A no-brainer for protecting your brain

Leaders | Sharp as a tack

A no-brainer for protecting your brain

One simple vaccination may dramatically reduce the risk of dementia

A hand places the final puzzle piece into a brain held in cupped hands, symbolizing restoring, completing, or improving mental health and cognitive wellbeing.

Illustration: Sebastian Konig

Jul 9th 2026|4 min read

FEW CONDITIONS are as feared as dementia, of which Alzheimer’s is the most common cause. This is mostly because of its insidious nature, since it strips people of their sense of self and leaves those who love them caring for a stranger. “Alzheimer’s is me unwinding, losing trust in myself, a butt of my own jokes and, on bad days, capable of playing hunt the slipper by myself, and losing,” wrote the late Sir Terry Pratchett, a novelist who had a rare form of it. “I felt totally alone, with the world receding from me in every direction.”

It is also dreaded because many believe it is becoming far more common and so will inevitably strike them or those closest to them. Some epidemiologists in the field seem only to fan those fears. Models predict that the number of people suffering from dementia may triple to 153m by 2050 as societies age. In truth, the outlook is cheerier than that, especially in rich countries where, if adjusted for age, the risk of getting dementia has dropped sharply in recent decades. Most models assume these declines will not continue, or will even reverse. A mountain of new evidence shows that need not be.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “A no-brainer for your brain”