This paper examines Alzheimer's disease as an emerging national health and social crisis in the United States. It outlines the disease's characteristic features, including progressive cognitive decline caused by amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, and discusses the growing financial and emotional burdens placed on families and public healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. The paper then analyzes the controversy surrounding stem cell research as the most promising avenue toward a cure, addressing how political and religious opposition led to the 2001 federal ban on publicly funded embryonic stem cell research. Finally, it highlights emerging alternatives, including umbilical cord–derived stem cells, as a potential path forward.
Alzheimer's disease is one form of age-related dementia, previously more often referred to collectively as senile dementia. It is characterized by gradually increasing mental deterioration and corresponding loss of memory, cognition, judgment, and the ability to communicate. The disease is named for the German physician who first identified it in 1906 by discovering abnormal amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in brain tissue. Today, modern imaging technology is used to diagnose these characteristic brain changes associated with Alzheimer's (NIA, 2006).
Those of advanced age are primarily at risk of Alzheimer's, and scientists believe that as many as 4.5 million Americans are presently afflicted with the disease. Between the ages of 65 and 85, the incidence of Alzheimer's increases dramatically, from approximately 5 percent of the population to almost fifty percent (NIA, 2006). Unfortunately, those figures are expected to rise continually over the next several decades, driven by the increasing average age of Americans as the post–World War II Baby Boom generation advances into the age range where the risk of Alzheimer's increases substantially.
Thesis: Alzheimer's disease is quickly becoming a national health and social crisis by virtue of the increasing age of the population and the fact that the average American now lives long enough to be at risk of late-onset dementias. Stem cell technologies may offer the most realistic hope of a genuine cure, but conservative political opposition has severely constrained scientists' ability to develop effective treatments.
The increasing incidence of Alzheimer's is now one of the most serious financial drains on the American healthcare system. Patients typically survive as long as a decade after the onset of symptoms and almost invariably require at least several years of institutionalized care in long-term medical facilities and nursing homes. This is attributable to the tremendous amount of assistance they eventually require after losing virtually all cognitive abilities, including those necessary for the simplest everyday tasks.
By the late stages of Alzheimer's, the demands of providing full-time care surpass the ability of families to manage on their own, after which they must rely on funding assistance from Medicare and Medicaid. All too often, elderly patients who saved throughout their lives in hopes of leaving an estate for their families have no choice but to first "spend down" all of their financial assets in order to become eligible for public assistance programs.
Nevertheless, some of the greatest costs of Alzheimer's are not measured in dollars but in the prolonged emotional agony experienced by the patient's loved ones. Because the disease develops so slowly, caretakers often find themselves gradually drawn deeper into caring for a family member as that person loses all capacity for communication and even for recognizing their own family. For this reason, Alzheimer's has been called "the long goodbye."
"Stem cell research promise versus political and religious opposition"
However, because the most useful type of stem cells are derived from fetal tissue, political opposition — predominantly from the religious right — has successfully lobbied for restrictions on their use, culminating in the 2001 federal ban on publicly funded medical research into embryonic stem cells. As a result, nearly a decade of valuable research into an effective cure for the millions suffering from Alzheimer's and other debilitating diseases was largely lost (Kinsley, 2007).
The federal ban forced researchers to explore other avenues. Two unrelated studies announced in late 2007 described methods of coaxing adult stem cells into exhibiting the therapeutic potential previously seen only in fetal stem cells (Kinsley, 2007). More recently, a study published in the March 2008 issue of Stem Cells and Development reported evidence that stem cells derived from umbilical cord tissue could slow the progression of Alzheimer's after diagnosis (Phan, 2008). According to Mercedes Walton of Cryo-Cell International:
"The scientific community has only skimmed the surface in uncovering the many potential therapeutic uses for cord blood stem cells, and this new research in Alzheimer's disease may pave the way for discoveries around the use of these cells for a host of neurodegenerative and other chronic conditions" (Phan, 2008).
This finding would represent the first genuine potential cure for the disease to emerge since the federal ban on embryonic stem cell research. Because stem cells derived from umbilical cord tissue do not involve the destruction of viable embryos, even some conservative Christian representatives have voiced support for this avenue of research. Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty argued:
"The use of umbilical cord blood is more humane than the use of embryos for two reasons: first, no human life has to be destroyed to produce the umbilical cord blood; second, the use of umbilical cord blood will undoubtedly be less costly than the use of embryonic stem cells. The supply of umbilical cords is pretty much unlimited" (Phan, 2008).
Still, other commentators have pointed out that even if these new technologies eventually prove successful, they represent an unnecessarily circuitous route to a cure — one made necessary only by religiously inspired opposition that contradicts modern science (Kinsley, 2007).
Alzheimer's disease is a devastating and debilitating illness associated with age-related dementia and cognitive decline. It has become one of the most serious medical, public health, and social issues of the 21st century, affecting more and more Americans every year as the average age of the population increases. Embryonic stem cell research remains the most likely avenue toward an effective cure, but political opposition has limited scientists to alternative approaches — to the detriment of millions of patients and their families. In time, it is hoped that common sense will prevail; in the meantime, the best chance for an effective cure lies in other forms of stem cell research.
Kinsley, M. Commentary: Why Science Can't Save the GOP. Time Magazine (December 10, 2007), p. 36.
Phan, K. (2008). Umbilical cord stem cells slow down Alzheimer's progression in mice. Christian Post Reporter. Retrieved July 26, 2008, from
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging. (2006). Alzheimer's disease fact sheet. Retrieved July 26, 2008, from http://www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers/Publications/adfact.htm
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