Watch this 1440 Originals video on specialized residential communities designed to mimic towns or neighborhoods for dementia patients.

How do 'dementia villages' work?

The goal of good dementia care is to preserve a patient's quality of life as the incurable disease progresses, maximizing their ability to lead normal lives and maintain their health and dignity. Dementia villages are small neighborhoods built for people with severe dementia, with typical neighborhood haunts like salons or grocery stores staffed by people trained in dementia care, helping residents maintain a sense of autonomy and connection.

Watch this award-winning short film depicting what it feels like to live with dementia. (Film has English subtitles.)

Dementia caregiver training programs exist—but they aren't common

Comprehensive dementia care programs go beyond offering support to caregivers. They train people on how to modify their homes, communicate with their loved ones with dementia, and cope with the stress of caregiving, among other skills. Yet despite evidence showing their effectiveness and the economic benefit of avoiding unnecessary emergency room visits, these programs are often poorly funded and difficult to find.

Explore this 1440 Original video offering a primer on Alzheimer's disease and what's known about its incidence, causes, and more.

After a dementia diagnosis, it's important to plan ahead but also savor the moment

The next steps after a diagnosis include taking lifestyle steps to slow disease progression and completing legal paperwork about long-term medical preferences. It's also important to appreciate the moments and days ahead and find humor in them, when possible. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

See the challenges of navigating Alzheimer's caregiving

This 2025 PBS documentary provides a window into the experiences of three families navigating the struggles and beauty of caregiving for a loved one with Alzheimer's.

Can your identity be preserved amid dementia?

Memory loss associated with progressive dementia raises questions about whether a person's identity can be maintained during the disease's progression. One outlook suggests we define ourselves by our social relationships—offering a potentially more humane approach to caring for those with dementia.

Watch a video about Greenfield Village, Henry Ford's recreation of an ideal American town

Henry Ford designed Greenfield Village, an open-air museum with restorations of historic buildings, that represented Ford's idealization of what a simple American life should look like. Among the most notable buildings in the village are Ford's childhood home and a recreation of the one-room country schoolhouse Ford attended through the sixth grade.

Watch patient stories describing life with macular degeneration

This video series features patients discussing their experiences with the disorder, family members describing caregiving, and other insights about the disease.

How Alzheimer's caregivers get pulled into their loved one's reality

Caregivers, most often children and spouses, do not just witness a family member's cognitive decline—they also often become drawn into it, navigating a world in which the typical rules of time, order, or logical continuity may not apply.

Brain training game creates long-lasting changes in the brain that may help protect against dementia.

Millions of aging Americans are facing dementia or cognitive impairment—alone

An estimated 4.3 million people aged 55 or older who have cognitive impairment or dementia live alone in the US. The individuals facing these challenges are more likely to be women, people of color, and to generally be poorer and less educated than other older adults who are also living alone.

How reading and writing can lower dementia risk by almost 40%

Research published in 2026 that tracked almost 2,000 older adults for an average of nearly eight years suggests that lifelong exposure to intellectual stimulation, such as learning a language, reading, and writing, can lower dementia risk by as much as 40%.

How family members disappeared into dementia

This narrative feature describes one family's troubling experience with frontotemporal dementia, or FTD, which emerges in the prime of adult life — as young as 40, in some cases — and degrades the brain's ability to plan, organize, express language, understand social cues, and exercise judgment.

Dementia describes progressive memory issues that impact daily activities

Although Alzheimer's disease is sometimes thought of synonymously with dementia, there are multiple types of dementia, which manifest in memory loss and other symptoms that make it challenging to perform daily tasks. These types include Lewy Body dementia, vascular dementia, and frontotemporal dementia. Parkinson's disease is not a form of dementia, but this movement disorder can sometimes develop into issues with memory and a formal diagnosis of dementia.

Smart cities like Songdo, South Korea, have created isolating environments

Built as a futuristic, eco-friendly city filled with smart features like pneumatic trash systems and app-controlled homes, the town provides limited opportunities for face-to-face interactions amid sterile backdrops. A focus on high-rise housing amplifies the lonely, disconnected atmosphere.

How the buildings you occupy may affect your brain health

Beautiful spaces filled with light and natural motifs aren't just aesthetic, but likely key to your health. Researchers had study participants view photographs of two distinct buildings, one designed with more natural elements while the other featured more abstract shapes and lines. Using electroencephalograph readings of each participant, they discovered participants had less brain inflammation while viewing the "biophilic," or natural, architecture. Learn more about the interdisciplinary framework of so-called neuroarchitecture here.

Some dementia cases may be linked to treatable microorganism infections in the brain.

Take a 360-degree look inside Hong Kong's coffin homes

Hong Kong's lack of affordable housing is forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to live in "coffin homes" — a tiny partitioned apartment that is about the size of a coffin. Experience life inside a coffin home through this 360 VR video.

America's financial burden from dementia in 2025 was $781 billion

That figure, calculated by researchers at the University of Southern California, includes medical and long-term care costs, unpaid family and friend caretaking, lost productivity for patients and their families, and the economic loss in quality of life for patients and their families. In 2025, they estimate there were 5.6 million people living with dementia.

How Alzheimer's disease affected one family as symptoms progressed

News program 60 Minutes interviewed a couple navigating aging and Alzheimer's over a 10-year period to illustrate the effects of the disease on their lives.

An analysis of ancient texts found that dementia was rare in ancient Greece.

Neurodegeneration is the process underlying dementia, but it may happen for myriad reasons, and its triggers are under investigation.

Why vascular dementia develops

This type of dementia, the second most common form after Alzheimer's, develops due to microscopic bleeds and blood vessel blockages in the brain. The condition isn't curable but medications to help with blood clotting and high blood pressure are part of a suite of interventions designed to minimize damage to the brain.

Watch the trailer for journalist Dan Buettner's popular Netflix documentary series 'Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones,' which focuses on longevity insights from populations around the world.

Super-agers: seniors 80 and above with the memory ability of people in their 50s

Studies show the number one indicator of whether someone is a "super-ager" is not diet or genetics, but the extent of their social relationships. Moreover, scans reveal noticeable physical differences in certain parts of the brain in patients with extensive social networks.

Alzheimer's as a family disease: When children become "parents"

Kitty Eisele's 81-year-old dad went missing while on a snowy, four-hour drive from Minneapolis to Iowa City. It was the first emergency that spelled out the danger of her dad's dementia diagnosis—and captures how Alzheimer's impacts entire families, with the influx of responsibility that comes with caregiving.

An Alzheimer's patient discusses her condition with children

Alzheimer's is a deadly disease that profoundly changes a person's abilities and personality, which makes it difficult to explain to kids. Responding to potentially uncomfortable questions with honesty (and relatable imagery) about the costs and nature of the disease goes a long way in fostering understanding.

Meet a 90-year-old who built his own hobbit-inspired house

A retired carpenter built himself a kind-of Hobbit house, and is living comfortably off the grid at 90 years old, tourists notwithstanding. Learn how he did it with this video.

The design of a psychiatric ward in Norway aims to integrate more circadian rhythm-friendly lights as part of its treatment protocols for conditions including psychosis, severe depression, and more.

Afterlife traditions help some humans process death

Watch this video discussing concepts of the afterlife presented through an anthropological lens about one family's experience and traditions passed down from one generation to another.

One biologist is leading the blue zone criticisms—both questioning the original recordkeeping for these purported longevity-prone locations and pointing to recent research showing declining numbers of healthy seniors in several official blue zone regions.

The history of Solvang, California's little Danish village

Just north of Santa Barbara sits a curious California gem: Solvang, a small town constructed in the Danish Provincial style. This video tour of the village provides a fascinating history of how the town became a miniature Copenhagen and does so in a unique way: by trying to recreate vintage photographs of the town. It makes for an entertaining and educational tour.

Memory disorders disrupt the brain's ability to make, store, or recall memories

These disorders stem from reversible issues like vitamin deficiencies or irreversible causes such as stroke or dementia. Only one type of dementia—familial Alzheimer’s disease—is directly inherited and accounts for about 20% of Alzheimer’s cases.

Blue zones are geographic locations, such as Sardinia, Italy, where there have appeared to be disproportionately high numbers of healthy agers, perhaps due to factors including genetics, diet, social connections, and more.

Learn the differences between mild cognitive impairment and age-associated memory loss

Mild cognitive impairment is a condition in which people experience more thinking and memory problems than expected for their age. It's often associated with depression and anxiety. Daily routines, writing things down, and healthy lifestyle choices can help cope with the condition, but there's no cure. The condition elevates the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's.

Visit these 'blue zones,' where people live the longest

Blue zones, a term coined in 2004 by National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner, are regions in the world where people live the longest and healthiest lives. Researchers have identified a few key aspects defining the culture of these areas—physical activity, diet, purpose-driven lives, and more. Explore the top five blue zones from across the world here.

Five to ten percent of Alzheimer's cases are early-onset

Early-onset Alzheimer’s typically emerges around 40 to 50 years of age, with devastating effects. This video follows Brian, diagnosed with the disease at age 54, as he travels the country as an advocate for research and discusses the progressive mental fog of Alzheimer’s.

Wearing a 'schizophrenia simulator,' designed to build empathy for patients, CNN's Anderson Cooper finds he struggles to function

Donning headphones that play a track mimicking the auditory hallucinations common in schizophrenia, Cooper finds he is very distracted, disconcerted, and frustrated. The auditory track aims to help listeners build empathy with patient populations by understanding the challenges they face in daily life.

Two 100-year-old sisters share their tips for staying mentally sharp

Shirley Hodes, 106, and her sister Ruth Sweedler, 103, don’t routinely do crossword puzzles, but both have stayed sharp as they aged. Though they live states apart, they share similar advice for maintaining mental acuity. They sum up their strategies for cognitive health with four verbs: work, connect, learn, and appreciate. Read this article to learn more about their approach to staying 100-plus years young.

Sitting 10+ hours per day increases dementia risk

People who sit for at least 10 hours per day are more likely to develop dementia, according to a study published in 2023. This article details the study on the murky relationship between brain health and prolonged sitting. This study involved...

Offering support to others linked to cognitive and physical health improvements

The Baltimore Experience Corps Trial, which was a large study evaluating the health benefits of volunteering among older adults, concluded that seniors spending about 15 hours weekly offering kids tutoring and mentoring was associated with improvements including better memory and increased mobility and strength.

Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of dementia and risks rise after age 65

Read this primer about Alzheimer's disease and learn what factors increase the risk of this form of dementia, including genetics, being a woman, and health conditions, including high blood pressure.

Singapore, one of the world's smartest cities

A fascinating look into what makes Singapore one of the smartest cities in the world, including human-centric innovations benefitting human health such as the AI-powered "Smart Elderly Alert System."

Taxi and ambulance drivers appear to have the lowest risk of dying from Alzheimer's disease out of 443 occupations, which suggests that constant real-time navigation work strengthens the hippocampus and may help protect against the disease.

Untreated hearing loss is linked with dementia risk

Hearing loss does not cause dementia, but it does increase the risk of developing dementia and research suggests that people who wear hearing aids for age-related hearing loss also maintain better brain function than those who don't.

Blue zones are regions with unusually high numbers of centenarians

Factors thought to contribute to longevity in these regions include diet and social connections, but their legitimacy is often questioned due to a lack of rigorous scientific methodology and potential record inaccuracies.

Ultraprocessed foods are linked with a 58% elevated risk of developing dementia.

A new schizophrenia healthcare model is giving patients more of a role in shaping their own treatments, with good results.

Take a virtual tour of a Usonian home

Wright's Usonian homes might have been more economical, but they didn't lack any of the inventive design of his other projects. That's evident throughout this tour of one of the homes in Pleasantville, New York's Usonia community.