The Alzheimer’s Association today called on the House of Representatives to provide $40 million in additional funding this year to the National Institutes of Health NIH) to support large-scale clinical trials for treatments that would slow or delay the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
Susie and Don Means of Massillon, OH, testified on behalf of the Alzheimer’s Association at the U.S. House Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education of the House Committee on Appropriations in Washington, D.C., to share their personal experiences with Alzheimer’s disease.
Seated beside Don, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease at the age of 58 in 2000, Susie emphasized the need to find treatments to slow or halt the onset and progression of the disease as she related how her family has coped with the changes in their lives brought on by Alzheimer’s disease.
“On behalf of my entire family and the nearly 14,000 other Alzheimer’s families in eastern Ohio, we are asking you to commit an additional $40 million in Alzheimer research funding this year for clinical trials to identify treatments that can slow or halt the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease,” she said. “From our involvement with the Alzheimer's Association, we know significant advances in medical research have resulted in new and promising treatments and we have many reasons to believe that a world without Alzheimer's disease is within reach. We cannot afford to back down now and ask that you stay the course and maintain your commitment to fund promising research.”