"We know the key risk factors and some of them mean your risk of dementia at all ages has got slightly less for that particular age because of better blood pressure control that happened 20, 30 years ago," he said.
Statistics show that in 2022, more than 70,000 people in the UK were living with early-onset dementia, a general term for people who develop dementia under the age of 65, marking a 69 per cent increase from 2014.
"We've got so much better at treating other big killers like heart disease and cancer, we've made fantastic progress but we haven't made that progress with dementia," he said.
Pauline is not the only household name with the devastating condition - in 2023, TV presenter Fiona Phillips said she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's at the age of 62, with her mother, father and uncle also suffering from the disease.
Alongside blood pressure are other things that we often call vascular risk factors - smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol - all the things that can clog up the arteries to your heart can clog up your brain.
