MCI Clinic in Calgary and Cognitive Impairment
Aging brings on a host of changes, including an increased risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is the stage between normal age-related changes in cognitive abilities and other conditions that impact one’s ability to live independently, like Alzheimer’s disease. People experience a slight decline in their mental abilities in MCI, including problems with memory, language, and judgment. While these problems can be noticeable to you and your loved ones they don’t obstruct the individual’s abilities to carry out their daily activities. Although there is not one factor that definitively causes MCI, conditions like diabetes, a stroke, or depression can increase your risk of developing MCI. Still, there are ways to adapt to these changes, and health professionals at your local MCI clinic in Calgary can help support the difficulties you may be experiencing.
Although you can still perform daily activities when you have developed MCI, you should be aware of the treatments, outcomes, and symptoms.
Symptoms of MCI
The signs and symptoms of MCI can vary depending on the cause and underlying neurological process, but often these changes aren’t explicit and visible to others. Even so, a shift in memory and pacing when it comes to tasks can become noticeable to you and your loved ones, as well as changes to your personality or language skills. Some symptoms that may warrant further discussion with your family doctor include:
- You begin to forget things more frequently
- You begin to feel more overwhelmed at following directions, completing tasks, and making decisions
- You begin to lose your train of thought mid-conversation and become a bit adrift during discussions, movies, or television shows
- You forget about appointments or dates of social events
- You find yourself regularly misplacing items
Alongside these symptoms, you may feel more anxious and irritable than usual and depressed.
Diagnosis
When you or your loved ones begin to notice symptoms that align with MCI, your doctor can do a series of tests and assessments to help determine what is causing this cognitive impairment. These assessments will measure your reflexes, walking and balance, and the ability to remember. While causation may not always be available, your impairment can be caused by certain medications or underlying conditions that can be treated. Your doctor may also order additional neuroimaging, such as a PET scan, to help determine whether the MCI is an early stage of some other condition.
It remains imperative that you talk to your medical provider when you notice something is amiss concerning any of your cognitive functions.
Treatments
While there are no specific cures or drugs you can take to reverse your MCI symptoms, intervention programs can be sought at any MCI clinic in Calgary. These clinics can offer strategies to improve memory loss and provide essential information about memory loss and what activities and lifestyle changes can be practiced and adopted to help. Furthermore, it is important to discuss treating other conditions that interfere with cognitive functions with your family doctor, such as high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and depression. Or, if the medications you’re taking are causing cognitive changes, you can work with your doctor to figure out a viable solution.
Outcomes
While your mild cognitive impairment is dependent on certain factors, whether it can progress to a more impairing condition can be determined by tests from your doctor and other health professionals. Because there is a chance that MCI can progress, it may be helpful to monitor possible changes on a yearly basis. More so, you can work with your doctor and specialists at MCI clinics to adopt methods to help with memory loss and other cognitive and emotional challenges.
Balance: Psychology & Brain Health can help you find balance in your life by maximizing functioning and minimizing disability through holistic, evidence-based, and client-centred care. Calgary cognitive psychologists and neuropsychologists Calgary offer cognitive assessments, behavioural therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy in Calgary, and insomnia therapy in Calgary. Call (403) 764-0771 today to book at our neuropsychology clinic, chronic pain clinic Calgary or MCI clinic Calgary.
