America's Often Forgotten Disease

Tim O’Sullivan

The world’s often forgotten disease:

Alzheimer’s disease is never one of the big diseases people talk about when they set off to cure the world of diseases. Alzheimer’s disease is one of the US’s most deadly diseases, being the 7th leading cause of death in 2006. The disease is very very personal, affecting families and loved ones especially because of just the sheer sorrow of the disease. Alzheimer’s disease is a neurological disease affecting the brain, it is not contagious, but it is suggested to be a genetic disease; often times affecting multiple people in the family. The true tragedy of the disease is that it is so personal, the individual with the disease just forgetting their entire family or who they are at times. It is gut-wrenching for families, grandchildren, childhood friends, sons and daughters because the individual literally forgets who these people are…
I really liked the article; I thought it was very modern and very well-written. One thing that stood as specific interest to me during the article was the writer’s interest in the monetary values of Alzheimer’s disease, a fact that is often neglected when thinking about the disease. In most cases, an individual with Alzheimer’s is regulated to a nursing home for their own safety; this is a very costly endeavor. One thing that was specifically noted was that with the health care reform bill being put into law, the health care costs for the Alzheimer’s patients increase dramatically. This is because most insurers have higher premiums for older patients and mostly all affected are older patients, but with the health care reform bill the insurance has to be given to all people so the cost will be larger. I think this is a valid point and something that is never really considered when thinking about the whole topic of Alzheimer’s but for some reason I feel as thought it is a conservative agenda. While the point seems valid I do not think it has a lot of significance in the whole point of Alzheimer’s. However one point that needs specific attention in the article is the fact that the largest group of people in the American populous (the baby boomers) is growing older, and with this will need adequate living conditions. The baby boomer generation has had the highest standard of living of any American generation, and as a result of that they will want an equally high standard for elderly services. The nature of Alzheimer’s disease is forgetting, but what America cannot do is forget about Alzheimer’s comparatively to other diseases that share a prominent role in media coverage. As time progresses, as the baby boomer generation gets older it is inevitable that the percent of people affected by Alzheimer’s will increase. One main thing that may need to change about Alzheimer’s disease is that maybe it needs to be on the forefront of media of diseases. Due to Alzheimer’s being so personal it is often a “closet” disease with families not being very open about the subject; however valid it does not help the disease. It may be sorrowful to speak of, but once that stigma is gone America will be in a better position to fight Alzheimer’s. Forgetting is just as scary as remembering, we have to remember not to forget about Alzheimer’s’