March 05, 2014

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

Genome pioneer joins the fight to treat diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer, advocacy groups call President Obama's 2015 budget inadequate, and the impact of Alzheimer's on identity and morality (read more). 

Must reads

  • A March 5, 2014 USA Today article reported that "J. Craig Venter, one of the pioneers of human genetic research, announced Tuesday that he is turning his attention to aging." According to the article, "Venter, along with several others, co-founded a San Diego-based company called Human Longevity Inc. to combine genetic, medical and other data at a gigantic scale. The aim, he said, is to come up with new ways to predict, prevent and treat diseases of aging, such as cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's."
  • A March 4, 2014 The Hill article reported that research and disease groups called President Obama's 2015 budget inadequate. According to the article, "Under Tuesday's proposal, the National Institutes of Health would receive $30.36 billion for fiscal year 2015, a slight increase over 2014. The agency received $30.86 billion in 2012, before sequestration cuts took effect." "We simply cannot sustain our nation's research ecosystem, combat costly and deadly diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer, and create quality jobs with anemic funding levels that threaten the health and prosperity of Americans," said Research!America President Mary Woolley in a statement. [Chart on science funding
Caregiving 
  • A March 4, 2014 Washington Post article highlighted several caregiver stories and the caregiving cliff the nation faces. According to John Schall, chief executive of the Caregiver Action Network, "We are heading toward the caregiving cliff...Family caregivers are the backbone of long-term care services in this country, and I’m concerned that we won’t have the capacity to meet the demand, especially as the country ages.” 
  • A March 4, 2014 Washington Post article profiled the work of the UCLA Longevity Center to help slow the progression of aging. According to the article, "That’s where the UCLA Longevity Center comes in — helping patients and caregivers live with diseases that fray their bond of shared memories. In addition to giving those with memory loss techniques to improve recall, the program helps the caregivers better understand the disease and provides them with a place to connect with others facing similar challenges…Many of the memory-impaired participants in the UCLA program had successful careers as lawyers, doctors, professors, researchers. But now, their lives are vastly different: More quiet. More confusing. More frustrating. Most of the patients have neurological problems that go beyond basic aging; some have Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia."
Research and science 
  • A March 4, 2014 NPR article reported on the impact of Alzheimer's on personal identity and morality. According to the article, "For over a decade, psychologist Deborah Zaitchik and her colleagues have been studying the patterns of cognitive impairments that characterize Alzheimer's disease. Their findings show that some of the mental faculties most critical to social relationships — in particular, the ability to infer other people's beliefs and desires and to engage in moral evaluation — are actually among the least impaired."