It’s estimated that about half of the people living with Alzheimer’s are never diagnosed. More than 7 million people in the United States age 65 and older are living with the disease or some other form of dementia, according to the Alzheimer's Association. November is Alzheimer’s Awareness & Family Caregivers Month – a time to shed light on the disease and those who are caring for them.

“There are a lot of people living with the disease and a lot of people caring for loved ones who have Alzheimer's or another form of dementia who never realize it,” said Jim Herlihy, Vice President of Marketing & Communications | Alzheimer's Association Rocky Mountain Region. “The tragedy of that is that in the last year or two there’s now several FDA approved medications that have shown to be effective in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and can help slow the progression.”

They’re not cures but they can at least give the person more quality time and enable them to still be active and living at home and participating with family and friends, he said. “So being able to get the diagnosis in many ways is a blessing for people because A – you can understand what you're dealing with and B – you can plan because there are certainly important things that need to be done like financial and legal planning and power of attorney.”

There are also a number of conditions that mimic the symptoms of Alzheimer's that are treatable, said Herlihy. “It can be depression, stress, side effects of medications, untreated sleep apnea, Lyme disease, thyroid problems and some vitamin deficiencies. Those are treatable and then you can address them head on and then move forward.”

Herlihy said he recently had lunch with a woman who was caring for her husband. “He was later diagnosed with Lewy Body Disease which is another form of dementia. But in the early stages she thought that there was something going on with him, that he was not paying attention to her.”

She felt like they were growing apart and she said she was even contemplating getting a divorce, he said. “It wasn’t until he went to the doctor and was diagnosed that she realized this isn’t his fault. This isn't a choice he’s making, it’s the disease. Then they focused on dealing with it the best that they could.”

This is the time of year when the Alzheimer’s Association gets the highest volume of calls to their helpline, said Herlihy. “This is when families are getting together and maybe they haven’t seen each other for a year or six months and that’s when the gradual changes accumulate over the course of time that if you’re there every day you don’t notice that almost gradual change that happens.”

When someone comes in who has been away for a while all of a sudden they see the changes and they become magnified because they’ve accumulated over the course of that time, he said. “So if you haven’t seen your mother in a long time and she’s always made certain recipes at the holidays for decades and now she can’t remember her favorite recipe – changes that are unexpected. That’s an indication that you should go and consult with the doctor.”

The doctor can administer one of the early tests for Alzheimer’s, Herlihy said. “Tests that doctors should be doing every year on patients after age 65. What they call a Mini-Cognitive exam. People should ask for that. Not necessarily feeling like they have any signs, it’s just something that a doctor should be doing on a regular basis.”

Alzheimer’s caregivers across the U.S. in 2024 numbered over 11.9 million. One in four caregivers report they are “sandwich generation” caregivers, meaning they care for children under age 18 as well as an aging parent, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

“People can support caregivers by just coming over and saying ‘hey when’s the last time you got your hair cut? Let me come and sit with your spouse for an hour or two and you can go out to get a haircut,’” said Herlihy. “Take in a meal. Something they can freeze so they don’t have to prepare it from scratch.”

Engage the person with Alzheimer’s in an activity they’re interested in and include them, he said. “Some of them just love a good conversation. Many of them have been well educated and very successful people who don’t want to be treated like someone who should be institutionalized."

 The Alzheimer’s Association offers programs and services at no charge, including a Helpline at 800-272-3900, staffed 24/7 by trained professionals. For more information and early signs and symptoms visit https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/10_signs.