MUST READS

A May 9, 2016 MexicalXpress article reported that “…a large study led by EPFL, an international team of scientists from Harvard, Edinburgh and Ulm, have now found a way to detect Abeta aggregation in its early stages, which will make diagnosing and treating the disease much more effective.”

A May 9, 2016 IndyStar.com article marked Eli Lilly’s 140th anniversary and highlighted its efforts to develop a treatment for Alzheimer’s. According to the article, “That next breakthrough could be a drug called solanezumab, now in third-stage trials scheduled to end in October. If it works, the treatment for reducing effects of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease would be a game-changer for patients and for society (the Alzheimer’s Association estimates that patient care in the United States alone could cost $1 trillion a year by 2050 unless treatments for the now incurable disease are finally developed).”

A May 9, 2016 Refinery 29 opinion piece by Lauren Miller Rogen commented on the Will Ferrell controversy and underscored the need to destigmatize Alzheimer’s. According to Miller, “#WillFerrell trended on Twitter because people want to use #WillFerrell in a tweet, and because media outlets will get clicks if they talk about a Hollywood star. What if people wrote about how tragic Alzheimer's actually is, and about how there is no way to slow it down, treat it, or cure it? That is worth our anger. Alzheimer's is a serious disease, and it could affect every single one of us in our lifetime — whether by diagnosis or through the need to care for someone we love. Let’s focus our energy on solving that problem, and on not abandoning the millions of Americans affected by Alzheimer’s when the celebrities and the trendy hashtags leave the stage.”

AGING

A May 8, 2016 The New York Times article reported on gains in life expectancy for African Americans. According to the article, “Blacks are still at a major health disadvantage compared with whites. But evidence of black gains has been building and has helped push up the ultimate measure — life expectancy. The gap between blacks and whites was seven years in 1990. By 2014, the most recent year on record, it had shrunk to 3.4 years, the smallest in history, with life expectancy at 75.6 years for blacks and 79 years for whites.”