New Research on Dementia Prevention

Lauren Sprague has carried a fear since she was 16 years old. Her father had a stroke when she was in high school. What followed was a long, slow descent into memory loss and dementia. He died at 63. For decades, Sprague walked through her life dreading the same fate — wondering whether the same thing was coming for her.

Then she met Dr. Jonathan Rosand, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston — and what he told her changed everything. Not because he had a miracle cure. But because he had the data to show that the future she feared wasn’t inevitable. According to CBS News Sunday Morning, Rosand told her: “There’s so much we can do.”

The Finding That Changes Everything

A landmark commission of experts from around the world, published in The Lancet, has concluded that between 40 and 45 percent of all dementia cases could be prevented or significantly delayed by addressing 14 specific, modifiable risk factors. Not genetic factors. Not things you were born with. Things you can actually do something about.

This is the scientific consensus, not a fringe theory. And as Dr. Rosand put it to CBS News: “It is a very common conception that if dementia or Alzheimer’s is in one’s family, you are doomed. But the truth is there’s so much we can do.” The modifiable risk factors identified by the commission span health, lifestyle, and environment — and many of them are things seniors are already paying attention to in other areas of their health.

A Free Tool That Turns the Science into Action

Knowing that lifestyle factors matter is one thing. Knowing exactly which ones to focus on in your own life is another. That is the problem Dr. Rosand set out to solve with his team at Massachusetts General Hospital. The result is a free online questionnaire called the Brain Care Score — available to anyone at no cost through the Global Brain Care Coalition.

The Brain Care Score works by asking you a series of questions about your current health habits, lifestyle, and known health conditions. Based on your answers it generates a personalized score. The higher the score, the healthier your current habits are for your brain. But more importantly, it identifies exactly which modifiable risk factors you should prioritize — giving you a concrete, personalized roadmap instead of vague generic advice.

As Dr. Rosand described it to CBS News: “It’s a guide to where you can go next. And in our work with patients, it really does give a choice, and a sense of freedom.” That word — freedom — is significant. For people who have watched a parent or sibling lose their memory, the Brain Care Score offers something that medicine has rarely been able to offer before: genuine agency over a future they once felt powerless to change.

The Score Protects More Than Your Brain

Perhaps the most surprising finding to come out of the Brain Care Score research is how far its benefits reach beyond the brain. A groundbreaking study published in June 2025 in the journal Family Practice found that a five-point higher Brain Care Score was associated with a 43% lower risk of developing heart disease — and a 31% lower incidence of the most common cancers, including lung, colorectal, and breast cancer.

What’s good for the brain, the researchers concluded, is good for the entire body. The same habits that keep your memory sharp — staying active, managing blood pressure, addressing hearing loss, staying socially connected — are the habits that lower your risk of heart disease, stroke, depression, and cancer. You are not making trade-offs between different aspects of your health. You are working on all of them at once.

What This Means If You Have a Family History

For the millions of seniors who have watched a parent, sibling, or spouse lose their memory to dementia, the instinct is often to feel that the same fate is predetermined. This research says otherwise — emphatically. Family history raises your risk, but it does not seal it. The 14 modifiable risk factors operate largely independently of genetics, meaning that the lifestyle changes you make today can meaningfully shift the trajectory even for people with the strongest family histories.

Notice too that several of the 14 factors on the list are things that many seniors are already addressing in other contexts — or could address easily with the right tools. Hearing loss is on the list — which is why treating it early with quality hearing aids matters for more than just communication. Social isolation is on the list — which is why staying mobile and connected to family and community is genuinely protective. Depression is on the list — which is why the emotional health benefits of dance, exercise, and social engagement described in other Good News on Aging posts are so important.

The Brain Care Score is a starting point, not a final answer. But for Lauren Sprague — and the millions of people who share her fear — it is the beginning of something powerful: a plan. As she told CBS News after meeting Dr. Rosand, the burden she had carried since age 16 finally began to lift. Not because the risk disappeared, but because she now had something to do about it.

Sources: CBS News Sunday Morning — Allison Aubrey (May 3, 2026) · The Lancet Commission on Dementia Prevention · Global Brain Care Coalition — Brain Care Score · Family Practice (June 2025) · Massachusetts General Hospital