Scroll Below to find resources on the following common disorders:

Migraine

Seizures and Epilepsy

Memory disorders 

Migraine is common

1 out of every 5 women suffer from migraine

1 out of every 10 individuals suffer from migraine

Common lifestyle modifications to reduce the frequency and severity of migraine headaches

• Manage your stress

• Avoid sleep loss. If you snore or know you have been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, discuss this with your doctor.

• Avoid dehydration

• Avoid consuming excessive amounts of caffeine

• Regional pain: discuss jaw, sinus or chronic neck pain with your doctor

Click the “Learn More” button above to be redirected to the American Migraine Foundation where you can learn about the following:

• What is migraine?

• Register to participate in a research

• Resources for chronically disabling migraines

• Guides to identify dietary triggers, manage work and disability and more

• Learn how stress impacts migraine headache and how to manage it

Prepare for your visit with Your neurologist to discuss headaches

Download a headache diary - monitor the duration, frequency, pain type and severity, as well as any associated symptoms.

Track how often you take medication to treat a headache

Download a migraine disability assessment (MIDAS) form and bring a completed copy to your visit.

After your visit with a headache specialist

• Understand the plan you and your doctor have created together. Stick to it! Consistency counts.

• If you have been prescribed medication, call your doctor if you feel you want to change the plan.

• How much pain medication (including over-the-counter medications) is too much?

If you have been diagnosed with A seizure disorder, Here are some common ways to reduce your risk of Another Seizure:

• Always take your prescribed anti-seizure medication on time.

• As much as possible, get a full night of sleep

• Avoid dehydration

• Avoid excessive alcohol use

Other helpful resources

What is dementia? 

Dementia is a general term used to describe a number of disorders causing a decline in thinking and memory that is significant enough to interfere with everyday activities. There are a number of types of dementia and an individual can suffer from more than one type and cause of dementia.

The accepted definition of dementia (of any cause) is:

A decline in previous thinking and memory skill performance.

Thinking and memory skill decline to the degree that daily function at home and/or work is impaired.

The decline is not explained by another medical or psychiatric cause, such as delirium, abnormal medication effects, or mental illness.

Thinking and/or memory difficulty in any two of the following areas of brain process:

Ability to learn new information

Judgement or ability to handle complex tasks

Visuospatial skills

Language skills, such as frequent word finding difficulty or other speaking problems, losing previous ability to spell or acquiring reading difficulty not attributed to normal vision changes.

Behavioral changes or personality changes not explained by major depressive disorder or anxiety, or other significant psychiatric illness.

How does dementia differ from mild cognitive impairment (MCI)?

Mild cognitive impairment differs from dementia when the measurable increase in thinking and memory difficulty does not cause significant difficulty in every day life. There is a considerable range difference in the type of difficulty those with MCI experience. Individuals with mild cognitive impairment may experience no worsening in their thinking for many years, while others might progress to more significant difficulty that eventually does impact their daily function. MCI does pose a risk of developing dementia, and previous studies have indicated a risk developing dementia of about 15% per year. That is, out of 100 people who have been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, about 15 of those people will receive a diagnosis of dementia when evaluated about one year later.

How DO dementia and mild cognitive impairment differ from the “normal aging” brain?

All brains age along with the rest of our bodies. Believe it or not, full brain development occurs around the age of 25 when the part of the brain that allows for processes such as judgement and logic (prefrontal cortex) reaches it’s full potential. However, the surface part of our brains (grey matter) begins to lose volume around the age of 20. After that time, the process of gradual reduction in the number of brain cells continues on, and the overall volume or size of our brains is slowly reduced. This affects everyone to a differing degree, meaning that some individuals will experience more difficulty than others, particularly if there are initial differences in intelligence, education level or the skills as discussed below were always a bit more difficult for that individual.

The process of “normal” brain aging causes reduction in the speed at which our brains can process information and causes a reduction in concept or perceptual processing as well as the formation of memories used for immediate tasks such as as seeing or hearing a phone number and then dialing it to make a phone call. There are a number of thinking and memory skills that become measurably affected during the aging process. It is important to note that these changes are small in those with a “normal” aging process, and this does not lead to impairment in function in our daily lives.

Younger adults outperform older adults in tests analyzing a variety of cognitive tasks including:

Memory changes:

Delayed (free) recall - being able to recall information recently learned (such as going to the store and picking up list of intended items from memory without the use of a list, or recalling the details of a conversation just had with a friend)

Source memory - being able to recall how you learned a piece of information (such as from a textbook, article or learning something from a TV news program)

Prospective memory - being able to remember to perform a task in the future (such as recalling that you need to go to store before going home after work)

Memory that does not measurably decline during the “normal aging process:

Recognition memory - The ability to recognize previously encountered people, objects and events. (an example: you are able to tell a friend that you heard that story already when they start revisiting the story)

Temporal order memory - The ability to recall the correct order in which an event took place (example: after having lunch with a friend, you decided to go to a movie together)

Procedural memory - The ability to recall how to perform a task

Language changes: ***

— button: memory article —

References:

Harada, Caroline N., Marissa C. Natelson Love, and Kristen L. Triebel. "Normal cognitive aging." Clinics in geriatric medicine29.4 (2013): 737-752.

McKhann, Guy M., et al. "The diagnosis of dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease: Recommendations from the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer’s Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer's disease." Alzheimer's & dementia 7.3 (2011): 263-269.