TOW #21: High Mortality From Alzheimer's Disease

With my new job at Marshall's being involved in donating money for Alzheimer's research, I came across a very informative article about Alzheimer's and how this disease causes more deaths than statistics actually show. The purpose of this article was to inform people about how highly deadly this disease is and with all the tolls that it costs, it should be "imperative" to enhance research to find treatments and cures.

The editorial gives many statistics, first starting out with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's estimations that Alzheimer's caused almost 84,000 deaths in the United States. After giving these statistics, the editors introduce a new study done by researchers at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, that states that Alzheimer's is really the underlying cause of more than 500,000 deaths in the United States. The editorial does a really good comparison showing the difference of the statistics and showing that intensive and continuous research can inform us more about the disease. The editorial also does a nice job in describing the way the study is conducted and how the researchers come about the high death toll that Alzheimer's cause.

This editorial really appeals to emotions because after reading this people are going to want to do something because of the statistics the article provides. For example, "Those numbers would catapult Alzheimer’s from the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States to the third, behind heart disease and cancer." This makes people want to invest in more research to find treatments and cures for Alzheimer's because it really affects a lot of people and has devastating affects.

The editors who wrote this seem to be very credible because they use a lot of studies and statistics, however, I feel that they should have had more examples and more than two studies to show the tolls Alzheimer's brings. I also feel like they could have included more about the costs and ways that people can contribute to fund the research for the cure.