considered essential to those systems.

Endocrine disruption can also contribute to cognitive symptoms. Thyroid problems, particularly hypothyroidism, can slow brain metabolism and resemble memory or thinking difficulties.

Medication side effects represent another possible explanation, especially among older adults. The source identifies interactions involving sedative drugs, anticholinergics or polypharmacy as potential contributors.

Mental health conditions may produce similar symptoms. Depression and severe anxiety can cause “pseudodementia,” a state involving cognitive slowing and memory lapses that resolves with mental health treatment.

Metabolic problems and kidney issues are also included among reversible causes. Chronic kidney or liver failure and electrolyte imbalances can alter levels of chemicals in the brain.

Cleveland Clinic emphasizes early clinical intervention when people begin noticing changes in brain fog or executive function. Prompt attention matters because some underlying contributors may be treatable.

“How your brain functions on a day-to-day basis is kind of the output of everything your brain is dealing with,” said Wood. “But if you start to notice something, there's still time to make some changes if you need to.”

For people alarmed by a misplaced object or a briefly forgotten name, the lapse alone does not establish dementia. Wood’s explanation points instead to attention, stress and fatigue as frequent reasons that an existing memory becomes difficult to retrieve.

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