Editor’s note –
February 2026

Dementia the UK’s biggest killer, yet new “expert” recommendations come up with nothing of use

It’s appalling that the 40 experts behind the new Nottingham Consensus have no clue how to prevent dementia, but we do.

Published in Nature Reviews Neurology, the Consensus sets out 56 recommendations.

Not a single one takes account of ANY of the key research findings familiar to IHCAN readers.

There’s no mention of the multi-factorial prevention approach championed by Patrick Holford’s Food for the Brain based on a bare minimum of homocysteine-lowering B vitamins, antioxidants, and fatty acids. No mention of Dr Dale Bredesen’s integrated model that addresses 30+ reversible risk factors.

The Nottingham Consensus relied on what they proudly describe as “modified Delphi process” among a limited panel of 40 English “experts”, most of whom, it has to be said, are establishment figures who are part of the reason why the public is consistently told “there is no cure”, when this is not true. (They mean there is no pharmaceutical cure.) Many of the individual-level interventions we know about were not even discussed. Instead the Consensus went for broad balderdash about “Reforming public messaging” and addressing “socioeconomic deprivation” and air pollution.

The only individual risk factors that the “experts” highlight are hearing loss, high blood pressure and social isolation! “Evidence-based interventions should be pursued for individual risk factors. But no consensus on which factors should take precedence”.

And the corporate waffle coming out of the Consensus reads like something out of Yes, Minister! An example: this is lead author Dr Harriet Demnitz-King, Postdoc Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London: “We know dementia risk can be reduced, but the evidence has not yet been transformed into a coherent governmental strategy…What we need now is coordinated, structural action to develop dementia prevention policies that are equitable, realistic and grounded in the lives people actually lead”.

In the recommendations themselves we get this: “All interventions aimed at reducing dementia risk should be designed so they promote health equity”. What does that even mean?

“Dementia cases are set to triple by 2050, yet public awareness that dementia risk can be reduced remains strikingly low”, they say. Are we wondering why? So 56 recommendations and the public is no nearer having a clue.

Meanwhile, Dr Bredesen and Food for the Brain give very clear messages and are taking action rather than wasting time on self-congratulatory workshops. In this issue Dr Bredesen discusses the latest research into his Alzheimer’s-busting protocol with two of the physicians involve in the five-centre RCT that once again shows that dementia can be reversed. He has stated quite plainly: “Alzheimer’s disease is now optional, if you get on appropriate prevention… virtually no one needs to get this disease”. Holford and Food for the Brain are also clear: “Alzheimer’s is preventable”.

So you have older clients worried about Britain’s biggest killer? You know what to do.

Our headline on page 18 says it all: “Alzheimer’s is beaten: new $6.6 million Bredesen RCT again proves personalised medicine is the answer”.

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