More Americans are being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and, as Baby Boomers age, the numbers of older adults afflicted with the incurable neurological disorder will continue to climb, according to the 2024 annual report from the Alzheimer’s Association.

“The numbers went up fairly sharply in this report,” said Jim Herlihy, senior director of marketing and communications for the Rocky Mountain region of the national association.

According to the Facts & Figures report, which is based on new census data, nearly 91,000 Coloradans now are estimated to have the brain impairment that worsens over time and has no treatment for recovery. That’s up from last year’s estimate of 76,000 Coloradans.

Nationally, the 146-page document shows that 6.9 million people age 65 and older are thought to have some form of dementia, including Alzheimer’s, the most common type.

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Early-onset Alzheimer’s, which applies to people under age 65, affects another 200,000 people nationwide.

About one in 10 El Paso County residents aged 65 or older have Alzheimer’s, amounting to 10,200 people, according to the data. The prevalence is lower in Teller County, with 7.7% of seniors ages 65 and older living with the disease.

Since Alzheimer’s was first identified in the early 1900s, no cure or treatment has emerged, Herlihy said.

“There’s not one single cause — age is the biggest factor,” he said, adding that physical health, diet, exercise, remaining socially and cognitively active, family history and environmental conditions can also play a role.

“It’s an evolving science that’s all hopefully leading to understanding of the causes and ideally leading to a cure,” Herlihy said.

The condition can be debilitating, but many people learn how they can manage their symptoms and continue to lead productive lives.

Rebecca Chopp counts herself in that category.

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She was the chancellor of the University of Denver in 2019 when she was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s after she got lost trying to find her doctor’s office and happened to mention it. Tests showed she had early indications of the disease.

Chopp said she was floored and soon thereafter quit her job to focus on her family and her health.

“I had an extremely stressful job as chancellor, and stress causes inflammation,” she said. “Exercise, diet and creativity all help reduce the inflammation in the brain and may even help the neuropathways create new patterns.”

Five years later, her book, “Still Me: Accepting Alzheimer’s Without Losing Yourself,” was released Feb. 27.

“I wrote the book so people who fear diagnosis or who’d just been diagnosed could find personal experience, research and guides to living a brain-health lifestyle,” Chopp said.

She spent a year writing her first non-academic book geared for the general public.

“Exercise helps you focus; I walked my little husky dog for an hour every morning and got focused and would write for about two hours,” Chopp said.

Another positive change: painting has become a refuge and a way to stimulate her mind, which is a key to staying sharp.

“Learning new skills is important, and research is showing that anything creative — doodling, dancing, woodworking, painting — and it doesn’t have to be priceless art. Anything that stimulates new pathways in the brain is beneficial,” Chopp said.

Early diagnosis is important, she said, because people can make lifestyle changes to slow the progression of symptoms and become part of research studying the disease.

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“What you do is not going to stop it but can slow it down,” said Chopp, a member of the Alzheimer’s Association board who recently was selected to serve on an early-stage advisory group.

“We carry in our mind the image of this disease in its final stages — I did — but many people will live 10 to 15 years, and they can live relatively well if they adopt a brain healthy lifestyle.”

There are encouraging developments, Chopp said, including new medications being approved to delay progression. Also, in a year or two, advancements in biomarker technology will make diagnosis easier.

“With biomarkers, your blood will be able to indicate whether you have the potential or early-stage Alzheimer’s,” she said. Now, a battery of cognitive tests, scans, imaging and perhaps a lumbar puncture are used to determine Alzheimer’s, Chopp said, which can take three to five months or longer.

Half of Alzheimer’s patients go undiagnosed, Herlihy said.

“Part of it is denial, part is people believing Alzheimer’s is part of normal aging,” he said.

Some people have other medical conditions, and Herlihy said a prevailing thought in the field is why pile on to the trauma of someone who’s already dealing with cancer or heart disease.

About 11,200 people per day are expected to turn 65 years old this year, according to the American Association of Retired Persons, a level that’s projected to be sustained through 2027.

That trend will push health care costs higher and cause more stress on caregivers and the memory-care workforce, Herlihy said.

“This is a disease that we’ve got to get the research, treatment and care to the same stage as heart disease and cancer,” Chopp said.