Starting this year, more than 10,000 baby boomers a day will turn 65. As these baby boomers age, one in eight will develop Alzheimer’s – a devastating, costly, heartbreaking disease. Increasingly for these baby boomers, it will no longer be their grandparents and parents who have Alzheimer’s – it will be them.

 ”Today, more than 5 million Americans have this disease – including 69,000 right here in Iowa. Even though this disease kills more Americans than diabetes and more than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined, there are still too few people who understand the anguish caused by Alzheimer’s,” said Kelly Hauer, Executive Director of the Alzheimer’s Association East Central Iowa Chapter. “Baby boomers are at the epicenter of a major Alzheimer’s disease crisis in America with staggering implications for families and the country’s health care system,” continued Hauer.

 According to the report, an estimated 10 million baby boomers will develop Alzheimer’s – one in eight will either die with or from this disease. While Alzheimer’s is not normal aging, age is the greatest risk factor for the disease. With one of the most unprecedented demographic shifts starting this year, the report underscores the need for urgent attention to change the trajectory of this disease.

“The anguish of Alzheimer’s is not just experienced by individuals with the disease; their friends, families and communities suffer right along with them. Today there are 11 million friends and families – more than 106,000 people in Iowa – who are looking after a loved one with Alzheimer’s and grappling with the enormous challenges this disease places on their well-being, health and jobs,” said Hauer.

 Beyond the significant toll on families, the financial burden on families is significant and can quickly escalate beyond what is affordable. These costs rival what Alzheimer’s will cost the nation. Over the next 40 years, Alzheimer’s will cost $20 trillion, enough to pay off the national debt and still send a $20,000 check to every man, woman and child in America.

The full text of the Alzheimer’s Association’s Generation Alzheimer’s report can be viewed at www.alz.org/boomers.