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The US healthcare system is not ready for the epidemic of Alzheimer's disease that will hit in the next decade as baby boomers age. The number of people with Alzheimer's is expected to triple over the next 30 to 40 years.

This disease would cripple both the Medicare and Medicaid systems. Hence strategies for the early diagnoses, treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's are urgently needed. Delaying the disease course by 5 years could cut its prevalence in half and delaying it by 10 years could potentially wipe it out.

Dr. Steven T. DeKosky, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, presented his findings at a briefing sponsored by the American Medical Association.

There are currently 34.8 million Americans 65 years and older, 4.3 million of whom are 85 or older. Dementia strikes 3% of people aged 65 to 74, 19% of those 75 to 84, and up to 47% of people 85 and older.

Training the immune system to sweep up amyloid plaques, the abnormal protein fragments that collect in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, has been found to be effective in mice. Preliminary trials in humans have found this approach is safe.

Other promising avenues include drugs called neurotrophic factors, which prevent nerve cell death, and drugs that prevent the formation of fibrillary tangles in the brain.