Posted on 06/08/2004 4:58:32 PM PDT by Truth666
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One of Ronald Reagan 's greatest legacies is one he may not have been fully aware that he created: focusing attention on the disease that took his life, a researcher said on Sunday.
"We're mourning the loss of an extraordinary man, a man who finished the second term of his presidency at the age of 77, but who still was not able to conquer this devastating disease," said Dr. Gary Small, an expert on Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites) and the author of two books on the subject.
People are now receiving earlier diagnoses and better treatments for the incurable brain-wasting disease partly because Reagan supported Alzheimer's research as president and because he went public with his diagnosis in 1994, increasing awareness of the need for more research, Small said.
"What his illness has done is brought the world's attention to the necessity for accelerated research. While a cure is still far away, we now have the technology to detect, and ... at least delay, onset, and that to me is very close to a cure that is foreseeable within the next decade," Small said.
Reagan, 93, died on Saturday after a decade-long battle with the disease.
During that time, his health slowly deteriorated. Eventually, he did not even recognize his devoted wife, former first lady Nancy Reagan.
But while he was able, the former president was an advocate for Alzheimer's research.
SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN FEDERAL FUNDING
In 1995, the Reagans joined with the Alzheimer's Association to create the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute, dedicated to accelerating the progress in Alzheimer research, said Kathryn Kane, a senior vice president with the Alzheimer's Association. Today the institute awards $15 million in research grants each year.
"The two greatest contributions the Reagans made in Alzheimer's was hugely raising public awareness of the disease and making it okay to talk about it. It's a disease where there's a lot of denial and shame attached to it. Ronald Reagan brought it out of the closet," she said.
As her husband declined, Nancy Reagan spearheaded public awareness campaigns and described what it was like to be a caretaker for an Alzheimer's patient, which she referred to as "the long goodbye." She publicly advocated for stem cell research as a way to help others with the disease.
Maureen Reagan, the former president's daughter with actress Jane Wyman, served on the Alzheimer's Association's national board, organized fundraisers and asked Congress for more funding before she died in 2001.
The Reagans' efforts resulted in a huge increase in federal funding, from $22 million annually in the early 1980s to $680 million per year today.
Doctors now are better able to diagnose the disease early, and provide patients with drugs and other measures to delay its progression.
Research has shown that various lifestyle choices can stave off the progression of Alzheimer's, just as they can slow cardiovascular disease and the onset of diabetes, said Small, whose new book, "The Memory Prescription," outlines a program for improving brain health.
One-third of the risk for Alzheimer's comes from a person's genetic makeup, Small said. "That means two-thirds has to do with nongenetic factors. Lifestyle choices make a huge difference."
Sticking to a diet that keeps blood sugar levels in check can help keep the brain healthy, he said. Maintaining a normal body weight, exercising, reducing stress and performing brain-stimulating tasks can also help protect the brain from deterioration, Small said.
is this a new phenomenon or we just didn't recognize Alzheimer's before?
Alzheimer's is primarily caused by excess aluminum consumption, most of which is right in our tap water supply.
When it was not recognised it would still be recognised as demency, so you can still compare the statistics.
One hundred years ago, the average lifespan of an American was 47 years. People used to die of other things before Alzheimers could express itself.
More recently, great strides have been made in curing cancer - another reason that people are living long enough for things to go wrong in their brain.
We like to think that we are "medically advanced", but science still can't explain why we do what we do every night: sleep.
We really know very little about the human brain.
But the doctors would never diagnose her with Alzheimers, even though there are supposed to be tests now that are fairly accurate (other than a frozen slide of the brain).
I always assumed that this reluctance to diagnose was a medicare thing.
Can you shed any light on why a doctor would be reluctant to diagnose Alzheimers?
I wonder what that average age is of those who die from Alzheimers? I have serious qualms about using human embryos for human spare parts. I really can't see justifying such goolish procedures just so octogenerians are prevented from going senile.
But as regards age I will note that my grandfather at 94 quit riding horses only after his wife, 88, fell from her horse when it shied at a train ("maybe we're getting a little old for this"). They, and my grandmother, went long past 93. And my wife's grandmother is going strong still at 103.
My wife's family might soon see a repeat of a situation a long time ago where the matriarch in her clan said (as quoted), "Arise, my daughter, and go to your daughter, for your daughter's daughter has had a daughter. (I will note that on both sides we've not been quick to marry and have children, unlike a friend who was a grandfather in his mid-30s.)
93 years? Most of your years are behind you, certainly. But there are those who seem genetically predisposed to live longer; their time is not "up."
...The test tube all the way to partial birth abortion...
There was a Medicare issue in the past but that is no longer the case.
However, when dealing with Government bureaucrats, maybe her doctors did not want to take any chances or maybe they were not aware that the Medicare regs had changed.
I don't think Alzheimers is new. As another poster said, until the last couple of decades nobody lived as long as we do now. My grandfather was once a magnificent figure of a man. In his 70s Alzheimers struck him down. By the time he died at 83 he had shriveled away to skin and bones and couldn't walk, barley talked and only remembered one person, my aunt. His father died at 45 and his grandfather died younger than that. Had they lived long enough who knows? It's been said that prostate cancer is more common now because men simply live long enough to get it now.
A few days ago I offended a co-worker when I told her flatly that I'm sick of hearing about AIDS and am far more worried about unfashionable diseases like cancer, diabetes and Alzheimers. She was aghast and hasn't spoken to me since.
I don't think Alzheimers is new. As another poster said, until the last couple of decades nobody lived as long as we do now. My grandfather was once a magnificent figure of a man. In his 70s Alzheimers struck him down. By the time he died at 83 he had shriveled away to skin and bones and couldn't walk, barley talked and only remembered one person, my aunt. His father died at 45 and his grandfather died younger than that. Had they lived long enough who knows? It's been said that prostate cancer is more common now because men simply live long enough to get it now.
A few days ago I offended a co-worker when I told her flatly that I'm sick of hearing about AIDS and am far more worried about unfashionable diseases like cancer, diabetes and Alzheimers. She was aghast and hasn't spoken to me since.
My brother and I kept a detailed medical history on her back then, listing daily "incidents" and moods. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but her dementia started when she was given ketoconazole at the UCLA medical center for a recalcitrant abcess on her upper palate.
Which implies that there were old federal regulations which denied all those things. That is what I always suspected.
Mom was always a self-pay, but the medicare system is so perverse that many times she wasn't allowed to pay for what she needed, and got the same soviet-style care as an indigent person would have.
There was one time when she had apparently had a TIA, and went to a SNF for recovery. I asked the doctor in charge at the nursing home if he intended to order a carotid ultrasound. He said, "No".
I almost jumped up and hit him when he told me, "Those are expensive and we have to watch what we spend, you know."
The attitude of a lot of the doctors we dealt with was, ''She's old and going to die anyway, why should we waste any money'', as if it was their money.
Don't get old, folks.
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