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Guest Commentary: May 11, 2001
Fighting the Cruelty of Alzheimer's Disease
The Honorable Edward Markey
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Research is medicine's field of dreams from which we harvest new findings about the causes, treatment, and prevention of disease. Since 1950, we have learned more about health and disease than in the entire history of medicine. In fact, we've eliminated some of the major scourges that killed us at the turn of the century like smallpox and diptheria.
That’s why we must make sure that research not only survives but thrives. ...
Alzheimer's Disease is cruel and indiscriminate -- it attacks the brain, captures the mind and erodes the mental and physical abilities of its victim before ultimately stealing his or her life.
If you have one parent affected with Alzheimer's you are three times more likely to develop the disease yourself and if both or your parents are affected, you are at a fivefold increase in risk.
In fiscal year 2001, the federal government spent an estimated $520 million on Alzheimer's research this is a modest investment compared with the annual $100 billion cost of the disease.
We know that the disease process begins 10-20 years before symptoms begin. If science can find a way to delay the onset of Alzheimer's for even five years, our nation will save an estimated $50 billion in annual health and long term care costs.
In 1900, the average life expectancy was 48. In 1999, life expectancy at birth reached an all-time high of 77 years. In 1900 about 1 in 25 Americans were over the age of 65. In 1990, the proportion rose to 1 in 8 -- a 10-fold increase. It is estimated that by the year 2040.
One in 5 Americans will be over the age of 65 and there will be almost four times as many very old people over the age of 85 as there are today. Right now we know that one in ten Americans over age 65 and half of all persons over the age of 85 have Alzheimer's. This means that by 2050 if we fail to find a way to prevent or cure Alzheimer's 14 million Americans will fall victim.
Pasteur once observed that "Chance favors the prepared mind." We can choose to prepare, or we can turn a blind eye and leave the fate of our future aging population to chance.
Note: This column has been adapted from a statement Rep. Markey made at a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS and Education, April 3, 2001.
 How to contact Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA)
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