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You can call any of these for free. You do not need a diagnosis, an appointment, or a crisis to call — questions and plain exhaustion are reasons enough.

  • Alzheimer's Association 24/7 Helpline 800-272-3900 24 hours a day, 365 days a year Free, confidential support and information for people with dementia, caregivers, families and the public. Master's-level clinicians. Also Spanish.
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  • Alzheimer's Foundation of America (AFA) Helpline 866-232-8484 9:00 am - 9:00 pm ET, seven days a week Licensed social workers providing support, info and referrals. Also text message and web chat. Text: 646-586-5283

In a medical emergency, call 911. More numbers, and what each line does, on the help page.

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Free to read, “May need a subscription” and “Archived copy”: what they mean

Whether an article is free to read is a guess, not a test of your access. Each item is one of three:

  • No label: free to read (311 of 358). The publisher’s page marks it free, or the outlet publishes free to read: Medical Xpress, ScienceDaily, NIH (incl. NIA and PMC), Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's News Today, NPR, Alzheimer's Disease International, or a .gov site.
  • May need a subscription (12 of 358). The publisher’s own page marks the article as not free to read, or — when the page says nothing — the outlet sells subscriptions: The New York Times, STAT, Scientific American, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Wired, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Times, The Telegraph, New Scientist, Endpoints News, Science. Each badge says which.
  • “Free to read? Not known” (35 of 358). The outlet is on neither list and its page said nothing. We do not call these paywalled.

Archived copy links go to a copy the Internet Archive (web.archive.org) saved, dated the day it was saved. We show one only where the Internet Archive reported a working saved copy when we checked; an archived copy of a subscription article sometimes shows only its opening. 266 of 358 items have one.

Improving early detection of cognitive impairment in primary care

Medical Xpress Diagnosis

Early detection of cognitive impairment can connect patients with evaluation and treatment sooner, but many screening methods are difficult to incorporate into routine primary care. …

Read at Medical Xpress → Archived copy (7 Oct 2026), Internet Archive

Researchers explore new diagnostic tools, genetic roots for early-onset dementia

Medical Xpress Diagnosis

Researchers at the new Center for Brain Health at UT Health San Antonio are studying midlife testing for early-onset dementia with blood-based biomarkers to see if they can detect disease activity up to 20 years before symptoms appear.

Why it matters: Midlife blood-based biomarker testing is being studied to see if it can detect early-onset dementia activity up to 20 years before symptoms appear.

Read at Medical Xpress → Archived copy (27 Jan 2026), Internet Archive

Terry Pratchett's novels may have held clues to his dementia a decade before diagnosis, our new study suggests

Medical Xpress Research

The earliest signs of dementia are rarely dramatic. They do not arrive as forgotten names or misplaced keys, but as changes so subtle they are almost impossible to notice: a slightly narrower vocabulary, less variation in description, a gentle flattening of language.

Why it matters: A new study suggests that subtle language changes in Terry Pratchett's novels may have held early clues to his dementia a decade before diagnosis.

Read at Medical Xpress → Archived copy (26 Feb 2026), Internet Archive

Study finds ongoing under-diagnosis of high blood pressure in people over 50 in Ireland

Medical Xpress Diagnosis

High blood pressure becomes more common after age 40, yet new research from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) at Trinity College Dublin shows that many people in Ireland with hypertension are still not optimally diagnosed or treated based on European Guidelines. …

Why it matters: New research shows many people over 50 in Ireland with high blood pressure are still not optimally diagnosed or treated based on European Guidelines.

Read at Medical Xpress → Archived copy (4 Feb 2026), Internet Archive

New AI technology can provide rapid and reliable dementia diagnosis

Medical Xpress Diagnosis

Researchers at Örebro University have developed two new AI models that can analyze the brain's electrical activity and accurately distinguish between healthy individuals and patients with dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.

Why it matters: Researchers developed AI models analyzing brain electrical activity to distinguish healthy individuals from dementia and Alzheimer's patients.

Read at Medical Xpress → Archived copy (28 Nov 2025), Internet Archive

Simple blood test may someday allow for diagnosis of LATE dementia during life

Medical Xpress Research

Jijing Wang, Ph.D., and Hyun-Sik Yang, MD, of the Department of Neurology at Mass General Brigham, are the lead and senior authors of a paper published in Molecular Neurodegeneration titled "Plasma TDP-43 is a potential biomarker for advanced limbic-predominant…

Why it matters: A simple blood test measuring plasma TDP-43 may someday enable doctors to diagnose advanced LATE dementia during a patient's life.

Read at Medical Xpress → Archived copy (21 Nov 2025), Internet Archive