How can we hold on to our minds as our bodies grow older?

“I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix”

― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone

I often picture my brain as a huge attic filled with boxes, each box containing memories. But as the years pass, the attic gets more and more crowded, and I can’t always remember where I put things. While that sounds a little scary, there can be an upside — we may be less likely to hang on to a grudge, or remember petty arguments.

But nobody wants to lose their memory, or any other mental faculty, for that matter. When Descartes declared, “I think, therefore I am,” he put his finger on the truth: We feel that our identities are based in our minds. But if our brains no longer function, who are we? Would we be only a body encasing a void? What would that mean for our loved ones?

Sixty-four percent of Americans say that their biggest fear about getting older is suffering from dementia, states Dr. Heather Sandison in her book, Reversing Alzheimer’s. Eight-and-a-half million people are projected to have Alzheimer’s disease in the US by 2030, and 11 million by 2040. The numbers increase as the population grows and medical science allows people to have longer lifespans. Unfortunately, many people do not enjoy longer healthspans, meaning the years that they spend as functional, vibrant members of society.

The societal costs of mental decline are staggering. An April 2025 report by the University of South California offers a tally: “An estimated 5.6 million Americans are living with dementia this year, including 5 million who are 65 and older,” it states. “Medical and long-term care for patients with dementia will cost the United States $232 billion this year, including $52 billion paid out of pocket by patients and their families.” Two-thirds of these costs are paid for by Medicaid and Medicare, but this estimate does not include the lost wages of both patients and caregivers, or the loss of their quality of life.

“I quit my job to help care for my mother-in-law with Alzheimer’s,” says Bracha M. “I was close to retirement anyway, but I lost years of wages, and I spent almost ten stressful years dealing with recurring emergencies and health issues. My husband and I went through months and months with no respite, only occasionally being able to get away for a weekend or a Shabbos.”

The good news is that doctors and medical researchers are just as concerned as the rest of us about the fact that increased lifespan brings increased risks of dementia. Hence, a tremendous amount of research has been done to identify the factors that contribute to dementia and the ways we can hope to stave it off as much as possible.