For most people, dementia sits in the same category as a lightning strike: terrifying, random, out of your hands. The largest review says otherwise: in its 2024 update, the Lancet Commission concluded that roughly 45 percent of cases could be prevented or delayed by tackling 14 modifiable risk factors. That moves a huge share of risk out of bad luck and into things you control.
The 14 Factors, by Life Stage
It maps risk across a lifetime. In early life: education, and the cognitive reserve it builds. In midlife: hearing loss, LDL cholesterol, depression, head injury, physical inactivity, diabetes, smoking, blood pressure, obesity, and excessive alcohol. In late life: social isolation, air pollution, and untreated vision loss, the last plus midlife cholesterol added in 2024. Risk accumulates and can be addressed at every age, not just when symptoms appear.
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