By Maria Shriver, founder of the Women's Alzheimer's Movement (WAM) at Cleveland Clinic; Hilary Evans-Newton, CBE, chief executive officer of Alzheimer's Research UK; and Joanne Pike, DrPH, president and CEO of the Alzheimer's Association

As thousands of the world's leading Alzheimer's researchers, clinicians and policymakers convene this week in London for the Alzheimer's Association International Conference® 2026 (AAIC®), we have an opportunity to change the course of history for women's health by focusing on women's brains.

For too long, women's health has been compartmentalized into reproductive health, breast cancer, heart health and bone health. Missing from the conversation has been a focus on the organ that regulates every part of a woman's body: the brain. That must end. Women's health is brain health, and brain health is the core of women's health.

Women make up nearly two-thirds of those diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Women are also far more likely to provide the unpaid care that keeps families and care systems from collapse. Yet women's brains remain largely under-studied, under-discussed and underprioritized in research, risk reduction and care.

Our three organizations — Alzheimer's Research UK, the Alzheimer's Association and the Women's Alzheimer's Movement at Cleveland Clinic — are here to sound the alarm: If policymakers around the world do not put women's brain health at the center of any discussion of global health, we will suffer consequences on a scale that will impact every family, community and economy in the world. And it is women who will disproportionally continue to absorb the devastating costs.

The numbers should stop us cold. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that dementia costs the global economy US$1.3 trillion today, a figure expected to rise to $2.8 trillion by 2030. In the UK alone, dementia is the leading cause of death for women and costs the country more than £42 billion a year — a figure set on course to more than double to roughly £90 billion by 2040.

The staggering costs related to dementia extend far beyond medical appointments and hospital care.

In the UK, it can cost up to £80,500 per person per year for the complex care required for a patient with dementia. In the U.S., total costs in 2026 to society for all individuals living with Alzheimer's or other dementias are estimated at $409 billion, not including the value of unpaid caregiving. Unpaid caregiving is valued at $446 billion per year. Roughly half of dementia’s total cost is attributed to informal care by family and friends, which means that half of the dementia economy rests on the unpaid labor of people who never applied for the job. Once again, those people are mostly women.

That is why our three organizations — leaders in the field of women and Alzheimer's — are coming together to call for a fundamental shift. We are already investing tens of millions of dollars to put women at the centre of Alzheimer's risk reduction, research and caregiver support. But funding alone is not enough. We need to change the way the world thinks about women’s health, dementia and the brain.

That means three things.

First, fund dementia research with urgency, seek to understand why women's brains are different, and prioritize representative clinical trial recruitment. This means including a representative amount of women for each culture, country and community involved. Then report the results by sex.

Second, hold governments to their promises and make them commit to policy solutions. We must renew commitment to the WHO global dementia plan and ensure that every country adopts a plan of action by 2031.

Third, count unpaid care for what it is: work. It may be given with love, but it is still labor. The costs of care to individuals and in their lost wages and productivity are steep. We need real policy solutions so women aren't forced to choose between caring for a loved one or bringing home income for their families.

The future of Alzheimer's will be shaped by the choices we make now. If we invest in women's brain health, we can change the trajectory of this disease for women around the world.

By failing to act in a coordinated, comprehensive way, we are paying for that failure many times over in health costs, in lost productivity, in exhausted families and in diminished lives.

Brain health is health. Women's brain health is women’s health. The world can no longer afford to ignore either.