Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has no known cure, and the secrets to preventing it are not yet known.  Research supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and other public and private agencies offers tantalizing clues about the origins and development of AD; these findings are raising hopes that someday it might be possible to delay the onset of AD, slow its progress, or even prevent it altogether. In his 2003 book on preparing for the onset of AD, Kuhn suggests that delaying the time when AD symptoms begin by even five years could greatly reduce the number of people who have the disease (p. 1).

AD is now estimated to affect nearly 5 million Americans, Kuhn (2003) states, the vast majority of whom are over 65 years old.  Although AD is a genuine concern for aging individuals, statistics indicate that no more than 10 to 15 percent of people from age 65 to 100 show symptoms of clinically diagnosed senile dementia (Ratey, 2001, p. 217), however, because of the growing concern thanks to prompting, or perhaps priming, by the popular press, a great majority of the aging population would swear to having the disease.