In 2015, there are more than five million Americans living with Alzheimer\u2019s disease, including 6,400 in Alaska. In addition, there are 15.7 million Americans caring for someone with Alzheimer\u2019s or another dementia, including 33,000 caregivers in Alaska. This debilitating disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and the only cause of death in the top 10 in America that cannot be prevented, cured or slowed.<\/p>\n
Having watched my mother and three of her sisters battle Alzheimer\u2019s before passing away, I know that the impact of this disease is devastating. The experience of watching Alzheimer\u2019s rob loved ones of their ability to communicate, recall treasured memories, follow daily routines and recognize those they love is immensely painful.<\/p>\n
In addition to the human toll, Alzheimer\u2019s takes a financial toll, costing an estimated $226 billion in 2015. The New England Journal of Medicine has called Alzheimer\u2019s the most expensive disease in the country, and Alzheimer\u2019s is expected to cost the nation more than $1.1 trillion over the next generation. These costs include a five-fold increase in government spending under Medicare and Medicaid and a nearly five-fold increase in out-of pocket spending. Nearly one in every five Medicare dollars spent today is on people with Alzheimer\u2019s and other dementias. In 2050, it will be one in every three dollars.<\/p>\n
In order to change the trajectory of Alzheimer\u2019s, we must take bold steps now toward finding the needed treatments, prevention and one day, a cure. The urgency is clear. Alzheimer\u2019s can\u2019t wait. Please contact Sen. Dan Sullivan and Sen. Lisa Murkowski and ask them to support the proposed $350 million increase in funding for Alzheimer\u2019s research for fiscal year 2016.<\/p>\n
Cindy Harris<\/strong><\/p>\n Alzheimer\u2019s Association Alaska Ambassador<\/strong><\/p>\n Soldotna, Alaska<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 2015, there are more than five million Americans living with Alzheimer\u2019s disease, including 6,400 in Alaska. In addition, there are 15.7 million Americans caring for someone with Alzheimer\u2019s or another dementia, including 33,000 caregivers in Alaska. This debilitating disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and the only cause […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":14,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-20247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20247"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}