“Tortured.” “Trapped.” “Helpless.” Empty.”

That is how Alzheimer’s victims described their descent into this disease on a touching and disturbing documentary aired on January 21, 2004 on PBS, titled “The Forgetting.”

There is an urgency here that can no longer be ignored. By anyone. We are all at incredibly high risk of succumbing to this horrendous abomination of a disease that “draws a curtain over a victim’s life and draws families into its grip.”

Breakthroughs are especially critical now…Alzheimer’s disease has been declared a “looming public health disaster.” 15 years ago approximately 500,000 Americans had Alzheimer’s. Today, 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s—10 times as many—and growing. This is a social and economic tragedy. By the time you reach 75 years old, you have a 25% chance of contracting Alzheimer’s disease. By the time you are 85 years old, you have a 47% chance. Not good odds. Especially given the fact that you have a better chance than ever to live to be that old. The economic cost of this impending catastrophe is over 100 billion dollars, and rising. This figure is going to be dwarfed when baby-boomers turn 65. By the year 2030, those numbers are going to explode. Our entire federal budget could be consumed with caring for Alzheimer’s victims!

Imagine having your identity stolen. Imagine living in a senile haze. Memories are who we are. There is something profoundly terrifying about having memories ripped from your head. Ultimately, all the things that maintain dignity in an individual are lost with Alzheimer’s. “I am losing my mind,” an Alzheimer’s victim mutters in “The Forgetting.” “But…isn’t the essence of a person in the heart? Will I still be able to laugh…to love…to hug?” Anyone who cares for someone stricken with this disease knows the unspeakable answer to that question. No. Eventually all is lost. As the “plaque” attacks the brain, there is a cascade of destruction, starting with memory and moving through all the functions of the body.

Dr. Alzheimer was the first to discover that there is a physical cause for what seems like a mental illness in the disease that was named after him. After years of research following this revelation we now know that in Alzheimer’s disease there is a gene to gene interaction, with environment triggering these genes. As researchers work feverishly to find a cure…a treatment…an answer…we are running out of time. This voracious epidemic continues to grow, and no one is immune. We all need to become involved if we are to stop this ferocious disease…

This Long Goodbye.