Welcome to 2026 – The Year of the Alpacalypse

Welcome to 2026 – The Year of the Alpacalypse!

The Global Brain Health Crisis & Why 2026 Matters

Down here at Fforest Barn Mountain Retreat we await the arrival of Buddy, our new alpaca, joining Tommy Gun (Food for the Brain’s lucky mascot), Vincent, Oran and Winston ‘the Wolf’ Moondance, born on a full moon. This year we expand and consolidate our ‘beyond organic’ food growing, applying all the principles I’ve learned about health – to plants.

If you’d like to understand these, then watch this lecture I gave for the BioNutrient Food Association entitled ‘As Below So Above’, explaining the five fundamental principles of health, which is the subject of my new book ‘The Five Health Essentials’ due out early 2026.

The apocalypse allusion is deliberate. The cost of dementia, most of which is Alzheimer’s, is untenable. China expects soon to face a trillion dollar annual bill if nothing radical changes to prevent this cerebral tsunami. Brain disorders already cost more than cancer and heart disease combined. Brain health and nutrition must be top of the healthcare agenda if we are to avoid costs that will destabilise economies and families worldwide.

The Design Problem in Modern Healthcare

As I see it there are two fundamental problems that need solving – corruption and design.

By design I mean having a model for doing healthcare, economy, ecology effectively at scale. In other words, having a way of living for humanity that works.

I am so excited about what we are doing at foodforthebrain.org because I truly believe it provides a viable model for doing prevention at scale. It is truly a new paradigm, based on systems-based science not reductionism, going straight to people, that is Citizen Scientists, without the need for the church or priest in the middle, the corrupted healthcare system. Watch my 6 minute ‘systems-based’ film  for a deeper explanation.

What foodforthebrain.org are doing for Alzheimer’s prevention can be applied to all the major 21^st century disease epidemics from cancer to diabetes. This spring I’m off to Algeria where the Health Minister is interested in putting this into their health care system and China to present at a major conference on Alzheimer’s prevention. Next week I’m off to talk to a group of highly influential CEOs in the US who have the ability to scale all this up across the US and globally.

Knowing what works is one thing. Doing it is another. Corruption for profit, in other words greed, is the major drag factor blocking this inevitable paradigm shift. It sickens me that prevention of such a devastating condition, one that robs people of their memories until they die not knowing their own children, is actively blocked to preserve profit from hypothetical, clinically ineffective medication.

The layers of corruption within medical science, academic journals, PR systems and the networks that keep authority figures aligned run deep. The only solution is to keep telling the truth and exposing the lies. Shortly before Linus Pauling died, I filmed him discussing his brilliant lipoprotein(a) hypothesis in heart disease. He advised me to “follow the logic” to find the truth and not to worry about randomised controlled trials; they come later.

The selective use of meta-analyses, which combine chosen RCTs, has become a mechanism to generate pharma gold, not clearer science. A classic example is The Lancet Commission on Dementia Prevention report in 2023, which purposely ignored homocysteine-lowering B vitamins and omega-3 (Read more about that here). In combination, these are the single most evidenced, substantial and easily implemented means to cut Alzheimer’s risk by at least a third. That omission is corruption: following the money, not the logic.

Citizen Science as a Scalable Solution to Dementia Prevention

That is why we need to support foodforthebrain.org by becoming a Friend and encouraging everyone we know to take the Cognitive Function test, and complete the follow-on COGNITION questionnaire, the results of which add to the COGNITION Biobank research database anonymously, to enable true prevention research to happen at scale. I predict, in 2026, this will become the largest research database for exploring dementia prevention in the world. My colleagues in China want to test 18 million people over 60.

If you are looking for a New Year’s resolution, I suggest becoming a Citizen Scientist in heart, mind and action. How?

• • Take Food for the Brain’s Cognitive Function Test here and tell everyone you know to do it!
  • Become a Friend – Join over 2,000 members to access monthly coaching and webinars and support this important movement.

[For those with children see foodforthebrain.org/smart kids]

Despite everything mentioned, there is so much possibility and hope. And it doesn’t need to be overwhelming. Avoid sugar as much as possible. Invest in high-quality food, because it becomes you. Take your supplements every day. Walk at least 5,000 steps a day, ideally 7,000. The most important aspect is to take regular positive actions in your own health journey.

Also, read the book The Five Essentials book when it comes out, and encourage all those you know to do the same. Stay positive.

A New Year Call to Action for Citizen Scientists

2026 offers a turning point. Prevention is entirely achievable if people are given truthful education, accessible tools, and a model of change rooted in systems thinking rather than narrow, profit-driven science. 

You can make powerful choices that protect your future and the generations to come.

Wishing you a Healthy New Year!