Did you know:

• While the death rate from heart disease, prostate cancer, breast cancer, HIV and stroke is declining, the number of Alzheimer’s deaths is rising—increasing 66 percent between 2000 and 2008.

• Alzheimer’s is the only cause of death among the top 10 in America without a way to prevent, cure or even slow its progression.

The Alzheimer’s Association recently spoke to Dr. Dave Morgan, Chief Executive Officer/Director of the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer Institute, Distinguished Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, and Director of Neuroscience Research for the College of Medicine and at the University of South Florida.

On a very encouraging note, Dr. Morgan said, “…my hope is that in the not-too-distant future, if you’re willing to get a PET scan or spinal tap to determine if you’re at risk, you’ll be able to take drugs to delay the onset of the disease and presumably prevent it in your lifetime.”

Additional food for thought:

“The analogy of Alzheimer’s to AIDS is an interesting one: About 20 years ago, AIDS advocates launched a campaign to gain federal funding for research, and it worked. The amount of money put into AIDS research was incredible – about $3 billion to this day, which helped lead to effective treatments for the disease.

On the other hand, Alzheimer’s has received significantly less federal funding than AIDS, yet it affects far more people and costs our nation 10 times as much. We’ve seen from the AIDS example that unevenness in funding can be overcome – and it can’t come too soon.”

To read more from Dr. Morgan, check out the entire article.