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Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor knows the daily balancing act that Alzheimer’s caregivers face: When her husband could no longer stay home alone, she had to take him to work with her at the Supreme Court.

Now O’Connor is taking her family’s struggle with Alzheimer’s public as she calls on Congress on Wednesday to spur efforts to fight the nation’s coming dementia epidemic.

“I cannot overemphasize the need for urgency,” O’Connor said in testimony prepared for the Senate Special Committee on Aging. “We must resolve, by our swift action, that the current generation of people with Alzheimer’s will be the last generation that we lose to this miserable disease.”

More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, O’Connor’s husband, John, among them. O’Connor stepped down as the first female Supreme Court justice in 2005 to move her husband to an assisted care center in Phoenix, near two of their children. Intensely private, she has said little until now of the family’s experience except that she regretted having to leave the high court so soon.

Alzheimer’s is poised to skyrocket, with 16 million people forecast to have the mind-destroying illness by 2050. Today’s treatments only temporarily alleviate symptoms. Already, the Alzheimer’s Association estimates that 10 million people share the overwhelming task of caring for a relative or friend with it.

“I suspect that you will not hear from many of my fellow caregivers directly … simply because they do not have the resources to take time away from their loved ones in order to come before you,” O’Connor said.

Against that somber backdrop, a group of scientists, former politicians and well-known names like O’Connor have teamed up to create what they call a “national strategy” to jumpstart efforts to speed research into new Alzheimer’s treatments and improve help for caregivers.

The so-called Alzheimer’s Study Group won’t have its report ready until next year, but began pushing lawmakers Wednesday to start thinking about the needed investment despite tight economic times. Public funding for Alzheimer’s has been stagnant for five years, O’Connor noted.

“You will never meet an Alzheimer’s survivor — there are none,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who co-founded the group, said in his testimony.

Via: Time

Report predicts that 10 million baby boomers could develop Alzheimer’s in their lifetime

The Alzheimer’s Association released a report yesterday with some frightening estimates regarding the future of the brain-wasting disease. One out of every eight baby boomers are likely to develop Alzheimer’s at some point, and the disease is now the seventh deadliest in the country.

By 2010, there will be 500,000 new cases each year. By 2050, that number will jump to a million. This means the costs of caring for these patients are, naturally, going to jump dramatically.

The report suggests that the Medicare burden will jump from $91 billion spent on Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia in 2005 to $189 billion by 2015. Which makes you think that the government is hustling to support researchers in search of a cure, or effective treatment, right? Not exactly. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, the government has cut spending on the research. At the same time, other experts suggest that the Association’s numbers might be too aggressive.

Via Live Science

A new LED device may help keep drivers awake during long hauls

Bye-bye, NoDoz. New Scientist reports today that researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are developing a new technology designed to help truckers stay alert through all-night hauls. Instead of popping stimulants, drivers may soon rely on special LED lights to reset the body’s internal clock.

The lights, which cast an eerie blue glow and emit light spectra of 450 and 470 nanometers, could potentially be installed in truck cabs, or delivered in “light showers” at truck stops along major shipping routes. Another alternative would be to build the lights into goggles, which the drivers could wear for a set period of time before taking off.

Mariana Figueiro, author of the paper published by Rensselaer Polytechnic, has already tested the goggle device on Alzheimer’s patients with impaired circadian rhythms. “After 45 minutes there is a clear effect,” Figueiro told New Scientist. “You start to see a beautiful increase in brain activity in the 300 milliseconds response, which is a measure of alertness.”