News

Alzheimer’s data highlights need for increased 
understanding of mild cognitive impairment

PHOTO

JINGQI ZHU 

Daily Staff Reporter

TESS CROWLEY/Daily

Jon Vaughn returns to camp outside of the President’s House Sunday night following the forced removal of his campsite by the University March 7. 

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Worker shortage, lack of awareness surrounding MCI 

The 
Alzheimer’s 
Association 

released its “2022 Alzheimer’s Disease 

Facts and Figures” report, highlighting 

challenges for the public and healthcare 

professionals 
to 
understand 
mild 

cognitive impairment (MCI), an early 

stage of memory loss or other cognitive 

ability loss. The report also includes 

statistics on Alzheimer’s prevalence, 

mortality, cost of care and dementia care 

workforce in Michigan and nationally.

Alzheimer’s prevalence 

According to the report, 190,000 

Michigan residents aged 65 and older 

had Alzheimer’s in 2020, and the 

estimated number in 2025 will be 

220,000. There were 4,467 statewide 

deaths from Alzheimer’s in 2019.

The report also includes data on the 

dementia-care workforce, suggesting 

a workforce shortage in most states. 

In Michigan, the number of practicing 

geriatricians needs to triple to meet the 

demand in 2050.

Jennifer Lepard, the president 

and CEO of the Michigan chapter of 

the Alzheimer’s Association, said the 

prevalence of Alzheimer’s in Michigan 

is due to the higher proportion of the 

aging population in the state compared 

to other states.

“We tend to use the phrase that the 

greatest risk for Alzheimer’s is aging,” 

Lepard said. “One of the challenges for 

Michigan right now is that Michigan is 

an aging state.”

This year’s report examines the 

public and primary care physicians’ 

(PCPs) 
understanding 
of 
MCI 

nationally. The report finds low public 

awareness of MCI, with fewer than one 

in five Americans familiar with MCI. 

The biggest challenge faced by PCPs is 

difficulty in differentiating MCI from 

normal aging.

Dr. Bruno Giordani, professor of 

psychology in psychiatry, neurology, 

and psychology and associate director 

for Michigan’s Alzheimer’s Disease 

Center, explained that MCI is a middle 

stage of dementia where symptoms 

are not severe enough to have adverse 

effects on daily life. 

“You don’t just turn on the switch 

for Alzheimer’s disease,” Giordani said. 

“What happens is this middle stage 

where somebody begins to develop 

signs and symptoms of problems 

without a marked significant effect on 

daily life and then eventually becomes 

very apparent that somebody has 

problems associated with daily life and 

then that becomes a whole another 

question. So mild cognitive impairment 

is this in between time.”

Giordani also said diagnosing MCI 

is critical because it alerts people of 

the risk of it developing to a more 

severe stage of dementia. According to 

Giordani, not all individuals with MCI 

will develop Alzheimer’s disease, but 

the diagnosis of MCI and biomarkers 

in the brain can suggest a higher risk 

of developing dementia. Biomarkers 

such as beta-amyloid and tau levels in 

cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are strongly 

linked to Alzheimer’s and can be 

detected by PET scan. 

“MCI is important because if 

somebody is just beginning to have 

memory problems, and if you could 

tell if they had amyloid in the brain, 

you could tell there was really a risk,” 

Giordani said. “It’s an alerting stage. It’s 

important to diagnose it so that people 

are aware of it. So they can begin to do 

things.”

Giordani also said research has been 

done to try to find predictors of MCI 

and dementia so people know how to 

reduce the risks. The earlier people can 

catch the predictors, the earlier they can 

intervene. 

“(There are) studies looking at a 

lot of predictive factors and trying to 

intervene early,” Giordani said. “They 

are trying to say, as you get into middle 

age or older age, you should be doing 

cognitive training to keep your brain 

alert. You should check your heart 

disease problems. You should check 

your diabetes … you (should) know to 

eat a better diet and look at the stress … 

But all that research also tells you about 

risk groups that may be there.”

Caregiver burden

According to the report, there are 

466,000 Michigan residents serving 

as unpaid family caregivers and the 

total value of unpaid care is $8.6 

billion. Lepard said caregiver burden 

can cause a significant amount of 

stress emotionally, physically and even 

financially.

“One of the facts that gets glossed 

over a lot is the stress on the caregivers,” 

Lepard said. “This is a 24/7 (job), 

especially in later stages of the disease, 

and the amount of stress that it can cause 

especially when you’re talking about an 

older person living with disease and 

potentially their older spouse … There 

are people that have reduced their hours 

or left the workforce due to (caregiving) 

and that certainly is a financial strain.” 

Giordani also said caregiver burden 

exists for patients with MCI as much 

as for patients with Alzheimer’s and the 

burden often causes caregivers to forget 

about taking care of themselves.

“And then you have the problem of 

creating this large group of people who 

are constantly under stress,” Giordani 

said. “One of the things that contributes 

to the risk of Alzheimer’s disease is 

stress. So you’ve got older unpaid 

people who are in stress, who might 

be depressed themselves trying to deal 

with all this you’re creating another 

whole group of people with potential 

problems. And many caregivers of 

mild cognitive impairment tend to stop 

caring for themselves … This is kind of a 

vicious circle.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

 Whitmer asks MI Supreme Court 
to strike down state’s abortion ban

KATE WEILAND

Daily News Editor

Executive action targets controversial law unilaterally restricting termination as 

Roe v. Wade comes under fire

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer filed 

a 
lawsuit 
Thursday 
challenging 

Michigan’s 1931 ban on abortion. This 

announcement comes in the wake of 

rumors that the U.S. Supreme Court 

may overturn or weaken the 1973 

landmark abortion ruling Roe v. Wade, 

which protects a woman’s liberty to 

choose to have an abortion without 

excessive government intervention.

Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban 

criminalizes the act of providing an 

abortion — including for instances 

of rape or incest — but was rendered 

unconstitutional 
by 
the 
Roe 
v. 

Wade decision. If the Roe v. Wade 

ruling is overturned, the ban will be 

enforceable again. 

According to Whitmer’s lawsuit, 

the ban violates the Due Process 

Clause of the Michigan Constitution, 

which provides a right to privacy 

and bodily autonomy and violates 

Michigan’s Equal Protection Clause. 

Whitmer 
filed 
in 
the 
Oakland 

County Circuit Court and is using her 

executive authority to seek immediate 

intervention by the Michigan Supreme 

Court. Whitmer is the first governor to 

file a lawsuit to protect abortion rights 

since the Supreme Court signaled the 

possibility of overturning Roe v. Wade 

with the appointment of justices Brett 

Cavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

“If Roe is overturned, abortion 

could become illegal in Michigan in 

nearly any circumstance—including in 

cases of rape and incest— and deprive 

Michigan women of the ability to 

make critical health care decisions for 

themselves,” the press release read. 

“This is no longer theoretical: it is 

reality. That’s why I am filing a lawsuit 

and using my executive authority to 

urge the Michigan Supreme Court 

to 
immediately 
resolve 
whether 

Michigan’s state constitution protects 

the right to abortion.”

In an interview with The Michigan 

Daily, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin 

Gilchrist said abortion rights are 

fundamental rights that all people in 

Michigan should have. 

“The right for women in Michigan 

to make their own choices about their 

healthcare––to have a right to privacy, 

to be empowered, to choose what’s 

right for them, with their family, with 

their healthcare professionals, and 

not with politicians meddling––we 

believe it is a fundamental right here 

in the state of Michigan,” Gilchrist 

said. “The governor is using powers 

that are unique to her, that the voters 

of Michigan bestowed upon her as 

governor of Michigan, to take this 

question all the way to the Michigan 

Supreme Court –– the court that 

settles and interprets state law –– to 

affirm that … the right to an abortion 

exists in the state of Michigan and is 

protected by our state constitution.”

Gilchrist said the right for a 

person to get an abortion is essential 

to economic freedom. According 

to a study from the Washington 

Educational Journal, families with 

infants can be expected to pay $11,000 

a year for childcare and only one in 

six children are eligible for subsidies 

under the federal program.

“We think this is a matter of 

fairness and privacy of choice, and we 

think it’s also a matter of economic 

justice and security,” Gilchrist said. 

“Oftentimes, for many women, the 

choice to have children or not to have 

children is one of the single biggest 

economic decisions they will make 

and it will have a huge and lasting 

economic impact on them for a 

lifetime. To have that choice is to have 

… control over your future and to take 

that choice away is to hamper your 

economic freedom, so we think that 

this is an issue of economic justice as 

much as an issue of access to abortion, 

choice and privacy.”

In the press release, Whitmer said 

banning abortion could also keep 

families in poverty.

“If a woman is forced to continue 

a pregnancy against her will, it can 

have 
devastating 
consequences, 

including keeping families in poverty 

and making it harder for women and 

families to make ends meet,” the press 

release read. 

The lawsuit asks the court to 

recognize the right to abortion as a 

constitutional right under the Due 

Process Clause of the Michigan 

Constitution and asks the court to 

stop the enforcement of the 1931 ban. 

Gilchrist said the goal of the 

lawsuit is to establish the right to 

abortion for Michigan residents so 

that the outcome of Roe v. Wade will 

not impact their rights.

“We hope to affirm and assert that 

women have the right to choice, the 

right to privacy and the right to access 

and have an abortion here in our state, 

and establish this protection at the 

state level so that women in Michigan 

… will have this right regardless of 

what happens with Roe versus Wade,” 

Gilchrist said.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

GOVERNMENT

RESEARCH

 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
2 — Wednesday, April 13, 2022

