Onset can be delayed or avoided.

• Position: Alzheimer's Disease - Medical research

The race to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease has intensified in recent years. With the aging of the populations in most of the industrialized world, it threatens to overwhelm health care systems over the next few decades and exact a human cost that is almost unimaginable. To try to prevent such a disaster, as well as ease the suffering of the current 12-15,000,000 people worldwide estimated to have the disease, scientists are exploring every angle in their quest to find a prevention or a cure.

So far, no one has discovered a "magic bullet" to stop the disease process once it has begun, but scientists have found several ways to delay its onset and slow its course. They believe that, if one adopts certain recommendations, the onset of the disease could be delayed by up to five years.

The risk of developing Alzheimer's rises sharply the older we get. While approximately 10% of Americans over 65 have the disease, the rate of incidence after 85 is almost 50%. This means there is a steep upward curve in risk after age 65. Say that, for reasons that are still not well-understood, one is destined to develop Alzheimer's at 70, but is able to delay its onset until 74. At that time, one of the four currently available Alzheimer's drugs can be started, prolonging the early stage of the disease, when the patient for the most part is still functional, for another two years.

This means the patient has added six meaningful years to his or her life, years that would have been overshadowed by the devastating decline caused by Alzheimer's if he or she had not taken steps to delay it. Because these are years characterized by rising mortality due to other causes, the patient may be able to avoid the tragedy of Alzheimer's altogether. Loved ones will not have experienced the grief of caring for him or her in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's, and placement in a nursing home may never even be a consideration.

How can you take steps to avoid or delay it? Alzheimer's Disease Research, a foundation headquartered in Clarksburg, Md., makes the following recommendations:

Control your blood pressure. Research has shown a higher incidence of Alzheimer's among those with uncontrolled high blood pressure. Know your blood pressure and, if your systolic pressure is 130 or higher, limit your salt intake and take any blood pressure-lowering medications your physician prescribes for you.

Maintain a low blood cholesterol level. Evidence is mounting that those who have high...