I'm Elise Hugh, this is Ted Health.

Alzheimer's disease is one of the most terrifying and heartbreaking diseases to affect us.

But in today's talk from Ted 2017, neuroscientist Lisa Genova says we might be able to change

our brain's destiny and prevent Alzheimer's.

She'll tell us how and maps out the path to a potential cure.

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How many people here would like to live to be at least 80 years old?

Yeah, I think we all have this hopeful expectation of living into old age.

Let's project out into the future, to your future use, and let's imagine that we're all 85.

Now everyone look at two people.

One of you probably has Alzheimer's disease.

All right, and maybe you're thinking, well, it won't be me, then okay, you are a caregiver.

So in some way, this terrifying disease is likely to affect us all.

Part of the fear around Alzheimer stems from the sense that there's nothing we can do

about it.

Right decades of research, we still have no disease modifying treatment and no cure.

So if we're lucky enough to live long enough, Alzheimer's appears to be our brain's destiny.

But maybe it doesn't have to be.

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