Alzheimer's disease affects fifty-three million people in the world at the present. The ratios of 1 to 8 persons afflict those who are 65 years of age and up. There is a new person affected by this disease every seventy seconds, so Alzheimer's ranks sixth in the top reason for death. Since this illness poses a lot of challenges it usually weakens the health of the people who give care for the patients. Almost 10 million caregiver who were unpaid, many are members of the family use hundred forty-eight billion dollars for the care of the patients.

Ten percent of 9.9 million families and some unpaid caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's and other dementias who reside 2 hours or more from their patients and another 4 percent reside away from the person they give care for. These figures show that 990,000 to 1.4 million caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's and other dementias are "long distance caregivers."

Taking care from a distance is more complicated because the dementia patients tend to "wander". The exact figure of "official" occurrences of wandering may not considerably be reported, but the 60 percent of these patients will wander - equivalent to 3,000,000 persons. If they are not searched immediately, most of them will suffer to the harsh conditions or difficulties in the environments. The boundary that divides death with dementia and death from dementia is unclear up to now.

GPS enabled shoes are being introduced to the consumers by GTX Corp in coordination with Aetrex Worlwide to offer care providers with the way on how to watch the precise position of their patients through smart phones and handy devices that is web accessible. Searching for the dementia victim is beneficial but the care provider's sense of peace must not be underrated because the caring would usually also be of those that need care.

It is essential to put the GPS device in a shoe to be sure of the position and security of the patients. Many people who suffer from Alzheimer's had the tendency to take away unusual items from themselves, so it is not easy to embed other GPS monitors, medical bracelets and other devices that could give a possible data to medical experts or caregivers which could save lives. Alzheimer patients may not forget to wear their clothes, but seniors may opt not to wear the mechanism and take it away at daytime.

Included in this innovation is a geo-fence that is built around the house of the patients and a Google Maps alert that is wired to a mobile phone, home or office computer when a stipulated border is passed. GTX Corp in coordination with Aetrex aims to manufacture a shoe that will promote stress and anguish reduction experienced by the family, friends or care providers of Alzheimer's victims through helping them find their dearest ones immediately.

SOURCE: "Global Trek Xploration Corp.'s sneakers equiped with global positioning system" by Booyeon Lee