MSI Press Blog

  Every few months, a headline circulates claiming that “anesthesia causes permanent memory loss in older adults.” The implication is that anyone over 70 should avoid surgery, avoid colonoscopies, avoid endoscopies, avoid anything that requires sedation. It’s an alarming message — and an oversimplified one. The truth is more nuanced, and far more useful. 1. Anesthesia itself is not the main culprit The grogginess, disorientation, or silly comments people make while waking up from anesthesia are not signs of brain injury. That phase is called emergence , and it clears within minutes to hours. It does not predict long‑term cognitive problems. The research points instead to a different phenomenon: postoperative delirium . 2. Delirium is the real risk factor Delirium is an acute, fluctuating disturbance in attention and awareness. It can appear hours or even days after surgery — long after the anesthetic drugs have worn off. It may be dramatic (agitation, hallucinations) or quiet (with...

In the earliest stage of Alzheimer’s, many people know something is changing. They feel it before anyone else does—a word that won’t come, a thought that slips away mid‑sentence, a familiar task that suddenly feels foreign. This awareness, called insight , is part of the brain’s self‑monitoring system. At first, it remains intact enough for a person to notice the difference and quietly compensate: making lists, avoiding complex tasks, or withdrawing from situations that expose the gaps. Families often see this as resilience, and it is. But it’s also the first sign that the mind is working harder to stay balanced. Over time, as the disease progresses, that insight begins to fade. The same changes that affect memory also affect self‑awareness. A person may no longer realize they’re repeating questions or misplacing items. They may insist everything is fine—not out of denial, but because the brain can no longer register its own decline. By the later stages, awareness of the illness itself...

The words dementia and Alzheimer’s are often used interchangeably, but they don’t mean the same thing. Understanding the distinction helps families make sense of what’s happening and what kind of support is needed. Dementia is an umbrella term—a description, not a diagnosis. It refers to a group of symptoms that signal a decline in memory, reasoning, language, and daily functioning severe enough to interfere with life. Dementia itself isn’t a disease; it’s the result of damage to brain cells caused by various conditions. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common of those conditions, but there are others: vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia, and mixed forms that combine more than one type of brain change. (Sources: Alzheimer’s Association, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic) Alzheimer’s disease , by contrast, is a specific illness—a progressive, degenerative brain disorder that causes dementia symptoms. It begins when abnormal proteins (amyloid plaques and tau tan...