Roth: Now's the time to act to end Alzheimer’s disease

When I joined my family’s home care business, Cypress HomeCare Solutions, back in December 2003, I realized very quickly that many of the clients that we were serving had a form of dementia and some had received a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

Over the next 18 years at the helm I have seen this population base increase; first doubling within a matter of a couple of years, and now represents 3 to 4 times of our overall census as compared to what it was back in 2003.

Why is this happening? Why are more and more people coming down with this progressive neurological disorder that causes the brain to shrink (atrophy) and brain cells to die? Scientist have not discovered why, but we do know that we need to bring awareness to this now more than ever as it is beginning to spiral out of control.

Every September, people come together from all around the world to raise awareness and to challenge the stigma that is associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. This month marks the 10th year of this global awareness campaign. September is World Alzheimer’s Awareness month and Sept. 21 was World Alzheimer’s Day.

The statistics are overwhelming. The toll of Alzheimer’s disease has reached epidemic proportions. One in nine (11.3%) Americans over age 65 is living with Alzheimer’s at a cost of $355 billion annually. The percentage of people with Alzheimer’s dementia increases with age: 5.3% of people age 65 to 74, 13.8% of people age 75 to 84, and 34.6% of people age 85 and older have Alzheimer’s dementia.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s are women. Someone receives a devastating Alzheimer’s diagnosis every 65 seconds and every 3 seconds someone in the world develops dementia.

Currently Alzheimer’s is the 5th leading cause of death of people 65 and older and by 2050, nearly as many as 16 million people in the U.S. will be battling the disease, and the cost to care for them will exceed $1.1 trillion.

Shining a light on this is an imperative for our country but also for the World. This is worldwide, and humanity challenge that we need to figure out and problem solve soon or this disease will crush humanity and our economy.

From the time I started working at Cypress, I knew I wanted to make a difference. In early 2004 I volunteered to serve as the Memory Walk co-chair for the Alzheimer’s Association. I proudly served in this capacity for 4 years and met some amazing people and families. Shortly after my 4th year as co-chair for this marquee event, I discovered the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, which embraces a three-part mission; to end Alzheimer’s without losing another generation; set a new national standard of patient and family care; and forge new models of collaboration in biomedical research.

I immediately fell in love with their mission and have been involved since 2007. In 2009 I joined the board of directors.

The work that they are doing at Banner is nothing short of phenomenal. BAI is helping to lead the fight against Alzheimer’s through its cutting-edge studies in detection, treatment and prevention and through a comprehensive model of care that addresses both medical and non-medical needs of patients and their families.

On June 7 this year, the FDA approved a new drug to treat patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Manufactured by Biogen, Aduhelm (aducanumab) is the first novel therapy approved for Alzheimer’s disease since 2003. Perhaps more significantly, Aduhelm is the first treatment directed at the underlying pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease, the presence of amyloid beta plaques in the brain.

While this drug therapy is somewhat controversial, it is a breakthrough for those in the area of dementia and Alzheimer’s research. It’s been nearly 20 years, and there are more drugs that are in the clinical trials pipeline presently, researchers are hopeful that there will be breakthroughs with these trials that will lead to more drug therapy treatments being approved in the future.

“Only by working together can we find ways to prevent Alzheimer’s before we lose another generation,” said Dr. Eric M. Reiman, CEO of Banner Research and executive director of BAI.

Planning for the future is paramount, and as a community we will need to pull together if we are going to ever eradicate our world of this horrible disease.

Now is the time to act, when people who are united by a cause that is for the greater good of mankind great things can happen. Come and join me in this movement to end Alzheimer’s.

Join us and sign up for the Memory Walk to end Alzheimer’s Disease. On November 6, the city of Phoenix will be holding their Memory Walk, to learn more go to the Desert Southwest Chapter at alz.org/dsw.

In addition is you would like to learn about the Alzheimer’s Prevention Registry, go to endalz.org and help make a difference in the lives of our future generations.

It may take a village to raise a child; but in order for us to find a cure, it will take every bit of our village and many others too.

Editor's note: Bob Roth is managing partner of Cypress HomeCare Solutions.