According to the latest annual report, "2009 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures," by the Alzheimer's Association, not only is the disease playing havoc with the body and mind of the estimated 5.3 million affected Americans, it weighs heavily on the expenses too. Medicare, on an average, spends three times more on each Alzheimer's patient compared to the patients without the disease.

In its statement, the association said: "Direct and indirect costs of Alzheimer's and other dementias amount to more than $148 billion annually." The association's last year estimates also indicate that about 10 million caregivers in the US put in a total of 8.5 billion hours for the provision of unpaid care to Alzheimer's patients.

The association reported that the brain-wasting ailment would affect about half-a-million new patients each year by 2010; and almost one million new cases each year by 2050.

With the increase in the cases of Alzheimer's disease, the healthcare infrastructure of the states will be over-burdened, to the extent that some states might even witness over 80 percent addition to the number Alzheimer's patients by 2025!

Talking about the need to take counteractive measures, Harry Johns, Alzheimer's Association CEO said: "A strategy to immediately confront Alzheimer's has the potential to save millions of lives and billions of dollars by reducing the burden on Medicare and Medicaid."