A 65 year old baby boomer has a one in eight chance of suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Look around. How many people do you know that are 65 or older?
Alzheimer's Reading Room
Here is the first sentence:
A 65 year old baby boomer has a one in eight chance of suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Starting today, and over the weekend, you are going to hear those words repeated over and over on television and in the news.
This is all based on a new report that was released by the Alzheimer's Association.
I am reprinting the short article below. You might want to consider using the Share button above and emailing this to family and friends. It is sure to be a hot topic.
Can Baby Boomers Dodge the Alzheimer's Bullet?
A 65 year old baby boomer has a one in eight chance of suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Look around. How many people do you know that are 65 or older?
The odds of suffering from Alzheimer's disease increases each year until age 85 when it rises to about 42 percent. Imagine, almost one out of every two baby boomer's age 85 or older can expect to suffer from Alzheimer's disease.
When Alzheimer's disease strikes the entire family suffers. Alzheimer's disease is hard to understand, hard to comprehend. As a result, it is not unusual for family member to deny its existence. This leads to additional heartache and sometimes leads to the disintegration of family units. A large fraction of Alzheimer's caregivers say they are not being helped by family members, and they often feel abandoned.
Alzheimer's is a sinister disease.
Many of the children of Baby Boomers can expect to suffer right along with the person suffering from Alzheimer's. Families might start considering what they are going to do if Alzheimer's strikes.
The oldest of the baby boomer's is 65 right now. Ten thousand Baby Boomers are turning 65 each day. The Alzheimer's tsunami is here.
Recent studies show that 150 million Americans have been touched by Alzheimer's. This means someone in their family has Alzheimer's; or that, they know someone suffering from Alzheimer's disease. About 50 million Americans are worried about Alzheimer's. The rest will be receiving a wake up call soon.
Right now, there is no cure for Alzheimer's. No way to stop the progression of the disease. The world's top Alzheimer's research scientists believe that an effective treatment could be available by 2020. The current goal is to find ways to identify the conditions that predispose a person to Alzheimer's disease; then, to develop drugs or gene therapies that will slow, or stop the disease from progressing.
In order for this to work effectively, people will need to start getting memory tests. Right now, few people 65 or older do this. They just don't want to know. They prefer to wait until the disease presents as full blown. Only then will they start seeking treatment.
This is mistake. A critical mistake that often tears families apart.
Early detection is critical. In some cases the existing drugs, primarily the combination of Aricept and Namenda, allow the person to live their life the way they had for many years.
My mother, now 94 years old, suffers from Alzheimer's disease. If I knew ten years ago what I know today, I would have gotten her tested and I would learned more about Alzheimer's disease in advance of her diagnosis.
Most people believe that Alzheimer's caregiving is a horrific experience. It does not have to be that way. Alzheimer's caregiving can be a wonderful and fulfilling experience. In order for this to happen you must learn about the disease before it strikes, and learn what to do when it strikes.
My advice to my fellow Baby Boomers and their children is to take action now. If you are 65 or older, start getting your memory tested. If you are a child of a baby boomer start learning about Alzheimer's disease.
You can stick your head in the sand and suffer the devastating consequences. Or, you can get out in front of the disease and make a plan that allows for the person suffering from Alzheimer's to live their life to the fullest degree possible.
Don't take my word for it. Ask any Alzheimer's caregiver and the majority will tell you they wish they had gotten the diagnosis sooner, and they wish they knew what to do in advance.
Bob DeMarco is the Founder of the Alzheimer's Reading Room. An X Wall Street executive, he dropped out of the world in 2003 to care for his mother who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Bob and Dorothy continue to live their lives the way they always did. You can learn more about Alzheimer's disease, and effective Alzheimer's caregiving at www.alzheimersreadingroom.com
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- Does the Combination of Aricept and Namenda Help Slow the Rate of Decline in Alzheimer's Disease Patients
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- Ten Symptoms of Early Stage Alzheimer's Disease
- Ten Tips for Communicating with an Alzheimer’s Disease Patients
Bob DeMarco is the Founder of the Alzheimer's Reading Room and an Alzheimer's caregiver. The blog contains more than 2,255 articles with more than 272,100 links on the Internet. Bob resides in Delray Beach, FL.
Original content Bob DeMarco, the Alzheimer's Reading Room