Has this happened to you? You see your neighbor (perhaps after a long pandemic hiatus) and go to say hello and suddenly can’t remember her name? Or you get ready to meet a friend for a walk and can’t remember where the keys are? It’s one thing to have occasional bouts of forgetfulness, especially given the stress we’ve all been through. It’s another if it becomes part of a pattern, where memory loss adjustments must be regularly made to get you through the day. The question is, what’s going on: What’s the cause of these memory lapses, and can (or should) anything be done? While you may worry these moments of forgetfulness portend something more ominous, keep in mind one essential point: As The Washington Post recently made clear: “Your 60-year-old brain isn’t going to function like it did at age 25 any more than your skin will look like it did at that age, but that doesn’t mean you’ll become senile.” 

In fact, there are lots of reasons for occasional forgetfulness, including some that are part of normal aging and some due to such extraneous factors as medication side-effects, infection, or vitamin deficiencies. Then of course there is the understandable concern that maybe you’re experiencing the early phase of Alzheimer’s or some other sort of dementia. But before you jump to conclusions and despair, there is a milder condition known as mild cognitive impairment (MCI), something we’ve previously discussed on agebuzz, that may leave you with challenges in your daily life (keeping appointments, remembering what you need from the market) but not so disabling that you can’t manage your activities of daily living. It’s estimated that 10-15% of those with MCI will go on to develop full-blown dementia. For a good review of the differences between normal aging, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia, pull out your pen and jot down the key points here. 

Nonetheless, mild cognitive impairment itself is not something to ignore. In a recent personal essay detailing his own experience being diagnosed with MCI, retired professor David Koulack commented, “There was something else that started happening, something that was a steady and constant intrusion in my life, a terrible annoyance and often an embarrassment…I began to forget things, all sorts of things: things that I intended to do, things that I had wanted to do or even things that I needed to do.” The good news is that researchers have developed a rapid diagnostic test to quickly, efficiently, and accessibly detect when a person has MCI or even more serious dementia. Using a five-minute computerized test, in the near future, your physician should be able to determine whether your forgetfulness is normal aging, MCI, or something of more concern. In addition, researchers out of the University of Kentucky recently discovered that using non-invasive existing EEG technology, they can predict a person’s transition from normal aging to MCI several years prior to symptoms appearing. By measuring brain waves while a person is performing everyday memory tasks, clinicians will be able to discern a person’s risk of MCI roughly 5 years before a clinical diagnosis would be made. So strap on your EEG cap and read more here.

As with dementia, the earlier one can predict and diagnose the potential or existence of MCI, the more opportunity for lifestyle changes and healthy behaviors that can disrupt or intercept further cognitive decline. While there’s still no “cure” there are lots of mitigation measures to try to keep your brain as healthy and functioning as possible. For some ideas you can implement even now, click here and here.