March 30, 2015

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

USA2 SPOTLIGHT

A March 27, 2015 Newsday opinion piece by Allan Vann, ActivistAgainstAlzheimer’s advocate and caregiver, offered a caregiver’s perspective on research progress and called for increased Alzheimer's funding. According to Vann, “However, the sad reality is that promising results with mice or even with small human populations have been reported many times before without being successfully duplicated in larger clinical trials. Let's wait to see if positive results can be duplicated with at least 1,000 participants before getting too excited about the latest Alzheimer's treatment being tested. The editorial also cited the formation of a new $100-million global fund for Alzheimer's research as a positive sign. That may sound like a serious investment to help end Alzheimer's, but when compared with President Barack Obama's most recent budget request for more than $8 billion for combined domestic and global HIV research, $100 million is the proverbial drop in the bucket…An estimated 700,000 Americans will die from Alzheimer's this year, compared with about 15,000 dying from HIV/AIDS. Newsday should be calling upon our federal government to reorder its funding priorities.”


MUST READS AND WATCH

MUST WATCH A March 29, 2015 WCSH 6 NBC broadcast segment featured Senator Susan Collin’s commitment to boosting Alzheimer’s research funding. According to the article,”Senator Susan Collins said the nation is not spending nearly enough money on research into Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.”

A March 29, 2015 Seattle Times article reported that the Ellison Foundation will donate $6 million to the University of Washington to advance cutting-edge Alzheimer’s research. According to the article, “The funds will help pay for expanded use of exome sequencing, which analyzes patients’ genes to determine potential markers of Alzheimer’s risk; new research into using patients’ own stem cells to test drugs that can stop the disease; and assessing use of a tool known as functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to detect changes in the brain before dementia occurs…for Tom Ellison, 58, president of the $50 million family foundation that focuses on health and poverty issues, the donation was as much about emotion as investment. “I and my family have had entirely too much experience with the disease,” he said. Ellison’s dad, William “Bill” Ellison, was the founder of Savers Inc., the firm that operates the thrift-store chain Value Village and others. He died in 2008 at age 79, more than a decade after first showing symptoms.”

A March 28, 2015 St. Louis Post-Dispatch opinion piece by an Alzheimer’s patient-advocate Rick Ross underscored the importance of early diagnosis for the disease. According to the article, “Three years ago, I was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. I was only 65. It took three different doctors over the course of a year to get the diagnosis. That year was hard. Not having an answer was hard. I wasn’t just forgetting things; I felt disconnected from my surroundings…Upon receiving my diagnosis, we did just that. I was able to take advantage of a research trial at St. Louis University and engage in advocacy efforts.” 

A March 25, 2015 statement from Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) highlighted the senator’s commitment to boosting Alzheimer’s research funds. According to Senator McCaskill, “It seems to me that not funding research is dumb, because it’s going to cost us a lot of money, and refusing to fund care is cruel…Government investments in medical research have allowed our nation to be a beacon to the world for hope, for medical advancements, for being the country that is looked to – and that adds to our national security because we are seen as a leader in the world in medical research. Funding for the National Institutes of Health has suffered over the previous years…we cannot continue to shirk our responsibility in the United States to advancing medical research. There is no area that is more deserving of additional dollars for medical research than Alzheimer’s.”


AGING PERSPECTIVE 

A March 28, 2015 NPR Weekend Edition segment featured a conversation with NPR's Scott Simon and Ina Jaffe from the Aging in America Conference in Chicago. According to Jaffe, “You know, there was one session that really got to me and it was called "Shame In Aging." And the point the presenters were making was that older adults - and they were talking about people in their 80s and 90s - can be ashamed of feeling useless.”