Tom Harkin: “20 years ago, President Reagan signed a proclamation designating the first National Alzheimer's Awareness Week. Today…”

“20 years ago, President Reagan signed a proclamation designating the first National Alzheimer's Awareness Week. Today, as part of this year's National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month, I would like to commend and thank all those who have worked to battle this terrible disease. As the chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for the National Institutes of Health, and someone who has watched many close friends succumb to Alzheimer's over the years, I have learned perhaps more than I wish I knew about this disease. In 1982, 2 million people suffered from Alzheimer's; today, the number is 4 million. By the year 2050, that number will rise to 14 million, and we will be paying $357 billion a year in health care costs, unless science can find a way to prevent or delay this disease. Fortunately, that goal is in sight. Researchers are finally closing in on what causes Alzheimer's; they are using cutting-edge brain imaging to figure out how to diagnose it; and they are studying everything from folic acid and statins to Advil and gingko biloba to see if any of these drugs and supplements can help delay it. Much of that research would not have been possible without the substantial increase in Federal funding that Senator Specter and I, working together on the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, have secured for NIH.”