World Alzheimer's Day -- Tuesday, Sep. 21 -- is the only day of the year that unites people around the globe in the dementia movement. If you are reading this you are part of the movement! But don't stop reading yet -- take time to process the following numbers.
The number of people with Alzheimer's disease or a dementia worldwide is 35 million. It is expected to nearly double every 20 years, to 65.7 million in 2030 and 115.4 million in 2050. Nearly 5.3 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's, and that number is expected to be over 16 million by 2050.
Chances are you know someone with this devastating disease that is progressive, fatal and robs a person of their ability to remember and reason. Perhaps you are one of the 200,000 Georgians who lives with this disease, or one of the nearly 11 million Americans providing care for someone with Alzheimer's. Perhaps you are a woman that has reached age 55, and has a 1-in-6 chance of developing Alzheimer's in her lifetime.
BEYOND THE HUMAN impact, there is an impending Alzheimer's-driven fiscal crisis that threatens the solvency of public and private health programs if nothing is done to slow or alter the course of this disease. According to a recent report released by the Alzheimer's Association, total costs of care for individuals with Alzheimer's disease will rise from $172 billion in 2010 to more than $1 trillion in 2050, with Medicare costs increasing more than 600 percent and Medicaid costs soaring 400 percent in that time. It is estimated that the worldwide economic cost of dementia is $315 billion annually!
On World Alzheimer's Day 2009, Alzheimer's Disease International released eight recommendations:
- The World Health Organization should declare dementia a world priority.
- National governments should declare dementia a health priority and develop strategies to provide services and support for people with dementia and their families.
- Low- and medium-income countries should create dementia strategies based first on enhancing primary health-care and community services.
- High-income countries should develop national action plans with designated resource allocations.
- Develop services that reflect the progressive nature of dementia.
- Distribute services with the core principle of maximizing coverage and ensuring equity of access, to benefit people with dementia regardless of age, gender, wealth, disability and rural or urban residence.
- Collaborate among governments, people with dementia, their caregivers and their Alzheimer's associations, and other relevant non-governmental Organizations and professional health-care bodies.
- More research needs to be funded and conducted into the causes of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias; pharmacological and psychosocial treatments; the prevalence and impact of dementia; and the prevention of dementia.
We must embrace these eight recommendations and make them real! The toughest hill to climb is Capitol Hill, but to address a public health crisis of this magnitude we must correct the chronic underinvestment in Alzheimer's research, and demand a strategic national plan from our federal government. We must make Alzheimer's a national priority.
Since July 17, scientific researchers have been participating in the Alzheimer's Breakthrough Ride. They have been cycling in cross-country segments that started in San Francisco and will end in Washington, D.C., on World Alzheimer's Day. Along their route, the Breakthrough Riders are collecting signatures petitioning Congress to make Alzheimer's a national priority. On Sept. 21 they will make the tough hill climb to present the over-100,000 signatures to Congress.
Our nation must make Alzheimer's a priority, and new treatments must be developed to treat or prevent this devastating disease. A national strategic plan to solve the Alzheimer's crisis, including investment in research, is the best way to accomplish this goal. With a rapidly aging baby boomer population, Alzheimer's will continue to affect more lives. From 2000 to 2006, Alzheimer's deaths in the United States increased 46.1 percent, while other selected causes of death decreased. Strategic investments in other diseases have resulted in declines in deaths; we must do the same type of investment for Alzheimer's.
JOIN US SEPT. 21! Be part of the movement today and tomorrow. Every day, people with Alzheimer's rise to meet their challenges, and their caregivers rise with them and lovingly support them. We need you to rise to the occasion as well. The Alzheimer's Association's Georgia Chapter, Augusta Region, is committed to raising awareness and funds to accelerate the worldwide effort to find better ways to treat the disease, delay its onset or prevent it from developing. We must champion the over 200,000 Georgians battling this devastating disease.
Join the fight. Call the Alzheimer's Association Augusta office at (706) 731-9060, or go to the Alzheimer's Association website: alz.org/georgia. Sign up to join with us at our Memory Walk 2010 on Saturday, Nov. 6, at Augusta Common, and sign up to be an advocate. Be the voice for those who can no longer speak; open your mind and the minds of others about this disease; and let's move toward a world without Alzheimer's.
For more information on Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, support groups, education programs, volunteer opportunities or the services of the local office of the Alzheimer's Association -- or to make a donation -- call (706) 731-9060 or a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week helpline: (800) 272-3900.
(The writers are, respectively, the program and services director and the development director for the Alzheimer's Association, Augusta Region.)
Nicotinamide has been found effective in restoring memory in mice induced with Alzheimer's. The February 2009 Alternatives( Dr. David G Williams) newsletter gives the details. Alpha lipoic acid has also been found to be effective and he has details on that too. Human tests are being done using nicotinamide but it is safe and inexpensive to try.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2012. All Rights Reserved.
