The Cost of Dementia
Via EurekAlert!: "Alzheimer's disease and other dementias are exacting a massive toll on the global economy, with the problem set to accelerate in coming years. ... The worldwide costs of dementia will exceed 1% of global GDP in 2010, at US$604 billion. ... The scale of this crisis cries out for global action. History shows that major diseases can be made manageable - and even preventable - with sufficient global awareness and the political will to make substantial investments in research and care options." We see arguments for investment in research based upon the cost of inaction for all the major diseases of aging - but a distinct lack of effort in the mainstream to present the same argument for aging itself, the basis for all these diseases. The cost of degenerative aging is far, far greater than any natural disaster, war, or other medical condition. Yet at the very same time as people are prepared to listen to and be motivated by the cost of all these other horrors, aging isn't considered. This is one of the many puzzles surrounding the way in which the realities of aging and the potential for medical science to do something about it are widely ignored.
Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/kcl-lrr092010.php