My entire family has become victimized by this most hideous disease. My husband was diagnosed at age 57 and forced to end a highly successful career as an engineer. In the past four years, he has lost over $1 million in salary and retirement benefits. Our two young adult children are not only faced with the very real worry that this, too, could happen to them, but must also bear witness to the cruel and dehumanizing cognitive, physical and emotional decline of someone they love, without any chance of cure in the near future.

I am a nurse practitioner who is now the sole support of our family and the full-time caregiver of my husband after working 60 hours a week. I believe that this is now a huge public health issue which is worsening by the day. This disease points out everything that is wrong with health care in the United States – affordable medications, lack of long-term care policy, cuts in research and development and the lack of sheer numbers of qualified health care workers.

On a personal note, Alzheimer's disease has presented the greatest life challenge my family will ever face: We grieve every single day, as does my husband.