Mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, is a condition that affects many older people. It’s usually typical for someone to lose some level of cognitive function the older they get. As a result, they forget things more easily, and older people often struggle with learning new things. MCI, however, is the name for when older adults have a tougher time with thinking problems or remembering things compared to other people in their peer groups.
MCI is sometimes caused by external factors and other health conditions. For example, diabetes, stroke, and other health issues can cause higher levels or more severe cases of MCI. Obviously, living with MCI as a patient or a close relative can be challenging. It’s a frustrating feeling like you can’t remember basic facts or are having more trouble doing normal things.
Learning to spot the symptoms of MCI and knowing about potential treatments can limit its impact on you or your loved one’s life. Here are some things you should know about MCI and what you can do about it.
Knowing the Symptoms of MCI
It’s hard to diagnose mild cognitive impairment because the signs are typically more subtle. With something like full-blown dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease, the symptoms are so extreme. You know something is wrong, so you seek medical treatment fast and early. With MCI, you’re much less likely to have a situation in which people forget the names of close relatives or that they’re even relatives at all. With more severe dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease, the contrast between normal behavior is much more stark.
The absence of severe symptoms is one of the main reasons why so many cases of MCI go unnoticed or untreated. However, there are signs you should look for, including:
Forgetting appointments
Missing meetings
Losing keys, wallets, and other small items more than usual
Struggling to think of words that you want to say
Forgetting the names of places, movies, etc.
These are just some of the signs that someone has MCI. Another common symptom is trouble with a person’s sense of smell, which is not typical with dementia.
Dealing With Mild Cognitive Impairment
It may not seem like MCI is a big deal. After all, we all forget the names of distant friends or colleagues from time to time. However, MCI becomes a challenge for people who still want to operate at higher levels of performance. Many professions, like doctors, lawyers, professors, and more commonly have people working in their late 70s and beyond. If someone has MCI, then it can affect their performance at work, and the quality of their work will suffer. If managing and treating the condition is an option, why face the challenge of mental decline if you don’t have to?
For most people, treating MCI requires regular meetings with medical professionals. Most patients see doctors every six months to track progress. It’s important to keep a detailed record of mental performance to see whether things are improving or getting worse. Right now, there are a lot of clinical trials underway involving medicines and other treatment methods designed to help alleviate the symptoms of MCI. If possible, talk to your doctor about participating in any available trials.
Repetitive therapy also helps stem the tide. The more you use your brain and your memory, the better it will perform. People who fail to engage their brains and their memories typically see a sharper decline and more severe symptoms.
Peptides & MCI
Peptides are short chains of amino acids that trigger a variety of responses in the body. For example, healing peptides aid with things like wound healing, and other peptides impact cognitive performance. Melanotan 1 is a peptide that shows positive results with regard to the effects of diseases in the brain. In research done on mice, for example, those given Melanotan 1 reduced the amount of amyloid-beta plaques in the brain to help moderate Alzheimer’s Disease. As a result, their neurons were better protected, and the mice saw meaningful improvements in cognitive function. Melanotan 1 also boosted neurogenesis and facilitated cognitive recovery. In treating mice with Alzheimer’s Disease, the peptide was one of the few studies that showed improvement in the condition rather than simply slowing the cognitive decline among test subjects.
