Preventing Mild Cognitive Impairment: Tips from Experts

[Voice of Hope May 11, 2023](Editor: Guo Qiang) According to the survey, 38.77 million elderly people over the age of 60 in China suffer from mild cognitive impairment. What is mild cognitive impairment? It refers to a mild decline in intelligence, and the degree of decline is a transitional state between normal aging and mild dementia. How to prevent mild cognitive impairment? Experts from Chengdu Fourth People’s Hospital interpreted it.

It is estimated that less than 1 in 5 people over the age of 65 may have mild cognitive impairment, and nearly half of this 1 in 5 will progress to dementia over the years, and As fast as 3 to 5 years, more need 10 years. Therefore, mild cognitive impairment is a high risk factor for dementia. It also acts as a “sentry” to alert us to the possibility of dementia.

Mild cognitive impairment can be divided into different types, namely amnestic and non-amnestic. Among them, most of the amnestic type will develop into Alzheimer’s disease, and the non-amnestic type may develop into other dementias.

1. Amnesiac

Often forgetting important routines, or asking for the same thing over and over. This kind of forgetting may appear and disappear from time to time, and only the closest people can easily feel that “something seems wrong”, and it is almost impossible for outsiders to find out, which is completely different from the performance of Alzheimer’s disease.

In addition, some amnestic patients also have language problems, such as forgetting words and being unable to call other people’s names; sometimes they are also accompanied by impaired executive function, such as being no longer good at arranging and planning daily activities, and being unable to multi-task at the same time. Activity.

2. Non-amnestic

Although there will be no memory problems, the above-mentioned executive function problems are more obvious. In addition, symptoms such as temperament changes, irritability, or apathy will also appear.

Although these manifestations also occur during normal aging, the manifestations of mild cognitive impairment are more severe and not easy to distinguish. If it is found that the elderly in the family often have sudden memory decline, temperament fluctuations, and the ability to take care of themselves is reduced due to these reasons, then you may need to accompany them to the hospital and conduct some professional cognitive tests to confirm.

How can mild cognitive impairment be prevented?

1. Light diet:As the elderly grow older, they are prone to chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes, so pay attention to a “low-salt and low-fat” diet in daily life, with a reasonable diet of vegetables, fruits, and milk. Microscopic cerebrovascular disease caused by such chronic diseases is often the cause of dementia.

2. Reasonable exercise:Exercise can not only improve physical fitness and heart and lung function, but also protect and improve brain function. The principle is that it can increase brain-derived neurotrophic factors and angiogenic factors in the brain, enhance synaptic plasticity, reduce autophagy and apoptosis, regulate cholinergic system, improve learning and memory ability, and improve spatial sense and executive ability , and ultimately promote the recovery and improvement of cognitive function to a certain extent.

“Aerobic exercise”: Common types include walking, running, cycling, swimming, fitness dancing, doing aerobics and many other methods.

“Resistance training”: Traditional types include push-ups, dumbbells, barbells and other items. Studies have found that leading the elderly to do regular exercises designed to lift small dumbbells for a period of time can improve the attention and executive function of the elderly.

3. Do something good for “brain exercise”:Regularly use brain power to complete some things or games, such as playing mahjong and poker, often learning some new knowledge, getting in touch with new things, etc. These can keep our brains “keep youthful” to a certain extent.

Editor in charge: Li Zhi

This article or program is edited and produced by Voice of Hope. Please indicate Voice of Hope and include the original title and link when reprinting.