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A recent study from the University of California, Los Angeles, projects that the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s or “mild cognitive impairment” (early symptoms of the disease) will more than double by 2060. That comes out to about 15 million people.
“What’s really driving that is a change in the age structure of our population. We’re getting older, and that profile is going to see a lot more Alzheimer’s disease,” Ron Brookmeyer, a professor of biostatistics at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, said by phone. “This was the first study that has actually quantified the number of people who not only have Alzheimer’s dementia — which is the late stage of the disease — but also quantified the earlier stages,” he added.
Brookmeyer and his colleagues estimate that about 47 million people in the U.S. currently have evidence of preclinical Alzheimer’s. These signs aren’t exactly noticeable symptoms, but instead biomarkers detected by doctors — such as the buildup of beta-amyloid protein fragments in the body or brain neurodegeneration.