Huge Impact on Baby Boomers' Lives

1 out of 8 Baby Boomers, an estimated 10 million in America, will develop Alzheimer's disease in their lifetime.

A report, released this week by the Alzheimer's Association, showed that the disease is now the seventh deadliest in the nation and that women are at a greater risk than men.  The age of highest risk for Alzheimer's starts at 65, said Stephen McConnell, the association's vice president for advocacy and public policy. "Some of these people are already developing the disease, and those numbers are just going to increase dramatically over the next several decades," he added.

Currently, at least 5.2 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's, including 200,000 to 250,000 people under age 65.  By 2010, projections say there will be 500,000 new cases of the mind-wasting disease each year, and nearly one million new cases annually by 2050, the report estimates.  This is going to have a huge impact on Baby Boomers' lives, their families, and the nation's health-care system, McConnell said.

There seems to be a connection between Alzheimer's and cardiovascular disease, McConnell said.  Diet, exercise and blood-pressure control may help stave off cognitive decline and Alzheimer's, he said.  Also, new drugs being tested "show promise in altering the course of the disease," McConnell said.

Most people with Alzheimer's are eligible for Medicare, so a burgeoning number of Alzheimer's patients will put a major strain on the federal health insurance program, McConnell pointed out.

Medicare currently spends more than three times as much money on people with Alzheimer's and other dementias than it does for the average Medicare recipient. In 2005, Medicare spent $91 billion on people with Alzheimer's and other dementias. By 2010, that number is expected to climb to $160 billion, and by 2015, to $189 billion annually, according to the report.

These high Medicare costs occur because Alzheimer's tends to complicate the treatment of other medical conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, McConnell said. Also, while people with Alzheimer's live an average of eight years, they can live more than 20 years, placing an additional strain on the health-care system. 

Source: 2008 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures, Alzheimer's Association, New York, NY, March 18, 2008