The Fight Against Alzheimer's

"Congress has voted unanimously to create, for the first time, a national plan to combat Alzheimer’s disease with the same intensity as the attacks on AIDS and cancer. The bill, expected to be signed by President Obama, would establish a National Alzheimer’s Project within the Department of Health and Human Services, to coordinate the country’s approach to research, treatment and caregiving. Its goal, the legislation says, is to “accelerate the development of treatments that would prevent, halt or reverse the course of Alzheimer’s” and “improve the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and coordination of the care and treatment of citizens with Alzheimer’s.” (With Alzheimer’s Patients Growing in Number, Congress Endorses a National Plan)"


I grew up in the house my grandparents built, which was next to one of my grandmother’s friends. Around the age of twelve, after my grandmother had passed away, my neighbor began to show signs of Alzheimer’s. The one day after I had gotten home from school, she came over to our house and told my family how her husband, who had died five years previous, had left her for another woman. Confused we just went along with her story and called her daughter after making sure she made it back into her house. We found out that she had Alzheimer’s. Her daughter put her in a nursing home and we would visit her frequently. She remembered who I was and my stepfather, but she could never quite get my mother's name right, but my mother was one of seven and all four girls look almost identical so I really can't blame her. Also, my freshman and sophomore years of high school I dated a boy who's grandmother had Alzheimer’s. We'd spend Sunday’s at his grandparent’s house. She seemed to never be able to sit still and was always moving things around. She also rarely knew who he was and usually called me by his sisters name, but I was a new person to her so again I can't blame her either. After knowing these women with Alzheimer’s, I'm glad the government is finally trying to find a cure or at least something to slow down the process. This disease is not only horrible for the people experiencing it but for their loved ones.