{"id":1599,"date":"2014-05-14T16:08:11","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T21:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/?p=1599"},"modified":"2014-05-14T16:08:11","modified_gmt":"2014-05-14T21:08:11","slug":"alzheimers-is-a-costly-dangerous-disease-al-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/?p=1599","title":{"rendered":"Alzheimer’s is a costly, dangerous disease \/ AL.com"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By\u00a0Letters from our readers\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 AL.com
\non April 23, 2014 at 3:17 PM, updated\u00a0April 23, 2014 at 3:23 PM<\/div>\n
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Purple is the color for\u00a0Alzheimer\u2019s disease<\/a>. On April 9, 2014, I joined more than 800 purple-clad advocates to speak on behalf of the over 5 million people who have AD in the United States. Our mission was to appeal to our members of Congress for action on Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

I am among the 15.5 million unpaid caregivers whose life is radically altered by providing care for my mother and aunt. I oversee their lives daily, handle their finances and problem-solve their every challenge.<\/p>\n

Thank you to Bradley Byrne for meeting with our delegation to discuss the Alzheimer\u2019s crisis. It is the most expensive disease in America; nearly one in every $5 spent by Medicare is on people with Alzheimer\u2019s or another dementia, yet there is no cure in sight.<\/p>\n

In addition to the human toll, Alzheimer\u2019s costs $214 billion a year. Because of our growing senior population, unless science finds a way to slow progression or delay onset, Alzheimer\u2019s will cost an estimated $1.2 trillion by 2050. More information can be found on\u00a0alz.org<\/a>\u00a0by accessing the 2014 Facts and Figures State Statistics Sheets.<\/p>\n

At the recent 26th annual Alzheimer\u2019s Association Advocacy Forum in Washington, D.C., I heard Alzheimer\u2019s advocate Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institute of Health, say that we are not, at the moment, limited by ideas, scientific opportunities or by talent. He stated, \u201cWe are, unfortunately, limited by resources to be able to move this enterprise forward at the pace that it could take.\u201d<\/p>\n

Please understand that this disease is epidemic and could affect almost everyone. One in three seniors dies from Alzheimer\u2019s disease. The number of people in Alabama living with the disease is projected to increase from 14 percent to 24 percent by 2050. Approximately 500,000 people die each year because they have Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

I hope you will join us by putting on your purple and support increased funding for Alzheimer\u2019s research by $200 million in fiscal year 2015.<\/p>\n

It is only through adequate funding and a strong implementation of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer\u2019s Disease that we will meet its goal of preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer\u2019s by 2025.<\/p>\n

Beth Reinert<\/b><\/p>\n

South Alabama Advocate for the Alzheimer\u2019s Association<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Letters from our readers\u00a0\u00a0 AL.com on April 23, 2014 at 3:17 PM, updated\u00a0April 23, 2014 at 3:23 PM Purple is the color for\u00a0Alzheimer\u2019s disease. On April 9, 2014, I joined more than 800 purple-clad advocates to speak on behalf of the over 5 million people who have AD in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Alzheimer's is a costly, dangerous disease \/ AL.com http:\/\/wp.me\/p4cxZR-pN","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[65,5,8,20,21],"tags":[488,367,72,89,368,357,143,305],"class_list":["post-1599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alzheimers-association","category-author-publication","category-education","category-news-story","category-personal","tag-alzheimers-association","tag-alzheimers-association-advocacy-forum-2014","tag-alzheimers-disease-information","tag-beth-reinert","tag-congressman-bradley-byrne","tag-dr-rodney-guttman","tag-facebook-caregiversunite-org","tag-peter-cowley"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4cxZR-pN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1600,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599\/revisions\/1600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}