Welcome to Nobody Told Me.

I'm Laura Owens, and I'm Jan Black.

New research shows that dementia rates have actually declined in the United States and Western Europe

over the last decade. So what are we doing right and what are we doing wrong when it comes to

dealing with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia? And what should we be doing in the

future? Our guests on this episode, Daniel George and Peter Whitehouse, have a lot to say about

that. Dr. George is a medical

anthropologist and associate professor at Penn State. And Dr. Whitehouse is a professor of

neurology at Case Western Reserve University and a professor of medicine at the University of

Toronto. Together, they are the co-authors of the new book, American Dementia, Brain Health in an Unhealthy Society.

Thank you both so much for joining us.

Thank you for having us.

Tell us about the meaning behind the title of your book, American Dementia.

Our working title for the entire writing process was brain health in an unhealthy society,

which focuses on what you said in your introduction, that as some societies have adopted

public health maneuvers that have helped us keep ourselves healthy and our brains healthy,

the rates of dementia have gone down in some countries.

We added American dementia to signal that there's a cultural problem here that goes beyond that

observation that we're not thinking straight.

We're not remembering properly.

We're not planning for the future.

We're not doing very well with our own activities of daily living.

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