If we make it to eighty, we have a one in six risk of developing dementia, and the risk gets greater if we live longer. It is true that a so-called ‘healthy lifestyle’ reduces the risk of dementia to a certain extent (some researchers suggest 30 per cent) but however carefully we live, we cannot escape the effects of ageing. We can only delay them if we are lucky. Long life is not necessarily a good thing. Perhaps we should not seek it too desperately.
