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Ben Angel
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While all of these risk factors are technically modifiable, there are some that are not as easy for an individual to address (e.g., air pollution if you live in a polluted city and are unable to move, less education if you live in a country that does not mandate public education for certain ages, etc.).
That said, there are still many things you can do to help address dementia risk factors, such as:
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Morgan Chamberlain
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It’s no secret that sleep deprivation has a negative impact on the brain, but why? That’s what this research wanted to find out, and to do so, the study authors observed the brain activity and neural connections of participants who had experienced overnight sleep deprivation versus those who’d had a sufficient night’s sleep.
Based on their observations, not only is brain activation affected by sleep deprivation, but neural connections are affected as well—and not for the better, as you might imagine. Further, both of those brain functions play a big role in cognition and memory.
For instance, when we sleep, fresh memories from the previous day are stored via strengthened neural connections. (This is known as neuroplasticity.) So essentially, inadequate sleep equals fewer and/or weaker encoded memories.
As the study authors write, “Our data indicate that upscaled brain excitability and altered plasticity, due to sleep deprivation, are associated with impaired cognitive performance,” adding that sleep hygiene could play a role in both disease prevention and improved cognition.
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Sarah Regan
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Each of these brain-boosting ingredients imparts unique nootropic mechanisms and actions in our body and brain. There are countless supplements on the market that include these ingredients, each designed to promote brain health in different ways.
However, not every brain health supplement includes scientifically backed (i.e., by clinical research trials) nootropic ingredients in efficacious doses and forms that deliver proactive support to promote brain longevity for all ages. Enter: brain guard+.
We know that the time to think about your longevity and nurture your cognitive well-being is—well, now! Whether you’re 20 or 80, brain guard+ was designed for you. This innovative formula includes premium and patented nootropic ingredients (i.e., citicoline as Cognizin®, kanna as Zembrin®, and resveratrol as Veri-te™) clinically shown to promote cognitive flexibility, improve memory, increase processing speed, bolster neurotransmitter production, and increase cerebral blood flow to enhance mental clarity.*
Whether your goal is to elevate executive functioning, improve neuroplasticity, promote recall of memories, or combat occasional brain fog, mbg’s brain guard+ can help you achieve your brain health goals today, tomorrow, and down the road.* But don’t just take our word for it—leading cognitive health experts agree that this nootropic formula yields incredible results for brain health and longevity.
See what board-certified neurologists, longevity dietitians, award-winning neuroscientists, and nutritional psychiatrists have to say about the brain guard+ formula and the cognitive support its nootropic trio of citicoline, kanna, and resveratrol delivers to enhance neuronal function, brain health, and mental performance throughout the life span.*
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Morgan Chamberlain
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Unfortunately, there’s no shortage of stressors or suffering in this world—but the good news is, the study authors believe managing negative emotions that subsequently come up could have protective benefits for the brain.
They recommend meditation, for one thing, which has a long-standing reputation for easing stress, improving concentration and mindfulness, and yes, working through emotions. And even if you don’t meditate, mindfulness can still be incorporated throughout your day, helping you to identify and feel your emotions so you can work through them.
Working with a mental health professional who can guide you in emotional management can also be beneficial if you’re just getting started.
And if you want any additional help with managing your emotions for the sake of your brain, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to incorporate targeted botanicls into your routine. Ingredients like CBD, lavender, and ashwagandha are research-backed and have been shown to help support feelings of calm and a balanced mental state. Don’t know where to start? Check out this roundup of our favorite supplements for stress, all backed by a nutrition Ph.D.
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Sarah Regan
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“I think the results of the different studies encourage the baseline thought that the gut microbiota is of importance not only for physical health but also for mental health (via the gut-brain axis),” Witteman tells mindbodygreen.
While it’s exciting to see probiotics being used and tested against severe conditions like AD, science still has a ways to go when it comes to validating these early findings. There’s an interesting path ahead, as research has yet to meaningfully examine related factors like the effect of prebiotics on AD.
Plus, it’s always encouraging to have studies reconfirm the idea that supporting a healthy gut promotes our body’s ability to prevent and fight disease, which functional and integrative medicine doctors have been asserting for decades.
“An interdisciplinary approach to investigate the interactions between host and microbiota could potentially lead to a strategic advance in treatment and prevention of AD in future,” writes Witteman.
The research on the benefits of probiotics for diseases like AD is still emerging, but there are plenty of reasons to consider probiotics as a key part of your health toolkit right now.
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Jenny Fant
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Defined as ‘the length of time for which a person is able to concentrate mentally on a particular activity,’ attention refers to where we direct our thoughts (and, for how long).
“Attention is the sort of overarching, colloquially used term, but it can mean many, many things,” says Elizabeth Ricker, neuroscientist and author of Smarter Tomorrow: How 15 Minutes of Neurohacking A Day Can Help You Work Better, Think Faster, and Get More Done. “When we talk about executive function (the more formal term for what attention can often fall under), it’s composed of working memory (your ability to move from one idea to the next) and inhibition (the ability to inhibit unwanted thoughts or behaviors).”
There are an infinite number of things happening around us at all times, but the brain can only process so much. To illustrate how our brains decide what to pay attention to, psychologists use the classic example of a cocktail party.
At this cocktail party, you could focus on any number of stimuli in a room: the music playing, the sound of glasses clinking, the person walking by, or the conversation happening behind you. Thanks to the brain’s filtering processes, you’ll usually tune in the person in front of you, with surrounding sights and sounds blurring into mere background noise. But say someone walks by and says your name. Even though you weren’t previously paying attention to their conversation, it now comes into focus as the person in front of you fades into the background.
Of course, for someone with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), this process can be more difficult. Both conditions present challenges with executive functioning2, which includes attention and focus. This can be compounded by overly sensitive sensory systems3, which make it easier to focus on certain sounds and stimuli in the environment and harder to tune other ones out. (You can read more about how ASD and ADHD affect women specifically in our 2023 wellness trend.)
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Emily Kelleher
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The study followed 5,022 adults over the age of 65 from the National Health and Aging Trends Study—a longitudinal and nationally representative group of older adults in the U.S.—over the course of nine years (i.e., 2011 to 2020).
Within the group, approximately one in four older U.S. adults faced social isolation—i.e., they had few social relationships and infrequent contact with others. the results showed that social isolation was associated with a 28% higher risk of developing dementia (25.9% of the socially isolated group had probably dementia, compared to 19.6% of the non-isolated group).
While this statistic seems high, researchers warn that the association between dementia and social isolation may be underestimated, as older adults living in nursing homes and residential care facilities (in which dementia and social isolation are highly prevalent) were not included in this study.
While the findings did not vary by race in this study, scientists conclude that more research is needed to determine the specific dementia-related implications of social isolation on different racial and ethnic groups, as a higher prevalence of dementia has been found in African American, Hispanic, American Indian, and Alaska Native older adults compared to White older adults. With the growing diversity of the aging population, accounting for racial and ethnic disparities within the design of future longitudinal population studies is imperative.
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Josey Murray
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Since we’re a long way off from using light therapy to change the brain in more significant ways, it’s worth asking: What proven alternative methods can we start using today to benefit brain health and response time?
One easy place to start is with supplements called nootropics, which optimize brain health and promote memory, mood balance, and cognitive function. Here are a few highly rated nootropics to look into.
Another great practice for promoting brain health is meditation. Meditation has been shown to keep your hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for learning and emotional regulation, healthier, and some studies have found it can help decrease brain cell volume in the amygdala, which is the part of the brain responsible for fear, anxiety, and stress. It has even been shown to alter the behavior and conductivity of neurons3, like how light therapy did in this new MIT/Harvard study.
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Gretchen Lidicker, M.S.
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“When I wake up, the first thing I do, in my mind with my eyes still closed, is think, ‘I love my silk pillowcase. I love my side-sleeping pillow. I love my mattress. I love my silk duvet. I love all my pets,” Swart explains.
Essentially, she says, start the day with gratitude: Remind yourself how much you love little or even larger aspects of your life. You could also write down a list of what you’re grateful for (depending on how much energy you have in the early hours of the day).
Or you can even add a bit of structure to it, if you know that will help you stay committed to the practice. Rather than simply listing off what comes to mind, you may designate specific categories: Write, for example, one thing you love about your home, one thing you love about your personality, one thing you love about your friends or family, one thing you love about your job, one thing you love about your daily routine, and so on.
For those who dread early morning wake-up calls, this practice might remind you that getting up (although it’s not always enjoyable) doesn’t have to be filled with dread. In fact, gratitude is associated with some pretty significant brain health benefits.
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Hannah Frye
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It’s official: the ability to smell shows and movies is finally here.
The cutting-edge tech in question, called the Aroma Shooter, was shown off at CES 2023 today by a Japanese-based developer Aromajoin. The Aroma Shooter can “digitalize aromas and create a new communication channel in the same family as text, images, and audio.” If you aren’t in attendance at CES this weekend, fear not, you can check out its demo video below:
Smell-O-Vsion-type products aren’t anything new to the entertainment medium. If you’re a millennial like myself, you may have experienced the 4D gimmick in action for the 2003 theatrical release of Rugrats Go Wild! that featured The Wild Thornberrys. However, instead of scratching a parchment of scented paper while watching a film or movie, Aroma Shooter…well, shoots smells at your face.
The Aroma Shooter involves the use of two pieces of tech: the shooter itself and the aroma cartridge. Rather than using oils or mist, the aroma cartridge is a solid-state device that can apparently “toggle between scents in 0.1 second and blend scent permutations instantly with no lingering sensations.” When combined with the aroma shooter, a device PCGamer described as a wireless gadget that sucks in air and creates the scent fired toward your nose, you’ve got some sniff-able media.
As the video above demonstrates, users can program the Aroma Shooter’s over 100 scents to blast fragrances at their face holes in sync with a TV show, VR game, or anime like Quintessential Quintuplets or Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. For those curious, the featured scents for QQ are cherry blossoms, grapes, and peaches. The Edgerunners demonstration clip featured smoke, caramel, coffee, and clove bud. Chances are they’re still figuring out what cyberpsychosis smells like. You can also create your own scented viewing experience by linking a YouTube video to the software and marking timecodes when your techo-snoofs occur.
While I think the tech is impressive in passing, I’m not exactly sold on the daily practical use of it. Although the thought of programming the Aroma Shooter to its maximum capacity to smell bomb my apartment with gourmet food from any given Studio Ghibli movie is tempting, I can’t see myself using this ridiculously expensive device. I’m a lazy bitch who has enough of an imagination to carry me through watching anime characters gorge themselves on food that looks better than real life. Should the day ever come where Elon Musk’s Neuralink chips take off and the smells of my childhood memories are paywalled (you know he’s thought about it), then we’ll talk.
Here comes the catch: The Aroma Shooter 2 packaged with six aroma cartridges will run you $998. Should you have enough disposable income to require more individual cartridges, they’re gonna cost you $54 each. Currently, Aromajoin is working on crowdfunding a VR/AR attachment for its smell-o-rific device, as well.
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Isaiah Colbert
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Simply put, omega-3s are brain food, and supplementation is a smart and effective strategy for getting adequate amounts.
“When looking for supplements, I prioritize omega-3s, as these are the brain’s essential building blocks,” Leaf explains. “Research actually suggests that when we do take omegas, specifically DHA and EPA, it does help to improve brain and mind and body health.”*
However, not all omega-3 supplements are created equal. Finding a high-quality fish oil with optimal dosage that prioritizes purity and sustainable sourcing is no small feat. According to Leaf, omega-3 potency+ fits the bill.
“I prefer mindbodygreen’s formula for its potency (1,500 milligrams of EPA plus DHA per serving) and premium quality,” Leaf shares. “It’s made of the highest quality, wild-caught, cold-water, sustainably sourced, pure fish oil with an optimized EPA:DHA ratio and absorption profile (thanks to the triglyceride form).”
She continues: “The results have blown me away. I’ve noticed significant improvements in my memory retention, clarity, and cognition—I even feel it has helped my overall mood. It truly is brain food.”*
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Morgan Chamberlain
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Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), aka seasonal depression, occurs in areas that experience lower levels of sunlight during certain times of the year.
In the United States, it’s most prevalent in the northern regions of the country—i.e., Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, and the Northeast. The further north you live1 (i.e., the further you are from the equator), the more susceptible you are.
According to a 2015 article from Depression Research and Treatment, SAD is four times more common in women than men and cases typically begin between the ages of 18 and 30.
While seasonal depression is a clinical diagnosis, a subsyndromal type of SAD with milder symptoms called S-SAD, or “the winter blues,” is more common. For example, 15% of the Canadian population and 20% of the U.K. population experiences the winter blues, while only 2%-6% and 2% experience SAD in Canada and the U.K., respectively.
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Morgan Chamberlain
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First thing’s first: It’s important to stop the cycle of generational trauma. Of course, it’s not easy to “heal” someone else’s trauma that you didn’t experience first-hand—but it is possible.
If you’re in contact with any of your older family members, talking with them about what traumatic experiences they’ve gone through might be a good first step. If they’re either not alive or in your life anymore, you can do some digging on your own: Take note every time you feel yourself becoming emotionally triggered. Then analyze the event that happened and why it made you feel upset—did you feel abandoned? Let down? Scared? Betrayed? Violated?
Once you know the root emotion you’re feeling, you’ve answered the “why.” Next, move on to the “what,” which entails asking yourself what you can actually do to feel better. It could be calling a friend to talk through the emotions, going on a walk to clear your mind, journaling, etc.—however you choose to move through those emotions, do so with one baby step at a time.
While unraveling generational trauma may feel like a burden, it’s an act of love that will only positively impact you, your children, and those to come after. That said, releasing deeply rooted emotions isn’t easy, so here are a few more tips from a trauma specialist to help you out.
It’s important to note that if you have access to therapy, it can also be a helpful tool for unraveling trauma and coming up with personalized ways to cope that make sense in your life. If not, you can talk to a trusted friend or family member. After all, you might not be able to see your trauma clearly until someone starts asking you the right questions.
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Hannah Frye
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A lot of factors can make someone’s mental age older than they actually are. For one thing, you may have just always been an old soul since you were young, or certain experiences may have caused you to mature faster than you would have liked. Health factors can also influence an aging brain, making it (and subsequently you) age more quickly, which will certainly influence how you think and feel.
In general, minding your health (especially brain health) is sure to make you feel younger. There are brain exercises you can do as you age to keep the mind sharp, for example. Milstein also recommends brain-healthy habits like like walking with friends (which research2 says can help ward off dementia, BTW), getting enough exercise, eating a nutritious diet, and getting adequate rest.
Additionally, whether your mental age is young or old, we should always strive to keep learning for the sake of our brains and personal development. As Milstein writes in his book, “Think of your brain like a bank account; the more deposits we make, the less our net worth is affected by withdrawals. We make deposits (new connections) by learning new things; As we age and naturally lose some of those connections, there are simply more remaining.”
Ultimately, though, an older mental age often translates to wisdom, and Nuñez notes there can be benefits to your mature mindset. “No matter what age you are, it’s so important to keep a healthy mindset and reframe any negative thinking around what makes you, you,” she tells mbg.
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Sarah Regan
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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
As entrepreneurs, most of us are goal-driven, and we’ve learned how to set clear, juicy goals and then break them down into game plans of smaller projects and tasks. The challenge comes when it’s time for you and your team actually to follow those game plans.
After the thrill of setting that awesome goal comes the day-to-day work that is often not so exciting. So how do you keep yourself and your team moving forward? How can you stay on track and consistently hit your daily, weekly and quarterly goals? One of the answers is in the simple brain hack that psychologists call “implementation intention.”
Related: Brain Hacks to Boost Motivation and Beat the Work From Home Blues
A psychology professor at NY University, Peter Gollwitzer, first coined the term in the 1990s. He realized that many people set goals, but not many achieved them because they didn’t take the action they needed to take. Dr. Gollwitzer showed that the difference was not just motivation, as some people were highly motivated and still didn’t do what they needed to do. But people were much more likely to reach their goals by figuring out “pre-determined goal-directed behaviors” and turning them into habits.
Rather than just coming up with a strategy to achieve a goal and then breaking it down into tasks, Dr. Gollwitzer found that people were more likely to succeed if they trained their brains to choose to do the things that they needed to do by using “if-then” statements (you can also use “when-then” statements).
He and his colleagues ran over 400 studies using every type of goal — quitting smoking, voting, healthy eating, exercising and even using condoms! All the studies showed that implementation intentions made a massive difference in the results people got.
Related: Setting Measurable Goals Is Critical to Your Strategic Plan (and Your Success). Here’s Why.
How does it work? For example, let’s say that you want to grow your business and that getting lots of 5-star testimonials will help. So, you decide to get 100 testimonials this quarter (about eight per week), and you’ll get them by calling 20 past clients per week, just four every day.
Sounds simple, right? But this kind of project easily gets lost in the shuffle. You mean to do it; you know it’s important, but other things that seem more urgent pop up. Eventually, you might even forget about
getting those testimonials completely.
With implementation intention, you start with the statement, “When _________, then I will ______.” You not only say what you will do but also give it a specific time and place. In this case, you might say, “When I get to the office, and before I even look at my emails, I’ll call four past clients for testimonials.” This tells your brain exactly when to be ready to make the calls. It sets up your energy and focus. By doing it over and over, your brain is automatically triggered to sit down and make calls as soon as you walk into your office.
James Clear talks about this in his book Atomic Habits. He points out that setting up implementation intention keeps you from deciding whether to do something every single time. You don’t need to be super motivated that day, and you don’t need to use your willpower to get yourself to do it. You just do it because, after a while, it would feel weird not to do it, just like not brushing your teeth before bed would feel strange.
Related: Your Problem Isn’t Laziness
Implementation intention also helps you pre-plan for obstacles you might encounter and helps get you through them. Say you know that your morning calls will often get interrupted by team members who need your input. You know something like this is bound to happen, so before it does, you figure out, “If ___________, then I will ___________.”
“If I get interrupted, I will ask the person (unless they are bleeding to death) to give me 15-20 minutes.” Or maybe you decide, “If I get interrupted in the morning, I will close the door and eat lunch at my desk to make my calls.” The strategy you use to handle the obstacle is up to you. The point is that you already have it figured out and know exactly how to stay on track despite anything that tries to get in the way.
Athletes have used this for years. Marathon runners know they’ll run into “the wall” at about 18 to 20 miles. Rather than getting blindsided, they figure out ways to handle it before the race. They’ll slow their pace and take some sports gel. They’ll pay attention to the cheering crowd or focus on a certain mantra. They don’t try to figure out how to deal with the wall when it’s happening. They have a plan, so it doesn’t throw them off their goal.
Related: 5 Things About Overcoming Adversity That Athletes Can Teach Entrepreneurs
When I started coaching, I realized that many of my students hit a wall about three months in. They were learning and implementing different marketing strategies. But these strategies take some time, so they didn’t see any results yet. We learned to warn them ahead of time. “Hey, you might not see results for 4-5 months. That doesn’t mean you aren’t on track. If you’re doing the work, results will come soon.”
Then we help them with “if-then” strategies. “If you feel stuck or discouraged, then call in
during office hours.” An implementation intention is a brain-hack tool that helps you take the steps you need to take whether you’re feeling motivated or not. You set up the implementation intention by saying what you’ll do and precisely when you’ll do it, and you pre-plan how you’ll deal with obstacles to stay on track.
James Clear wrote: “Anyone can work hard when they feel motivated. It’s the ability to keep going when work isn’t exciting that makes the difference.”
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Krista Mashore
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So what do brain exercises actually do, and how do they impact your mental fitness? “Brain exercises keep your brain flexible and changing—this is neuroplasticity,” says neuroscientist Tara Swart, M.D., Ph.D.
“When we learn something new, then we get the direct benefit of that new learning but also global benefits in the brain in our executive functioning such as emotional regulation, complex problem solving, creative thinking, etc.,” Swart adds.
Elane O’Brien Ph.D., psychologist and co-author of The Power of Play: Optimize Your Joy Potential, cites what’s known as the “theory of multiple intelligences” to further explain how brain games work.
When we use strategy to solve puzzles or play thinking games, we engage our linguistic-verbal intelligence and put thoughts and feelings into words. This helps develop our cognition and creativity. “Intellectual play and games involving problem-solving, thinking, and practicing new mental skills can teach us how things work in the world. There is an activation of concentration, strategy, and active thinking during playtime,” says O’Brien.
Swart adds that it’s important to play brain games throughout your life1—not just when you’re in school or when you reach older age. “Brain cells can start to shrink or die in your twenties2, so the age to start challenging your brain is when you are not naturally learning [as many new things],” she says.
For a general rule of thumb on when to prioritize different types of brain exercise, neurologists Dean Sherzai, M.D., and Ayesha Sherzai, M.D., directors of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Program at Loma Linda University, previously told mindbodygreen that it may be helpful to focus on attention in your 20s, memory in your 30s, and executive function in your 40s and beyond.
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Josey Murray
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By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Nov. 28, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Eating more berries and drinking tea may help slow mental decline as you age, new research suggests.
In a study of more than 900 adults, researchers found that foods like these — containing antioxidant flavonols — delivered brain benefits to older adults. Flavonols are found in fruits like berries, green leafy vegetables, tea and wine.
For example, people who ate a serving of leafy green vegetables a day slowed their rate of cognitive decline by about 32%, compared with people who didn’t eat any foods with flavonols, said lead researcher Dr. Thomas Holland, an instructor of internal medicine at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
“Flavonols are both anti-inflammatories and antioxidants,” he said. “These foods that contain flavonols destroy free radicals and prevent cell damage. They prevent cell damage in the brain as well as in other organs, such as the heart and vascular system, kidneys, liver, etc.”
Holland isn’t keen on getting flavonols from supplements. He believes the best way to stock up on flavonols is through diet.
“You’re going to get a higher diversity of nutrients from foodstuffs,” he said. “I like to maintain supplements as exactly that, supplements. They should supplement a healthy diet.”
For the study, Holland’s team collected data on 961 adults, average age 81, who did not have dementia. Over an average of seven years, participants completed yearly questionnaires about their diet and took cognitive and memory tests. The tests involved remembering lists of words, recalling numbers and putting them in the correct order.
Holland cautioned that the study shows an association between higher amounts of flavonols and slower cognitive decline but cannot prove a direct cause-and-effect relationship. Also, people’s recollections of what they ate might not have been completely accurate.
The researchers found that people who ate the most flavonols, about 15 mg a day (equivalent to about 1 cup of dark leafy greens), had slower memory decline, compared with those who consumed the least, about 5 mg a day. This association remained after taking into account age, sex and smoking.
The foods that contributed most to slowing mental decline included kale, beans, tea, spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, apples, tea, wine, oranges, pears, olive oil and tomato sauce, the researchers said.
“Plant foods contain a treasure trove of powerful nutrients that offer significant health benefits,” said Samantha Heller, a senior clinical nutritionist at NYU Langone Health in New York City.
Flavonoids are just one family of over 5,000 compounds found in plants. “Included in this family are a subgroup called flavonols,” she noted.
This study focused on the flavonol content in people’s diets and its relationship with cognitive health, but we do not sit down and have a plate of flavonols for breakfast, said Heller, who had no role in the study.
“We eat foods that contain an array of phytonutrients [healthy plant compounds], such as fiber, vitamins, minerals and plant chemicals, such as flavonols. These phytonutrients work together synergistically, as a team, and this is what boosts the health benefits we derive by eating them,” she said.
These elements interact with each other in many biological processes — for example, reducing inflammation, supporting the immune system, protecting and repairing cells, and reducing oxidative stress, Heller said.
She stressed that one element in the diet is probably not a magic path to a long and healthy life.
“Perhaps the people in this study who ate a more plant-based diet saw the greatest cognitive benefits, but this was not assessed. Research suggests that shifting to eating more legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts and whole grains helps us live longer, healthier lives,” Heller said.
Holland agreed that flavonols alone aren’t going to keep mental decline at bay. The best path to maintaining physical and mental health, he said, includes a healthy lifestyle complete with a diverse diet of fruits and vegetables, physical activity and cognitive training — challenging yourself each day with learning something new.
“Also, sleep and stress reduction are all collectively going to be beneficial for overall health,” Holland said. “It’s never too early or too late to start making healthy changes.”
The report was published online Nov. 22 in the journal Neurology.
More information
For more on flavonols, see the American Heart Association.
SOURCES: Thomas Holland, MD, instructor, Department of Internal Medicine, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago; Samantha Heller, MS, RD, CDN, senior clinical nutritionist, NYU Langone Health, New York City; Neurology, Nov. 22, 2022, online
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Some aspects of getting older are inevitable, and brain aging is one of them. No matter how diligently you care for your brain, a certain amount of change in cognitive function (e.g., struggling to multitask or recall someone’s name) is normal and expected.
However, the line between typical “senior moments” and signs of serious cognitive decline can be somewhat subjective and difficult to define. This intermediate zone between normal brain aging and dementia is called mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and it can be a cause for concern—once signs of MCI begin to crop up, they can progress into dementia (typically in the form of Alzheimer’s disease) at an annual rate of 8% to 15%.
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Morgan Chamberlain
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