According to a report, over sixty percent of working adults with age ranging from 50 to 64 are diagnosed with a chronic health problem. While all people within the specified age range are baby boomers, it is also a popular fact that this generation had an unhealthy/hectic lifestyle. Health problems like cancer, cardiac disorders, high cholesterol, bone and muscle related diseases, diabetes and high or low blood pressure etc. are some of the common health issues among baby boomers.

If you are a baby boomer and are affected by any of the above diseases, it would not be wrong to state that you are worried about the huge costs the treatment of such diseases will incur. Treatment and diagnoses of diseases is never a cheap job. For medical treatments, patients are required to pour hundreds of dollars just in the medical tests alone. While most of you will be able to afford elementary treatment for your medical problems, major problems like heart diseases would be a financial burden for many. Even though medical treatments are costly, it does not mean that they should be a financial burden for anyone. Financial help instruments like health insurance can help baby boomers greatly in securing a stable and healthy future for themselves.

According to the same report referred earlier, around seven million American baby boomers do not have health insurance or have remained uninsured from a long time. Looking at these unfortunate figures, it can be stated that when it comes to healthcare, a lot of baby boomers are not heading in the right direction. Although the unavailability of a health insurance is not a problem for a wealthy individual, baby boomers who belong to the middle to lower income group will definitely face problems in coping with costly healthcare issues without healthcare insurance cover. Some of the problems faced by such baby boomers are:

Continuously escalating health issues: Many people tend to ignore small health problems because of unstable financial inflows. Ignorance of these seemingly small health problems is sometimes what causes complicated health issues that are much more difficult to deal with and thus more cost intensive to treat.

Unstable or inadequate health cover: Many companies offer health insurance cover to their employees but these covers are not enough to cover all the health risks. Baby boomers often think that their health is covered by such health insurance plans and do not bother to update or take another plan to suit their needs.

Healthcare issues are not only hard to deal with, they can also be financially devastating, financial health instruments like health insurance not only help you deal effectively with your financial problems, they can also aid in imparting a healthy and carefree lifestyle that baby boomers are best known for.

Alzheimer’s disease is a common form of dementia usually occurring in old age and afflicts an estimated 30 million individuals in the world. The illness is fatal and death follows swiftly within ten years after first indication of symptoms. Alzheimer’s disease is seen amongst baby boomers, and occurs specifically in individuals above the ages of 65. The disease was first distinguished in 1906 by a Alois Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist and therefore named after him. It is also noted that a less prevalent form of Alzheimer’s disease exists which is the early onset form of the illness, is mostly familial in nature and shows some of the symptoms affecting individuals who are mostly in their 50’s and in rare cases individuals between 30’s and 40’s.

Symptoms

Some of the common symptoms of the disease are:

1. Unusual memory loss where the patient fails to recognize recent events be it places, people or situations.

2. Mood swings and emotional discrepancies.

3. Psycho-motor disabilities where the patient fails to perform complex tasks such as driving and eventually desecrates to a point where the individual cannot even light a match and are dependent completely for care and
as studies indicate, Alzheimer’s disease is caused mostly through gene mutations where great abnormal deposits of a type of protein called Amyloids gathers in the brain tissue, creating knots and clumps which hamper with the mental processes.  The numbers keep increasing with each year and the disease can be considered one of the most dangerous illnesses in the world. Some research studies have even claimed, at least one of eight people from the baby boomer generation is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. It is also noted that the condition is much more prevalent in women as compared to men.

Accounting for more than 60% of the cases in dementia, Alzheimer’s disease mainly has a drastic impact on the entire life of the patient and those around him causing a lot of misery and suffering for all. The brain disorder grips the individual in a manner where his mental processes slowly collapse destroying his sense of reason, imagination and memory. It gets worse where the individual cannot even perform simple tasks and are completely dependent on a caregiver. In the initial stages, the person is capable of understanding his failings which makes life painful, and eventually the condition becomes so worse that the person can never work to the extent that he once could.

Close friends and family members usually face the worst as they suddenly find themselves forsaken and in most cases hurt knowing that their names or relation bring no recollections in the patient.

Research and experimentation is being pursued to find a cure for this disease and a credible solution is yet to be discovered. The only hope that can be given to patients is medication which slows the process down and emotional support provided by friends and family.

The severity of the disease makes it imperative for baby boomers to take precautions against the onset of the disease. Regular physical checkups and consultation with doctors is a must to detect any signs of disease at the onset and start medication to slow down the process.