Suzanne Newman is joined by Dr. Michael Mega, Director of the Center for Cognitive Health in Portland, Oregon. The center helps patients maximize their cognitive function as they cope with Alzheimer’s disease and disorders of thinking. Dr. Mega answers: How do you tell the difference between normal age-related forgetfulness and the beginnings of Alzheimer’s?
When we go the grocery store and have a shopping list in mind, but can’t recall the last few items because we left the written list at home, that’s normal. But Alzheimer’s disease has a distinct memory issue: a failure to learn new information. If you repeatedly ask the same question, and are unable to learn the answer no matter how many times you hear it, that is abnormal.
A quick test that is very sensitive is naming as many animals as you can think of in a minute. Most 75 year olds with at least a high-school education can name 18 different animals or more. It’s a very good test of language function and the speed of processing, in terms of searching the lexicon of words in our brain. We also test by giving people a list of random words and them asking them to repeat the list. A normal 85 year old will come up with seven of those words. If it’s less than three, that’s abnormal.
Even in our 80s or 90s, we should be able to learn new information, even if we can be forgetful or have problems retrieving that information.
For dementia to be a factor, we ask a family member whether their function is so impaired that they are no longer safe living by themselves. The failure to be able to live safely independently is the definition of dementia. Dementia is not a disease, it’s a functional state. Being able to do our shopping, pay bills, not burn down the house, and keep the shysters at bay is normal.
Dementia can come from many sources: vitamin deficiencies, stroke, tumors, head trauma, Alzheimer’s disease, or Parkinson’s disease. It can be caused by a reversible thyroid problem, or a reversible nutritional deficiency.
Learn more at the Center for Cognitive Health. Visit shapetrial.com to learn about a trial for Parkinson’s Disease Dementia. Visit lift-adtrial.com to learn about the LIFT-AD Alzheimer’s Disease trial. You can also learn about trials taking place at the Center for Cognitive Health in Portland. Brought to you courtesy of Athira Pharma.
