Numbers going up on Alzheimer’s cases
Alzheimer’s researchers are predicting that the percentage of elderly in the population may be escalating twice as fast as current estimates pushing the number of patients with Alzheimer’s disease to epidemic levels.
Bethesda, MD-based National Institutes of Health demographer Richard Suzman reported late last month that the segment of the population most prone to the onset of severe Alzheimer’s symptoms between 80 to 85 years of age "may indeed grow faster than initial projections, with a high-end estimate of 31.3 million. Experts say about 50% of those numbers are likely to be struck by Alzheimer’s. On top of the sheer numbers, the erosion of traditional families due to divorce, dislocation, and shrinking family size may leave those future patients with few resources to turn to.
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