USA2 SPOTLIGHT 

Must Watch: UsAgainstAlzheimer’s board member Meryl Comer talks about the importance of involving caregivers in study design to improve Alzheimer’s research. Watch here. 

MUST READS

A November 30, 2016 ABC News opinion piece by Lauren Miller Rogen highlighted what her mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s taught her. According to Rogen, “We can each play a role in supporting these families and putting an end to this disease. Encourage your friends and families to donate towards research to find effective treatments and a cure. Call your elected officials and demand more research funding for Alzheimer’s. Participate in a clinical trial. Offer your help to a family -- even an hour or two a week can make a big difference.”

A November 30, 2016 Philly.com opinion piece by Bill Lyon offered a glimpse into life with Alzheimer’s. According to Lyon, “It's Al, short for Alzheimer's and my nemesis, the slimy weasel who wants to lay waste to my brain . . . and to yours, too, for there are 5.3 million of you who are afflicted with this insidious and lethal disease, and that number is only going to grow. Al is a cowardly runty little gnome who lurks in the shadows. By the time the damage he has done to his victims shows up - the blank stares, the incontinence, the abject loss of memory, all the indignities - it is too late.”

A November 30, 2016 Forbes.com article underscored the importance of developing an effective diagnostic for Alzheimer’s. According to the article, “60 Minutes spent an entire segment this past Sunday focused on the billions of dollars companies are spending to cure Alzheimer’s and mentioned that Alzheimer’s is only definitively diagnosed by autopsy after death. What they didn’t really explain was that medicine lacks a definitive, objective diagnostic tool; diagnosis is a painstaking process where physicians must first rule out all other cognitive disorders by asking questions, testing coordination and evaluating reflexes before arriving at a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. The lack of an Alzheimer’s diagnostic is a missing key that would enable many more researchers to approach the disease from varied vantage points.”

A November 30, 2016 The Hill opinion piece by Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IND) called for the passage of the 21st Century Cures Act. According to Brooks, “By the end of 2016, nearly 1.7 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States alone. Nearly 40 percent of people will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lifetime. Today, 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease and 30 million Americans have been diagnosed with a rare disease. 21st Century Cures is a real plan to encourage scientific collaboration to find cures faster and ensure that once these life-saving treatments are discovered, there is a modern, streamlined process for developing them and delivering them to patients, like the more than 37 million people diagnosed with cancer, Alzheimer’s and other rare diseases that I mentioned above.”