It's like the end of the world to me

I'm so sorry to hear that

Are you feeling better ?

Yeah I'm getting better but I'm just so forgetful now

Why?

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Do you easily forget things ?

like walked into the kitchen

but forgot what you were looking for

This could be neurocognitive disorder or dementia

and even at such a young age it's still very possible

But don't be afraid we'll be speaking to Dr. Wu today

who's here to help us

Let's welcome Dr. Wu

Hello everyone I'm Dr. Ana Wu

It's such a pleasure to be here

Dr. Wu I've heard that some people are just more forgetful

but is it possible to be getting dementia or the

neurocognitive disorder at such a young age ?

It is possible even though the risk is lower

but it is definitely a possibility

Wow you heard that

I think we need to find out more

What are you looking for ?

I'm looking for my phone Ana did you see it ?

Let's see oh wait I think it's over here

Thank you

I've been looking for it all day

What's going on ?

Well tell your a secret actually I broke up with my boyfriend last month

and since then I've been so absent-minded

I can't focus I can't work I can't function

It's like the end of the world to me

I'm so sorry to hear that

Are you feeling better ?

Yeah I'm getting better but I'm just so forgetful now

Why ?

Well sometimes when you're very stressed

or you're going through a lot you can

You can interfere with how your brain functions

But that's usually temporary and it goes away with time

What a relief to hear that !

You know I was so worried I even asked Dr. Amy

to please go to the hospital with me later for a checkup

You don't have to worry too much

Being forgetful and having dementia or neurocognitive disorder is quite different

Hi Dr. Wu we do see a number of cases

where young people are getting dementia

Can you briefly explain what is dementia

or the neurocognitive disorder ?

Sure so dementia is a collection of symptoms

that can be caused by a variety of different diseases

and so it interferes with how people think

how people remember how people see the world and

how people communicate

So it's not just being about being forgetful

It's a lot more than that

Wow so how can we tell if a person has this ?

That's a very good question

So basically we diagnose a person with dementia

when we see that there's a

significant cognitive decline in the same person

compared to how they were functioning before

And this impairment has to be in at least

one of six cognitive domains

and these domains are very different

So the first one is language and memory

which is the most relatable one

Everyone has bouts of forgetting things

so their memory changes can be very subtle in the beginning

For example they might forget phone numbers

or they might forget events that happened during the day

or just things they had for breakfast

So really a prominent in recent memory

But they will remember for example

who was their elementary school sweetheart

and they will remember um where they went to school

like long-term memory is preserved

So that's the first cognitive domain that's affected

But also language can become impaired

So some people have trouble understanding people

and some other people have some patients

have trouble communicating

what they're thinking to the outside world

So it's like a bidirectional thing

in terms of language

Wow this is quite complicated

So what are the worsening signs ?

Right so we mentioned two changes in cognitive domains

and the third one is called executive functioning

So that's like a set of mental skills

that allows us to plan our day and stay organized

So for example patients might start having trouble

planning what to do throughout the day

or they might have trouble planning a trip

or just even maintaining like a paycheck book

That's one of them

And then the fourth one is complex attention

So complex attention means that patients

are having trouble concentrating

They become easily distracted and

they might not be able to multitask

And the fifth dimension that's affected

it's called perceptual-motor

So what that means is that for example

you see a hairbrush

and you don't know what is it for

You know that it's something that looks familiar

but you don't know to pick it up and brush your hair

So basically means you don't know what you see

That's what a perceptual-motor means

And the sixth domain that's affected

it's called social cognition

So as grown-ups we know what's socially acceptable

and what's not

But this filter kind of becomes a little permeable

when you have dementia or

neurocognitive disorder

So the patients become very honest brutally honest

or they start doing things that are not so socially acceptable

And out of the six domains you just need one of them

at least one impairment in one area

and that's how dementia or

neurocognitive disorder is diagnosed

So which age group is the most vulnerable ?

Because we call this the alzheimer's disease

but we do see cases of young people

That's a very good question

So usually we associate neurocognitive disorder

with patients who are a little bit older

So usually it's above the age of 65 years old

But so there's cutoff and that's somewhat

arbitrary at the age of 45

So if you're diagnosed with dementia

or neurocognitive disorder before the age of 45

then we call that early onset dementia

Like 30 something years old

That's so young I mean we are just starting

a new chapter in our life

People are just getting married or having kids

Are there any preventions or how about treatments ?

That's a really good question too

So there are many treatment options available

in terms of drugs and pharmacotherapy

But what these drugs do is they slow the progression

of the disease without really curing it

or terminating it

So in my opinion the best way to approach

or tackle this problem is to prevent it

And in terms of prevention there are

a number of things that you can do

And they all have to do with like a healthy lifestyle

For example first you can eat a healthy diet

Every doctor says that right

Healthy diet

But that's very important because if you're

eating a lot of sugary foods or fried foods

or just foods that promote inflammation in the body

What it does is that your body goes into a

pro-inflammatory state

And that causes a lot of problems

because it gives you chronic medical conditions

like hypertension like blood sugar problems

diabetes or heart problems

And all of that can contribute to the development

of dementia or neurocognitive disorder

So eating healthy lots of green vegetables and

just leafy greens that's very important

The second thing that's very important is exercise

Yeah because exercise on the one hand

can help you de-stress

and stress is bad for you because again

it contributes to adding inflammation

and oxidative stress in our body

So you want to de-stress any way possible

exercise is a really good option

And the second part is that exercise also keeps

your blood vessels your circulatory system

very healthy

That's very important because if you have

like a good circulatory system

you can get rid of the toxins

that build up in your brain and that cause dementia

And the third thing that you can do is

you can get a good night's rest

That's super important as well

So what happens is that every day

we're building up lots of protein in our brain

and we call that amyloid plaques

And when that builds up a lot

you get dementia or neurocognitive disorder

So everybody builds up this protein

but the brain is very smart

and we have the system called the

glymphatic system

and it clears up this protein buildup

and it only does it during sleep

So if you're not getting enough hours of sleep

or you're not sleeping well

hen you're more prone to developing dementia

And the fourth one which I think is vital

and imperative is being open-minded

and willing to put yourself to learn more things

and being very flexible

So then the brain considers that

something very intellectually stimulating

But if you're very stubborn

and you're always doing the same things

you never learn things

Then the brain finds a very boring

and then it's easier for you to develop

symptoms of dementia or neurocognitive disorder

Wow sounds like a healthy eating

regular exercise is really necessary

Yeah you know I actually keep my brain really active

I read a lot of facebook

Oh well that's one way to go over here

How about you try this book and you

use a little bit less of a facebook

This can be very intellectually stimulating

for your brain

Thank you Ana let me start with this today

You're very welcome

dementia

dementia

neurocognitive disorder

neurocognitive disorder

executive functioning

executive functioning

memory

memory

emotions

emotions

social cognition

social cognition

stress

stress

To have a memory of a goldfish

This is an expression that refers to

people who are often forgetful

Well it's a great pleasure having Dr. Wu today

and thanks to her

Do you have one of these domains ?

Does that apply to you ?

Hopefully not

And if you have forgotten watch again

See you next time bye-bye