You want to note the timing of any impairment. But sometimes it gets worse, so your doctor should follow you closely if you have mild cognitive impairment. Your primary care doctor can diagnose it. When you have troubles with memory – but they don’t interfere with your daily activities – this is called mild cognitive impairment. What’s more of a potential problem is forgetting the name of someone you see every day forgetting how to get to a place you visit frequently or having problems with your activities of daily living, like eating, dressing and hygiene. This is normal, part of the expected changes with aging. Maybe you recognize the face, but don’t remember their name until later that night. Ever have trouble fetching a fact from the deep back part of your “mind’s Rolodex”? Suppose you spot someone at the grocery store you haven’t seen in years. Older people often have a decrease in recall memory. READ MORE: How Covid-19 might increase risk of memory loss and cognitive declineĪs we age, we experience many physical and cognitive changes. Details vary, but the underlying concern is the same: Is this dementia? They forget a word, get lost in a story, lose keys or can’t remember a name. I see patients like this every week in my geriatric clinic, where they tell me their stories. Older people wonder and worry about so-called senior moments and the memory loss they perceive in themselves and others. There are different types of memory loss and they can have different causes, such as other medical conditions, falls or even medication, including herbals, supplements and anything over-the-counter. And, forgetting an occasional word – or even where you put your keys – does not mean a person has dementia. A person needs a detailed doctor’s exam for a diagnosis. That number is expected to triple by 2060.įirst, it is important to know that dementia cannot be diagnosed from afar or by someone who is not a doctor. We need to understand dementia and the impact it has on more than 5 million people in the US who now live with dementia and their caregivers. But, is this even a fair question to ask? When these types of questions are posed – adding further stigma to people with dementia – it can unfairly further isolate them and those caring for them. Some voters have asked whether one or both candidates might have dementia. There has also been a good deal of talk and reporting about dementia in recent months because of the US presidential election. That figure, too, will no doubt rise, putting even more burdens on family, Medicare and Medicaid. A 2018 study estimated the lifetime cost of care for a person with Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, to be US$329,360. Older people may worry about their own loss of function as well as the cost and toll of caregiving for someone with dementia. About 5% of those ages 71 to 79 have dementia, and about 37% of those about 90 years old live with it. Incidence increases dramatically as people move into their 90s. Dementia, which is not technically a disease but a term for impaired ability to think, remember or make decisions, is one of the most feared impairments of old age. The number of cases of dementia in the US is rising as baby boomers age, raising questions for boomers themselves and also for their families, caregivers and society.
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