Fighting back against Alzheimer’s

By U.S. Rep. Tom Cole
R-Oklahoma

This month is World Alzheimer’s Month – a global campaign held every September to raise awareness and challenge the stigma surrounding Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Unfortunately, the horror of Alzheimer’s is something my family and I are all too familiar with. My father, John Cole, battled and ultimately lost his life to this debilitating disease. With heavy hearts, my family and I watched him progressively become a different person and slowly forget so many recollections from his lifetime, including his time bravely serving our great nation in the Air Force, as well as our precious family memories.

This awful disease has impacted so many other American families too, as it is the sixth leading cause of death in America and the fifth among seniors. Yet, we still do not know the cause of the disease, why it rapidly progresses, or have a cure.

So, as a Congress, I believe it is imperative to support robust biomedical research on Alzheimer’s disease, as it can not only improve treatments for patients, but also ultimately find a cure. This is why, during my time as Chairman, as well as Ranking Member, of the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) Appropriations Subcommittee, I made supporting medical research a priority of mine. In fact, I increased Alzheimer’s research funding by over $3 billion more than it was initially in Fiscal Year 2015.

Now, I serve as the Chairman of the full House Appropriations Committee – and in this post, I continue to prioritize fighting back against this disease. I know firsthand that Alzheimer’s really does change a person’s life. So, if robust biomedical research funding can help to ease some of that personal, physical, emotional, or economic pain that Alzheimer’s brings, then we should all, Republicans and Democrats alike, prioritize the issue to help find a cure.

Put frankly, this is an issue that transcends partisanship. So, as lawmakers, we must continue to push for research funding to combat Alzheimer’s and other brutal forms of dementia. That way, one day, together, we can defeat this terrible disease once and for all.