September 19, 2014
Today's Top Alzheimer's News
Meryl Comer talks about her new book with My Fox DC, co-founder Peter Thiel talks about his efforts to cheat death, and Lilly CEO John Lechleiter talks about the need to invest in Alzheimer's research (read more).
Must reads and watch
- A September 18, 2014 MyFoxDC interview with Meryl Comer highlighted her new book Slow Dancing with a Stranger and issues with early onset Alzheimer's.
- A September 18, 2014 Tech Times article reported that "Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) has released the World Alzheimer Report 2014, which suggests how to lower the risk for dementia...The report also suggests that having control of several medical conditions may help reduce the risk of dementia. Experts also believe that a healthy lifestyle may also diminish the risks of dementia." Read the report here.
Research, science, and technology
- A September 19, 2014 The Telegraph article profiled PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel's mission to "cheat death." According to the article, "Thiel believes there will be a cure for cancer in the next 20 years, and that a cure for Alzheimer’s is within reach. Immortality, he allows, may take a little longer. He has given more than $6 million to support the work of Aubrey de Grey, the English gerontologist who co-founded the Methuselah Foundation, and is now the chief research scientist of SENS Research Foundation (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence). De Grey has famously pronounced that he believes the first person to live to 1,000 is already alive today."
- A September 18, 2014 Alzheimer's News Today article reported on a recent Toronto conference on the use of big data to fight Alzheimer's. According to the article, "The meeting adjourned with a public talk featuring Mr. George Vradenburg, convener of The Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease and Founder and Chairman of USAgainstAlzheimer’s Disease. Mr . Vradenberg spoke about how science, industry, and government need to align goals and work more closely, fund more effectively, and transform the global Alzheimer’s crisis of into an opportunity for healthy aging and innovation. The Globe and Mail’s health reporter Andre Picard moderated the talk."
- A September 18, 2014 News Observer article reported that "Scientists from Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were in Washington on Thursday to lobby on Capitol Hill for more funding for the National Institutes of Health for scientific research." According to the article, "They’re joining in an effort with about 50 associations nationwide in what’s become an annual rally in recent years. Participants include researchers and people advocating for research leading to cures for particular diseases."
In case you missed it
- An August 15, 2014 Forbes opinion piece by Lilly CEO John Lechleiter underscored the importance of investing in research during down markets. According to Lechleiter, "Now, consider the potential of medicines to address one of the most daunting and expensive health care challenges to our aging population: Alzheimer’s disease…If we simply take projections of future costs as a given and settle for trimming costs off that trend line, we will lose opportunities to truly bend the cost curve, and more importantly, to achieve levels of health and well-being that are unattainable with current technology and financial resources. Far better to focus on policies that foster medical innovation and ensure that short-term budget pressures don’t choke our only real chance to tame rising health care costs."