Alzheimer's could be defining disease for baby boomers
Lewis DiuguidUnless a cure is found, and quick, Alzheimer’s could be the defining disease for the 78 million aging baby boomers in the United States.
Alzheimer’s disease currently is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. More than 5.4 million people in the U.S. have it. The incidence of Alzheimer’s disease increases past age 65, which baby boomers are advancing past in increasing numbers.
The Alzheimer’s Association said 15 million workers are unpaid caregivers for people with the memory robbing disease. There is no known cause or cure. The number of people with Alzheimer’s is expected to grow 30 percent by 2025, further straining family budgets, The Kansas City Star reports.
More than 15 million Americans provide unpaid care valued at $210 billion for persons with Alzheimer’s and other dementias, The Alzheimer’s Association website reports.
The disease is expected to cost the U.S.$2 trillion over the next 10 years, according to USAgainstAlzheimer’s. That organization worries that the threatened federal automatic spending cuts set to begin March 1 would hurt National Institutes of Health funding for Alzheimer’s research.
The sequester would deal a “crushing blow to millions of families desperately hoping for a cure,” the group said in a prepared statement.
The loss of funding for research particularly now “has the potential to sink the U.S. economy.”
Mark Hastert
4 months agoLet’s not be penny wise and pound foolish about this issue and others like it. An effective treatment or better yet a cure would save us billions in care costs for those with the disease. A few million is basic research is nothing in comparison.
George Hunsucker
Northland
4 months agoIt is unbelieveable that a government that spends over $3 TRILLION cannot reduce its spending by a mere $85 BILLION. R’s need to get some backbone and let the sequester happen—it is the only way zero will reduce spending!!!
zero suggested the sequester and Congress in your beloved lib bipartisan manner accepted his proposal. Now that it is time to FINALLY REDUCE SPENDING, zero says no…
BTW, USAgainstAlzheimer’s is a 501(c)3 which means it is merely another political pac. I would like to know the salAries of its officers, the distribution of its political donations and the percent spent on staff vs. advocacy. Does anyone have these FACTS??
My father died with disease so I know what it does to the victim and the family. I just don’t know why we need to spend money on this type of organization vs. reaseach????
Mark Hastert
4 months ago“FINALLY REDUCE SPENDING”
See GH you just don’t really know that’s going on. W’e made spending cuts of $2.5 Trillion. The deficit is shrinking.
and 501C3’s are not government funded Your comment is completely misrepresenting the issue. It’s a terrible shame that your family has suffered with this disease and even worse that you don’t want to spent even a little government money do anything about it. Subsidies for oil, coal and gas would readily cover it.
George Hunsucker
Northland
4 months agoOnly in libville does an increase in the national debt of SIX TRILLION DOLLARS somehow equate to spending cuts of 2.5 trillion. This means the rate of GROWTH was supposedly reduced, not ACTUAL SPENDING CUTS as the above lib would have you believe.
Sequesterian(kinda rhymes with castration doesn’t it) is the ONLY way to get this growing beast of a federal government to ACTUALLY spend less.
Government should decline by 2% per year until it gets to 15% of GDP. Then, and only then can spend more as long as the total is 15% of GDP….
Lyndall Caldwell
4 months agoexcerpted from: CHELATION THERAPY FOR ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE. by: Walker, Morton, D.P.M. Volume 19 Issue 9 September, 1996. Dr. Morton Walker is a former doctor of podiatric medicine, and has long been recognized as the world’s most outstanding medical journalist specializing in holistic medicine. He is the author of 64 published books and more than 1600 published magazine, newspaper and clinical journal articles. He is the winner of 23 medical journalism awards and medals. He received the 1992 Humanitarian Award from the American Cancer Control Society, the 1981 Orthomolecular Award from the American Institute of Preventive Medicine for outstanding achievement in orthomolecular education, and two prestigious Jesse Neal Editorial Achievement Awards from the American Business Press. His books include Smart Nutrients, The Yeast Syndrome, The Healing Powers of Chelation Therapy, Orthomolecular Nutrition, Toxic Metal Syndrome..
CHELATION THERAPY Chelation therapy is an amino acid which is given through intravenous infusion, and it is used for two major purposes: it pulls toxic heavy metals out of the body and brain cells which are damaged, and it pulls atherosclerotic plaque off the arterial walls. If you have arteries which are blocked and you are designated to have a coronary bypass operation, you can “bypass” the bypass by taking chelation therapy. A bypass is a very serious operation with immense side effects. For instance 30% of bypass patients end up with mental problems or mental derangements as a result of the bypass because of the interruption in blood flow, and that affects brain cells. You don’t need that operation; in fact some 90% of coronary bypass operations are unnecessary.
TREATMENT FOR ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE There is no allopathic treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Chelation therapy is not part of mainstream medicine. In my book Toxic Metal Syndrome, we have described the chelation protocol to follow to reverse Alzheimer’s disease, and it works. Dr. Richard Casdorph, the co-author of this book, found that when he gave chelation therapy to his patients to remove atherosclerotic plaques from the arteries, the minds of his patients began to clear up and function appropriately. He discovered that chelation therapy works beautifully to bring Alzheimer’s disease patients out of the convalescent homes and back to their loved ones if enough treatment is administered in a specific dosage range. This protocol is described in the book. The usual number of treatments for heart disease begins with a series of 20 intravenous infusions, then goes on to another series of 20, and up to 80. If you go on to give 100 treatments, the brain clears up. Dr. Casdorph published his studies in professional journals, and many physicians around the world have adapted the Casdorph protocol for their own patients with Alzheimer’s disease.. [Much more info in the full article at: http://www.consumerhealth.org/articles/display.cfm?ID=19990303214451
Lyndall Caldwell
4 months agoIn addition to chelation therapy for dementia, organic coconut oil also has been shown since 2008 to be effective in reversing deterioration: http://www.tampabay.com/news/aging/article879333.ece. Doctor says an oil lessened Alzheimer’s effects on her husband.
by Eve Hosley-Moore, Times Correspondent In Print: Wednesday, October 29, 2008.
The only thing that kept Dr. Mary Newport positive in the face of her husband’s early onset Alzheimer’s disease was that he didn’t seem aware of how much ground he was losing.
“He didn’t know the full ramifications of his decline — I hate to say it but that was the only blessing. I was watching my husband of 36 years simply fade away,” said Dr. Newport, 56, a neonatologist and medical director of the newborn intensive care unit at Spring Hill Regional Hospital.
An accountant, Steve Newport left his corporate job the day his first daughter was born, allowing his wife to finish her medical training. As time went on, he worked from home, keeping the books for her neonatology practice and taking care of their two daughters, now age 22 and 26.
About six years ago, Newport began struggling with daily tasks. He took longer to complete the business’ payroll and was making more mistakes.
“I didn’t know what was happening to me. I was confused,” Newport said of his prediagnosis days.
“There were big clues, and I knew that something was going on here,” Dr. Newport said.
They saw his primary care physician, who referred him to a specialist. The diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s was a devastating blow. According to the National Institutes of Health, as many as 4.5-million Americans have Alzheimer’s. Early onset Alzheimer’s strikes people age 30 to 60 and is rare, affecting only about 5 percent to 10 percent of those with Alzheimer’s.
While there is no way to confirm an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, Newport tested positive for the genetic marker that puts a person at higher risk for early onset Alzheimer’s.
He was put on several FDA-approved medicines to help slow the progression of the disease, but he continued to decline. In August of last year, Dr. Newport said, her husband underwent a “drastic change,” losing more than 10 pounds.
“He had completely lost interest in eating, and that was not a good sign,” she said. He also abandoned the kayaking and gardening he loved so much…
A fuel that nourishes the brain from birth.
Studying effect of diet on other diseases.
The Newports are not the only ones who have found positive results with ketones. In 2005, Dr. VanItallie studied the ketogenic diet’s effect on Parkinson’s disease. In his study, five patients stuck to the diet for one month, and all of the participants’ tremors, stiffness and ability to walk improved, on average, by as much as 43 percent.
[you may find the rest of this article with the link at the top of this post. —LC]