David Shenk in Friday’s NY Times Op Ed Page wrote an enlightening and frightening article about Alois Alzheimer who first described the disease which bears his name one hundred years ago.  It is enlightening because Shenk explains the technical details of how brains may be dissected, sliced, stained and viewed in detail in high powered microscopes.  What is frightening is that we do not know how the disease grows in aging brains and we do not know how to slow, stop or prevent it from occurring more and more as the numbers of our citizens live longer and develop the symptoms of the disease.

I have reached the age where every time I forget something I get a twinge that asks me is this is a sign of great portent?  Actually, if the disease does hit me and I am briefly aware that I will forget who I am - I will not be the person who suffers.  It is all those about me who know me and tsk, tsk about what happened to old man Schectman and isn’t it just too bad.  What is worse is that the cost of taking care of someone who no longer cares about himself and the world that he used to obsess about debilitates the rest of us and we can’t do anything about that either.

Carol likes to remind me that she thinks that my interest in space exploration is a waste of money.  I disagreed with her evaluation until this article woke me up to not only my own exposure to whatever brings on Alzheimer but also to the fact that the money used to send up rockets and space stations and exploration of sterile pieces of rock could be used for research and find some way to intervene and make extended lives happy and useful.

I could say the same thing about those who are willing to pay for this insane war we are losing against “terrorism” with non-democratic “allies” as our backup in battles where nobody wins and everyone loses.  The cost of war drains Americans and impoverishes the world.  We would rather develop instruments of destruction and prevent their use by members of an “Axis of evil” than to look into the brains and minds of valuable citizens who near the end of their run and would like to retire with dignity to enjoy the fruits of their labors.

In Mytopia and Yourtopia we could use the money we so willingly blow up into smithereens and instead put it into research to deal with Mr. Alzheimer’s discovery as well as a whole pharmacopoeia of conditions and diseases which bedevil the human race.  Just think – if we could learn and do something positive about bi-polar schizophrenia, diabetes, circulatory diseases and heart conditions – we could make the world a better place.  Meanwhile, just smile to show what dentistry has wrought.