Lifestyle Factors Are Important Contributors to Subjective Memory Complaints among Patients without Objective Memory Impairment or Positive Neurochemical Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Background/Aims: Many patients presenting to a memory disorders clinic for subjective memory complaints do not show objective evidence of decline on neuropsychological data, have nonpathological biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease, and do not develop a neurodegenerative disorder. Lifestyle variables, including subjective sleep problems and stress, are factors known to affect cognition. Little is known about how these factors contribute to patients’ subjective sense of memory decline. Understanding how lifestyle factors are associated with the subjective sense of failing memory that causes patients to seek a formal evaluation is important both for diagnostic workup purposes and for finding appropriate interventions and treatment for these persons, who are not likely in the early stages of a neurodegenerative disease. The current study investigated specific lifestyle variables, such as sleep and stress, to characterize those patients that are unlikely to deteriorate cognitively. Methods: Two hundred nine patients (mean age 58 years) from a university hospital memory disorders clinic were included. Results: Sleep problems and having much to do distinguished those with subjective, but not objective, memory complaints and non-pathological biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. Conclusions: Lifestyle factors including sleep and stress are useful in characterizing subjective memory complaints from objective problems. Inclusion of these variables could potentially improve health care utilization efficiency and guide interventions.

Are neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia linked to CSF biomarkers of synaptic and axonal degeneration?

“…In cohort 2, 60 patients from a total of 13,300 were included from the GEDOC research database and biobank. GEDOC contains data from patients, who had previously been examined and provided informed consent for future research [ 58 ]. This included 30 patients diagnosed with subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) and normal CSF AD biomarker profile, defined as Aβ1–42 > 500 ng/ml, T-tau < 400 ng/ml, P-tau < 80 ng/ml.…”

Feasibility of a Functional Medicine Approach to Slowing Clinical Cognitive Decline in Patients over Age 55: A Multiple Case Study Report

“…Pharmaceutical interventions such as memantine or cholinesterase inhibitors have been the first-line treatment of many medical practitioners, regardless of the lack of evidence for effectiveness [1][2][3][4]. Yet recent studies abound with recognition of lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise, for amelioration of cognitive decline [5][6][7].…”

Lifestyle Variables Do Not Predict Subjective Memory Performance Over and Above Depression and Anxiety

“…Quality of sleep and stress level have also been analyzed in individuals with SCC. Poor sleep quality and preoccupation with business were related to SCC, however, not to objective memory performance in a study by Miley-Akerstedt et al (2018). This was also shown by Kang et al (2017), where poor quality of sleep was related to SCC in healthy older individuals.…”

“…However, as that study comprised memory-clinic outpatients of old age (76 years of age on average), comparability to the present study must be questioned. Generally, demographic variables have been found to be predictive of SCC in some studies (Iliffe and Pealing, 2010;Paradise et al, 2011;Miley-Akerstedt et al, 2018), but not without controversy (Mewton et al, 2014). We speculate that demographic effects could be related differentially to SCC in different subdomains (such as memory or selective attention).…”