From the Associated Press, USA Today, ABC News and elsewhere:

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor took her family’s private battle with Alzheimer’s disease public Wednesday as she urged Congress to speed research and aid to fight the coming epidemic of the mind-destroying illness.

“Our nation certainly is ready to get deadly serious about this deadly disease,” she told the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

She has a personal stake. “My beloved husband John suffers Alzheimer’s,” she said. “He is not in very good shape at present.”

… More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease. The number is poised to skyrocket, with 16 million people forecast to have it by 2050 thanks to a graying population. It already afflicts one in eight people 65 and older, and nearly one in two people over 85.

… Already, 10 million people are estimated to be sharing the overwhelming task of caring for a relative or friend with dementia, juggling jobs and other family responsibilities with little formal training, support or financial help available. The Alzheimer’s Association says the unpaid care they provide is valued at $89 billion.

O’Connor stepped down from the high court in 2005, saying she needed to care for her husband

Interview with O’Connor is here.

See earlier posts here and here.

From HealthDay News in the Washington Post, USA Today:

An estimated 10 million American baby boomers will develop Alzheimer’s disease in their lifetime, placing enormous strains on the U.S. health-care system and the already overburdened network of caregivers, a new report predicts.

Currently, at least 5.2 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s, including 200,000 to 250,000 people under age 65. By 2010, projections say there will be 500,000 new cases of the mind-wasting disease each year, and nearly one million new cases annually by 2050, the report estimates.

From the [UK] Guardian:

Bestselling British science fiction writer Terry Pratchett, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease three months ago, condemned the “shameful” lack of funding for the disease.

Speaking at a conference of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust in Bristol, Pratchett said he wanted to “kick a politician in the teeth.”

The disease affects 700,000 people in the UK, but only £11 is spent per patient every year on research, compared to £289 for each cancer patient.

“There’s nearly as many of us as there are cancer sufferers, and it looks as if the number of people with the disease will double within a generation,” Pratchett said.

“It’s a shock and a shame, then, to find out that money for research is 3% of that which goes to find cancer cures”

… The author, who has sold more than 55 million books worldwide and recently published the 36th book in his Discworld series of humorous fantasy novels, is donating £494,000 ($1m) to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust.

Earlier post here.

Here’s a video from Leeza Gibbons’ “Health Corner” on Lifetime TV:

They may not necessarily mean to be unkind, but people around a child with disabilities may make insensitive comments or ask inappropriate questions sometimes. How do you deal with that?

Meet Johanna, whose 4-year-old son Jack has Down’s Syndrome and Alopecia. Many people, especially children, ask questions out of curiosity. Sometimes she’s happy to educate and enlighten others – other times, it’s very trying. She worries that Jack can understand comments people make around him.

Through it all, Jack has proved a blessing for her, and his special situation has taught her some things, too.

Gibbons talks about her family’s experience as her mother developed Alzheimer’s disease. Her father had cards to distribute: “My wife has a memory disorder. Please be patient.”

See also:

• Leeza’s Ten Commandments of Caregiving (Examples: Do not take anything personally. Do not fall prey to shame and stigma. Find humor in many places.)
  
• Entertainer Leeza Gibbons named to key Alzheimer’s post

From the [London] Times, [UK] Independent:

Stephen King’s new novel, “Duma Key,” features a trio of characters with disabilities. Edgar Freemantle, the narrator, is an artist whose work gives him supernatural powers. He lost an arm in an accident and has problems with memory, vision, speech and anger. Wireman, one of Edgar’s neighbors, has chronic illness, and another character, Elizabeth Eastlake, is showing signs of early Alzheimer’s.

From the Independent review:

The scenes following Freemantle’s physical recovery, of his anger and suicidal depression, are the author writing at his absolute best, immediately gripping the reader and putting him on the protagonist’s side. Disability is still a taboo in fiction and film and King deals with it brilliantly …

From the Los Angeles Times, letters responding to Alzheimer’s story highlighted here. An excerpt:

“The toll on families living with Alzheimer’s may be well understood, but that doesn’t make it any less devastating.

“I’m waiting to hear from the presidential candidates that Alzheimer’s is a priority for them.

“I’ve been waiting a long time.”

From the New York Times, BBC:

The drugs most widely used to manage aggressive outbursts in intellectually disabled people are no more effective than dummy pills for most patients and may be less so, researchers are reporting.

The finding, being published Friday in the journal Lancet, sharply challenges standard medical practice in mental health clinics and nursing homes in the United States and around the world.

(more…)