Lifestyle changes can reduce dementia risk by maintaining brain plasticity — but the time to act is now

Given that dementia is still one of the most feared diseases, why aren’t we pushing our doctors and governments to support these lifestyle changes through new programs and policy initiatives? The truth, however, is more complex. We know that making lifestyle changes is hard. It can be doubly difficult when the changes we need to make now won’t show results for years, or even decades, and we don’t really understand why they work.