Alzheimer's disease is huge burden for US society By By The Associated Press | Associated Press – 18 hrs agoA look at some facts and figures about Alzheimer's disease, the only illness among the top 10 killers of Americans for which there's no cure or even a way to slow disease progression:
HUMAN TOLL: About 5.4 million Americans are suffering with Alzheimer's disease, including 200,000 under age 65. The total is expected to skyrocket to 16 million by 2050. Alzheimer's deaths jumped 66 percent from 2000 to 2008. Worldwide, Alzheimer's accounts for half to three-quarters of the roughly 35 million cases of dementia.
PREVALENCE: One in eight Americans aged 65 or older has Alzheimer's; nearly half those 85 or older have the neurodegenerative disease. Every 68 seconds, another American develops Alzheimer's.
ON THEIR OWN: About 800,000 U.S. Alzheimer's patients, or more than one in seven, live alone, and many don't have a regular caregiver. That puts them at higher risk than other Alzheimer's patients for falls, malnutrition, wandering off unattended, untreated medical conditions and accidental death.
FAMILY BURDEN: Last year, about 15 million family and friends provided more than 17 billion hours of unpaid care — valued at about $210 billion — to people with Alzheimer's and dementia. Many caregivers suffer from depression and high emotional stress, and that physical and emotional toll led to nearly $9 billion in additional health care costs for those caregivers in 2011.
FINANCIAL BURDEN: Direct costs to care for U.S. Alzheimer's patients are estimated at $200 billion this year, including about $140 billion covered by Medicare or Medicaid. Unless treatments to slow, stop or prevent Alzheimer's are developed, care is expected to cost $1.1 trillion, in today's dollars, by 2050.
RELATED COSTS: Most Alzheimer's patients have at least one other serious medical problem, and dementia makes treatment for those conditions more complicated. For example, among seniors with diabetes, it costs Medicare 81 percent more to care for one who also has Alzheimer's.
I wonder how much of this is because people are living so much longer? When they introduced the Canada Pension Plan in 1966 the average lifespan was 72. That isn't even 50 years ago. Incredible numbers there.
Much of it is that we live longer -- and more newborns survive to live longer -- and more wounded soldiers and burn victims and accident and near-death victims live longer. All parts of our body age--including the brain, some faster/slower, better/worse, and many recessive genes come out that would not have shown up when people died younger. We are overwhelming the system. I don't think any of us are willing to change things, but too many are unwilling to recognize those changes. I don't have any answers and as part of the problem, I am happy I am among the very elderly. My father died at 66 & I have many of his genes that keep me on lots of meds and life-styles that did not exist when he died. In 1930 when Soc Sec came in, men lived to about 58, women to 62. He fit the stats perfectly. It's the ultimate Hobson's choice.
While reading this some ideas and questions crossed my mind. I don't know what if any statistics Joan has for this site, but I wonder how many members we have. Of those how many have stars (or should have but haven't added them)? I know earlier this year Joan posted a list of those we'd lost already this year--a lot in a short time. I think that trend has persisted (my DH was one). I also wondered how many, if any Caregivers we've lost not just moved on). I don't think we've lost any.
Then I recalled something I read about some big gathering to discuss/present material about ALZ, and a speaker began by asking all ALZ survivors to stand. No one stood. We keep remarking that we need a spokesperson--a face-- to promote the problem and need to address it. We have the ALZ Assn. but need more.
Then I remember Joan's efforts in the Spring to Represent us in Washington, and I thnk MailyninMD did too, and a couple things clicked. What if at some point in the annual Washingon effort , when all the ALZ representatives were gathered, someone said, "Would all the ALZ Survivors stand up---and everyone stood. Because every one of those Caregivers is a Survivor. I can't claim to be one--DH had VaD, but if the request for Dementia Survivors was asked, I'll claim it. Some even can claim more than one.
Wouldn't that make an impression? Need a face on the problem---look in the mirror.
I guess my age tells,I always read the obits. first.Only once in the past several years did it say death was caused by Alzheimers.I think people do not want people to know their spouse or parent died from Alzheimers. I intend to put the cause of death as Al. in my husbands obit. and how many years he suffered with it. Maybe if more did this the public would get the messageof the huge scope of this disease.I was shocked ,last week,when an acquaintance asked if it would be OK to stop and visit,said that most keep AZ patients hidden. Did you ever hear that one?
I agree with you. However, many of the people that have AD also have other physical conditions that might be the primary condition that caused their death. Of course, AD probably made the other physical conditions worse because the brain controls everything and when the brain is not in good working condition bad things happened. The dr. put cause of death of my husband as "heart failure". That was correct because he did have a bad heart and his heart gave out. I really wanted him to list the cause of death as "heart failure" because that is why my dh was getting disability from the VA because of his exposure to Agent Orange when he was in Nam and if that was the cause of death it meant I would also get part of his disability when he passed.
For some reason this really pisses me off! People's attitudes towards Alz......do they really thinkg this can't happen to them??!! Do they really not understand that any one of us could be next?
When you read that someone died after a long illness, or of pneumonia, it is likely AD. DH had common pneumonia as a young man and penicillin took it out. It's rare for someone to die of it today. Those w/AD get it because they are often bed bound, the lungs fill up or it's aspiration pneumonia because of problems w/eating and swallowing. There is still a lot of stigma attached to AD & other dementias. Families are often reluctant to advertise it. Too bad, but time will change that, just as it did w/cancer. Growing up, no one would even say the word, it was called the 'Big C' if spoken at all.
And 'no' most people believe that if they eat right, keep their mind and body active, they won't get AD. They buy books that tell them how to avoid AD. Ha! But my DH was very active, mentally and physically, I bet that's true of most loved ones on this website.
Carosi2's post has made me think about several of the big challenges faced with AD advocacy--(1) no survivors to act as advocates, in contrast to other diseases, i.e. breast cancer and (2) caregivers are usually too overburdened/stressed out/facing their own aging and health issues/emotionally drained, etc. to have any time or energy left to advocate. Although I've been advocating for several years now, once my husband's AD journey is over, don't know if I will want to continue or join the ranks of many who want to put this nightmare behind me, emotionally speaking. I know I'll always want to do something connected with AD, but lately I've been thinking about something more enjoyable than advocacy, perhaps teaching Zumba to dementia patients who are living in a facility. A friend does this and finds it very rewarding.