The ultimate boogeyman in the closet

Perhaps it starts with you screaming about finding your reading glasses only to be sniggeringly told by your resident sniggerer that they are perched on top of your head.

Maybe the next step is forgetting to take the trash out on Fridays, which has been trash day for the past 20 years in your neighborhood. Then, one day, you take your beloved dog to the vet and, when filling out the form, can't remember his name.

Sweet suffering Jehosaphat! Has it arrived? The Big A?

My unscientific poll of fellow combatants in the aging war shows that most of us are not afraid to die, but we are definitely not cool with living on into the wee hours of our lives without our full faculties.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is definitely not part of our game plan. Yet there is plenty of reason to be concerned. Currently, there are 4.5 million people in America with Alzh-eimer's. If that stat isn't scary enough, consider this: Estimations are that by the year 2050, thanks to the tidal wave of aging baby boomers, that number will triple. Alzheimer's disease begins quietly enough, with mild memory lapses. It ends in everyone's nightmare: An empty brain, the result of severe brain damage. Typically, AD will begin after 60 and the number of people affected will double every five years. According to the National Institute on Aging, nearly half of those over the age of 85 will be impacted.

Pretty grim, I grant you. Yet I do have something encouraging to report.

Alzheimer's is not a normal part of aging, according to Robert Harbaugh, M.D, a specialist in AD.

Speed of processing and retrieval will diminish somewhat in the normal process of aging, but people are quick to assume that their aging brains are doomed.

According to Harbaugh, an increasing number of people are showing up in his office concerned about what is called "Mild Cognitive Impairment" (MCI). Typically, they are experiencing an increasing number of what will be commonly called "senior moments," those disconcerting incidents where you forget someone's name or where you put the keys.

MCI is a condition where only one domain of cognitive functioning deteriorates over time. There will be no other impaired areas of a person's everyday life. The most common form of MCI is where memory is compromised.

Often, MCI is caused by other conditions, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, side effects from medications, strokes and depression, even vitamin B12 deficiencies. Successfully treat these conditions and MCI disappears.

Many of us are concerned about those "senior moments," usually because we fear it is the beginning of the end. Harbaugh deems MCI is a risk factor for AD but points out that not everyone with MCI will automatically develop Alzheimer's.

"Alzheimer's is an acquired disorder that impairs at least three cognitive and/or behavioral domains," says Harbaugh. "Memory is the most common one, but others would include language, visual-spatial abilities, executive functioning and behavioral abnormalities."

I suppose it is good to know that there is not a terribly slippery slope from "senior moments" to full blown Alzheimer's. The question remains: Is there anything we can do keep ourselves on level ground, cognitively speaking?

Next week, I will explore this very question. Don't forget!

Dr. Michael O.L. Seabaugh is a Cape Girardeau native who is a licensed clinical psychologist in Santa Barbara and Santa Monica, Calif. Contact him at mseabaugh@semissourian.com.