Today, nearly 7 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s — a number expected to increase to nearly 13 million by 2050, including 95k in Louisiana. Without medical breakthroughs, this number is projected to rise. As a caregiver of someone with dementia, I understand firsthand the impact this devastating disease has on families across America.
Personally, I went through helping transition my mother to a memory care home and my family is doing it again with my father. It is heartbreaking to see your parents cognitively decline before you, I wipe tears as I write this. Thankfully, Congresswoman Letlow can play an important role in addressing this critical issue.
By increasing funding for Alzheimer’s and dementia research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by an additional $113.485 million and supporting the dementia public health infrastructure with $35 million for BOLD, Congresswoman Letlow has the opportunity to provide millions of Americans like me with a sense of hope. With this funding, scientists will be able to build on this momentum and continue working to advance basic disease knowledge, explore ways to reduce risk, uncover new biomarkers for early diagnosis and drug targeting, and make discoveries that can lead to a treatment or a cure. We can’t afford not to fund research.
Funding can mean everything to this dreadful disease. Finding more new medications, maybe ones that can slow or even stop the disease progression. My dad is going to be a part of a study group at a University that is researching Alzheimer's and dementia and I couldn’t be more proud of him.
Please join me and the Alzheimer’s Association in encouraging Congresswoman Letlow to lead in the fight to end Alzheimer’s and other dementia by supporting critical research funding and the dementia public health infrastructure. Our progress must continue.
Chris Marie Oberloh - Mount Hermon, LA
No comments:
Post a Comment