Middle-aged winning battle against dementia, Cambridge University study finds - telegraph

Dementia 'epidemic' predicted in Nineties has failed to materialise because middle-aged now live far healthier lives than previous generations

The battle against dementia is being won thanks to health-conscious baby boomers, Cambridge University researchers have said.

The "dementia epidemic" that was predicted in the Nineties has failed to materialise because the middle-aged are now living far healthier lives than previous generations. It was predicted that around 884,000 people would have dementia by 2011, but figures show it was closer to 670,00.

Despite predictions that 8.3 per cent of over-65s would now have dementia, it is in fact 6.5 per cent, much the same as it was in the Nineties.  The plateauing numbers were driven by people exercising more, giving up smoking, and switching to more nutritious diets, the researchers said.

Experts at Cambridge University, who carried out a review of five large epidemiological studies, warned that much of the NHS and Department of Health policy on dementia was based on studies which are behind the times.

They called for dementia spending to be "rebalanced" towards encouraging lifestyle changes rather than finding new drugs to treat the disease.

"These old studies support the idea of a continuing 'dementia epidemic', but are out of date because of changes in life expectancy, living conditions, and improvements in health care and lifestyle," said Carol Brayne, professor of public health medicine at Cambridge Institute of Public Health. "Our evidence suggests a relatively optimistic picture." - Read More 

Middle-aged winning battle against dementia, Cambridge University study finds