The prevalence of dementias in westernized countries, including Alzheimer’s disease, is on the rise, mainly due to graying of the populations as well as to the advances of treatment and care of infectious diseases, cancer and cardiovascular disorders, which all lead to a decreased mortality rate in the elderly. The costs of dementia care worldwide grows on parallel, including both direct and indirect cost for patients and their families, as well as health care systems. It has been estimated that modifying strategy delaying the onset of dementia symptoms of merely 5 years would have already a major impact of both prevalence and costs. Several drugs have been proposed as potentially delaying or preventing dementia, including statins, non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, hormonal therapies, vitamins, natural products and even cholinesterase inhibitors; none of them have been, however, approved for that purpose yet. A number of risk factors might be, on the other hand, managed by non-pharmacological interventions, including lifestyle modifications and early life prevention strategies. In this paper I review current strategies based mainly on cognitive reserve hypothesis. Although no definite recommendations are possible at this point, it looks as if some general issues might already be raised. According to current estimates elderly who keep physically and mentally active, taking care of their cardiovascular fitness as well as moderately restricting their caloric intake (without compromising vitamins and micronutrients) might delay the onset of dementia of several years or even reduce a total risk of developing dementia.