A recent poll conducted by a D.C.-based organization revealed a shocking fact about Americans over the age of 55.
Members of the baby boomer demographic were asked questions in regards to fears of growing older… and the majority response might surprise you.
When asked about their biggest fear as a consequence of growing old, it wasn’t death; or running out of retirement money; or even cancer that scare them most.
It’s Alzheimer’s disease.
An overwhelming amount of those aged 55 and older stated Alzheimer’s disease as their #1 concern. For those of us under 55, that fear wasn’t very far off. In fact, it ranked second — right behind cancer.
Make no mistake; Alzheimer’s disease is a valid fear. The financial and emotional costs it can take on both the victim and their family members are staggering.
The Boomer View of Alzheimer’s
To get a better idea of how baby boomers view the impact of Alzheimer’s on their lives, Alzheimer’s advocacy group ACT-AD (Accelerate Cure/Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease) conducted a survey asking the demographic how they would handle the disease.
Among their findings:
• 95% of respondents said they would be either unprepared or find life "not worth living" if they were to face the limitations of the disease by the time they were 70;
• 80% said that their current savings would not be sufficient to cover medical care if they were diagnosed, and 81% said the same thing about their families’ savings;
• 83% were worried that the health care system is underprepared to cover the demands of the coming Alzheimer’s crisis;
• Only 8% felt that current treatment options were adequate. A whopping 80% said they would be willing to try experimental treatments with potential to stop the disease even if it involved significant health risks.
When you sift through the responses of those polled… it becomes clear why so many boomers are scared of developing Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s has a zero survival rate. Nobody is spared. It robs patients of more than their physical and emotional capacity and their dignity… It steals their most precious asset: their memory. It is perhaps the most devastating and humiliating disease known to man.
The financial impact on the patient is also severe. This year alone, the U.S. is expected to spend over $49.3billion alone in Medicare costs for beneficiaries with Alzheimer’s, and another $33 billion in Medicaid costs for Alzheimer’s care facilities.
As the boomers enter the age range in which Alzheimer’s starts to become prevalent, we can start expecting those costs to skyrocket at the expense of both the individual and family paying for their care, as well as the tax payer’s pocket for Medicare and Medicaid.
But all hope is not lost. Not yet…
Alzheimer’s Research Breaking New Ground
Previous research has focused on several drugs which target two types of proteins: tau and amyloid-beta proteins.
These particular proteins have been found to build up in the brain to an extent that they end up strangling neurons and their pathways to one another.
While drugs which target these proteins have been able to make slight decreases in the progress of the disease, they still do nothing to stop the further memory loss and inevitable neural decline and death of the victim.
Researchers have started to realize that these proteins are a by-product rather than a cause of Alzheimer’s — meaning that, once again, the door is wide open for new ideas and treatments to find their way onto the market and into the hands of the people who need them most.
One promising avenue is the discovery of molecules that are able to protect and even regenerate neurons from the damage caused by the Alzheimer’s disease. If these are taken in conjunction with the drugs that reduce the amount of toxic proteins, we could consider Alzheimer’s all but eliminated.
Any company that could boast such a compound would be able to turn one of the deadliest of mankind’s afflictions into a stock play so profitable that many investors would kill to get their hands on the shares before the "grey plague" strikes.
Lucky for you, we’ve already discovered one such company who is doing just that…
They’ve already seen overwhelming success in animal trials. Now they are just awaiting confirmation to continue into Phase I trials within the next several weeks.
Expect to see a pretty boost in their share prices when that happens.
We’re going to release the report on that Alzheimer’s research company with the launch of our new service, The Hicks and Lowe Letter, coming out in the next couple weeks, at no charge to our paid-up readers.
Rest assured, the baby boomer market trend will carry on for the next couple decades… but you can expect the investment opportunities to begin right now — especially in the biotech sector.
Good investing,
Brian Hicks
Energy and Capital
P.S. If this company ends up with an FDA approval for their Alzheimer’s drug, you could be witness to one of the biggest price explosions of the last decade…
That’s how crucial a role the FDA plays in a biotech company’s value these days. Their net is cast so wide that any pharmaceutical company in the country would be dead in the water right now without FDA backing.
And that means a massive amount of money filtering through Wall Street everyday is dependent on their rulings.
My colleague Ian Cooper has been monitoring this story for some time now, and he recently gained access to a government file which actually pinpoints the precise dates that the FDA will rule on companies’ new products. And the icing on the cake is that Ian’s devised a way for investors to collect gains no matter which way that ruling goes…
It’s pretty amazing. He’s actually developed a "can’t lose" strategy to exploit the FDA’s undeniable market influence. You can check out all the details in a free report he’s releasing tomorrow. From what he’s told me this could be big — very big — so stay tuned for Ian’s latest report in your inbox.
