Aging Baby Boomers Are About to Push Alzheimer's Disease Rates Sky High

The Alzheimer's Association estimates that about 5.8 million Americans currently have Alzheimer's disease, and this number could skyrocket to at least 13.8 million by 2050, reports the Detroit Free Press . The University of Michigan's Eva Feldman speculates that aging baby boomers will transform Alzheimer's into an epidemic-scale problem. Although most who develop Alzheimer's are 65 and older, Feldman emphasizes that the disease is not a normal part of aging, and it has been known to strike younger people. Caring for people with Alzheimer's and other kinds of dementia will cost $290 billion in 2019 alone, rising to an anticipated $1.1 trillion annually by 2050. Feldman acknowledges the combined economic, productivity, and medical cost of Alzheimer's is vast, but the most devastating cost is "the emotional toll that it takes not only on the sufferer but on the family."