"Dementia May Still Be Unavoidable 30 Years From Now"... Short Film 'Young Sixty' Released [Weekend Health]

[Financial News] He cannot recall the name of the dessert he always orders at a café and orders an LP he already has at home. These are changes seen in Young-sik, the protagonist of the short film 'Young Sixty.'
SK Chemicals released the short film 'Young Sixty,' produced with the Korean Dementia Association, on September 16 ahead of Dementia Prevention Day on September 21. The film will air at 6 p.m. on September 18 on JTBC's YouTube channel.
Set in near-future Seoul in 2056, 'Young Sixty' is a 15-minute short film about the cognitive decline experienced by Young-sik, a man in his 60s with a retro sensibility. Star producer Yong-i directed the film, which features the real-life married couple Kwon Hae-hyo and Jo Yoon-hee.
The production team said it created the film to shed light on dementia, a health problem that will not disappear even in the future, by portraying what it may look like 30 years from now. The film aims to raise public awareness and highlight the need for early management. Through the major and minor mistakes Young-sik makes, it presents his gradually changing brain health from various perspectives.


Dementia is a condition in which cognitive problems, including memory loss, progressively worsen. Symptoms are often barely noticeable at first, but gradual changes in daily life emerge over time. The condition follows a continuum from subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to severe dementia. Subjective cognitive decline refers to cases in which people feel that their memory is not what it used to be, even though objective tests show results within the normal range. Mild cognitive impairment, which may develop later, involves confirmed cognitive decline on testing while most daily activities remain independent. Declines may affect not only memory but also concentration, judgment, and language ability. Dementia is diagnosed when the condition progresses to the point that a person can no longer manage daily life independently.
Early in the film, Young-sik leaves an item he ordered at a café, confuses 5 p.m. with 7 p.m., and drives away after leaving his coffee on the roof of his car before getting in. Healthy people can also experience these incidents, but they are commonly observed during the mild cognitive impairment stage. Later, the symptoms progress to the early dementia stage, which interferes with daily life. Young-sik cannot recall his child's name and finds the insulin injection his wife takes for diabetes treatment unfamiliar.
The film also includes a scene in which Young-sik cannot properly season food. Dementia is commonly understood as involving declines in memory and attention, but loss of smell is also an important indicator. Damage to the brain regions responsible for smell or to the nerve fibers connecting them with sensory-processing nerves can make it difficult to season food properly or cause the same food to taste different.
Experts advised people to focus on whether symptoms recur rather than on how severe they appear. Kim Hee-jin, a neurology professor at Hanyang University Medical Center (HUMC) and public relations director of the Korean Dementia Association, said, "If unusual changes in memory or behavior recur or affect daily life, it is important not to dismiss them as simple aging but to consult a medical professional and check your current condition."
The film ends with Young-sik deciding to visit a hospital with his wife. Along with the end credits, a recommendation based on the Korean Dementia Association's clinical guidelines appears, stating that early detection and management of mild cognitive impairment can help delay progression to dementia.
According to a 2024 report on dementia risk factors published by the global medical journal The Lancet, managing dementia risk factors could theoretically prevent or delay approximately 45% of dementia cases at the population level. The large-scale Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER), conducted in Finland, also found that a two-year program involving dietary improvement, exercise, cognitive training, and vascular risk-factor management produced significantly better overall cognitive outcomes than those seen in a control group of 1,260 adults aged 60 to 77 who were at high risk of dementia.
Professor Kim said, "Dementia is linked not only to aging but also to a broad range of factors, including chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes, hearing, social activity, alcohol consumption, and smoking." She added, "It is important to manage multiple factors comprehensively with medical professionals and receive specialized treatment appropriate to each stage."

However, many people continue to assess their own or their family members' cognitive function themselves and rely on readily available brain supplements. Health functional foods marketed as brain supplements are easy to purchase online or at retail outlets. Caution is needed because the market is growing rapidly while their dementia-prevention effects have not been verified.
According to sales data from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, annual sales of phosphatidylserine, an ingredient in health functional foods, rose more than eightfold in four years, from 6 billion won in 2021 to 50.8 billion won in 2025. However, health functional foods are classified as foods with functional properties and do not have medical effects. Phosphatidylserine may help improve cognitive function that has declined with aging, but it has no medical indication for conditions such as dementia or mild cognitive impairment.
Ginkgo biloba extract also requires a distinction between pharmaceutical products and health functional foods. Pharmaceutical products may be prescribed at doses of up to 240 mg, while the permitted daily amount for health functional foods is 150 mg. Most studies have analyzed doses of 200 mg or more as capable of producing medical effects, and the Asian Clinical Expert group on Neurocognitive Disorders (ASCEND) also recommends at least 200 mg for managing mild cognitive impairment. Quality-control standards for the active ingredients also differ. Pharmaceuticals are managed according to standardized levels of flavonoids and terpene lactones, whereas these standards do not apply to health functional foods, potentially resulting in differences in ingredient content between products.
Yang Young-soon, a neurology professor at Soonchunhyang University Hospital Seoul and insurance director of the Korean Dementia Association, said, "Health functional foods are products intended to supplement nutrients that are difficult to obtain through food, so it is difficult to expect medical effects from them." She added, "If people rely on health functional foods and waste time on self-diagnosis and taking supplements, they may miss the golden window for dementia prevention."
[email protected] Medical Specialist Reporter Jeong Myeong-jin Reporter