There are many causes of mild cognitive impairment, and as often as not, it's something other than dementia. Here are 12 common causes of cognitive impairment to watch out for. Some may be things you’ve already heard about, but some of these really caught me by surprise. To learn more about these risks, and to get my free guide to recommended resources for addressing them, read my full article here: [ Ссылка ]

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Here is the transcript for this video:
I saw a woman post something in a chat room the other day asking, Now that I’ve been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, when will I progress to dementia?

That’s hard to say, but based on what we know right now, for a lot of people with MCI, they’re never going to progress to dementia because they don’t have dementia.

Something else is causing their cognitive decline. But what might that be? That’s what I want to talk about today.

Hi. My name is Tony Dearing. I write an award-winning column on brain health and prevention of dementia for NJ.com and the Star-Ledger, and I am the creator of GoCogno.com, a website for people with mild cognitive impairment.

When I read articles about MCI, I often see it referred to as a quote-unquote “precursor” to dementia or as an “intermediate stage” leading to dementia.

Now, that is true for some people, but for many people, maybe even most people, that’s not the case. We don’t know what percentage of people diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment actually have dementia. But based on several new research studies that I’ve seen in the last few months, it’s probably fair to say that roughly half them will progress to dementia at some poing.

But that means the other half won’t. And here’s the important thing to understand. The cause of that cognitive loss could be a treatable condition, and if it can be identified and addressed, your memory could improve.

So that’s why it’s important to understand what these many other possible other causes of mild cognitive impairment are. And there are a lot of them out there. To help you understand what they are, how to recognize them, and how to seek treatment for them, I have just published an article on 12 common causes of mild cognitive impairment that aren’t dementia.

In today’s video, I’m going to touch on three of them, but you’ll want to read my full article to learn about the rest.

What I’m focusing on are what I think of as the Big Three, because I’m hearing a lot of concern expressed about them these days.

No 1 is overmedication.

The number of people over the age of 65 who take three or more medications has more than doubled since 2004.

People are taking too many medications that react badly with each other and the result can be cognitive impairment.

No 2 is sleep disorders.

Here’s a really important thing to understand. Deep sleep is the only time that the brain doesn’t create the plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease, and it’s the time when the brain washes those plaques away.

If you aren’t sleeping soundly at night, that can greatly hasten cognitive loss.

No 3 is depression.

Depression can result in memory loss that looks like dementia, but isn’t. The symptoms can include confusion, forgetfulness or an inability to concentrate.

Even if the cause of your memory problems isn’t depression, depression and mild cognitive impairment can occur together, and when they do, it’s crucial that the depression be addressed.

All of the conditions are treatable, but there are many, many other potential causes of mild cognitive impairment, that are not dementia, and I address them in my article as well. All of them also are treatable. They include everything from vitamin deficiencies to hearing loss to a thyroid condition called subclinical hypothyroidism.

Here are the 12 causes I discuss and I invite you to read my article to learn more about them. There’s a link to it in the description for this video, or just go to my site, GoCogno.com, to find it.

Along with the information in the article, you can get a guide to recommended resources for any of these conditions, so you can learn more, and take steps to protect your cognition.

I hope you find this information helpful, and I hope to see you again next week. Until then, as always, be kind to your mind.

This site is educational, and is not intended as medical advice. It offers information about lifestyle choices that have been proven to help protect cognition. Always consult your doctor before making changes that can impact your health.

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