Dementia Prevention Update: The Lifestyle Habits That Are Changing the Forecast

For nearly twenty years, a fraudulent study shaped how billions of dollars were spent on Alzheimer’s research. Now that the science has had to course-correct after that disaster, Alzheimer’s prevention has become more honest and hopeful than it has been in decades. Here’s what you need to know. 

🚫Faux Data

Alzheimer’s is a significant medical crisis today. According to a 2025 study, there is a 42% lifetime risk of dementia after age 55, which is over double previous risk estimates for this age group. The Alzheimer’s epidemic continues to grow across the world.

Because of alarming trends in dementia statistics, significant funding and research has been earmarked over the last few decades to try to better understand and combat this terrible disease. 

There was great excitement In 2006, when a researcher at the University of Minnesota published a landmark study in Nature that became one of the most-cited papers in Alzheimer’s research. It pointed to a specific protein called Aβ*56, a type of tau protein that was claimed to be responsible for amyloid plaque buildup in the brain, which could lead to memory loss. It became one of the most cited papers in the field on the disease. While at the time this was heralded as a major breakthrough in understanding Alzheimer’s, it was later discovered the data was fabricated.

🔬Research on the Research

It was investigative journalist Charles Piller who revealed in 2022 that researcher Sylvain Lesné had manipulated and fabricated the images in his studies, including what were known as the “Western blog” diagrams that showed protein activity. Forensic analysis found statistical impossibilities in Lesné’s work, including evidence that there had been direct tampering. By the time Lesné resigned from the University of Minnesota in early 2025, there were at least 132 papers that had been published which became flagged for data problems, based on their references to Lesné’s work. While it might not be a scandal that crossed your radar, in the world of scientific research, it would be difficult to overstate the magnitude of this particular revelation. Because so much of Lesné’s “research” had been the foundation for many other studies that followed, it threw entire bodies of work into doubt.

The amyloid hypothesis had received billions in funding and had dominated research for two decades. Significant focus was placed on tau proteins, but research on other possible Alzheimer’s factors, from inflammation to genetics to lifestyle factors, were understudied. 

🧠Turning the Tide

Once the faux data was exposed, focus turned to other areas. And the findings are encouraging. The 2024 Lancet Commission on Dementia released a global report that identified fourteen modifiable risk factors. When those risk factors are addressed, it could prevent up to 45% of dementia cases worldwide. That means that you have far more influence over your risk for Alzheimer’s dementia when you make specific changes in your lifestyle, diet, and community experiences.

🧒🏽Early life:

Completing secondary education lowers your dementia risk, which leads researchers to believe that having a lifelong value of learning and mental engagement is an important preventative.

👷Midlife:

Addressing hearing loss, keeping your LDL cholesterol at good levels, addressing depression with therapy and other help, remaining physically active, avoiding type 2 diabetes through diet, exercise, and low sugar consumption, maintaining healthy blood pressure levels, avoiding smoking and alcohol consumption, protecting the head from traumatic brain injury, these are all proactive ways to protect against Alzheimer’s.

🧓Later life:

Staying socially active, avoiding air pollution, and treating vision loss are the final components of the fourteen areas identified for Alzheimer’s prevention.

Two large clinical studies are adding significant weight to these findings. The FINGER study showed that participants who received structured nutritional guidance, exercise programs, and brain training improved their executive function by 83%, their processing speed by 150%, and their complex memory performance by 40%, compared to those who did not participate. A second trial, the SMARRT study, found that older adults at high dementia risk who received individualized care targeting modifiable risk factors showed a 74% greater increase in cognitive function compared to a control group.

Researchers are careful to say these interventions represent risk reduction, not a guarantee. But the direction is clear: the everyday choices we make over decades have a measurable impact on brain health.

What This Means Practically

If you read through that list of fourteen factors, a few things probably stood out. Things like untreated hearing loss or changes in vision loss or social isolation aren’t rare or exotic conditions. They are things that quietly pile up for a lot of people, often without much urgency.

The solution? Getting the hearing exam. Scheduling that eye appointment. Reach out to that friend you’ve been meaning to call. While these may feel like small things in the fight of such a giant as Alzheimer’s, according to the best current science, they’re among the top things you can do to protect your long-term brain health.

This resonates with something faith communities have always understood. We are called to steward the minds and bodies we’ve been given. That stewardship is not a one-time event. It’s a series of small, consistent choices made over a lifetime.

The Altrua HealthShare Connection

Altrua HealthShare Members aren’t just sharing in one another’s eligible medical needs when something goes wrong. Members agree to living a healthy lifestyle, caring for the bodies God gives us. Altrua HealthShare is a community that takes wellbeing seriously, and preventative care is part of that equation. If you’re currently a Member of Altrua HealthShare, you have access to preventive office visits, telehealth, discounted lab services, and more. If you’re not yet a Member of Altrua HealthShare, and you’d like to learn more about an innovative, affordable, flexible approach to healthcare that can save you up to 50% of traditional health insurance, check out the Altrua HealthShare site to learn more. 

If you’ve been putting off addressing hearing concerns, getting your blood pressure checked, or scheduling an eye exam, now is a good time to revisit what your membership makes possible. Our article on making the most of your MRA and preventive care walks you through how to factor your Member Responsibility Amount wisely. 

The bottom line: The science of dementia prevention is being rewritten in real time, and the rewrite is hopeful. The factors that protect your brain are largely within your control, an encouraging reminder that the investment you make in your wellness can go a long way into your future.