Elaine Rosenblatt still remembers the panic that washed over her when she wandered up to the second floor of a repurposed industrial space \u2014 the setting of a friend\u2019s 2017 wedding \u2014 and couldn\u2019t find her way back to the reception. She finally called another wedding guest and asked him to please come find her. Back at the party, embarrassed and unnerved, Rosenblatt quickly called an Uber to take her home.<\/p>\n
What might have been dismissed as a one-off \u2014 or just the result of being in unfamiliar surroundings \u2014 brought back memories of her mother\u2019s experience with Alzheimer\u2019s disease. The episode fueled Rosenblatt\u2019s concerns about what was happening with increasing frequency in her own life: the inability to find words during conversations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can picture in my mind what I want to say, but cannot bring it forward,\u201d says Rosenblatt, a psychotherapist in private practice in Evanston, Illinois. And yet, confoundingly, the now-74-year-old adds, \u201cwhen I am in session with clients I can recall things from past sessions easily.\u201d<\/p>\n
A year after that wedding scare, a diagnosis helped her make sense of her symptoms: Rosenblatt has mild cognitive impairment<\/a> (MCI), according to a cognitive and behavioral neurologist\u2019s evaluation. MCI is a condition in which changes in memory and thinking are more pronounced than those associated with normal aging, but don\u2019t meet the threshold for a diagnosis of Alzheimer\u2019s or other dementias<\/a>.<\/p>\n The question patients often ask is: How do I keep from getting worse? Rosenblatt has found much of the answer to that question in several lifestyle changes, most notably an unlikely form of exercise.<\/p>\n There are changes that occur with normal aging<\/a> \u2014 occasional forgetfulness, misplacing keys, explains Dr. Sheena Aurora, a neurologist and vice president of medical affairs at the Alzheimer\u2019s Association. With MCI, however, these changes happen on a regular basis and can be detected by cognitive testing.<\/p>\n Although symptoms of MCI are obvious enough to be noticed by friends and family, they don\u2019t affect the person\u2019s ability to carry out everyday activities. That\u2019s one of the things that separates MCI from dementia. \u201cWhile dementia interferes with an individual\u2019s ability to conduct activities of daily living, MCI is not quite there,\u201d Aurora says.<\/p>\n Does MCI always lead to dementia?<\/p>\n Roughly 1 in 4 adults 65 and older is living with MCI, according to studies<\/a> in\u00a0JAMA Neurology\u00a0and\u00a0Alzheimer\u2019s & Dementia.\u00a0Many return to normal cognition while others progress to dementia. Who gets better and who gets worse depends largely on what\u2019s causing the MCI.<\/p>\n