[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 5995-5996]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 HONORING SANDERS-BROWN CENTER ON AGING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kentucky (Mr. Barr) for 5 minutes.

[[Page 5996]]


  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the University of 
Kentucky's Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, which was established in 1979 
and is one of the original 10 National Institutes of Health-funded 
Alzheimer's disease research centers.
  The University of Kentucky Alzheimer's Disease Center, ably led by 
Director Dr. Linda Van Eldik and her outstanding team of scientists and 
investigators, supports and facilitates research with a long-term goal 
of enabling more effective translation of complex scientific 
discoveries to intervention strategies that improve the lives of 
patients.
  The Sanders-Brown scientists are focused on understanding the 
mechanisms involved in development and progression of age-related 
neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and related 
dementias and stroke, and are seeking new knowledge breakthroughs to 
combat these diseases of the elderly.
  This center also promotes education and outreach, provides clinical 
and neuropathological diagnoses and care of patients with cognitive 
impairment, and runs an active clinical trials program to test 
potential new therapies. These activities are critical because, with 
the aging of the population worldwide and in this country, age-related 
cognitive disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, are reaching epidemic 
proportions, requiring a desperate need to identify strategies for 
effective therapeutic intervention.
  According to a recent report, an estimated 5.3 million Americans have 
Alzheimer's disease, and that is in 2015 alone. This includes an 
estimated 5.1 million people age 65 and older and approximately 200,000 
individuals under the age of 65 who have younger-onset Alzheimer's 
disease. Barring the development of medical breakthroughs, the number 
will rise to 13.8 million by the year 2050.
  Almost half a million people age 65 or older will develop Alzheimer's 
in the United States this year alone. To put that into perspective, 
every 67 seconds, someone in the United States develops Alzheimer's. By 
midcentury, an American will develop the disease every 33 seconds.
  Alzheimer's disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United 
States and fifth leading cause of death for those age 65 or older. 
There is an enormous cost and financial impact of this disease.
  Alzheimer's is, in fact, the costliest disease to society. Total 2015 
payments for caring for those with Alzheimer's and other dementias are 
estimated at $226 billion. Total payments for health care, long-term 
care, and hospice for people with Alzheimer's and other dementias are 
projected to increase to more than $1 trillion in 2050.
  So when we talk about reforming Medicare, when we talk about doing 
the things we need to do to save Medicare and keep our promises to our 
seniors, we have to recognize the critical importance and the return on 
investment that that investment in the National Institutes of Health 
can have.
  I say, in the debates about Medicare reform--and these are important 
debates--let's pay attention to investment in the National Institutes 
of Health and particularly the underinvestment in the research that 
goes on in places like the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging.

                              {time}  1100

  This can have an enormous impact on our ability to keep Medicare 
solvent and also improve the lives of so many Americans. So I call on 
all of my colleagues here to join me in thanking everyone at the 
University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging for their 
contributions to continue the fight against Alzheimer's and other 
diseases of the elderly.

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