Alzheimer's Disease: The Public Health Crisis of the Century

Alzheimer's Disease: The Public Health Crisis of the Century

Alzheimer's disease is among the most costly diseases in the US, and those costs are rising rapidly as baby boomers age and life expectancy increases. Over 5 million seniors suffer from Alzheimers, and that number is expected to triple within the next 40 years. William Thies, Ph.D., the Alzheimer's Association chief medical and scientific officer calls Alzheimer's "clearly the Number 1 public health challenge of the 21st century."

"People with Alzheimer's, their families and caregivers desperately need more and better treatment options for this devastating, fatal brain disease," he warns, "It is an overwhelming epidemic, already claiming millions of individuals, and it is on track to deplete our healthcare resources and devastate Medicare".

The disease causes nerve cell death and tissue loss throughout the brain, and is characterized by problems with memory, language and cognitive functions like problem solving. Over time the brain shrinks significantly, affecting nearly all its functions. Alzheimer's patients progress from being forgetful to having difficulty performing normal tasks like cooking or driving to losing all ability to communicate or care for themselves. As their capacities diminish, they take a greater and greater economic toll on their caregivers, the economy and the healthcare system.

Researchers have yet to discover a cure, or even an effective treatment, for the degenerative brain disease, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved five drugs to slow the progression of symptoms. Alzheimer medications work best when begun in the early stages of the disease.

It's ironic that, given the number of Americans diagnosed with Alzheimer's, Thies identifies recruiting and retaining enough participants for Alzheimer clinical studies as one of the greatest obstacles to developing the next generation of treatments. More than 400 pharmaceutical treatments are currently in clinical trials worldwide, creating what he calls an "unprecedented call for clinical trial participants."

Although millions have been spent on drug research, results have been disappointing, with no real progress made to date. In fact, there is cause for concern that some of the drugs currently in clinical trials may actually be causing further neural degeneration and cell death by attempting to remove the protein plaque evident in the brains of Alzheimer patients. It now appears that brain plaque, long considered the cause of Alzheimer's disease, may actually play a protective role rather than a destructive one, explaining the failure of so many research trials.

This new development underlines how little we understand about Alzheimer's, and the need for researchers to think outside of the box and to continue to attack the disease from a variety of angles. For millions of Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers, a desperately needed breakthrough can't come fast enough.

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