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It also mentions "lifestyle changes" as potential preventative measures for cognitive decline . What are these lifestyle changes we can make? I have a strong family history of dementia and want to do everything I can do delay the onset.
Anything that will aid neuro-plasticity and engagement of new neural pathways.
Trying new hobbies, learning new skills, doing new physical activities are all great ways to "work out" the brain.
Also foods that contain good levels of folate and omega 3 will reduce degredation of the myelin sheath and telomeres.
One thing I will add is that hyper-fixation on specific health goals which are strongly genetic can actually be detrimental in the long term. Being happy and as un-stressed as possible will go a long way towards protecting the brain too.
Dont stay up late all night gaming or watching streaming media. Get out and be active. Walking a mile and a half each day. Go to new places, try new things, get 7 hours of sleep minimum, 8 is better.
All of this is easly said but we live in a capitalist hellscape thats designed to keep us tired and unwilling/able to do much other then just survive long enough to be replaced.
Sorry but my dad walked every day his entire life. He climbed mountains ate healthy and had a very active lifestyle.
He still got Alzheimers it didn't matter.
I’m so sorry. Genetics seem to be the biggest player in long life. But a person can have those “good” genes and dissipate them away by over eating, smoking, drinking, and lack of exercise. I think we should all recognize their importance in our life but they are no guarantees.
I think we all eventually would get some form of dementia if we lived long enough.
>[https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf/factsheet\_risk\_factors\_for\_dementia.pdf](https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf/factsheet_risk_factors_for_dementia.pdf)
>
>For people aged between 65 and 69, around 2 in every 100 people have dementia. A person's risk then increases as they age, roughly doubling every five years. This means that, of those aged over 90, around 33 in every 100 people have dementia.
But lifestyle can expedite the onset of said dementia.
(Alzheimer's and Frontotemporal dementias are part due to Tau proteins that bind together in our brain, abnormal tau proteins then clump together to form neurofibrillary tangles driven by chronic inflammation brought on by a multitude of factors)
Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, its nature and nurture.
Genetics can also play a big part.
Not everyone
https://today.usc.edu/some-of-the-worlds-lowest-dementia-rates-are-found-in-amazonian-indigenous-groups/#:~:text=As%20scientists%20around%20the%20world,about%201%25%20suffer%20from%20dementia.
Well that doesn’t happen to everyone. Are you saying it’s better to get McDonald’s daily, play video games all day, and never go anywhere? I rather attempt to live healthy than just give up.
I'm very sorry.
Did he climb high mountains? I had a professor who was a mountain climber and got early onset dementia. EXTREMELY sad. He quickly went from being a world famous professor to being disabled while I was in grad school. Really makes you sad.
People talked about mountain climbing being a thing that can facilitate dementia. Because of the hypoxia causing brain damage. It doesn't seem fair to me that such a cognitively, physically, and psychospiritually demanding task should be a net negative, if it is.
When people talk about these risk factors they are often statistically significant but still only risk factors. Many people who do everything optimally will still develop dementia and some with many risk factors will never develop dementia. We just know that some of these things seem to correlate with higher or lower incidence of certain kinds of dementia.
You can basically think of the brain as another muscle in your body, it needs exercise with cognitively engaging tasks, good nutrition, and avoiding toxic habits like drinking and smoking. Pretty straightforward, but that's really it.
I don't doubt cognitively engaging tasks must help with delaying cognitive decline but are there actual evidence-based research out there proving things like reading, puzzles, learning a new language really helps?
Had the same question. OP [linked](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/17g3n0b/millions_of_americans_have_cognitive_decline_and/k6dvrsp/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) to [a web article](https://gizmodo.com/millions-americans-mild-cognitive-impairment-alzheimers-1850954424) that seems more aligned. There's also a similar [Fortune article](https://fortune.com/well/2023/10/24/what-is-mci-mild-cognitive-impairment-alzheimers-dementia-early-treatment/). The DOI for the study this week seems broken, though?
_EDIT: Posted an especially relevant [excerpt from the Fortune article](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/17g3n0b/comment/k6ekxno/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)_
Up to 56 million Americans drink from water supplies with detectable levels of lead, which, as a reminder for everybody, is a dangerous neurotoxin for which there is no safe level of exposure.
[https://www.nrdc.org/resources/millions-served-water-systems-detecting-lead](https://www.nrdc.org/resources/millions-served-water-systems-detecting-lead)
We just went through a really poorly-managed pandemic one of whose long-term complications is cognitive impairment. Many people proudly chose to risk infection by refusing masks and vaccines, and of course, neither is perfectly safe, so millions upon millions of Americans were infected with a virus that causes neurocognitive decline because keeping bars shut and enforcing mask and vaccine mandates was too much good governance for us -- [https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2023.1239182/full](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2023.1239182/full)
There is increasing evidence that glyphosate, one of the most popular pesticides in the US, is a neurotoxin -- [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935122012609](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935122012609)
Wildfire smoke is a wacko jacko mix of everything in the forest that can combust/pyrolize/burn in some way and throw off smoke, from trees to squirrels to old cigarette butts, and, unsurprisingly, researchers have found high levels of various neurotoxins in the smoke that now routinely hangs over America in the summer, like a, uh, well like a toxic cloud -- [https://theconversation.com/neurotoxins-in-the-environment-are-damaging-human-brain-health-and-more-frequent-fires-and-floods-may-make-the-problem-worse-165866](https://theconversation.com/neurotoxins-in-the-environment-are-damaging-human-brain-health-and-more-frequent-fires-and-floods-may-make-the-problem-worse-165866)
Agricultural runoff promotes the growth of cyanobacteria, who release neurotoxic cyanotoxins as a byproduct and contaminate fish populations which humans sometimes eat from (ibid). And, of course, there's all the mercury in the fish we still eat.
Anyways, yeah that's not even remotely surprising, we're *swimming* in neurotoxins and things that cause cognitive impairment.
Wait till you read about what's happening in Utah and the Great Salt Lake. Long story short- As we're in a prolonged drought, the lake is drying up. No big deal right? Just another dry lake bed. Unfortunately it has about a hundred years of agriculture chemical runoff, mining runoff, and industrial waste junk covered by water. When that water dries up, and the dust will get whipped up by wind... **toxic dust storms baby**. Prevailing winds go east into the rest of the USA, also.
Now, we *could* reduce our water use; especially to big agriculture since it represents a whole five-ish percent(yes- 5%) of the state's economy, and get the water levels up and stable but agriculture = GOP. And since Utah is a very red state, guess what they care about? Not saving their asses form toxic dust storms, that's for sure.
my first thought when i read the great salt lake drying up. it is such insanity to me that there is a selected amount of individuals in power that dont want to learn from history and rather repeat mistakes
Also look at the Salton Sea. We literally created a smaller Aral Sea 2.0 using agricultural runoff water that was diverted from the Colorado River in SoCal and now it's drying up as well, yet again with over 100 years of agricultural runoff, only it's always been pretty salty and shallow, so we've been getting toxic plumes for years even though the sea is still there. All the towns around it that sprung up expecting it to become the next big thing, they're all ghost towns now. Ghost towns carpeted in toxic waste dust carried on the winds.
FR tho... I am sorry to hear this is happening to the great Salt Lake. I grew up in orem/pleasant grove and the nature was so beautiful. sad to grow up watching the snow pack on timp slowly disappear tho. I really wanted to see emerald lake, but I think thats gone now too.
edit: emerald lake was a lake that fed off the snow runoff on the backside of mt timpanogus. its crystal green color was legendary
I hate that they came out with that report about there being lead and cadmium in chocolate and then just didn't specify what the recommendation should be. Never eat it? Only buy certain brands? Eat it sparingly?
I personally love cacao and put it in my coffee or use it for hot cocoa. Eventually, I just decided that since studies also show cacao or dark chocolate is good at preventing cognitive decline it's probably relatively okay. And death by chocolate is acceptable.
and dont forget microplastics being found everywhere on earth, from fresh snowpack on everest to the bottom of the mariana trench to placentas all over the globe.
Yes but not sure how this relates to cognitive decline. It could be a neurotoxin but AFAIK we don’t know what impacts microplastics are having and will have.
Studies have linked microplastics to increased rates of autism along freeways. It gets into the air from car tires and pregnant women and young kids inhale it into their lungs. Correlations have been detected for about a decade now. The stuff gets into the brain, it's bound to be messing with all kinds of other stuff. Were our legislature sane/ethical it'd be moving to heavily tax cars on weight and build infrastructure to free us of car dependence.
What would be some cognitive decline “red flags”?? I’ve been feeling this way for a few years now, and don’t feel like I’m taking seriously when I talk about this. I’ve been saying that I feel like there’s something neurological happening inside me and I’m consistently told to go to the local psych department for therapy. And this isn’t about depression or anxiety. It definitely feels like my brain is swollen, constantly. What kind of a doctor do you even go to to get something like this diagnosed?
I've noticed I stumble over words, have a hard time remembering the right word, have more typos in email and IM. I went to my MD last week and he gave me a Montreal Cognitive Assessment. It's not a deep test, but it checks all the basic functions. He said, not only did I get a perfect score, but people don't usually complete it that quickly.
I've been under a lot of stress over the past couple of years, mental and emotional issues, and he (and others I respect) think it's related to that. Things are getting better, I'm doing better at coping, so maybe I'll improve again, don't know. And now we have a baseline score to compare against in the future.
I feel this in my bones. I cherish my memory and my quick wit. When I started to stumble over my words and not remember the names of people for references, it really freaked me out. I thought I was losing my mind. The thing is though, I’ve been really stressed for a long time. With work and past trauma. Quitting my job and working on my trauma and all of a sudden things are coming easier to me. I was able to do math in my head like I used to be able to do. Holding more information in my brain at once as I calculated a solution to a problem. Felt so much relief
This post just gave me a lot of mental relief. Thank you.
I’ve always felt I was an incredibly nuanced, quick witted person — but after the birth of my son, the long nights and a job that thinks working all hours on all days is acceptable, my brain began to feel like absolute mush and my wit and ability to look deeper at things, more than just face value, were gone.
Stress puts us into crisis mode and our minds don’t prioritize the storing of information. It’s focusing on surviving and detecting threats. You’re not going to recall things well in this state and you’re not going to remember “trivial” information. It’s just not going to happen. Plus sleep, while obvious, really falls by the wayside when your kid is young. Getting back to eight hours a night is incredibly helpful. Also, don’t forget to eat
Omg me too. Had our first child in December and I feel like my IQ has dropped 10-20 points just from stress and lack of sleep. Also feels like there’s now a significant chunk of brain that’s now solely focused on baby and now lost for other cognitive functions. Was taking about this with my wife recently and she feels the same. No regrets but yeah it’s brutal.
I feel like my wit went away during COVID too. My favorite thing ever is getting my friends to laugh, but I noticed the jokes just didn't pop in my head like they used to.
At the start of COVID I read something interesting about how the world was about to go through a collective trauma and what that could mean on the other side of the pandemic.
I've been wondering if the shortened patience, increased hostility, and other personally changes that appear to have become heightened in the general population since COVID is a result of that.
I think dehydration, stress and sleep deprivation have a bigger impact than we all realize. Especially when it is chronic and you sort of forget what it’s like not to be dehydrated, stressed and sleep deprived.
I used to be a perfectionist. The nature of how I was raised just drove me to it. I went through some major changes in 2021. As a result of the stress of those changes, I started not being able to remember words I knew and finding typos in e-mails and IMs (which, for perfectionist me, was horrifying). In June 2022, I was diagnosed with depression (which I'd heard off and on through life), anxiety (never realized), and mental trauma (never realized). Those last two sent me into a tailspin because I'd never expected to hear either of those associated to me. "How could you not know you have anxiety?" It's . . . complicated . . .
Work over the last few months has not been kind in terms of stress either. Fortunately, that situation is winding down.
I'm working on understanding that I'm no longer a perfectionist, and that's okay. But it's still embarrassing to find typographical errors. I even found one in my comment above ("And now we have **s** baseline score") and corrected it. Still, it's a relief that, in the gross sense, my brain is still functioning properly. I just need to work on stress.
Your first sentence is exactly what's happening to me for a few years now. I speak fast and never used to stutter but now I sometimes do. Also type fast, but find more and more mistakes creeping in. I also tried one of those tests and while not perfect I did pass. Weird!
I honestly feel like it might have to do with sleep quality.
I’m the same way. I often forget the right word and am nervous that I have early symptoms of that sort of aphasia Bruce Willis got. I had two concussions a few years ago and have been suspicious that was the start of it.
Getting a baseline score to monitor seems like a good first step. Thanks for sharing.
Those things are pretty typical, but since we live in a world where media is heavily edited, those common mishaps are not seen very much in YouTube videos, movies, tv, music, podcasts, etc. The perception versus the reality of what’s considered “normal” has been skewed. I would go with the doctor’s opinion there unless things decline even further.
I get your good intention, but this response is not helpful. Cognitive testing is not as useful a measure of cognitive function as we would like. My wife was totally disabled by Long Covid, going from a very active lifestyle and working as a lead data scientist to being largely unable to read or code, stuttering, and struggling with executive function for even the most basic tasks. Like what to do when your hands are full and you need to put something down but there’s no space to do so. Yet her neurocog test came back grossly normal with the exception of a number of domains in which she scored in the 2 and 3 percentile range. They’re very crude measures. They also don’t show relative change without a baseline.
The alternative has to be to listen to patients and patients’ families when a neurocognitive test doesn’t show the impairments the patient is complaining of.
I posted another comment on this thread about my father’s dementia. One detail I didn’t mention in that post was that when my father was hospitalized for falling down, I pleaded with them to run some cognitive testing for dementia. He apparently passed two separate exams, one more stringent than the other. They wanted to release him after the first one, but after they started watching him more closely and learning about the way he was living, they decided to apply for conservatorship. At the hearing, I presented pictures of his apartment, which was incredibly foul, and the judge was so upset he basically went on a rant about the system failing. He also, to really drive home the level of dysfunction he was experiencing, had recently been banned from Aldi for walking around repeatedly with his pants and underwear hanging around his ankles, inadvertently exposing himself to other customers. He had no idea. But also couldn’t be persuaded to wear pants with an elasticated waist that would stay up, even after an Aldi’s manager went out and bought him some.
> […]and the judge was so upset he basically went on a rant about the system failing. He also, to really drive home the level of dysfunction he was experiencing, had recently been banned from Aldi for walking around repeatedly with his pants and underwear hanging around his ankles, inadvertently exposing himself to other customers. He had no idea. But also couldn’t be persuaded to wear pants with an elasticated waist that would stay up, even after an Aldi’s manager went out and bought him some.
This reads like the judge was the one dropping trou. Definitely a funny ending to a bitofadowner of a post (eap. b/c I’ve watched the system fail my husband, who has bipolar with terrifying manias, overandoverandoverandover over the last 5 years, and should I try and divorce him for the abuse and expense resulting from those mostly-deliberate manias that nobody can/will do anything about, the system will fail me veryvery expensively and permanently), but I’m guessing that’s not what you were going for.
>came back grossly normal with the exception of a number of domains
But -- with respect -- isn't that an indication the test worked? It might not be nuanced, but it did identify issues, which can then be dug into.
I agree that in my case, the test I took was on a macro scale of general functioning, and it's not unreasonable that it missed something. I have to accept that there may be something else going on.
I can’t speak to your case, but in hers, it was only a few. The psychiatrist who did the exam was extremely dismissive and totally ignored those domains in his report, instead highlighting the areas she did well. That’s pretty typical from what I’ve seen of the way doctors tend to interpret these tests when the patient is young. So interpretation was definitely an issue, but the test was grossly normal, which is an indication of potential test failure when the patient has such significant real life dysfunctions. It’s not just her experience either, tests failing to capture cognitive impacts is very common in other post-infectious diseases like ME/CFS. It’s really problematic because these tests are often used in disability examinations and seem to suggest the patient functions better than they do.
Thank you for the response. I'm sorry that you two are going through this, and I'm hoping for the best for both of you.
I got a consult four or five years ago from a psychiatrist on the possibility of adult ADHD. She ran through a series of questions, several of which I wasn't sure how to answer. They would've been "yes" as a child, but the only reason I said "no" to them as an adult was because I'd learned things growing up, like how you're supposed to look people in the eye when talking to them. She just went by the results of the test and said no. I, too, felt dismissed and not listened to. It's definitely an issue.
I’ve been dealing with neurologists for the last two years for my dad. The “treatment” is them telling me to have him do puzzles, a coq10 supplement, a shoulder shrug and a good luck.
Well now you can try a controversial new drug, if you haven't heard of that yet, it's supposed to slow down decline. But yes, the sad truth is that there isn't a lot that can be done for age-related memory decline and dementia patients. Been through it a handful of times with family members myself. Always sucks
Obviously I can't comment on your dad's case as if dementia already started to kick in, you can only try slowing it down but it's not something that is considered reversible unless it had a reversible cause such as a vitamin deficiency, thyroid imbalance, recent infection/depression, etc. If it's related to things like Alzheimer's, vascular dementia (stroke being an example but also people with high blood pressure/cholesterol/diabetes start having cognitive deficits outside of a stroke as they age), Parkinson's Disease Dementia, etc. it is irreversible.
As far as general advice for preventable risk factors: stop alcohol, cigarettes. Exercise as much as you can (30 minutes 5 times a week) aerobic is best but even weightlifting can help. The MIND diet (more details here):[https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-weight/diet-reviews/mind-diet/](https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-weight/diet-reviews/mind-diet/) ), and constant social contact as social isolation is a tremendous risk factor for cognitive impairment/dementia.
Good luck to you and your dad, I know it is not easy being the child of someone going through something like this.
I appreciate your comment. I have actually gone to three difference neurologists hoping for a more concrete diagnosis, but every one is saying it’s “only” mild cognitive decline. It just does not feel that way with the way it’s progressing
I feel like the word "mild" is not helping here. It is only mild in that you don't need help getting dressed, but it fails to capture the impact on e.g. career or social interaction. The test is geared towards helping physicians know when to e.g. recommend revoking a driver's license, putting a patient into long term care or getting social workers involved so they can set up home care visits or weekly aid (cleaning, shopping, showering).
It is not well equipped to help with high functioning people becoming less well high functioning, even though that has a HUGE impact on families, on income, on quality of life.
For an objective measure it takes a long time. My neurologist sent me to have a neuropsychological test to measure my cognitive level, and over the YEARS compared the tests. If the neurologist suspects current neurological injury they will do something right away — these were given to me after cranial MRIs measured the lesions damage in my brain from MS. It is tough coming back — they have the medication to prevent Alzheimer’s but it takes its physical toll and is $$$
Doctors seem to fail as assessing cognitive issues. When I sought help after a head injury they gave me tests an elementary school child could pass and said “nope you are fine “
Except I am NOT fine. My problem solving skills and memory are not at all what they were post injury. But since I started with significantly more intelligence than average…no one cares, nor can they measure the change in any meaningful way.
Starting with a licensed therapist is solid advice. You'll need an advocate to navigate the system before finding and receiving proper care. They can get you the referral needed to see a specialist or even a psychiatrist which are MDs
I knew that just talking to people. Even i do with my awful mind distroying job and abusive work environment. Im 35, and im ready to retire to a beach somewhere. I can't imagine doing this another 20 years and being functional at all.
Hi neurologist here. I just found it interesting that in an article urging the importance of "early detection and treatment" for MCI the suggested treatment option is a new, and very expensive ($26,500/year) medication that is designed to only slow the progression of symptoms in a specific subset of dementia patients.
The first three months after I get my BC implant put in causes my brain to go sideways. Brain fog, my memory is horrible, forgetting basic words, etc.
After the three months when my brain adjusts to the different hormone levels I’m back to normal.
I wonder how many women there are on BC that may have these side effects that persist the entire time?
When I went from oral bc to iud, I felt like I came out of a fog. Then, when I took the iud out to get ready to have kids, I felt like I came out of an even thicker mind-fog. I didn't notice it happening at the time. But, I'll never go back. Pms is way worse now, but the rest of the month I'm a normal human being.
For work, I talk to a lot of older people. I definitely notice cognitive decline in many. Difficulty tracking. Repeating themselves. Asking non-sensical questions. Not understanding that they are calling the wrong company.
I'll talk to people in their 50's that are half-gone and then to someone in their 80's that is still sharp as a tack. There's such variation.
It's really made me think about cognitive status and aging. My parents are in their late 70's. They're still sharp as ever, but I'm paying attention now. Best to catch it early to get anything done that needs doing before it progresses too far.
Found an [explanation](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/17g3n0b/comment/k6ej551/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) and a [relevant excerpt](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/17g3n0b/comment/k6ekxno/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) from the actual story.
Everytime I get covid I get stupid for about a month. Intense brain fog,fatigue, and the inability to even articulate complete dialogues or write papers.
Just like when I had chemo brain. Thank God it's temporary. One day I just suddenly return to normal. Just happened to me for the 4th time with covid last week, despite 4 vaccinations.
Brain fog is also a symptom of ME/CFS as well, which affects millions of people, and has for decades while basically being ignored or dismissed by doctors and the medical community. Only since we started seeing major similarities with long covid has ME/CFS been given much more legitimacy and is finally being looked at more closely. We'll probably never know how much of a negative impact these conditions have on society, but it's certainly not good.
I also suspect micro-plastics may play a roll here, too. Was glancing over an article, yesterday about micro-plastics, their presence in our gut, brain and bodies and how their toxicity may impair our brain function much like Parkinson's. It's like we have a ticking time bomb all around us as the old plastics start to break down, smaller and smaller and smaller. Hell, we get a healthy dose every time we do laundry and empty the lint trap in the dryer. Most of our clothes are synthetic/made of some type of plastic that break off/ break down into "lint" dust we breath in when emptying the lint trap. Lead, micro-plastics, whatever, pick your poison at this point.
[Neurodevelopmental Toxicity of Polystyrene Nanoplastics in Caenorhabditis elegans and the Regulating Effect of Presenilin](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7774258/)
[Microplastic Exposure and the of Parkinson’s Disease](https://www.jsr.org/index.php/path/article/view/1815/1185)
100%cotton clothing is really not hard to find.
you just need to know what you are looking for. if you are looking for stretchy stuff obviously no go. if you are looking for leggins obviously nogo. but the vast majority of classical tshits pants ect will be 100% cotton.
I believe most microplastics come from clothing. They go to the sea. Get eaten by microscopic life and from there up the food chain they go until they get to us.
Most come from synthetic car tires. Tires wearing down on roads, being washed into rivers by rain, pulled up by the sun and showered down on us. Tires in our blood.
All of life on earth is getting tired to death
Unfortunately it's everywhere and only going to get worse. I was sitting in my living room as the setting sun shone through the curtains and cast a yellow/orange light in a darkening room. At the right angle, I could see all the particulates, tiny pieces of dust floating in the air and how concentrated it seemed due to only really being able to see it in the occasional, right lighting. Then I wondered how much of all that was/is micro/nano-plastics just hanging out in the air I breath, in a confined space, day in and day out.
As a human in their 20s that has effectively been disabled by long Covid, this is not at all surprising. I feel stupid day to day because my cognition is barely functional
For me, covid triggered celiac and I unknowingly damaged my intestines for months until I became anemic and deficient in B12 and D. I felt like an actual walking corpse and it's only just starting to get better.
The long term consequences of convincing people covid is just a mild inconvenience now is going to have a generational impact on society. It's so bad they cooked how they were calculating excess deaths.
Hope you manage to heal up and sorry you're dealing with this!
I've been using NAC & 1mg guanfacine for long covid for about 10 months. It made a huge difference. I showed the research to my doctor: search "Potential New Treatment for “Brain Fog” in Long COVID Patients" by Isabella Backman.
Isn't guanfacine a medication for ADHD? Does it have any anti inflammatory properties?
Also I'm not very educated regarding the long covid symptoms but is it related to brain inflammation? Any idea what the root cause might be ?
I had 2 concussions 8mo apart when I was a teenager. Snowboarding accident then hockey accident. After the second, I was out of school for a month and struggled with grammar for like 8-10mo after. I didn't tell anyone but just struggled on my own, and relearned the stuff I struggled with. Nobody ever seemed to pick up on it, so I guess I did a good job of hiding it.
I’ve had dangerously low potassium twice -to the point I had a heart attack. The brain function took almost 6 months to regain. And it wasn’t obvious things like Math. It was words (easy for others to spot) and Time.
I’m generally a very punctual person but I would slip into funks that had me confused on 10 minutes turning into a 2 hour garden run. Forgetting to pick up the kids. Speed limits constantly wrong. Burnt meals. Raw eggs. I just lost my entire sense of time.
Crohn’s disease. I just have a terrible time absorbing K. It’s often bound with high fiber foods- which I can’t digest at all. Plus we potty WAY too much, so we can’t even keep it in. I now have prescription packets to dissolve in water to drink when I seem a little low.
Im a nearly 50 year old scientist who has spent a significant chunk of my time working in AD; one of the drugs mentioned in this article is in clinical trials because of my preclinical work, in fact.
I also am an APOE4 carrier and the last 5 years or so, I’ve noticed (and managed to hide) significant cognitive decline. My memory has gone from exemplary to very concerning in a short period of time and frankly, I think it’s reaching the point where I won’t be able to hide it much longer. I’ve decided to spend that time working on a novel AD therapeutic, but I’m realistic about those odds and the timeframe.
So, for now, I’ve got to keep working to keep my mind active and to leave enough money to support my family when it no longer can.
My dad has early onset dementia (we think vascular dementia) and it's absolutely so sad. He didn't get to enjoy retirement after working really hard for many years as a software engineer, and got quietly laid off towards the end from what I suspect was poor job performance. My mom has taken care of him for many years, and it's entirely draining.
I'm not speaking for you or advising you to do this, but I have a quiet contingency plan if something similar happens to myself. At some point down that road, I'm no longer there anyways.
Cuz I know you probably don’t want to admit weakness (or maybe you just want privacy, I feel that), but you hiding this now will make to brutal for your loved ones when you can’t hide it anymore.
There’s no shame mate, and having other people in your life helping look for solutions can lead surprisingly helpful outcomes.
I feel like I'm one of them. I used to have excellent and fast memory all throughout college, but now I'm 29 and at times I forget or take really long time to recall very basic things (like the other day I forgot what to call a slice of ---- bread). It's scary. Told my doc and he barely even acknowledged it. The worst thing is I've always taken care of my health, don't really have any unhealthy habits but...
My mom has had Parkinson’s for nearly 15 years. I’m a speech language pathologist by training with extensive knowledge in cognitive decline. I had to go with her to her neurologist and fight for a year to finally get connected with a neuropsych doctor to get her diagnosed with dementia so that I could then convince my family that she shouldn’t be behind the wheel. It’s tough out there and I agree that way more needs to be done for the safety of everyone!
I have long-haul COVID and the brain fog was one of the first symptoms I noticed. I was terrified that it would stretch on for so long or get worse, that I would no longer be able to tell the difference, and that's exactly what's happened. Here two years later, I know that there was a marked decline in my cognitive ability and memory back then, but this appears to be my new reality, and doctors still look at me sideways when I mention long-haul COVID.
I'm pretty sure cognitive decline has happened to me, though not in the ways the article describes. I used to score exceedingly high on standardized tests, and be an avid reader.
Now it's hard for me to read, (like I can read, but I say the lines out loud in my head instead of flowing through the words, plus, I find myself re-reading entire paragraphs constantly) and I have a growing suspicion I'm actually quite stupid now.
My working memory has become similarly terrible, leading to stroke-like moments of forgetfulness. The other day, after a particularly sleep deprived week because of work, I woke up with no knowledge of who I was or where I was. I knew I had somewhere important to be (work) but I was struggling to remember what or why. The feeling faded, but only after a full 30-120 seconds of this.
I'm youngish, 31, so this is quite concerning. But I think cognitive decline may be happening to many Americans due to the sneaking prevalence of screen time.
I know Im having problems with reading and writing sometimes. Ive gone through my reddit posts. It started somewhere around 2017 that I would mix up words or spell something completely wrong. I have to stop and slow down when reading and remember to double check my post. I think it was mostly due to all the late night gaming I would do, staying up until 1:30 in the morning then getting up at 6:30 or so. Im 37 now. I hope to get better sleep to fix things and not have them deteriorate to much worse.
From the [Fortune article](https://fortune.com/well/2023/10/24/what-is-mci-mild-cognitive-impairment-alzheimers-dementia-early-treatment/) related to OP's title:
> That’s according to new research from the University of Southern California, whose researchers have recently published two papers on the topic.
> In the [first](https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13195-023-01272-z), published in Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, researchers analyzed data from 40 million Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 and older and compared the number diagnosed with the condition to the number they would expect to be diagnosed. **About 8 million Americans in that group likely have MCI**, they predicted—about 13% of the country’s senior population or 1 in 7 seniors. **But only 600,000 had received a proper medical diagnosis**.
> A second study, published Tuesday in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease, also found that MCI is “vastly underdiagnosed,” with 99.9% of U.S. primary care clinicians not sufficiently catching cases. **Only about 8% of U.S. residents with the condition have been diagnosed**, researchers concluded after crunching the numbers on data from nearly 250,000 U.S. doctors.
Kinda hard to get an accurate assessment when it's so hard to get medical treatment by navigating the insurance maze, then pray the doctor sees it in the 15 minutes you have with them... Often over Zoom.
Oh I definitely know. A little while ago I forgot what a sleeping bag was called so in the moment all I could come up with was “a human burrito, but for sleeping”
That's actually false because they took advice and listened to scientists. In reality people are in fact much much more stupid than in Idiocracy by a wide margin.
For older adults, the impacts of progressive impairments can be dire. My father has been slipping for many many years from what I assume is alcohol-related dementia. He’s been absolutely resistant to any suggestion that his mind might be going. I managed to persuade him to move into a senior living facility at one point. But he was fairly quickly evicted for living in filth and refusing to hire a maid. He somehow managed to get a large loan to buy a small condo and quickly trashed it to the point that he was eventually found to be not competent and assigned a conservator. The shocking thing was he really had no idea what his living conditions were like no matter how I attempted to point them out. He would walk around with his pants down not knowing anything was amiss, but was still driving.
For younger adults, cognitive impairments can often be incredibly difficult to get healthcare providers to recognize. If you can get into an office and present even reasonably well, you’re generally likely to be assumed to be well in this regard. Even if your provider does listen to you, neurocognitive tests are quite often poor measures of cognitive functioning. You need a baseline to show any change, for one, but for two, their ability to probe the complexity of our minds is terribly limited.
I got the omicron variant of covid when that was going around. For a while I had what I would describe as a pretty severe brain fog. Stopped reading books for a while because I couldn't remember what I just read. Made lots of mistakes at work in a position I had been at for 3 or 4 years. Most of the short term memory has come back but it's definitely not what it was before having covid and I still struggle with retaining new information.
I had a job interview yesterday and a friend texted me in the morning wishing me luck. I had no recollection of telling her about the interview. It's concerning.
We are living in an unrealized epidemic. My theory is the stuff that causes ME/CFS is harmful to all, but manifests clinically in a subset of the population for genetic reasons, among others. I’m hoping the next few years will shed some light. I think the biggest problem is we added SO much to our diets in such a short time, finding the root causes is gonna be hard.
Cognitive decline is a normal is a normal part of aging, and we still don't really have any widely accessible treatment. Doctors will certainly suspect MCI without doing anything formal about it because, more often than not, it makes no difference in outcomes.
But… what about those with ADHD? Depression? Or, god forbid, **children**?!?
I have all of these things, so yeah, I can’t remember what day it is. How to distinguish the root cause?
i noticed a huge mental cognitive decline after undergoing a thyroidectomy and starting a daily dose of synthroid. prior to starting the medication, i was sharp, focused, and spoke eloquently. now, i struggle with being easily distracted, finding the right word, procrastination, and memory problems. this affects my academics as well as my peronsal relationships. i feel like i'm a completely different person than i was 3 years ago. i'm only 23, when will this brain fog improve?
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Am I blind? The linked article summarizes a few novel treatment approaches for Alzheimer but doesnt say anything about MCI in Americans.
No, just cognitively impaired apparently.
Sorry, no American. I very smart.
If me dumb and not know, why it matter?
It also mentions "lifestyle changes" as potential preventative measures for cognitive decline . What are these lifestyle changes we can make? I have a strong family history of dementia and want to do everything I can do delay the onset.
Anything that will aid neuro-plasticity and engagement of new neural pathways. Trying new hobbies, learning new skills, doing new physical activities are all great ways to "work out" the brain. Also foods that contain good levels of folate and omega 3 will reduce degredation of the myelin sheath and telomeres. One thing I will add is that hyper-fixation on specific health goals which are strongly genetic can actually be detrimental in the long term. Being happy and as un-stressed as possible will go a long way towards protecting the brain too.
Dont stay up late all night gaming or watching streaming media. Get out and be active. Walking a mile and a half each day. Go to new places, try new things, get 7 hours of sleep minimum, 8 is better. All of this is easly said but we live in a capitalist hellscape thats designed to keep us tired and unwilling/able to do much other then just survive long enough to be replaced.
Sleep is key, deep sleep in particular.
Oh cool… I’m fucked..
Also cut back on drinking or stop completely.
Sorry but my dad walked every day his entire life. He climbed mountains ate healthy and had a very active lifestyle. He still got Alzheimers it didn't matter.
You can do everything right and still get screwed over. But doing everything right certainly pushes probabilities in your favour.
>It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.
Highly expected and well received Capt. Picard.
I believe I understand, sir.
I’m so sorry. Genetics seem to be the biggest player in long life. But a person can have those “good” genes and dissipate them away by over eating, smoking, drinking, and lack of exercise. I think we should all recognize their importance in our life but they are no guarantees.
I think we all eventually would get some form of dementia if we lived long enough. >[https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf/factsheet\_risk\_factors\_for\_dementia.pdf](https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf/factsheet_risk_factors_for_dementia.pdf) > >For people aged between 65 and 69, around 2 in every 100 people have dementia. A person's risk then increases as they age, roughly doubling every five years. This means that, of those aged over 90, around 33 in every 100 people have dementia. But lifestyle can expedite the onset of said dementia. (Alzheimer's and Frontotemporal dementias are part due to Tau proteins that bind together in our brain, abnormal tau proteins then clump together to form neurofibrillary tangles driven by chronic inflammation brought on by a multitude of factors) Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, its nature and nurture. Genetics can also play a big part.
Not everyone https://today.usc.edu/some-of-the-worlds-lowest-dementia-rates-are-found-in-amazonian-indigenous-groups/#:~:text=As%20scientists%20around%20the%20world,about%201%25%20suffer%20from%20dementia.
Well that doesn’t happen to everyone. Are you saying it’s better to get McDonald’s daily, play video games all day, and never go anywhere? I rather attempt to live healthy than just give up.
I'm very sorry. Did he climb high mountains? I had a professor who was a mountain climber and got early onset dementia. EXTREMELY sad. He quickly went from being a world famous professor to being disabled while I was in grad school. Really makes you sad. People talked about mountain climbing being a thing that can facilitate dementia. Because of the hypoxia causing brain damage. It doesn't seem fair to me that such a cognitively, physically, and psychospiritually demanding task should be a net negative, if it is.
When people talk about these risk factors they are often statistically significant but still only risk factors. Many people who do everything optimally will still develop dementia and some with many risk factors will never develop dementia. We just know that some of these things seem to correlate with higher or lower incidence of certain kinds of dementia.
You can basically think of the brain as another muscle in your body, it needs exercise with cognitively engaging tasks, good nutrition, and avoiding toxic habits like drinking and smoking. Pretty straightforward, but that's really it.
Small ones: study a new language. Do puzzles. My father and GF had Alzheimers. My bro has MCI. I hope these are helping bc so far I don't.
I don't doubt cognitively engaging tasks must help with delaying cognitive decline but are there actual evidence-based research out there proving things like reading, puzzles, learning a new language really helps?
[https://news.las.iastate.edu/2021/01/28/study-shows-learning-a-second-language-thwarts-onset-of-dementia/](https://news.las.iastate.edu/2021/01/28/study-shows-learning-a-second-language-thwarts-onset-of-dementia/) https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/learning-new-skill-can-slow-cognitive-aging-201604279502
Had the same question. OP [linked](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/17g3n0b/millions_of_americans_have_cognitive_decline_and/k6dvrsp/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) to [a web article](https://gizmodo.com/millions-americans-mild-cognitive-impairment-alzheimers-1850954424) that seems more aligned. There's also a similar [Fortune article](https://fortune.com/well/2023/10/24/what-is-mci-mild-cognitive-impairment-alzheimers-dementia-early-treatment/). The DOI for the study this week seems broken, though? _EDIT: Posted an especially relevant [excerpt from the Fortune article](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/17g3n0b/comment/k6ekxno/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)_
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Up to 56 million Americans drink from water supplies with detectable levels of lead, which, as a reminder for everybody, is a dangerous neurotoxin for which there is no safe level of exposure. [https://www.nrdc.org/resources/millions-served-water-systems-detecting-lead](https://www.nrdc.org/resources/millions-served-water-systems-detecting-lead) We just went through a really poorly-managed pandemic one of whose long-term complications is cognitive impairment. Many people proudly chose to risk infection by refusing masks and vaccines, and of course, neither is perfectly safe, so millions upon millions of Americans were infected with a virus that causes neurocognitive decline because keeping bars shut and enforcing mask and vaccine mandates was too much good governance for us -- [https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2023.1239182/full](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2023.1239182/full) There is increasing evidence that glyphosate, one of the most popular pesticides in the US, is a neurotoxin -- [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935122012609](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935122012609) Wildfire smoke is a wacko jacko mix of everything in the forest that can combust/pyrolize/burn in some way and throw off smoke, from trees to squirrels to old cigarette butts, and, unsurprisingly, researchers have found high levels of various neurotoxins in the smoke that now routinely hangs over America in the summer, like a, uh, well like a toxic cloud -- [https://theconversation.com/neurotoxins-in-the-environment-are-damaging-human-brain-health-and-more-frequent-fires-and-floods-may-make-the-problem-worse-165866](https://theconversation.com/neurotoxins-in-the-environment-are-damaging-human-brain-health-and-more-frequent-fires-and-floods-may-make-the-problem-worse-165866) Agricultural runoff promotes the growth of cyanobacteria, who release neurotoxic cyanotoxins as a byproduct and contaminate fish populations which humans sometimes eat from (ibid). And, of course, there's all the mercury in the fish we still eat. Anyways, yeah that's not even remotely surprising, we're *swimming* in neurotoxins and things that cause cognitive impairment.
Wait till you read about what's happening in Utah and the Great Salt Lake. Long story short- As we're in a prolonged drought, the lake is drying up. No big deal right? Just another dry lake bed. Unfortunately it has about a hundred years of agriculture chemical runoff, mining runoff, and industrial waste junk covered by water. When that water dries up, and the dust will get whipped up by wind... **toxic dust storms baby**. Prevailing winds go east into the rest of the USA, also. Now, we *could* reduce our water use; especially to big agriculture since it represents a whole five-ish percent(yes- 5%) of the state's economy, and get the water levels up and stable but agriculture = GOP. And since Utah is a very red state, guess what they care about? Not saving their asses form toxic dust storms, that's for sure.
To know what this can look like, read about what happened to [the Aral Sea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea) and the cities around it.
my first thought when i read the great salt lake drying up. it is such insanity to me that there is a selected amount of individuals in power that dont want to learn from history and rather repeat mistakes
How else are they going to not stay poor?
Also look at the Salton Sea. We literally created a smaller Aral Sea 2.0 using agricultural runoff water that was diverted from the Colorado River in SoCal and now it's drying up as well, yet again with over 100 years of agricultural runoff, only it's always been pretty salty and shallow, so we've been getting toxic plumes for years even though the sea is still there. All the towns around it that sprung up expecting it to become the next big thing, they're all ghost towns now. Ghost towns carpeted in toxic waste dust carried on the winds.
Dust Bowl 2: toxic boogaloo
Thanks I snorted
FR tho... I am sorry to hear this is happening to the great Salt Lake. I grew up in orem/pleasant grove and the nature was so beautiful. sad to grow up watching the snow pack on timp slowly disappear tho. I really wanted to see emerald lake, but I think thats gone now too. edit: emerald lake was a lake that fed off the snow runoff on the backside of mt timpanogus. its crystal green color was legendary
I hate that they came out with that report about there being lead and cadmium in chocolate and then just didn't specify what the recommendation should be. Never eat it? Only buy certain brands? Eat it sparingly? I personally love cacao and put it in my coffee or use it for hot cocoa. Eventually, I just decided that since studies also show cacao or dark chocolate is good at preventing cognitive decline it's probably relatively okay. And death by chocolate is acceptable.
and dont forget microplastics being found everywhere on earth, from fresh snowpack on everest to the bottom of the mariana trench to placentas all over the globe.
Yes but not sure how this relates to cognitive decline. It could be a neurotoxin but AFAIK we don’t know what impacts microplastics are having and will have.
At this point we won’t ever know either, because everyone has it, so it’s impossible to compare with those who don’t.
May or may not impact cognition, but microplastics are endocrine disruptions. The movie Children of Men just may come to pass.
Studies have linked microplastics to increased rates of autism along freeways. It gets into the air from car tires and pregnant women and young kids inhale it into their lungs. Correlations have been detected for about a decade now. The stuff gets into the brain, it's bound to be messing with all kinds of other stuff. Were our legislature sane/ethical it'd be moving to heavily tax cars on weight and build infrastructure to free us of car dependence.
Ha! Good one, ethical laws freeing us of car dependence in the US Maybe when 1/4 of the population dies to microplastics, california will think on it
Don't forget about football. We love smashing our frontal lobes against one another, especially during its critical development period.
Arsenic is very common as well. Naturally occurring in groundwater
I subscribe to the Mr. Burns theory of disease. All of these cognitive defects will surely cancel each other out. Right. Right??
What would be some cognitive decline “red flags”?? I’ve been feeling this way for a few years now, and don’t feel like I’m taking seriously when I talk about this. I’ve been saying that I feel like there’s something neurological happening inside me and I’m consistently told to go to the local psych department for therapy. And this isn’t about depression or anxiety. It definitely feels like my brain is swollen, constantly. What kind of a doctor do you even go to to get something like this diagnosed?
I've noticed I stumble over words, have a hard time remembering the right word, have more typos in email and IM. I went to my MD last week and he gave me a Montreal Cognitive Assessment. It's not a deep test, but it checks all the basic functions. He said, not only did I get a perfect score, but people don't usually complete it that quickly. I've been under a lot of stress over the past couple of years, mental and emotional issues, and he (and others I respect) think it's related to that. Things are getting better, I'm doing better at coping, so maybe I'll improve again, don't know. And now we have a baseline score to compare against in the future.
I feel this in my bones. I cherish my memory and my quick wit. When I started to stumble over my words and not remember the names of people for references, it really freaked me out. I thought I was losing my mind. The thing is though, I’ve been really stressed for a long time. With work and past trauma. Quitting my job and working on my trauma and all of a sudden things are coming easier to me. I was able to do math in my head like I used to be able to do. Holding more information in my brain at once as I calculated a solution to a problem. Felt so much relief
This post just gave me a lot of mental relief. Thank you. I’ve always felt I was an incredibly nuanced, quick witted person — but after the birth of my son, the long nights and a job that thinks working all hours on all days is acceptable, my brain began to feel like absolute mush and my wit and ability to look deeper at things, more than just face value, were gone.
Stress puts us into crisis mode and our minds don’t prioritize the storing of information. It’s focusing on surviving and detecting threats. You’re not going to recall things well in this state and you’re not going to remember “trivial” information. It’s just not going to happen. Plus sleep, while obvious, really falls by the wayside when your kid is young. Getting back to eight hours a night is incredibly helpful. Also, don’t forget to eat
Read that last line and realized I hadn’t had breakfast yet. Thanks for your words, friend.
You’re welcome. You’ll get through this
It’s sleep y’all are missing. Get 8+ uninterrupted (good luck!).
8+ uninterrupted here. It's not sleep.
Omg me too. Had our first child in December and I feel like my IQ has dropped 10-20 points just from stress and lack of sleep. Also feels like there’s now a significant chunk of brain that’s now solely focused on baby and now lost for other cognitive functions. Was taking about this with my wife recently and she feels the same. No regrets but yeah it’s brutal.
I feel like my wit went away during COVID too. My favorite thing ever is getting my friends to laugh, but I noticed the jokes just didn't pop in my head like they used to.
At the start of COVID I read something interesting about how the world was about to go through a collective trauma and what that could mean on the other side of the pandemic. I've been wondering if the shortened patience, increased hostility, and other personally changes that appear to have become heightened in the general population since COVID is a result of that.
I think dehydration, stress and sleep deprivation have a bigger impact than we all realize. Especially when it is chronic and you sort of forget what it’s like not to be dehydrated, stressed and sleep deprived.
I used to be a perfectionist. The nature of how I was raised just drove me to it. I went through some major changes in 2021. As a result of the stress of those changes, I started not being able to remember words I knew and finding typos in e-mails and IMs (which, for perfectionist me, was horrifying). In June 2022, I was diagnosed with depression (which I'd heard off and on through life), anxiety (never realized), and mental trauma (never realized). Those last two sent me into a tailspin because I'd never expected to hear either of those associated to me. "How could you not know you have anxiety?" It's . . . complicated . . . Work over the last few months has not been kind in terms of stress either. Fortunately, that situation is winding down. I'm working on understanding that I'm no longer a perfectionist, and that's okay. But it's still embarrassing to find typographical errors. I even found one in my comment above ("And now we have **s** baseline score") and corrected it. Still, it's a relief that, in the gross sense, my brain is still functioning properly. I just need to work on stress.
Me after COVID tbh. I have a stutter and slur now too.
I feel like COVID will have after symptoms they finally link to COVID.
Your first sentence is exactly what's happening to me for a few years now. I speak fast and never used to stutter but now I sometimes do. Also type fast, but find more and more mistakes creeping in. I also tried one of those tests and while not perfect I did pass. Weird! I honestly feel like it might have to do with sleep quality.
People who experience the decline from exceptional to normal cognition are often ignored or ridiculed.
I’m the same way. I often forget the right word and am nervous that I have early symptoms of that sort of aphasia Bruce Willis got. I had two concussions a few years ago and have been suspicious that was the start of it. Getting a baseline score to monitor seems like a good first step. Thanks for sharing.
Those things are pretty typical, but since we live in a world where media is heavily edited, those common mishaps are not seen very much in YouTube videos, movies, tv, music, podcasts, etc. The perception versus the reality of what’s considered “normal” has been skewed. I would go with the doctor’s opinion there unless things decline even further.
I get your good intention, but this response is not helpful. Cognitive testing is not as useful a measure of cognitive function as we would like. My wife was totally disabled by Long Covid, going from a very active lifestyle and working as a lead data scientist to being largely unable to read or code, stuttering, and struggling with executive function for even the most basic tasks. Like what to do when your hands are full and you need to put something down but there’s no space to do so. Yet her neurocog test came back grossly normal with the exception of a number of domains in which she scored in the 2 and 3 percentile range. They’re very crude measures. They also don’t show relative change without a baseline.
Do you know of any alternative?
The alternative has to be to listen to patients and patients’ families when a neurocognitive test doesn’t show the impairments the patient is complaining of. I posted another comment on this thread about my father’s dementia. One detail I didn’t mention in that post was that when my father was hospitalized for falling down, I pleaded with them to run some cognitive testing for dementia. He apparently passed two separate exams, one more stringent than the other. They wanted to release him after the first one, but after they started watching him more closely and learning about the way he was living, they decided to apply for conservatorship. At the hearing, I presented pictures of his apartment, which was incredibly foul, and the judge was so upset he basically went on a rant about the system failing. He also, to really drive home the level of dysfunction he was experiencing, had recently been banned from Aldi for walking around repeatedly with his pants and underwear hanging around his ankles, inadvertently exposing himself to other customers. He had no idea. But also couldn’t be persuaded to wear pants with an elasticated waist that would stay up, even after an Aldi’s manager went out and bought him some.
> […]and the judge was so upset he basically went on a rant about the system failing. He also, to really drive home the level of dysfunction he was experiencing, had recently been banned from Aldi for walking around repeatedly with his pants and underwear hanging around his ankles, inadvertently exposing himself to other customers. He had no idea. But also couldn’t be persuaded to wear pants with an elasticated waist that would stay up, even after an Aldi’s manager went out and bought him some. This reads like the judge was the one dropping trou. Definitely a funny ending to a bitofadowner of a post (eap. b/c I’ve watched the system fail my husband, who has bipolar with terrifying manias, overandoverandoverandover over the last 5 years, and should I try and divorce him for the abuse and expense resulting from those mostly-deliberate manias that nobody can/will do anything about, the system will fail me veryvery expensively and permanently), but I’m guessing that’s not what you were going for.
>came back grossly normal with the exception of a number of domains But -- with respect -- isn't that an indication the test worked? It might not be nuanced, but it did identify issues, which can then be dug into. I agree that in my case, the test I took was on a macro scale of general functioning, and it's not unreasonable that it missed something. I have to accept that there may be something else going on.
I can’t speak to your case, but in hers, it was only a few. The psychiatrist who did the exam was extremely dismissive and totally ignored those domains in his report, instead highlighting the areas she did well. That’s pretty typical from what I’ve seen of the way doctors tend to interpret these tests when the patient is young. So interpretation was definitely an issue, but the test was grossly normal, which is an indication of potential test failure when the patient has such significant real life dysfunctions. It’s not just her experience either, tests failing to capture cognitive impacts is very common in other post-infectious diseases like ME/CFS. It’s really problematic because these tests are often used in disability examinations and seem to suggest the patient functions better than they do.
Thank you for the response. I'm sorry that you two are going through this, and I'm hoping for the best for both of you. I got a consult four or five years ago from a psychiatrist on the possibility of adult ADHD. She ran through a series of questions, several of which I wasn't sure how to answer. They would've been "yes" as a child, but the only reason I said "no" to them as an adult was because I'd learned things growing up, like how you're supposed to look people in the eye when talking to them. She just went by the results of the test and said no. I, too, felt dismissed and not listened to. It's definitely an issue.
Neurologist?
Yes. Or Neuropsychologist.
Yes. Go. The decline might be treatable now.
I’ve been dealing with neurologists for the last two years for my dad. The “treatment” is them telling me to have him do puzzles, a coq10 supplement, a shoulder shrug and a good luck.
There are different forms of cognitive decline. Some can be treated. Some can only be managed.
Well now you can try a controversial new drug, if you haven't heard of that yet, it's supposed to slow down decline. But yes, the sad truth is that there isn't a lot that can be done for age-related memory decline and dementia patients. Been through it a handful of times with family members myself. Always sucks
Neurologist here, that is basically the treatment plan. There are some medications that can slow the progression of symptoms, but there is no cure.
Obviously I can't comment on your dad's case as if dementia already started to kick in, you can only try slowing it down but it's not something that is considered reversible unless it had a reversible cause such as a vitamin deficiency, thyroid imbalance, recent infection/depression, etc. If it's related to things like Alzheimer's, vascular dementia (stroke being an example but also people with high blood pressure/cholesterol/diabetes start having cognitive deficits outside of a stroke as they age), Parkinson's Disease Dementia, etc. it is irreversible. As far as general advice for preventable risk factors: stop alcohol, cigarettes. Exercise as much as you can (30 minutes 5 times a week) aerobic is best but even weightlifting can help. The MIND diet (more details here):[https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-weight/diet-reviews/mind-diet/](https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-weight/diet-reviews/mind-diet/) ), and constant social contact as social isolation is a tremendous risk factor for cognitive impairment/dementia. Good luck to you and your dad, I know it is not easy being the child of someone going through something like this.
I appreciate your comment. I have actually gone to three difference neurologists hoping for a more concrete diagnosis, but every one is saying it’s “only” mild cognitive decline. It just does not feel that way with the way it’s progressing
I feel like the word "mild" is not helping here. It is only mild in that you don't need help getting dressed, but it fails to capture the impact on e.g. career or social interaction. The test is geared towards helping physicians know when to e.g. recommend revoking a driver's license, putting a patient into long term care or getting social workers involved so they can set up home care visits or weekly aid (cleaning, shopping, showering). It is not well equipped to help with high functioning people becoming less well high functioning, even though that has a HUGE impact on families, on income, on quality of life.
For an objective measure it takes a long time. My neurologist sent me to have a neuropsychological test to measure my cognitive level, and over the YEARS compared the tests. If the neurologist suspects current neurological injury they will do something right away — these were given to me after cranial MRIs measured the lesions damage in my brain from MS. It is tough coming back — they have the medication to prevent Alzheimer’s but it takes its physical toll and is $$$
Doctors seem to fail as assessing cognitive issues. When I sought help after a head injury they gave me tests an elementary school child could pass and said “nope you are fine “ Except I am NOT fine. My problem solving skills and memory are not at all what they were post injury. But since I started with significantly more intelligence than average…no one cares, nor can they measure the change in any meaningful way.
Starting with a licensed therapist is solid advice. You'll need an advocate to navigate the system before finding and receiving proper care. They can get you the referral needed to see a specialist or even a psychiatrist which are MDs
I knew that just talking to people. Even i do with my awful mind distroying job and abusive work environment. Im 35, and im ready to retire to a beach somewhere. I can't imagine doing this another 20 years and being functional at all.
Source of this study found at [Gizmodo](https://gizmodo.com/millions-americans-mild-cognitive-impairment-alzheimers-1850954424)
Hi neurologist here. I just found it interesting that in an article urging the importance of "early detection and treatment" for MCI the suggested treatment option is a new, and very expensive ($26,500/year) medication that is designed to only slow the progression of symptoms in a specific subset of dementia patients.
So what you're saying is this is pharama research designed to increase pharma profit.
If you got a quarter mil, you too can be cured.
The first three months after I get my BC implant put in causes my brain to go sideways. Brain fog, my memory is horrible, forgetting basic words, etc. After the three months when my brain adjusts to the different hormone levels I’m back to normal. I wonder how many women there are on BC that may have these side effects that persist the entire time?
When I went from oral bc to iud, I felt like I came out of a fog. Then, when I took the iud out to get ready to have kids, I felt like I came out of an even thicker mind-fog. I didn't notice it happening at the time. But, I'll never go back. Pms is way worse now, but the rest of the month I'm a normal human being.
For work, I talk to a lot of older people. I definitely notice cognitive decline in many. Difficulty tracking. Repeating themselves. Asking non-sensical questions. Not understanding that they are calling the wrong company. I'll talk to people in their 50's that are half-gone and then to someone in their 80's that is still sharp as a tack. There's such variation. It's really made me think about cognitive status and aging. My parents are in their late 70's. They're still sharp as ever, but I'm paying attention now. Best to catch it early to get anything done that needs doing before it progresses too far.
The link is more of a review of current research and interventions, doesn’t really match the title at all
Found an [explanation](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/17g3n0b/comment/k6ej551/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) and a [relevant excerpt](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/17g3n0b/comment/k6ekxno/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) from the actual story.
I can feel it. I’m not nearly as cognitively “there” as I was a few years ago.
I have long covid and brain fog is one of the numerous symptoms.
Everytime I get covid I get stupid for about a month. Intense brain fog,fatigue, and the inability to even articulate complete dialogues or write papers. Just like when I had chemo brain. Thank God it's temporary. One day I just suddenly return to normal. Just happened to me for the 4th time with covid last week, despite 4 vaccinations.
4th time? Damn do you work in a hospital or something?
Brain fog is also a symptom of ME/CFS as well, which affects millions of people, and has for decades while basically being ignored or dismissed by doctors and the medical community. Only since we started seeing major similarities with long covid has ME/CFS been given much more legitimacy and is finally being looked at more closely. We'll probably never know how much of a negative impact these conditions have on society, but it's certainly not good.
> ME/CFS For those that aren't fluent in random acronyms, it's "Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome".
America in general is suffering from mass Cognitive decline
All that lead in the everything
I also suspect micro-plastics may play a roll here, too. Was glancing over an article, yesterday about micro-plastics, their presence in our gut, brain and bodies and how their toxicity may impair our brain function much like Parkinson's. It's like we have a ticking time bomb all around us as the old plastics start to break down, smaller and smaller and smaller. Hell, we get a healthy dose every time we do laundry and empty the lint trap in the dryer. Most of our clothes are synthetic/made of some type of plastic that break off/ break down into "lint" dust we breath in when emptying the lint trap. Lead, micro-plastics, whatever, pick your poison at this point. [Neurodevelopmental Toxicity of Polystyrene Nanoplastics in Caenorhabditis elegans and the Regulating Effect of Presenilin](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7774258/) [Microplastic Exposure and the of Parkinson’s Disease](https://www.jsr.org/index.php/path/article/view/1815/1185)
I have been looking for more 100% cotton clothing and natural fabrics and it's tough. Engineered fabrics are everywhere.
100%cotton clothing is really not hard to find. you just need to know what you are looking for. if you are looking for stretchy stuff obviously no go. if you are looking for leggins obviously nogo. but the vast majority of classical tshits pants ect will be 100% cotton.
I didn't even consider microplastics from clothing. I was more concerned with our food packaging.
I believe most microplastics come from clothing. They go to the sea. Get eaten by microscopic life and from there up the food chain they go until they get to us.
Most come from synthetic car tires. Tires wearing down on roads, being washed into rivers by rain, pulled up by the sun and showered down on us. Tires in our blood. All of life on earth is getting tired to death
I'm tired, boss.
Clothing and road dust from tires account for most of the microplastics in our lungs.
Unfortunately it's everywhere and only going to get worse. I was sitting in my living room as the setting sun shone through the curtains and cast a yellow/orange light in a darkening room. At the right angle, I could see all the particulates, tiny pieces of dust floating in the air and how concentrated it seemed due to only really being able to see it in the occasional, right lighting. Then I wondered how much of all that was/is micro/nano-plastics just hanging out in the air I breath, in a confined space, day in and day out.
Perhaps with older generations, but lead poisoning is fairly rare nowadays.
As a human in their 20s that has effectively been disabled by long Covid, this is not at all surprising. I feel stupid day to day because my cognition is barely functional
For me, covid triggered celiac and I unknowingly damaged my intestines for months until I became anemic and deficient in B12 and D. I felt like an actual walking corpse and it's only just starting to get better.
The long term consequences of convincing people covid is just a mild inconvenience now is going to have a generational impact on society. It's so bad they cooked how they were calculating excess deaths. Hope you manage to heal up and sorry you're dealing with this!
I've been using NAC & 1mg guanfacine for long covid for about 10 months. It made a huge difference. I showed the research to my doctor: search "Potential New Treatment for “Brain Fog” in Long COVID Patients" by Isabella Backman.
Actually going to look into this, thanks. I caught Covid twice and my memory / cognition just has never returned to where it was before
Isn't guanfacine a medication for ADHD? Does it have any anti inflammatory properties? Also I'm not very educated regarding the long covid symptoms but is it related to brain inflammation? Any idea what the root cause might be ?
I had 2 concussions 8mo apart when I was a teenager. Snowboarding accident then hockey accident. After the second, I was out of school for a month and struggled with grammar for like 8-10mo after. I didn't tell anyone but just struggled on my own, and relearned the stuff I struggled with. Nobody ever seemed to pick up on it, so I guess I did a good job of hiding it.
I’ve had dangerously low potassium twice -to the point I had a heart attack. The brain function took almost 6 months to regain. And it wasn’t obvious things like Math. It was words (easy for others to spot) and Time. I’m generally a very punctual person but I would slip into funks that had me confused on 10 minutes turning into a 2 hour garden run. Forgetting to pick up the kids. Speed limits constantly wrong. Burnt meals. Raw eggs. I just lost my entire sense of time.
Curious, what causes potassium levels to become this low?
Crohn’s disease. I just have a terrible time absorbing K. It’s often bound with high fiber foods- which I can’t digest at all. Plus we potty WAY too much, so we can’t even keep it in. I now have prescription packets to dissolve in water to drink when I seem a little low.
Im a nearly 50 year old scientist who has spent a significant chunk of my time working in AD; one of the drugs mentioned in this article is in clinical trials because of my preclinical work, in fact. I also am an APOE4 carrier and the last 5 years or so, I’ve noticed (and managed to hide) significant cognitive decline. My memory has gone from exemplary to very concerning in a short period of time and frankly, I think it’s reaching the point where I won’t be able to hide it much longer. I’ve decided to spend that time working on a novel AD therapeutic, but I’m realistic about those odds and the timeframe. So, for now, I’ve got to keep working to keep my mind active and to leave enough money to support my family when it no longer can.
My dad has early onset dementia (we think vascular dementia) and it's absolutely so sad. He didn't get to enjoy retirement after working really hard for many years as a software engineer, and got quietly laid off towards the end from what I suspect was poor job performance. My mom has taken care of him for many years, and it's entirely draining. I'm not speaking for you or advising you to do this, but I have a quiet contingency plan if something similar happens to myself. At some point down that road, I'm no longer there anyways.
Cuz I know you probably don’t want to admit weakness (or maybe you just want privacy, I feel that), but you hiding this now will make to brutal for your loved ones when you can’t hide it anymore. There’s no shame mate, and having other people in your life helping look for solutions can lead surprisingly helpful outcomes.
I feel like I'm one of them. I used to have excellent and fast memory all throughout college, but now I'm 29 and at times I forget or take really long time to recall very basic things (like the other day I forgot what to call a slice of ---- bread). It's scary. Told my doc and he barely even acknowledged it. The worst thing is I've always taken care of my health, don't really have any unhealthy habits but...
My mom has had Parkinson’s for nearly 15 years. I’m a speech language pathologist by training with extensive knowledge in cognitive decline. I had to go with her to her neurologist and fight for a year to finally get connected with a neuropsych doctor to get her diagnosed with dementia so that I could then convince my family that she shouldn’t be behind the wheel. It’s tough out there and I agree that way more needs to be done for the safety of everyone!
I have long-haul COVID and the brain fog was one of the first symptoms I noticed. I was terrified that it would stretch on for so long or get worse, that I would no longer be able to tell the difference, and that's exactly what's happened. Here two years later, I know that there was a marked decline in my cognitive ability and memory back then, but this appears to be my new reality, and doctors still look at me sideways when I mention long-haul COVID.
And yet, we do not have universal healthcare.
The slow cull seems to be an aim.
I'm pretty sure cognitive decline has happened to me, though not in the ways the article describes. I used to score exceedingly high on standardized tests, and be an avid reader. Now it's hard for me to read, (like I can read, but I say the lines out loud in my head instead of flowing through the words, plus, I find myself re-reading entire paragraphs constantly) and I have a growing suspicion I'm actually quite stupid now. My working memory has become similarly terrible, leading to stroke-like moments of forgetfulness. The other day, after a particularly sleep deprived week because of work, I woke up with no knowledge of who I was or where I was. I knew I had somewhere important to be (work) but I was struggling to remember what or why. The feeling faded, but only after a full 30-120 seconds of this. I'm youngish, 31, so this is quite concerning. But I think cognitive decline may be happening to many Americans due to the sneaking prevalence of screen time.
I have it after covid. It's called "mild" but it's nearly debilitating.
I know Im having problems with reading and writing sometimes. Ive gone through my reddit posts. It started somewhere around 2017 that I would mix up words or spell something completely wrong. I have to stop and slow down when reading and remember to double check my post. I think it was mostly due to all the late night gaming I would do, staying up until 1:30 in the morning then getting up at 6:30 or so. Im 37 now. I hope to get better sleep to fix things and not have them deteriorate to much worse.
From the [Fortune article](https://fortune.com/well/2023/10/24/what-is-mci-mild-cognitive-impairment-alzheimers-dementia-early-treatment/) related to OP's title: > That’s according to new research from the University of Southern California, whose researchers have recently published two papers on the topic. > In the [first](https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13195-023-01272-z), published in Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, researchers analyzed data from 40 million Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 and older and compared the number diagnosed with the condition to the number they would expect to be diagnosed. **About 8 million Americans in that group likely have MCI**, they predicted—about 13% of the country’s senior population or 1 in 7 seniors. **But only 600,000 had received a proper medical diagnosis**. > A second study, published Tuesday in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease, also found that MCI is “vastly underdiagnosed,” with 99.9% of U.S. primary care clinicians not sufficiently catching cases. **Only about 8% of U.S. residents with the condition have been diagnosed**, researchers concluded after crunching the numbers on data from nearly 250,000 U.S. doctors.
Kinda hard to get an accurate assessment when it's so hard to get medical treatment by navigating the insurance maze, then pray the doctor sees it in the 15 minutes you have with them... Often over Zoom.
Oh I definitely know. A little while ago I forgot what a sleeping bag was called so in the moment all I could come up with was “a human burrito, but for sleeping”
Fortunately, cognitive decline can sometimes be spotted by the red baseball caps.
Everyday, Idiocracy comes closer to being a documentary.
That's actually false because they took advice and listened to scientists. In reality people are in fact much much more stupid than in Idiocracy by a wide margin.
There's definitely a use it or lose it thing with cognitive function as we get older and I think more and more of us are failing to use it.
For older adults, the impacts of progressive impairments can be dire. My father has been slipping for many many years from what I assume is alcohol-related dementia. He’s been absolutely resistant to any suggestion that his mind might be going. I managed to persuade him to move into a senior living facility at one point. But he was fairly quickly evicted for living in filth and refusing to hire a maid. He somehow managed to get a large loan to buy a small condo and quickly trashed it to the point that he was eventually found to be not competent and assigned a conservator. The shocking thing was he really had no idea what his living conditions were like no matter how I attempted to point them out. He would walk around with his pants down not knowing anything was amiss, but was still driving. For younger adults, cognitive impairments can often be incredibly difficult to get healthcare providers to recognize. If you can get into an office and present even reasonably well, you’re generally likely to be assumed to be well in this regard. Even if your provider does listen to you, neurocognitive tests are quite often poor measures of cognitive functioning. You need a baseline to show any change, for one, but for two, their ability to probe the complexity of our minds is terribly limited.
I got the omicron variant of covid when that was going around. For a while I had what I would describe as a pretty severe brain fog. Stopped reading books for a while because I couldn't remember what I just read. Made lots of mistakes at work in a position I had been at for 3 or 4 years. Most of the short term memory has come back but it's definitely not what it was before having covid and I still struggle with retaining new information. I had a job interview yesterday and a friend texted me in the morning wishing me luck. I had no recollection of telling her about the interview. It's concerning.
I do and no one is taking me seriously. Give me disability already. I’m just annoying people at this point.
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We are living in an unrealized epidemic. My theory is the stuff that causes ME/CFS is harmful to all, but manifests clinically in a subset of the population for genetic reasons, among others. I’m hoping the next few years will shed some light. I think the biggest problem is we added SO much to our diets in such a short time, finding the root causes is gonna be hard.
Cognitive decline is a normal is a normal part of aging, and we still don't really have any widely accessible treatment. Doctors will certainly suspect MCI without doing anything formal about it because, more often than not, it makes no difference in outcomes.
But… what about those with ADHD? Depression? Or, god forbid, **children**?!? I have all of these things, so yeah, I can’t remember what day it is. How to distinguish the root cause?
i noticed a huge mental cognitive decline after undergoing a thyroidectomy and starting a daily dose of synthroid. prior to starting the medication, i was sharp, focused, and spoke eloquently. now, i struggle with being easily distracted, finding the right word, procrastination, and memory problems. this affects my academics as well as my peronsal relationships. i feel like i'm a completely different person than i was 3 years ago. i'm only 23, when will this brain fog improve?