USA2 SPOTLIGHT 

An October 26, 2015 Morningstar.com statement highlighted the formation of the Global Alliance on Women's Brain Health, an “unprecedented partnership to raise awareness of women's brain health challenges and significantly expand funding for sex-based brain health research.” According to WomenAgainstAlzheimer’s President Jill Lesser, “Today, there is virtually no concerted drive to fund research on women's brain health around the world and no global cooperation among women leaders. Yet, the data reveals that women's brains are more vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease and other problems associated with cognitive function. The time is now to mobilize a global sense of urgency and to advance an understanding of why women experience dementia differently and to develop effective treatments and a cure that meet women's needs." The Global Alliance on Women’s Brain Health is made up of The Women's Brain Health Initiative Canada, WomenAgainstAlzheimer's USA, Alzheimer's Research UK, and 21st Century BrainTrust. 

MUST READS

An October 26, 2015 TheStar.com article profiled one couple’s struggle with early onset Alzheimer’s, including their “last summer” together. According to the article, “Lyndon didn’t know it yet, but things would change quickly once he returned to work after the summer. Evelyn’s weekly support hours would get bumped up to 17. Her uncle and brother would arrange for Lyndon to meet a private consultant who helps families navigate Ontario’s home and community-care system. Lyndon would begin to realize that his hope to keep Evelyn with him for another year was probably unrealistic, given the rate of her decline. He would finally get the long-term-care application processed and receive the wait times for the homes they had chosen: six months, 16 months and four and a half years. He would learn about steps he could take to speed things up in a crisis. But for now, as the summer came to an end, he wanted to hold on a little longer.”

An October 24, 2015 The Washington Post article profiled the impact and benefits of millennial caregiving. According to the article, “But these advances may in fact make life harder for America’s youngest adults, who find themselves increasingly called on to care for aging parents and grandparents even as they are figuring out how to care for themselves. Luckily for them, studies show that millennials are also more willing to be caregivers than previous generations…Unlike older caregivers, 60 percent of whom are women, millennial caregivers are equally likely to be male as female. The typical millennial caregiver is 27, works at a job 35 hours a week and has an average household income below the national median. Most live with, or within 20 minutes of, those they care for.”

An October 24, 2015 Forbes.com article reported that “A study published in the latest issue of Science finds that the brains of people at greatest genetic risk of developing Alzheimer’s show less activity in a network of neurons that serve as our internal navigation system – known as ‘grid cells.’”

An October 23, 2015 news release from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) highlighted a GAO report that calls for greater inclusion of women in NIH clinical research. According to the statement, “The report shows that while the NIH has made progress in including women in clinical research trials, there is still more work to do to improve reporting and analysis policies to further ensure women are being accurately represented…While women are at least equally represented in clinical research funded by the agency overall, NIH's current implementation of the rules regarding the inclusion of women in clinical research do not provide data below the institute or center (IC) level. Without this data, it's impossible to know whether women are being sufficiently included when it comes to research regarding specific diseases or conditions.” Read the full report here.