Gabriel's Life

When Nancy Murray’s balance and memory began deteriorating in her 40s, her doctor told her, You’re approaching 50. What do you expect? You can’t be 20 for the rest of your life.

But Murray had been experiencing balance problems since her 20s. It wasn’t until she totaled her car that this 55-year-old advertising manager from McLean, VA, was examined for adult normal pressure hydrocephalus (sometimes abbreviated NPH), a neurological condition that can cause problems with memory, bladder control, balance, and gait (one’s manner of walking).I’m lucky to be alive, Murray says. My balance had gotten so bad that I was leaning over to the right all the time. I drove off the right side of the road into an embankment.

One diagnostic challenge is that the classic symptoms of adult normal pressure hydrocephalus-trouble with walking and balance, thinking and memory, and bladder control-are also the most common problems of aging, says Michael A. Williams, M.D., medical director of the Brain & Spine Institute at LifeBridge Health and director of the Adult Hydrocephalus Center at Sinai Hospital, both in Baltimore, MD. Read more: