It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
How to Prevent Dementia

How to Prevent Dementia

An Expert’s Guide to Long-Term Brain Health

Summary

The comprehensive guide to preventing Alzheimer's and other thinking disorders, from the leading authority and bestselling author of The Complete Guide to Memory, Dr Richard Restak.

According to the WHO, Alzheimer’s ranks as the seventh leading cause of death globally. By 2050, or earlier in the absence of a breakthrough, the number of people aged 65 and older with Alzheimer’s is projected to reach 12.7 million people.

But the more you know about dementia, the more tools you’ll have to prevent or delay its onset – and the more thoughtfully you’ll be able to understand and interact with loved ones living with the condition.

In How to Prevent Dementia, top neurologist Dr Richard Restak arms us with practical advice for how to reduce the risk factors - from better sleep, diet, regular exercise and physical activity to the importance of maintaining social networks and intellectual stimulation, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of new medicines.

Dementias exist on a continuum and by understanding the steps we can take to lessen the odds of developing disease, the illness becomes less anxiety-inducing to comprehend, and we change our understanding of thinking, forever.

Reviews

  • [A] comprehensive compendium of everything we know about memory and how we might improve it
    New Scientist

About the author

Richard Restak

Dr Richard Restak is Clinical Professor of Neurology at George Washington University and was previously President of the American Neuropsychiatric Association. He has lectured on the brain and behaviour at the Pentagon and NASA, and written more than 20 books on the human brain, two of which have been New York Times bestsellers.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more