USA2 SPOTLIGHT 

A July 27, 2015 Bucks Courier-Times article highlighted support for Alzheimer’s patient advocate Michael Ellenbogen after he made controversial remarks in a statement to the U.S. Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care and Services. According to the article, “Council member George Vradenburg, chairman of UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, said during the meeting that Health and Human Services made a 'bad decision' in banning Ellenbogen. ‘It would be a shame if a person’s anger gets too big for this room, if his advocacy gets too fierce that we can’t hear it,’ he said. ‘Advocacy in this room should be fierce.’ The advisory council was created by the National Alzheimer’s Project Act, passed by President Obama in 2011 to develop a national plan to research treatments and a cure for the disease. Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia.”

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A July 27, 2015 The Dallas Morning News editorial underscored the need to fund Alzheimer’s research “rather than drown in hopeless caregiving.” According to the editorial, “How can we make progress against Alzheimer’s if we scrimp on efforts to get to its roots? Better to adequately fund research for treatment and prevention rather than remain mired in costly and hopeless caregiving. Thankfully, the longstanding research gap may be about to close an inch or two. House and Senate committees last month approved adding at least $300 million to the existing $586 million in federal funds for the next fiscal year…We know this much: Alzheimer’s is a withering disease that increasingly is touching all of us — and imposing crippling costs on both individual families and the federal government. Congress would be wise to give the disease the financial attention it deserves.”

A July 27, 2015 The Hill article reported that boosting research funding is common ground for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). According to the article, “Gingrich said that one of the ‘most fiscally responsible steps we can take’ as a country is to boost research funding for diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and cancer. He said one of the regrets of his speakership in the 1990s is that he did not triple funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF). ‘Three cheers to Speaker Gingrich,’ Warren said in response.” Also reported on by theBoston Globe. 

RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

A July 27, 2015 WeMD HealthDay Reporter article reported that “High blood sugar associated with prediabetes may increase the risk for Alzheimer's disease, a new study suggests.”