Memory Loss

My doctor prescribed Vytorin for high cholesterol. While my cholesterol went from over 350 to 190 in five weeks, I ended up having an eight-hour episode of transient global amnesia (TGA). I knew who I was, and I recognized my family and friends, but I didn't know the year. I didn't recognize streets I have driven for many years. I asked my husband the same five questions in the hospital over and over until late in the evening, when my memory returned. I immediately went off Vytorin.

Walking promotes good physical health, but it may also help maintain memory and cognitive function for years, a study finds. The research, published online Wednesday in the journal Neurology , is based on a study of 299 men and women, average age 78, who were followed for nine years. The study participants were asked about their physical activity, which was calculated as number of blocks walked per week (walking was the most common exercise). Study subjects walked from zero to 300 blocks over a one-week period.

GREAT HOUSE A Novel Nicole Krauss W.W. Norton: 290 pp., $24.95 Maybe it's because I am a father, but to me the most resonant sections of Nicole Krauss' widely anticipated third novel, "Great House," are those narrated by Aaron, an aging Israeli who still hasn't figured out how to relate to one of his adult sons. Aaron is bitter, loving, angry, complicated ? "full of passionate intensity," to borrow a line from Yeats. He is, in other words, a real person, marked by pride, regret and secret longings, which make him the most three-dimensional presence in the book.

High doses of B vitamins can reduce shrinkage of the brain that is frequently a precursor of Alzheimer's disease, British researchers reported Wednesday. In the best circumstances, the supplements reduced shrinkage by as much as 50%, and researchers hope that this may mean that the vitamins can delay the onset of Alzheimer's. A longer trial is now being planned to determine if that is the case. The results are all the more remarkable because of the widely publicized failures of many experimental Alzheimer's treatments.

Lakers forward Ron Artest stood before the media Tuesday night and faced a barrage of questions seeking an explanation for how he suffered a concussion Friday that has forced him to miss the last three games. Artest said he was walking into his Beverly Hills home after the Christmas Day game against Cleveland and fell down a flight of stairs. Artest said his wife, Kimsha , found him asleep outside their home and that he didn't know who she was. Artest said his wife had to explain to him that the Lakers had played a game Friday at Staples Center.

NCIS "Faith" CBS 8 p.m. Dec. 15 The premise Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon), head of the NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) team, is trying to figure out why his father (Ralph Waite) pays a surprise visit for the holidays. Gibbs' father is withdrawn, uncommunicative, disoriented and exhibiting loss of memory. Gibbs is concerned that his dad has suffered a stroke or has dementia. But a doctor who comes to the house can find nothing neurologically wrong -- no sign of impaired recognition, no difficulty with speaking or writing (motor aphasia)

Two environmental officials were being investigated Saturday after more than 1,300 children were sickened with lead poisoning caused by pollution from a manganese-processing plant in central China. Officials seek to punish those responsible for the poisoning from the Wugang Manganese Smelting Plant in Wenping township in Hunan province. Days earlier, reports said emissions from a lead smelter in another province had sickened hundreds. The plant in Wenping opened in May 2008 without the approval of the local environmental protection bureau, within 500 yards of a primary school, a middle school and a kindergarten.

Lost jobs and lost careers. Promising businesses in shambles. The college acceptance letter returned to its envelope. This is how President Obama recently described the effect of the tanking economy on ordinary Americans -- and the stresses keeping them up at night. Sleeplessness is a problem even in good times. One in 10 U.S. adults routinely has trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep, and 3 in 10 experience occasional sleeplessness, federal statistics show.