Summary
Alzheimer's disease is becoming more and more common and the patients are being diagnosed younger than ever before. As the baby boomers age the number of Alzheimer's patients is said to increase exponentially. Officials worry about who will carry the financial and emotional burden of treating the aging baby boomers.
Original source:
http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=3009861
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Six years ago, Jim Brennan was a top cop in the violent crimes unit of the Chicago Police Department.
Today, he can't handle a gun without hurting himself.
At 58, he is a point man walking into a nightmare that threatens to ambush an entire generation of baby boomers.
"It's very unsettling, but the reality is we are diagnosing more and more younger patients with Alzheimer's disease," says Dr. Marwan Sabbagh of the Sun Health Research Institute in Sun City, one of the nation's premier facilities for the study of dementia.
In Arizona, the number of Alzheimer's sufferers has grown nearly 9 percent in the past four years, to about 85,000 in 2004 from 78,000 in 2000.
And projections call for as many as 130,000 in the year 2025, in part because of the aging boomers and in part because of more sophisticated techniques for diagnosing the disease.
A study by the Chicago-based Alzheimer's Association projects the 11 states with the fastest-growing Alzheimer's populations during the next two decades will be in the West.
Boomers have defined the nation's social, political, economic and cultural trends for decades.
Now, as the oldest boomers approach their 60s, they are harbingers of a health care trend that is expected to see the number of Alzheimer's sufferers soar from today's 4.5 million to between 11 million and 16 million by 2050.
Just dealing with today's victims swallows at least $100 billion a year in direct and indirect expenses, according to federal estimates.
"People need to realize that
Alzheimer's isn't always about old-timers," Brennan's wife, Sharon, says.
After Jim retired in 1999 from the violent crimes unit of the Chicago police force, he was focused on the future.
About the author: Mike Adams is an award-winning journalist and holistic nutritionist with a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal and planetary health He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, and he is well known as the creator of popular downloadable preparedness programs on financial collapse, emergency food storage, wilderness survival and home defense skills. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams created TV.NaturalNews.com, a natural living video sharing site featuring thousands of user videos on foods, fitness, green living and more. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also the CEO of a highly successful email newsletter software company that develops software used to send permission email campaigns to subscribers. Adams is currently the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and pursues hobbies such as martial arts, Capoeira, nature macrophotography and organic gardening.
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Sunday, March 06, 2005
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