For decades, researchers and the community alike have awaited a ‘silver-bullet’ style drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease, the major cause of dementia which accounts for over 50% of cases. Available medicines reduce symptom progression but do not alter progression of the disease. What the results of multiple trials and the cost of any treatments has highlighted is a more fundamental issue: even if we do find a therapeutic treatment, it won’t proactively prevent future genrations from developing the disease.

In the absence of available disease-modifying drugs, a shift toward delaying onset and possible prevention of Alzheimer’s disease has gained momentum, with modifiable risk factors accounting for up to a third of the population attributable risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

Read more: Brain Health and Prevention | World Brain Day (unsw.edu.au)