Washington - A projected 5.2 million people in the US have Alzheimer’s disease and it might affect 1 out of 8 baby boomers, the Alzheimer’s Association reported on Tuesday.
The study found out that there were about 411,000 new cases of the disease in the year 2000 and the figure is expected to rise about 454,000 new cases every year by 2010.

The report predicts that by 2050, around 959,000 persons will be identified with the disease every year.The report says that 14 % (which includes16 % of women and 11 % of men) of the people in the age group of 71 and above have dementia.

The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease and it accounts for around 60 to 80 % of the cases.The disease begins with mild loss of memory and confusion but turns into total memory loss and inability to care for oneself. There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease. A few drugs that are used to treat Alzheimer’s disease can only slow down its advancement for a short time.Until now the exact causes of the disease are not clear. The patient’s brain gets congested with plaques of protein and tangles of nerve fibers. Academic scientists and corporate are working on experiments for disease risk, improved drugs for treating the symptoms and vaccines for preventing brain damage.

Another study that was released this week revealed that more than one-third of people in the U.S with the age of 70 and above suffer from some kind of memory loss.

The research team at the University of Southern California, the Duke University Medical Center, the University of Iowa, the University of Michigan and the Rand Corporation identified that around 12 % of people with cognitive impairment develop dementia each year. The research team studied 856 people.

“These findings demonstrate that almost every family might be faced with the task of caring for a family member with some kind of memory disorder,” reported Brenda Plassman, who led the study that was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

“Given how common cognitive impairment without dementia is, doctors should be attentive to this problem while they evaluate and treat patients for other medical disorders”, said Dr. Robert Wallace of the University of Iowa.

“This can have significant consequences as it means that patients may not be able to portray their symptoms accurately and may not retain important details about their treatment.”

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