How Common Is Alzheimer's?

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One in three of us can expect to have Alzheimer's disease at some point in our life. Number is going up because we're living longer, but it seems to be falling in the UK and Scandinavia. The people who are in their 80s now will have been the generation where there were good treatments for high blood pressure. We have improved midlife risk factors for Alzheimer's disease.

Back in November, researchers hailed the dawn of a new era of Alzheimer’s therapies. After decades of failure, a clinical trial finally confirmed that a drug, lecanemab, was able to slow cognitive decline in patients with early stages of the disease. The result may have been modest – a reduction in the decline in patients’ overall mental skills by 27% over 18 months – but it could not be more significant in the journey towards better understanding and treating the disease. Ian Sample speaks to Prof Nick Fox about the clinical trial results, if this could be the first of many new Alzheimer’s therapies, and whether we could one day see a cure.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod