Alzheimer's Deaths Continue to Rise

While deaths from other major diseases, such as heart disease, HIV/AIDS and stroke, continue to experience significant declines, Alzheimer's deaths continue to rise -- increasing 68% from 2000-2010.

Below are some "Quick Facts" from the Alzheimer's Association 2013 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures:

Alzheimer's diseases is the 

sixth leading cause of death 

in the United States.

More than 5 million Americans 

are living with the disease.

1-in-3 seniors dies with Alzheimer's

or another dementia.

In 2012, 15.4 million caregivers

provided more than 17.5 billion

hours of unpaid care

valued at $216 billion.

Nearly 15% of caregivers for people

with Alzheimer's or another

dementia are long-distance

caregivers.

In 2013, Alzheimer's will cost

the nation $204 billion.

This number is expected to rise

to $1.2 trillion by 2050.

Prevalence

An estimated 5.2 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer's disease in 2013. This includes an estimated 5 million people age 65 and older and approximately 200,000 individuals younger than age 65 who have younger-onset Alzheimer's.

The number of Americans with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias will grow as the U.S. population age 65 and older continues to increase. By 2025, the number of people age 65 and older with Alzheimer's disease is estimated to reach 7.1 million—a 40 percent increase from the 5 million age 65 and older currently affected. By 2050, the number of people age 65 and older with Alzheimer's disease may nearly triple, from 5 million to a projected 13.8 million, barring the development of medical breakthroughs to prevent, slow or stop the disease.

Mortality
Alzheimer's disease is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States overall and the 5th leading cause of death for those aged 65 and older. It is the only cause of death among the top 10 in America without a way to prevent it, cure it or even slow its progression. Deaths from Alzheimer's increased 68 percent between 2000 and 2010, while deaths from other major diseases, including the number one cause of death (heart disease), decreased.

While ambiguity about the underlying cause of death can make it difficult to determine how many people die from Alzheimer's, there are no survivors. If you do not die from Alzheimer's disease, you die with it. One in every three seniors dies with Alzheimer's or another dementia.

Impact on Caregivers

In 2012, 15.4 million family and friends provided 17.5 billion hours of unpaid care to those with Alzheimer's and other dementias — care valued at $216.4 billion, which is more than eight times the total sales of McDonald's in 2011. Eighty percent of care provided in the community is provided by unpaid caregivers.Nearly 15 percent of caregivers are long-distance caregivers, living an hour or more away from their loved ones. Out-of-pocket expenses for long-distance caregivers are nearly twice as much as local caregivers.

More than 60 percent of Alzheimer's and dementia caregivers rate the emotional stress of caregiving as high or very high; more than one-third report symptoms of depression. Due to the physical and emotional toll of caregiving, Alzheimer's and dementia caregivers had $9.1 billion in additional health care costs of their own in 2012.

Cost to the Nation

In 2013, the direct costs of caring for those with Alzheimer's to American society will total an estimated $203 billion, including $142 billion in costs to Medicare and Medicaid. Total payments for health care, long-term care and hospice for people with Alzheimer's and other dementias are projected to increase from $203 billion in 2013 to $1.2 trillion in 2050 (in current dollars). This dramatic rise includes a 500% increase in combined Medicare and Medicaid spending.

Nearly 30 percent of people with Alzheimer's and other dementias are on both Medicare and Medicaid, compared to 11 percent of individuals without these conditions.

The average per-person Medicare costs for those with Alzheimer's and other dementias are three times higher than for those without these conditions; the average per-person Medicaid spending for seniors with Alzheimer's and other dementias is 19 times higher than average per-person Medicaid spending for all other seniors.

Click Here to download the full-report.

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Beta Testers Wanted!

"Caregivers are constantly faced with never-ending tasks. It is often difficult to keep all the caregivers informed and coordinated. Unfrazzle is a simple smartphone app that can make a difference in the lives of caregivers. It is our attempt to bring some serenity to this chaos." 

--Rajiv Mehta, Unfrazzle Founder & Developer

After months of development, testing and retesting, Unfrazzle is now in beta and we have a need for a few more beta testers.



Unfrazzle is a simple app that works on an iPhone (an Android version will be released a bit later). It is a task management and task sharing tool that is designed to give you peace of mind. 

With Unfrazzle, tasks are not forgotten. Reminders can be set to let you know when something needs to be done. Checkmarks tell you when tasks have been completed. And tasks can be assigned to other people in your Unfrazzle circle of family or friends. 

To help beta testers get started with Unfrazzle, we created a video User Guide that uses a simple caregiving example to show you how to set up Unfrazzle. You can see the User Guide by clicking here. 

We are looking for a few people who are caring for themselves or their family members. They also need to be willing to talk to us about their experiences with Unfrazzle, letting us know what they liked or did not like.

If you, and other members of you family, would like to participate in the Unfrazzle beta test, please email unfrazzle@gmail.com and tell us the following:

• What is your caregiving situation? Who do you care for? Family member(s)? Friends?

• Will others in your circle (family or friends) join you in the Unfrazzle beta?

• How do you think Unfrazzle will help you? What difference might it make?

Once again, this is for iPhone users only. The Android version of Unfrazzle will come out later.

We are very excited to be at this stage of Unfrazzle's development, and with a little help from our beta testers, we believe will have a very effective app that will really make a difference in the lives of caregivers. 

Won't you help us out? 

REDUCE Your Risk of Cancer

ONE

Live a Healthy Lifestyle 

Don’t smoke: Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world.
Maintain a healthy body weight: Obesity is on course to 
overtake tobacco as the leading cause for cancer in the United States. 
Reduce stress: Emotions and cancer are connected. Men who are depressed have been found to have more pancreatic cancer. 
Nurture positive thoughts and emotions. 
Exercise often: The incidence of all forms of cancer correlates 
with a lack of physical fitness. 
The American Cancer Society says at least 30 minutes a day 
of dedicated exercise above and beyond 
the usual activities of daily life 
on five or more days a week is needed to reduce your cancer risk. 
Regular exercise reduces the risk of breast cancer in women.

Get plenty of sleep: Lack of sleep can lead to a breakdown 

in immunity, which in turn makes your body 

more susceptible to cancer. 

Get some sun: Twenty minutes of sunshine 

a day can reduce your risk. 

Use sunscreen: If you’ll be in the sun for a longer period, 

and get an annual skin exam from a dermatologist. 

TWO

Eat the Right Foods

Eat your veggies: Simply eating more vegetables and fruits 

could eliminate about 20 percent of cancers.  

Eat less fat: By avoiding animal products,

you can double this number, preventing two of every five cancers, 

according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

 Eat Less Meat: No more than 18 ounces of red meat per week. 

Every additional 1.7 ounces increases your cancer risk by 15 percent.

Avoid grilled, broiled, and fried meat.  

Never eat processed meat: Every 1.7 ounces of processed meat

consumed per day increases 

the risk of colorectal cancer by 21 percent. 

Be a Vegetarian if you can: Vegetarians have dramatically 

lower cancer rates, as much as 50 percent.  

Cut back on dairy: Men who consume 2½ servings or more 

of dairy per day are 30 percent more likely 

to develop prostate cancer.

Go Soy: Men who drink soy milk more than once a day 

have a 70 percent reduced rate of prostate cancer. 

Less calcium: High calcium diets are also associated

with higher prostate cancer risk.  

Avoid: Sugar, salt, moldy food, alcohol, and saturated 

and hydrogenated oil. 

Use olive oil: Populations with an olive oil rich diet, 

such as Mediterranean cuisine, have a lower incidence of cancer.

Greek women have a much lower rate of breast cancer.

Eat cancer-fighting foods: Garlic has been shown 

to be an effective inhibitor of the cancer process. 

Drinking three or more cups of green tea a day 

reduces the likelihood of stomach and esophageal cancer. 

Other cancer-fighting foods include: tomatoes, 

whole grains, citrus fruits, blueberries, apple peels, kale, spinach, fava beans, soy, onions, squash, sweet potatoes, apricots, grapefruit, grapes, lemons,mangoes, papayas, peaches, 

persimmons, strawberries, tangerines, 

and curciferous vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, 

brussels sprouts and bok choy. 

Increase fiber intake: High fiber diets are associated 

with lower colon cancer rates.

THREE

Take Supplements

Take vitamins: It is impossible to get adequate nutrients 

for optimal health from diet alone. 

Take a multivitamin with 800 mcg of folic acid.

If you drink alcohol, take additional folic acid.

Take additional cancer-fighting supplements: Selenium 

has been shown to have the ability to slow 

or even stop cancer growth. Take it with vitamin E. 

Probiotics promote the growth of healthy bacteria in the colon and reduce the conversion of bile acids into carcinogens.

Vitamin D suppresses angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels that nourish the growth of tumors. 

Take 1000 IU a day. Consider taking CoQ10, omega-3, milk thistle, palmetto (men only), nattokinase, acetyl-L-carnitine, extra vitamin C, 

alpha lipoic acid, zinc, and beta-carotene.

FOUR

Avoid Toxins

Avoid industrial areas: Industrial toxins have estrogenic properties which may be at the root of increased 

breast cancer and other cancers. 

Limit the use of skin and cosmetic products: The average American is exposed to 100 distinct chemicals 

from personal care products a day. Many of these are hormone-mimicking agents, and many are known carcinogens. 

Avoid products containing parabens, 

which have been detected in human breast tumors. 

Beware of personal products containing phthalates, which soak into the skin, accumulate and are suspected to contribute to cancer.

 Don’t dye your hair: People who use hair dyes 

at least once a month

for a year may be more likely to develop bladder cancer.  

Throw away your Teflon: Don’t cook with pans 

coated with nonstick chemicals.  

Limit radiation: Be aware that radiation accumulates 

in the body and avoid unnecessary CT scans such as full body scans. Get mammograms from radiologists at academic medical centers. 

Avoid unnecessary X-rays. 

Avoid: asbestos, chlorinated tap water, electric and magnetic fields, pesticides, PBDEs, and phthalates.

.........

This chart was prepared by David Bunnell and reviewed by Dr. Frederic Vagnini. It is presented as information only and not intended as a substitute for advice from your medical doctor.

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A Better Way to Die?

When my son-in-law Charles died last week, I realized my wife's 2 1/2 year caregiving journey had come to an end. 

Those endless days of sitting with Charles in chemotherapy, going to doctor visits, hunting down a pharmacy that carried his pain medication, buying groceries, running errands, arranging for him to see relatives in Los Angeles and Cincinnati, making sure someone else checked up on him when she couldn't...all these things and a thousand more were over. 

She's going to be stunned at how much time she has, I remember thinking.

It was really hard seeing Charles so thin and so weak. 

Charles had a chiseled, rock-hard body. He was a martial arts black belt, he taught yoga classes and ran marathons. He could do the splits. 

Because he was so strong, so determined to beat cancer, and always upbeat, smiling and saying he felt fine, many of his relatives were convinced he would win the battle--they didn't visit with him as much as they now wish they did.

The good news though, for Charles, for my wife, myself, his two daughters, close friends and relatives was he chose to spend his final days in home hospice in his own apartment. He was only at the hospital for two nights, during which he repeatedly said, "I just want to go home." 

My previous experiences with death have involved watching people spend prolong stays in the hospital and sudden, unexpected accidents. Both were horrible and I hope to never experience them again.

Home hospice is another matter. 

Home hospice doesn't make dying wonderful, but if we simply have to die, this is the way to go. For Charles, like his hospitalization, his home hospice was only two days. The median time for others is 19. 

Still those two days were remarkable for all the friends and relatives who trekked to his apartment from near and far. They came to visit and some stayed to help care for him. While he drifted in and out of consciousness, Charles was aware enough to know who was visiting him and near the end who was talking to him on the phone. 

I remember looking up from where I was sitting in the next room and seeing a group of male friends hanging around his bed, which we had set up in the living room. Charles' jumbo screen TV was on and they were loudly joking about some recent NFL trades that were being discussed on ESPN.

It was just the kind of conversation Charles loved and I saw a flicker of a smile on his face. It was the last time I saw him smile, a moment I'll never forget. 

Would this have happened at the hospital?

At the hospital I imagine the nurses would have told the fellas to tone it down or the fellas would have been too intimated in the first place.

When death finally came, at least 10 of Charles' closest friends and relatives were gathered near his bed and his youngest daughter lay beside him. The TV was still on, only now it was tuned to a music channel, an instrumental version of "Beyond the Sea" was playing. 

We decide to leave Charles in the bed overnight before calling the mortuary. For the next several hours other friends came to see him and those of us who wanted to got to spend time alone with him.

Because so many of us had had a chance to say goodbye and to be with Charles we decided it wasn't necessary to have him embalmed for a viewing at the funeral parlor. Just as home hospice had seemed so natural, no chemicals seemed natural too.

I will be forever grateful to the hospice people who made this happen. 

From now on, I will be an advocate for home hospice. It is a great thing that Medicare covers this service, which is not just for the dying but also for the relatives.

Hospice care is available only to people who are likely to die within 6 months. It is based on a philosophy that accepts death as an inevitable outcome for a patient with a terminal illness.

Hopsice involves a team caregiving approach to the final days. The hospice program provides a doctor, visiting nurses with special training, a "spiritualist" if you want one, therapist, and sometimes a homemaker. Family members can received fully paid grief therapy for up to a year after their loved one dies.

Hospice care saves money because providers (nonprofit and for-profit) receive $144.91 a day for their services, whereas hospitalization in an intensive care unit can cost $10,000 a day, including drugs, equipment and staff. 

More and more people are opting to die at home, surrounded by loved ones, rather than in a hospital, attached to tubes and monitors. This is a good thing. 

If you want to learn more about hospice, here are some links:

          Next Step in Care 
          Mayo Clinic: End of Life  
          National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization 
          Hospice Foundation of America

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