"Alzheimer’s Is Not Normal Aging — And We Can Cure It" Ted Talk - Neuro Note #4

     I choose to look at a neurological disease that is personally close to me for my fourth assignment in Neurological Aspects. This disease is dementia and more specifically Alzheimer's disease. This is a close topic to me because my grandmother has struggled with Alzheimer's for the past 7 years. In order to gain a better understanding of the disease, I decided to watch a Ted Talk titled "Alzheimer's Is Not Normal Aging-And We Can Cure It" by Samuel Cohen.  

    I found the video on youtube, but it is also accessible through Ted.com. I would recommend anyone in the medical field or anyone who has a loved one that is suffering from the disease watch the video. It offers a very optimistic and positive outlook on Alzheimer's. The speaker discusses briefly the history of Alzheimer's and points out the very little progress made in the past century. Cohen also stated some statistics on the prevalence and economic burden of the disease. 40 million people worldwide are diagnosed with the disease and this cost the United States alone 200 billion dollars a year in medical bills. 

      The majority of the talk was focused on the idea that Alzheimer's is a curable disease, however we are facing some different obstacles such as lack of funding, miss information, and lack of awareness. Cohen pointed out that cancer receives a much larger amount of research funding a year even though the two affect close to the same amount of people. Cohen also points out that for the longest society just assumed Alzheimer's was just normal course of aging however this is not true. Lastly Cohen pointed to the lack of awareness being brought to the disease compared to things such as heart attacks and cancer. 

      I really enjoyed the video and found it very encouraging for the future. I hope this mindset leads to serious progression in the research and hopefully a cure. However,  just like Cohen said if their is going to be cure found it will have to start with us.