california s first lady maria shriver to produce the shriver report. a woman s nation takes on alzheimer s. in the first of our week long reports, christiane amanpour shows us how the disease hits home. reporter: every 70 seconds in the united states some one is diagnosed with alzheimer s. and the country is ill-prepared for the coming epidemic. with the coming of the baby boomers, coming of age, almost 80 million of them will be seeing a tsunami, increase in alzheimer s disease. reporter: and women are at the epicenter they make up 2/3 of people who have alzheimer s and of those who care for people with the disease. a big part of this has to do with longevity. women are still living longer than men. got to run. reporter: karen parks understood her 80-year-old mother losing her memory.
but her world came to a screeching halt when her 56-year-old husband jerry was diagnosed with early onset alzheimer s. i could see myself sitting there, i thought to myself should i be putting my arm around my husband? am i hearing this right? i mean, you were it just absolutely stops you cold. reporter: with his lifelong passion for woodwork and building, jerry was at the top of his career as a successful construction executive, only to be laid off when his memory began to fail. i looked at the doc, i said, i had rheumatic fever when i was a kid, and i beat that. and i said i will beat this one too. i got to take a break. and he said, you know, you really won t. so reporter: with two of their four children still at home they were forced to downsize, and karen went back to work as a
teacher, after a 20-year absence. he was my rock. he was the breadwinner. and i am having to take on some of that. i miss the jerry and karen of before. all i hope is that every year that i have that i can be as productive as i can be and i want to enjoy life. i spent a lot of time focusing on the family and friends and doing the things i want to do. reporter: the debilitating disease affects the patient and the caregiver, who s more likely to become depressed, have an increase in heart disease and six times more susceptible to dementia. these women caregivers suffer at work too. many are forced to go part time or quit altogether. karen says as jerry worsens, she ll have to cut back her hours. and she is not sure how she will afford the medical bills. according to the shriver report, the united states will spend an