Dementia is no longer an “old man’s disease” and it’s time to stop hiding

I meet the price that an entire family pays and also know how early diagnosis, sharing and getting help can change the way.

For years we got used to thinking of dementia as an “old man’s disease”. A grandfather who no longer remembers, a grandmother who gets confused, an aunt who no longer behaves as she did yesterday. But in 2026 we already know that the reality is much more complex.

Young-onset dementia is defined when symptoms begin before the age of 65, and it can also appear in the 50s and even earlier. The World Health Organization estimates that dementia at a young age accounts for between 4%-6% of cases. Even in Israel, thousands of people are known who were diagnosed at young ages, as we recently published in the Amda association.

At the age of 50, the disease meets a family in a completely different place in life: work, mortgage, children, relationship, elderly parents and sometimes a person who is at the peak of his career.

It is a disease of one person that changes the life of an entire family

A diagnosis of dementia does not stay in the doctor’s office. she is coming home with all the family members.

Gradually the spouse also becomes caregivers. The children start to worry about the parent. Responsibility for finances, driving, medications, appointments and arrangements varies. Things that were once taken for granted become tasks and above all hovers the gradual loss of life as the family knew it.

There are diseases that the environment understands immediately. When a person undergoes oncological treatments, for example, the very existence of the disease is often more obvious to the environment. In dementia, especially in the early stages, the person can look exactly as he always did.

He may talk, dress, laugh and sit with us in a cafe and at the same time have difficulty finding a word, forget an appointment, lose orientation or have difficulty with a task he once performed easily.

And this gap sometimes gives rise to painful reactions: “But he looks great”, “I forget too”, “It must be pressure”.

Then comes the shame and with it the hiding

I meet families who don’t tell. Not to friends, not to neighbors, sometimes not even to extended family.

You can understand them on the one hand, dementia is still shrouded in stigmas even in 2026 and that is what the Amda association aims to continue to change. There is a fear that the friends will stay away, that they will talk to the person as if he doesn’t understand, that they will stop inviting him or that they will only see the disease from now on.

But concealment comes at a price.

When you don’t tell, the friend doesn’t understand why you stopped coming. The former colleague does not know why the person repeats the same story. Family members make excuses, reduce meetings and little by little the social circle may shrink.

Then a double confrontation is created: Both the disease itself and the effort to hide it.

You don’t have to tell everyone. You must not be left with it alone

Sharing does not mean posting the diagnosis on social media. Privacy is the right of every person, even more so a sick person, but it is worth creating a limited circle even of people who know: a brother or sister, a close friend, a neighbor, the adult children. Explain what is happening and what can help.

Sometimes it’s enough to say: “There is cognitive decline. If he repeats a question, don’t correct him angrily.” Or: “Don’t stop inviting us. We may not always come, but we still want to be part of it.”

Friends don’t always stay away because they don’t care. Sometimes they just are Don’t know what to do or what and if to say.

Don’t say “it’s just age”

Perhaps the most important message today is not to ignore a persistent change in memory, language, orientation, behavior or the ability to perform familiar actions.

Early diagnosis makes it possible to understand the source of the change, rule out other conditions, plan the future and adjust treatment and support. And in today’s age, this has an additional meaning: there are new treatments for early Alzheimer’s that can, in appropriate patients, slow down the progression of the disease – not cure it, but gain precious time.

And what can be done right now?

There is no magic formula, but there are things that have an important place in maintaining brain health, function and quality of life: regular physical activity according to ability, a healthy and balanced diet, including a Mediterranean diet, cognitive activity such as reading, mind games, learning, crossword puzzles and hobbies, maintaining social relationships and avoiding isolation, treatment of blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, vision or hearing difficulties and risk factors more, and above all a familiar routine, meaningful activity and continued life within the family and community as much as possible. The updated WHO guidelines from 2026 emphasize physical activity, healthy nutrition, cognitive and social activity and risk factor management as part of the effort to reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia.

You don’t need to know how to do it yourself

One of the most important sentences I want to say to families is: Don’t wait for a crisis to ask for help.

The Amda association is the address for families dealing with dementia and Alzheimer’s in Israel. You can apply for information, guidance, support and coping tools – even at the beginning, when everything is still confusing and unclear.

Because dementia changes lives, but it doesn’t have to erase them. The person you loved before the diagnosis is still there after it. He is still a spouse, mother, father, boyfriend or girlfriend. He needs care – but no less respect, companionship, meaning and love.

And his family needs the exact same thing.

In 2026 it is time for us to stop whispering the word dementia/Alzheimer’s. The sooner we talk about it, the sooner we recognize it and the sooner we ask for help, the sooner we can give the sick person and his family not only better care, but also a more humane way to go through this complex journey that includes the patient at the head but many people in addition, whom we should not forget.

Dr. Nati Blum, the writer of the column, is the CEO of the Amda Association and holds a doctorate in psychology from the University of Sacramento – USA.