Must reads

• A May 22, 2014 Forbes article explored the hopeless state of current Alzheimer's and dementia drugs. According to the article, "The fact is that when a parent  is accurately diagnosed with dementia, the family needs to prepare for the parent’s inevitable decline from the disease.  Alzheimer’s does not get better with Namenda or any other medication.  It is a sad, progressive downhill slide no one likes to face.  The urge to “do something” can be expressed in much more practical terms.  There are things to do that really are helpful in the long run and don’t have nasty physical side effects. They do nothing for the disease either, to slow it or stop it, but they can empower you, the adult child of an aging parent in spite of the diagnosis no one wants to hear.. They require more effort and time than providing a credit card to your parent’s pharmacy for hope that does not pan out."
• A May 22, 2014 WAMC opinion piece by Sean Philpott framed Alzheimer's as a forgotten epidemic and underscored the need for additional research dollars. According to Philpott, "This has got to change. We need more bills like the Alzheimer's Accountability Act, introduced in 2014 by Representatives Paul Tonko (D-NY-20) and Brett Guthrie (R-KY-2). We need to provide more funding for Alzheimer's research, but we need to do so in a way that doesn't rob other research initiatives (including efforts to find a cure for cancer) of desperately needed resources.Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen. Our Congressional leaders are too focused on cutting costs, including slashing the federal budget that supports biomedical research, to recognize the looming crisis. Alzheimer's will, I fear, remain an overlooked and forgotten epidemic until it is to late intervene." A public health researcher and ethicist by training, Dr. Sean Philpott holds advanced degrees in microbiology, medical anthropology, and bioethics. 
• A May 22, 2014 Science Blog article reported on a "first of its kind" center focused on an interdisciplinary approach to advancing neurological research. According to to the article, "Keck Medicine of USC has established the USC Neurorestoration Center, a multi-institution collaboration for breakthrough discoveries that, for the first time, bring together neural engineering, neuroscience and neurorehabilitation to restore neurological function in the human brain…The intense focus on bridging neuroscience and neurological therapies includes hundreds of worldwide collaborators working with Keck Medicine of USC to find cures for millions of people who suffer from neurological and psychiatric diseases such as Alzheimer’s, autism, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and traumatic brain injury."