In the 1950s, heart disease was the leading cause of death in the United States. Then came decades of public health campaigns urging people to quit smoking, control their blood pressure, and watch their weight and diet. IMA Senior Fellow in Brain Health Dr. Suzanne Gazda says brain health needs that same effort now, worldwide.
In this clip from her IMA Academy lesson, she puts it plainly: it’s time to act on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, and brain health should be a top priority for the federal government. That push includes helping people who have already lost cognitive ability live with dignity. She points to singer-songwriter Beatie Wolfe, whose performances bring nursing home residents to life, even those who probably haven’t moved from their chairs in a long time. Looking further ahead, she says, “I’d like to imagine a world without Alzheimer’s.”
The full 43-minute lesson makes the case that early dementia calls for more action than it often gets. A neurologist, Dr. Gazda examines the environmental and infectious drivers behind rising cognitive decline, including Long COVID, which she identifies as an independent risk factor for neurodegenerative disease. She also covers lifestyle interventions, plasma biomarkers that support earlier Alzheimer’s diagnosis, the hypothesis that lithium deficiency may contribute to the disease, and emerging treatments.
