September 21st, 2004
World Alzheimer's Day
The Toronto Star notes that today is World Alzheimer's Day: "People are much more aware of it and prepared to talk about it. We are now where we were with cancer 30 years ago." In actual fact, I believe that the medical community is further ahead than that - Alzheimer's research has been a high priority for a decade now and bioinformatics allows scientists to move much faster than in previous decades. As early regenerative medicine extends our healthy life spans, it becomes ever more vital to prevent and cure neurodegenerative conditions. The brain is in a class of its own; other organs can be replaced or repaired using comparatively crude future medicine, but damage to the brain must be repaired in situ.