Abstract
Hundreds of millions of people now die over the age of 80 years primarily due to twentieth century progress in hygiene, chemotherapy, and immunology. With a longer average lifespan, the need to improve quality of life during the latter decades is more compelling. "Aging--The Epidemic of the New Millenium," a recent international conference (Monte Carlo, June 17-18, 2000), showed with peculiar clarity that a safe and efficient drug strategy to slow the age-related decay of brain performance is still missing. This review summarizes the physiologic and pharmacologic arguments in favor of a peculiar lifelong prophylactic medication with reasonable chances to keep in check brain aging and decrease the precipitation of age-related neurological diseases.