October 08, 2015

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

MUST READS

An October 7, 2015 The San Diego Union-Tribune opinion piece by Dr. Paul Marangos underscored the need to transform NIH “from an academic mentality to a cure-focused, accountable, milestone- and timeline-driven strategy” to cure Alzheimer’s and cancer. According to Marangos, “Cancer and Alzheimer’s dwarf any problem currently confronting humanity and an effort worthy of the problem must be launched. The entire cure effort must be rethought and invigorated with sound management, coordination, accountability and urgency.” Paul Marangos, Ph.D. was at NIH for 13 years. He co-founded four biotech companies in San Diego and is the founding editor of The Journal of Molecular Neuroscience.

An October 7, 2015 Huffington Post piece by Nancy Altman called for expanding social security benefits to decrease Alzheimer’s costs. According to Atlman, “If increasing retirees' Social Security income could lead to even a small decrease in the number of new Alzheimer's cases, or a delay in the onset of the disease, it would make an enormous difference in the lives of Americans around the country. Of the 5.3 million Americans with Alzheimer's, 5.1 million are age 65 or older. Moreover, if an increase in Social Security could alleviate some of the costs associated with Alzheimer's, it could very well pay for itself.”

An October 7, 2915 NPR article highlighted complications with death-with-dignity laws, including dementia coverage. According to the article, “But people with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia are beyond the scope of almost all these laws. Schwarz said that maybe, very far in the future, there might be some way to cover dementia, but it's "so complicated" that she doesn't see it happening anytime soon. How, for instance, do you write legislation to deal with the question of personhood, which alters as the disease progresses? Is the demented individual — perhaps someone relatively content in her diminishment — ‘the same as the individual who so FIRMLY REQUESTED/DEMANDED lethal meds at a certain point in their future demented state?’ Schwarz wondered. "And who are you going to get to administer lethal meds under such circumstances?’”

An October 8, 2015 Phys.org article reported that a new poll commissioned by Research!America found that “An overwhelming majority of Americans (87%) say it is important that candidates for President and Congress have a basic understanding of the science informing public policy issues, including majorities across the political spectrum (92% of Democrats, 90% of Republicans and 79% of Independents).” According to poll, “Nearly two-thirds of respondents (61%) say "economy and jobs" is the most serious long-term issue facing the country, followed by "health care costs" (55%), "healthcare" (48%), "national security" (47%) and "international terrorism" (42%). One in three Americans indicated "climate change" (33%) and "income inequality" (33%). Other issues of concern: "environmental degradation" (28%); clean water (27%); mental health (25%); "nuclear war" (22%); Alzheimer's and other dread diseases (20%). Respondents were able to choose more than one issue.”