This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
Dementia is the loss of mental abilities caused by brain disorders that affect memory, thinking, behavior and judgment. The most common cause of dementia, especially in older people, is Alzheimer's disease. It causes up to seventy percent of dementia cases.
Worldwide an estimated thirty-six million people are living with dementia. A new report predicts that number will increase to more than one hundred fifteen million by twenty-fifty.
The report is from the World Health Organization and Alzheimer's Disease International. Marc Wortman is the executive director of this group of seventy-eight Alzheimer's associations