March 24, 2014

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

Two new studies offer glimmers of hope in fight against Alzheimer's, ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer's Network leader Dr. Dave Morgan calls for $2 billion to tackle Alzheimer's, and a detailed account of life with dementia (read more). 

 

Must reads

  • A March 24, 2014 New York Times editorial underscored the importance of two studies that appeared in March that advance our understanding of Alzheimer's. According to the editorial, "Two studies of Alzheimer’s disease published in respected scientific journals this month offered glimmers of hope for progress against this devastating neurological disorder…One promising study, led by researchers at Harvard Medical School, was published online Wednesday in the journal Nature. It identified a protein that typically increases in old age and appears to protect brain cells from dying…The other promising study, led by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center, was published online in Nature Medicine on March 9. The scientists developed a test that looks for 10 substances in the blood that they believe can predict with greater than 90 percent accuracy whether a healthy older adult will develop mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease within three years."
  • A March 23, 2014 The Tampa Tribune opinion piece by Dr. David Morgan called on Congress to double funding for Alzheimer's research to $2 billion annually. According to Dr. Morgan, "As budget talks kick off in Washington, it’s critical that Congress doubles funding for Alzheimer’s research, as recommended by the Administration’s Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care and Services…As a scientist researching Alzheimer’s for 30 years, I am convinced we are very close to meaningful treatments. The science is there; please help us get the resources to prove the science correct and make Alzheimer’s a memory." David Morgan, Ph.D., is CEO of USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute in Tampa, and lead representative of the ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer’s Network.
  • A March 19, 2014 Slate article by dementia sufferer Gerda Saunders offers readers a detailed account of life with dementia. According to Saunders, "After less than five years in my dream job, forebodings that not all was well started to becloud my class time: Sometimes I would lose the thread of a discussion, forget the point toward which I had intended to steer the students’ thinking; often the name of a novel or author I used to know as well as my children’s names would not come to mind; not infrequently, a student would remind me during the last moments of class that I had not distributed notes or an assignment I had announced."