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"The world is not as bright. The colors and the sounds, music, all of that, are attenuated. The quality of all those experiences has diminished."
—Dr. Stephen Hume, early-stage Alzheimer's disease patient and member of the Alzheimer's Association National Board of Directors

The Impact of Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's is a disease that causes a progressive loss of the brain's ability to function, and, ultimately, death.

And the statistics on Alzheimer’s disease are staggering.

It is the only cause of death among the top 10 in America without a way to prevent, cure, or even slow its progression. The disease affects approximately 18 million people worldwide, and the number is expected to nearly double by 2025 to 34 million. In the U.S. alone, more than half of the population knows someone with the disease, says the Alzheimer's Association, and in 2010 approximately 15 million Americans were unpaid caregivers for Alzheimer’s patients.

The Alzheimer’s Association also notes the high physical and emotional toll on caregivers of people with Alzheimer's or other dementias: 43 percent said the physical stress of caregiving was high to very high, 60 percent rate the emotional stress of caregiving as high or very high.

Unless something changes,  the total payments for health care, long-term care, and hospice for people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias in the U.S. are projected to increase from $183 billion in 2011 to $1.1 trillion in 2050 (in 2011 U.S. dollars).       

The impact of Alzheimer’s disease is being felt in families, homes and communities worldwide. These figures are adding urgency to the work being done today by scientists around the world.

The Journey Toward Understanding

The world’s scientific community has known about Alzheimer’s disease for more than 100 years. Yet that knowledge has only grown into better understanding in the past 25 years.

“Even though Dr. Alzheimer characterized the disease in 1907, it wasn’t until the last few decades that the disease became recognized as a real illness separate from normal aging and other forms of dementia,” said Darryle Schoepp, Ph.D., senior vice president and franchise head of  Neuroscience and Ophthalmology for Merck.

“Now people are living longer, and we can see how the disease works,” said David Michelson, M.D., vice president of Clinical Neuroscience Research for Merck. “Science is at a place where not only do we understand more about it, but we might potentially be able to do something about it. We’re getting closer to being able to test some new hypotheses about what causes Alzheimer’s.”

“It's an exciting time, but it's an early time,” said Richard Hargreaves, Ph.D., vice president, Worldwide Franchise Discovery Head, Neuroscience for Merck. “The hypotheses are well-grounded in the science and the biology and in the human pathophysiology, but we still have the big experiments to do. We still have to take these new approaches into patients and figure out if they really provide a benefit.”

With increased understanding and new technologies, researchers are now conducting clinical trials. Programs like the Alzheimer's Association Trial Match™ initiative are helping link people who have the disease to specific clinical trials.

The Need to Raise Awareness

As the journey toward finding a medical solution continues in the worldwide research community, the path forward for current Alzheimer’s disease patients and caregivers remains difficult.

That makes the efforts by many organizations, companies and individuals to raise awareness and offer support even more important.

“Knowledge is power,” said certified Alzheimer’s disease educator, author and former caregiver Patti Kerr. “Understanding how Alzheimer’s disease impacts the patient and the caregiver allows us to raise awareness, to remove some of the stigma and to give people more hope that we can get through this together.”  

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