What is cognitive and mental health?

The ability to learn, remember, and think is what defines cognition. It allows a person to receive and process the information that he or she is receiving from the environment. It has been observed that people who suffer from mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression present alterations of this capacity. However, cognition can also be affected by age, injuries such as strokes, and disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Let’s review some of these diseases.

Disease that affects cognitive and mental health

• Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness characterized by changes in behavior. It affects how people perceive reality. People with this condition have delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking, and behavior. People with schizophrenia often also experience persistent difficulties with their cognitive or thinking skills, such as memory, attention, and problem-solving. It affects approximately 24 million people and the causes are not well known.
• Bipolar disorder was formerly known as manic-depressive illness and is a mental condition that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, concentration, cognition, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. This disease is characterized by periods of high energy level and possible irritability (known as manic episodes) alternating with periods in which the patient is depressed. Experts have identified three types of bipolar disorders but all have in common that they involve mood changes:
  • Bipolar I disorder is characterized by manic episodes that last seven days or that need hospital admission followed by a depressive episode.
  • Bipolar II disorder, in which the patient has depressive episodes but not full-blown manic episodes.
  • Cyclothymic disorder is characterized by depressive symptoms that can last for 2 years.
• Depression is a common disease that affects 280 million people in the world. This disease produces cognitive difficulties that could affect patient’s lives. Sometimes, depression can lead to suicide, in fact over 700,000 people die due to suicide every year. 
• Dementia is a disease that affects cognitive function (thinking, remembering, and reasoning) interfering with the patient’s life. This disease can affect the mood and patients sometimes experience an inability to control their emotions. This condition usually affects older people, but it is not a normal part of aging. The symptoms of this condition could include:
  • Memory loss, poor judgment, and confusion
  • Difficulties in speech, understanding, reading, or writing 
  • Difficulties in remembering where one lives
  • Repeating questions
  • Difficulties in completing daily tasks
  • Hallucinations, delusions, or paranoia
  • Acting impulsively
  • Movement and balance problems

The five most common forms of dementia are:

• Alzheimer’s disease, which is caused by abnormal buildup of amyloid plaques in the brain. 
• Frontotemporal dementia, a type of dementia that affects patients younger than 60 years old. It is associated with abnormal amounts of proteins tau and TDP-43.
• Lewy body dementia is caused by abnormal accumulation of a protein alpha-synuclein, called Lewy bodies.
• Vascular dementia, which is caused by a damage in the brain due to an interruption of the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain because of a stroke. 
• Mixed dementia is a combination of two or more types of dementia.

What can you do to keep your brain healthy?

While some factors affecting brain health cannot be changed, there are many lifestyle changes that might make a difference.

• Take care of your physical health: avoid bad habits such as alcohol and smoking.
• Manage high blood pressure: it has been observed that high blood pressure not only affects your heart but your brain too. In fact some studies have shown a relationship between having high blood pressure in midlife and cognitive decline later in life. 
• Eat a healthy diet: some studies have linked the Mediterranean diet to a lower risk of suffering from dementia. 
• Be physically active: do regular exercise since it is known that helps you to improve your strength and balance, prevent cardiovascular diseases, and reduce depression.
• Keep your mind active: this benefits the brain and your mood. Learning new skills may improve your thinking ability, too. 
• Stay connected with social activities, which can keep your brain active and help you feel less isolated and more engaged with the world. 
• Manage stress: several studies have linked chronic stress to memory problems and an increasing risk for Alzheimer’s and related dementias.