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A recently published decades-long research featured in the New England Journal Medicine is raising hopes among those who think that lifestyle factors are strongly linked to the either delay or prevention of dementia as the risk among patients appears to be on the decline by 20% since the late 70's.

There have been worrying reports of an impending dementia crisis that will hit the US as soon as most baby boomers turn old that even presidential hopefuls are trying to frame the looming epidemic to fit their agenda.

According to US News and World Report, dementia rates seemed to have decreased by over 44% in four decades based on a careful analysis of the medical records of 5, 205 people Framingham Massachusetts. Furthermore, the report indicated that the average age at which dementia begins to surface increased from 80 to 85. Scientists also revealed that people reported better heart health condition for those who had high school degree or higher.

"Can we, a couple of decades down the road, bend the arc? ... Stroke used to be the second leading cause of death, and now it's the fifth. Maybe we can do this for dementia, too," remarked study's lead author and neurology professor Sudha Seshadri of Boston University School of Medicine as quoted saying by The Washington Post.

According to a New York Times report, the findings of the new study will surely have strong implications for America's public health agenda especially research funding as the study suggest that dementia care may not be as exorbitantly costly as most people had previously thought.

"There's more studies suggesting that the risk is going down and we might have to rethink some of the projections of how big a problem dementia will be 30 years from now," said internal medicine professor Dr. Kenneth Langa of the University of Michigan as quoted by the New York Times.