Are cognitive decline and dementia the same? Well, they are closely linked, but they are not the same. Cognitive decline is a gradual decline in your mental abilities such as in keeping your memory, maintaining attention, reasoning ability, and language skills. We accept this decline as being a normal part of aging.

Dementia, on the other hand, is a syndrome characterized by a significant decline in cognitive function that interferes with daily life and activities. It is not a specific disease but rather a group of symptoms caused by various conditions or diseases affecting the brain, such as Alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia.

The reason they are closely linked is that cognitive decline can be one of the early warning signs of dementia. For example, being forgetful and not having as good a memory as you once did when you were young, doesn’t mean you necessarily have dementia. Continue reading →

Ask yourself right now, do you feel stressed about something? Did you know that if you allow it, your stress can have detrimental effects on your cognitive health? That’s because chronic stress is a killer in so many areas of our health.

While stress is a natural response to many challenging situations, prolonged exposure to stressful situations can lead to chronic stress. Unfortunately, it can feel as though there is never a time in our day when we don’t feel some sort of stress.

It’s like we’re trapped in a constant state of heightened alertness, which is not good for any of us at all! This impact of chronic stress is not good, and its effects on our cognitive health are not good at all either.

When our brain is continuously bombarded by our stress hormones, it can become overwhelmed, leading to disruptions in cognitive functions, and even affect the physical structure of our brain. Continue reading →