{"id":431,"date":"2013-07-18T07:47:56","date_gmt":"2013-07-18T07:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4abettermemory.com\/memory\/?p=431"},"modified":"2013-07-18T14:44:31","modified_gmt":"2013-07-18T14:44:31","slug":"when-should-you-be-concerned-subjective-cognitive-impairment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/4abettermemory.com\/memory\/when-should-you-be-concerned-subjective-cognitive-impairment\/","title":{"rendered":"When Should You Be Concerned: Subjective Cognitive Impairment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jul2008_report_cognitive_01\"<\/a>On Wednesday the discussion at the Alzheimer\u2019s International Conference turned to the topic of subjective cognitive impairment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Studies \u00a0presented<\/a>\u00a0Wednesday at the conference in Boston showed that people with some types of cognitive concerns were more likely to have signs of the Alzheimer\u2019s disease process and develop dementia later. Research presented by Dr. Amariglio, for example, found that people with more concerns about memory and organizing ability were more likely to have amyloid, a key Alzheimer\u2019s-related protein, in their brains.<\/span><\/p>\n

And, in a significant shift highlighted at the conference, leading Alzheimer\u2019s researchers are talking more about \u201csubjective cognitive decline\u201d – people\u2019s own sense that their memory and thinking skills are slipping even before others have noticed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole field now is moving to this area, and saying \u2018Hey, maybe there is something to this, and maybe we should pay attention to these people,\u2019\u00a0\u201d said Dr. Ronald C. Petersen, chairman of the advisory panel to the federal government\u2019s new\u00a0National Alzheimer\u2019s Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(Imagine that, doctor\u2019s taking seriously their patient\u2019s concerns! Actually I believe most doctor\u2019s already do, they just do not have the tools to do much about it.)<\/p>\n

Dr. Petersen, director of the Mayo Clinic\u2019s Alzheimer\u2019s center, said preliminary results of a Mayo study of healthy older adults in Minnesota suggested something similar.<\/p>\n

\u201cLo and behold, those who had a concern about their memory in fact had more likelihood\u201d of later developing mild cognitive impairment, an early phase of dementia, he said. He said study participants with memory concerns were 56 percent more likely to be given a diagnosis of such impairment, even when results were adjusted for factors like education, genetic risk and psychiatric issues like anxiety and depression.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people are sensing something, and there\u2019s some biological signals that correlate,\u201d Dr. Petersen said. \u201cI think it\u2019s real.\u201d<\/p>\n

While memory problems don\u2019t necessarily signal dementia (in our book<\/span><\/a><\/span> we note more than 50 different things that can cause memory problems) still it\u2019s a good idea, whenever one notices a decline to ask why? \u00a0Maybe it\u2019s resulting from an infection or medication, perhaps a thyroid, a B-12 or hormonal deficiency, but obviously something is not right, it\u2019s a warning that should not be ignored. (see chapter 3 in our book for things to consider and tests to request) The good news is, as you will find on this site. There are many things that can address the underlying pathologies that can help improve memory and reduce the risk for \u00a0dementia. But it usually starts with a good medical assessment, often requiring some blood work, as well as the typical memory tests. And the sooner one get\u2019s started the greater the likelihood they can turn things around.<\/p>\n

For more see the NY times article this was taken \u00a0from \u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/07\/18\/health\/looking-for-early-signs-of-dementia.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&comments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/a>On Wednesday the discussion at the Alzheimer\u2019s International Conference turned to the topic of subjective cognitive impairment.\u00a0\u00a0Studies \u00a0presented<\/a>\u00a0Wednesday at the conference in Boston showed that people with some types of cognitive concerns were more likely to have signs of the Alzheimer\u2019s disease process and develop dementia later. Research presented […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prevention-strategies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/4abettermemory.com\/memory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/4abettermemory.com\/memory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/4abettermemory.com\/memory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4abettermemory.com\/memory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4abettermemory.com\/memory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/4abettermemory.com\/memory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434,"href":"https:\/\/4abettermemory.com\/memory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions\/434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/4abettermemory.com\/memory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4abettermemory.com\/memory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4abettermemory.com\/memory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}