Must reads and watch 

• An October 18, 2014 USA Today opinion piece by Ann Romney underscored the importance of "refocusing funding on collaboration and unexplored links between disparate diseases and seemingly unrelated approaches across research institutions and fields of study." According to Romney, "One place where I hope to put this approach into action is a new institution I am honored to have bear my name: the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases. Based at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, we aim to create a bold model of scientific collaboration aimed at five of the world's most devastating and complex neurologic diseases: MS, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) and brain tumors…At a time when the horizons of science have never spread wider, researchers and their supporters must rethink both the goals and the model of scientific research. It is a time for bold ambitions, not incremental steps. Millions have experienced moments like the one I did in 1998. We owe these patients more than incremental progress. Ultimately, we owe them cures."
• An October 16, 2014 WFMZ broadcast segment reported that Senator Pat Toomey highlighted his plan to combat Alzheimer's at the Phoebe Institute on Aging Fall Conference at DeSales University. 
• An October 16, 2014 Digital Journal article reported that scientists from Spain's Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) released a five-minute music video to raise awareness of the need for funding for Alzheimer’s, cancer and diabetes research.

• An October 17, 2014 Washington University in St. Louis newsroom article reported that "U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt and Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, visited Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis this week to talk to researchers, administrators and entrepreneurs about scientific research and the need to boost and sustain federal funding for it." According to the article, "John Morris, MD, and Randall Bateman, MD, provided an overview of the first drug trial to prevent Alzheimer’s disease in people genetically destined to develop the illness, often at an early age. The international trial, which began in 2012, is being led by Bateman and involves people who do not yet have Alzheimer’s symptoms. It is funded, in part, by NIH. “We’re off to a great start – there’s hope and there’s promise,” said Bateman. “But I also believe that more resources are likely to be needed to tackle this problem.”"
• An October 16, 2014 Scientific American article reported "regular physical activity may correct the brain's metabolism to stave off dementia." According to the article, "Several others reported that frequent exercise—at least three times a week in some studies; up to more than an hour a day in others—can slow cognitive decline only in those carrying the high-risk gene. Furthermore, for those who carry the gene, being sedentary is associated with increased brain accumulation of the toxic protein beta-amyloid, a hallmark of Alzheimer's. More recent studies, including a 2012 paper published in Alzheimer's & Dementia and a 2011 paper in NeuroImage, found that high-risk individuals who exercise have greater brain activity and glucose uptake during a memory task compared with their less active counterparts or with those at low genetic risk."