November 23, 2015

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

USA2 SPOTLIGHT 

A November 20, 2015 Huffington Post 50 opinion piece by UsAgainstAlzheimer's co-founder Trish Vradenburg highlighted her personal connection to the Alzheimer’s fight and called on readers and policymakers to increase funding for Alzheimer’s research. According to Vradenburg, “This is a critical time in our battle. Earlier this year, a key Congressional committee recommended increasing NIH funding for Alzheimer's by $350 million in the new fiscal year. SOS: write and call your members of Congress and ask--make that demand--at least $350 million more for Alzheimer's research funding in Fiscal Year 2016. In DC numbers count! And to the caretakers - with the strength you have left, please join this effort. Today as I write, a cure for Alzheimer's is a fantasy, a wish, an impossible dream. The same words that were said to Galileo, Edison, Einstein, Salk and whoever dreamed up the internet. Yesterday's dream is today's reality. I think my mom would be proud.”

Must Watch: A November 19, 2015 WGBH-TV Boston PBS broadcast segment profiled UsAgainstAlzheimer's partner Greg O’Brien and the On Pluto project. Watch here.


MUST READS

A November 23, 2015 Time.com opinion piece by Marjorie S. Rosenthal underscored the need to talk about Alzheimer’s and the importance of having end-of-life care conversations “before it’s too late.” According to Rosenthal, “My mother is not alone. Of the family members caring for the more than 5 million Americans with Alzheimer’s, many never have conversations with their loved ones regarding what they want other people to do for them when they get sick or disabled. While more than 80% of elderly people already living in a nursing home have written plans for what they want their loved ones to do, only 35% of Americans have written down their end-of-life wishes…During this month, National Alzheimer’s Disease and Caregiver Month, I hope we can work on increasing these discussions. Since doctors don’t feel trained well enough to have these discussions, we as a health-care system can highlight ways to change that and empower families to have these conversations with one another and their health-care providers. Starting Jan. 1, 2016, Medicare will start reimbursing for these discussions. Private health insurance is likely to follow.” Marjorie S. Rosenthal is Assistant Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Pediatrics at the Yale University School of Medicine, and Public Voices Fellow with The Op-Ed Project.

A November 23, 2015 MIT Technology Review article reported that some important technologies are struggling to receive funding and financing despite a growth in new funding methods. According to the article, “Among the areas suffering from insufficient investment, according to a recent report by a committee of MIT professors: medical research into Alzheimer’s and infectious diseases, cybersecurity for non-defense systems, agricultural R&D that could help address the world’s soaring need for food, and even areas of next-generation computing.”

A November 22, 2015 Reuters article reported that “U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Sunday proposed a tax credit offsetting up to $6,000 in costs associated with caring for elderly and disabled family members, and allowing caregivers to accrue Social Security retirement benefits for such work.”

A November 21, 2015 The Toronto Star article reported on the growing impact of dementia. According to the article, “The tide of dementia is swelling and no country will be spared. There are no effective drugs, no cure — and, in Canada, no national strategy for a major public health issue that will only keep growing. This is not just a problem for old people. It is everyone’s problem. There is no question: if dementia doesn’t already affect you, it will some day. You could become a patient or a caregiver, or a taxpayer increasingly burdened by dementia’s spiraling costs. It is a growing public health crisis that will overwhelm countries like Canada if not prepared.”

A November 21, 2015 The Toronto Star article profiled the Colombian town struggling with Alzheimer’s as generations of families face the disease. According to the article, “In fact, Lopera discovered, the sickness was a genetic curse. It stems from a rare mutation on chromosome 14 that triggers an aggressive form of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The defective gene has been passed on for generations in Medellin and across Antioquia, a mountainous northwestern province where the warm and welcoming inhabitants are known as paisas, or country folk. Carriers of the paisa mutation, as researchers have named it, are guaranteed to develop the disease, usually in their 40s. Their children have a 50/50 chance of inheriting the same fate.”