memory Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Better Health While Aging

Cognitive Impairment in Aging: 10 Common Causes & 10 Things the Doctor Should Check

Have you been worried about an older person’s memory or thinking abilities?

Maybe your parent has seemed more confused recently. Or you may have noticed that your aging spouse is repeating herself, or struggling to do things that didn’t use to pose much of a problem.

Or you may have noticed false accusations, or irrational worries getting out of control.

These are very common concerns, and they often lead to questions such as:

Is this normal aging or something more significant?
What is wrong?
Could this be Alzheimer’s? Or some other form of dementia?
Can these memory problems be treated or reversed?
What should we do about this??

The answer to the last question is this: if you are worried about memory or thinking, then you should seek out some kind of medical evaluation.

That’s because when families worry about an older person’s cognitive abilities, there often are some underlying health issues affecting the mind’s function.

Those need to be detected, and treated if at all possible. So, you’ll need to request help from a health professional, and in this article, I’ll explain what that initial help should consist of. This way you’ll know what to expect, and what the doctor might ask you about.

Technically, these kinds of problems are called “cognitive impairment.” This is a broad term that means some kind of problem or difficulty with one’s memory, thinking, concentration, and other functions of the conscious brain, beyond what might be expected due to normal “cognitive aging.”

(For more on “cognitive aging” and what types of changes are considered normal aging, see this article: 6 Ways that Memory & Thinking Change with Normal Aging, & What to Do About This.)

Cognitive impairment — which is also called “cognitive decline” — can come on suddenly or gradually, and can be temporary or more permanent. It may or may not keep getting slowly worse; it all depends on the underlying cause or causes.

In this article, I’ll share with you the more common causes of cognitive impairment in older adults.

I’ll then share a list of 10 things that should generally be done, during a preliminary medical evaluation for cognitive decline in an older adult.

You can also watch a subtitled video version of this information below.

[Read more…]

5 Things to Know about Aging Parents & Financial Decline

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH

You probably already know that many older adults develop problems managing finances as they age.

Now how would you answer the questions below:

Has your aging parent planned for a decline in financial abilities?
Are you prepared to detect signs of a financial decline?
Do you know what to do if you do notice problems with finances?

Many people, even the ones who are caring and well-informed, will often answer “no” to these questions.

But this post will equip you to start answering yes. And I want you to be able to answer yes, because declines in the ability to manage finances are very common among older adults, and often causes serious health and life problems.

The trouble, of course, is that financial decline is uncomfortable for older adults and their families to think about. Managing money, after all, is one of the ways we maintain autonomy and control over our lives.

So nobody likes to confront the fact that our ability to manage money will — in all likelihood — someday decline. (Research suggests that even aging adults who don’t develop dementia often experience declines in financial ability.) And families are understandably squeamish about monitoring an older relative’s financial abilities.

Fortunately, a little education and guidance can make it much easier to be more proactive about this tough topic.

In this post, I’ll cover

Five warning signs of financial decline
Five important things to know about aging & finances
How to protect aging parents from financial problems
What to do if your aging parent is having trouble managing their finances

I’ll also cover some ways that geriatricians and other healthcare providers can help, both to reduce declines in financial ability and to properly evaluate them when they occur.

5 Warning Signs of Financial Decline

[Read more…]

8 Behaviors to Take Note of if You Think Someone Might Have Alzheimer’s

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH

Have you been worried about an older person’s memory or thinking skills? If so, you’ve probably found yourself wondering if this could be Alzheimer’s, or another dementia.

What to do next? If you look online or ask people, the advice is generally this: tell the doctor.

This advice isn’t wrong, but it’s incomplete. Yes, you should tell the doctor. But you’ll dramatically improve your chances of getting to the bottom of things if you come to the doctor with useful information on what you’ve observed.

In fact, research has found that interviewing family members about the presence or absence of eight particular behaviors can be just as effective, when it comes to detecting possible Alzheimer’s, as certain office-based cognitive tests.

[Read more…]

5 Warning Signs of Financial Decline

Disclaimer