New research, distilled

Two APOE4 copies isn't a verdict, plus your brain's energy bill

New this month: the Mediterranean-diet number for carriers, brain energy in midlife, and lipids that talk to your brain.

Why APOE genotype now matters for new Alzheimer’s drugs

The arrival of anti-amyloid antibodies makes your APOE status relevant to treatment safety, not just to risk. The short version.

Source: Alzheimer’s Association: Lecanemab (Leqembi)

Blood pressure belongs on your brain-health checklist

Often symptomless, and one of the best-established modifiable dementia risk factors. Don’t let it slip under the radar.

Source: World Health Organization: Dementia

Welcome to the APOE4 Monthly Digest

What this digest is, who it’s for, and how to get the most out of it.

Much of dementia risk runs through factors you can influence

Why the modifiable-risk-factor framing matters so much for APOE4 carriers, and what the 2024 Lancet Commission found about reducing it.

Source: Livingston et al. (2024), The Lancet Commission: dementia prevention, intervention, and care

GLP-1 trial in Alzheimer’s comes up empty (and why that is not the whole story)

The phase 3 EVOKE trials of oral semaglutide in early Alzheimer’s missed their primary endpoint. Treating disease is not the same question as preventing it.

Source: Alzheimer Europe / Novo Nordisk, 2025

US POINTER: a structured lifestyle program improved cognition

The big American replication of the FINGER lifestyle trial reports in JAMA, and structure beat going it alone.

Source: JAMA, 2025

FDA clears the first blood test for Alzheimer’s disease

A plasma p-tau217 test now classifies amyloid status about as well as a spinal tap, but it is for symptomatic workup, not screening healthy carriers.

Source: FDA, 2025

A shingles vaccine linked to about 20% lower dementia risk

A clever natural experiment in Welsh health records found the shingles vaccine tied to lower dementia, and the design guards against the usual bias.

Source: Nature, 2025