As we age, many of us begin to wonder where we will end up and who will take care of us. While it’s always great when family members step forward to take on the responsibility, there are reliable, safe, and friendly nursing homes and care facilities available for anyone looking for one, and many even specialize in providing care to those with conditions like alzheimers and dementia.

The older you get, the more susceptible you are to developing conditions like dementia and alzheimers. But what are these conditions, and how many people suffer from them in the United States?For starters, alzheimers is the sixth leading cause of death for people living in the United States, and a whopping two-thirds with the condition are women. What makes alzheimers so scary is that unlike many other conditions, it can’t be treated, slowed, or cured. It’s a common condition that currently affects an estimated five million people, a number that is expected to rise to nearly 16 million by 2050. To put it into perspective, about one in eight people of retirement age or older have been diagnosed with alheimers in the U.S. That’s a lot of people.

So what is being done to combat this terrible offshoot of dementia, which itself affects about 35.6 million people around the world? Well, because there is no official cure yet, there is a lot of attention being spent on finding one. To find a cure, however, research is needed, which is why it’s a great thing that back in 2011 the government set aside $450 million for alzheimers research. This is a good thing, considering the fact that a vast majority of people living in nursing homes have alzheimers or another form of dementia. In fact, as it stands now, 64 percent of people living in nursing homes over the age of 65 have the condition.

Because so many people are affected by dementia, it’s no wonder that families prefer nursing homes with staff skilled at handling patients with dementia. Afterall, dementia doesn’t make you less human. Fortunately, enough nursing homes have caught on to the importance of providing friendly, compassionate, and adequate care to meet the needs of all their patients.