Hello, this is Alok Jha, host of Babbage, our weekly podcast on science and technology.
Welcome to Editor's Picks.
We've chosen an unmissable article from the latest edition of The Economist.
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Few conditions are as feared as dementia, of which Alzheimer's is the most common cause.
This is mostly because of its insidious nature,
since it strips people of their sense of self and leaves those who love them caring for a stranger.
Alzheimer's is me unwinding, losing trust in myself, a butt of my own jokes and, on bad days,
capable of playing hunt the slipper by myself and losing,
wrote the late Sir Terry Pratchett, a novelist who had a rare form of it.
I felt totally alone, he said, with the world receding from me in every direction.
It is also dreaded because many believe it is becoming far more common
and so will inevitably strike them or those closest to them.
Some epidemiologists in the field seem only to fan those fears.
Models predict that the number of people suffering from dementia may triple to 153 million by 2050 as societies age.
In truth, the outlook is cheerier than that, especially in rich countries where,
if adjusted for age, the risk of getting dementia has dropped sharply in recent decades.
Most models assume these declines will not continue or will even reverse.
A mountain of new evidence shows that need not be.
Recent studies point out the numerous ways in which people are already reducing their risk of dementia.