Sometimes I go to write an article or a newsletter, and I find a really interesting story or a study to think about, and then I catch a weird detail that stops me in my tracks.
That’s what happened tonight. I saw that researchers at NYU Langone Health had dug into data from more than 12,000 people to see how many wound up developing dementia later in life—and then correlated that unfortunate outcome with some of their conditions and choices in middle age.
We’ll get to the three things they found were associated with significantly fewer dementia-free years shortly. For now, let me explain the track-stopping part.
It’s that when I look in the mirror, the version of myself I see is almost exactly the same version I saw when I was about 25 years old. The only difference is that my mix of red and brown hair was replaced by a mix of red and brown and blond and gray.
Fair enough, I suppose, since I’m literally a bit over twice the age that I was then; my point is that I still feel young.
But then I realized the average age of the participants when the NYU Langone Health researchers assessed these midlife risk factors.
Reader, it was 56. I’m 55. Wait: Dementia? In young people my age?
I don’t mean to joke, except for the fact that sometimes the only way to deal with absolute unbridled horror is to stare it in the face and laugh.
Still, I can joke and be serious at the same time, so I went straight to the three conditions and choices the good people at NYU Langone Health said mattered.
They are, in order:
High blood pressure
Diabetes
Smoking between ages 48 and 68
Fortunately, I can say no to all three.
I feel like it’s maybe a badge of honor at age 55 to have spent so much time at the gym that you get tendinitis in your shoulders to the point that a doctor shoots you up with cortisone and tells you, “Maybe skip the weights for a month and let your body heal.”
As for smoking—lucky for me, I’ve never really been a smoker.
Continuing my humblebragging, the last time I smoked at all was when I was a reporter in Iraq.
This was when I realized that being the guy with a pack of Marlboros to share created opportunity after opportunity to strike up conversations with American soldiers.
(I suppose the fact that I was old enough to be covering an overseas shooting war that ended in 2011 starts to date me, even if I hadn’t disclosed my age already.)
Anyway, let’s go to the context provided by study senior investigator Josef Coresh, founding director of the Optimal Aging Institute:
Our findings argue that people need to actively avert these factors in midlife as a strategy for preserving brain health for more than a decade. Discovering new ways to delay dementia is crucial with 42 percent of Americans at risk for developing the condition at any time after age 55.
Sheesh, 55. They also found that women generally live longer without dementia than men and that, statistically speaking, White study participants had more dementia-free years than Black participants.
The researchers published their study online in Neurology Open Access on August 5.
“These results suggest that vascular risk reduction may benefit all groups, but that certain populations, such as Black adults, may especially benefit from targeted prevention efforts,” Coresh added. “Hopefully, these results will encourage people to stop smoking and watch their vascular health closely from age 48 on.”
I don’t want to worry anyone unnecessarily. But if you’re reading this and you’re also a proud member of Gen-X, maybe getting stopped in your tracks for a bit isn’t a bad thing.
Oh, and apropos of nothing: Your hair looks awesome with the blond and gray.
Other things worth knowing …
The Atlantic: The ICE officer who shot a Venezuelan man last weekend in Austin was a recent hire who was not wearing his body camera, three DHS officials told The Atlantic. The officer, who has not been publicly identified, was hired last year but previously worked for another federal law-enforcement agency.
The Hill: The Trump administration is removing close to 760,000 people from Affordable Care Act coverage due to allegedly fraudulent enrollment, Vice President Vance announced Tuesday. “These are not real people. We’re not paying insurance for nonexistent ghosts,” said Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, during a White House press conference.
404 Media: A high-profile hacking group claims it has breached multiple FBI-related services and stolen data “on all FBI employees and applicants.” A representative of the group, called ShinyHunters, told 404 Media the data includes FBI agents’ names, home addresses, phone numbers, and information on their spouses. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mediaite: Controversial streamer Clavicular, who has built a sizable following around the online “looksmaxxing” movement, has been charged with rape and drugging a person for sex in a case involving a minor in Massachusetts. Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters, was charged with one count each of rape, drugging a person for sex, and providing alcohol to a minor. The charges stem from an alleged incident on May 23, 2025.
NYT: David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, was 23 when he arrived in Hollywood in 2006 — dumb money to be fleeced, insiders laughed. On Monday, after a remarkable, almost inconceivable run of dealmaking and brinkmanship, Ellison — all of 43 — stood on the verge of adding Warner Bros. Discovery to his Paramount Skydance, giving him control of two businesses that helped invent the movie and television industries.
NYT: How DraftKings uses A.I. to target the gamblers likeliest to lose. Data science helps determine who receives betting incentives, but the company has resisted using similar technology to protect gamblers at risk of addiction.
MarketWatch: Nearly half of adults under 30 live with their parents. The financial fallout could last for decades.
Thanks for reading. Photo by Kym Meure on Unsplash. I wrote about some of this at Inc.com. See you in the comments!
What those online betting sites get away with is criminal.
My husband was diagnosed with dementia at 64.5, died at 65.5. It was a terrible, terrible thing to go through, likely harder on me than him. I think it was from the drugs they gave him to treat lung cancer but have no way to prove it. And it would not make any difference anyway as he has left this world.
Never been on a gambling site, likely never will. But I know how easy it is to get hooked on playing online games, so I get how people get hooked into spending more and more money. Those sites are a scourge on society, their only purpose is to get people to spend money.
If there really are more than 700,000 people on the Affordable Care Act who don’t exist, what does that say about the system? And what does it say about parents who let their adult children live in their basement? It’s one thing if the kid is paying rent and contributing otherwise to the house. But if they are just spending the day playing video games, it’s time for both parties to grow up.