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Report: Alzheimer's toll up 10% in 5 years

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 20, 2007

WASHINGTON - More than 5-million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease, a 10 percent increase since the last Alzheimer's Association estimate five years ago - and a count that supports the long-forecasted dementia epidemic as the population grays.

Age is the biggest risk factor, and the report to be released today shows the nation is on track for skyrocketing Alzheimer's once the baby boomers start turning 65 in 2011. Already, one in eight people 65 and older have the mind-destroying illness, and nearly one in two people over 85.

Unless scientists discover a way to delay the disease's brain attack, some 7.7-million people are expected to have Alzheimer's by 2030, the report says. By 2050, that toll could reach 16-million.

Why? Ironically, in fighting heart disease, cancer and other diseases, "we're keeping people alive so they can live long enough to get Alzheimer's disease," said association vice president Steve McConnell.

Indeed, government figures released last year show small drops in deaths from most of the nation's leading killers from 2000 to 2004, even as deaths attributed to Alzheimer's increased 33 percent.

Yet the report also contains a startling finding: Between 200,000 and half a million people under age 65 have either early onset Alzheimer's or another form of dementia.

The new report is the first update of the Alzheimer's toll since 2002, when it was estimated to afflict 4.5-million people.

No one knows what causes Alzheimer's creeping brain degeneration. There is no known cure, and today's drugs only temporarily alleviate symptoms.

[Last modified March 20, 2007, 02:25:44]