Alzheimer's bill offered by Bond doubles support

Dolly Jewel's husband saw her as a total stranger.

Alzheimer's disease robbed Donald Jewel of his memory and mental functions in the 1990s, a time when most people didn't talk about the affliction.

"There was so little that we knew," said Cape Girardeau resident Dolly Jewel. "There was only one experimental drug at the time," she said.

Caring for her husband was a constant chore, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Dolly Jewel said she couldn't leave him alone. When she had to leave the house, she had to call on neighbors and friends from church to watch him.

At times, he wandered off. Even when she found him blocks away, he wouldn't get in the car with her. Dolly Jewel said he didn't recognize her. "The police would have to bring him home," she recalled.

A retired biology professor at Southeast Missouri State University, Don Jewell loved a good conversation. But that was converse before Alzheimer's robbed him of that ability.

"That was really a hard thing," Dolly Jewel said . "I missed the conversation."

She finally had to put him in the Lutheran Home because she no longer could take care of him. He died on June 25, 1997, having spent the last 20 months of his life in the nursing home.

Although he died more than seven years ago, the ordeal of Alzheimer's is never far from her mind.

She showed up at the local Alzheimer's Association office on Friday to voice support for U.S. Sen. Kit Bond's legislation that doubles funding for research at the National Institutes of Health to combat the disease.

The bill also would help support caregivers and launch a public education campaign on the latest advances in research and efforts to prevent the dementia.

At a news conference Friday at the association office -- part of a six-city tour to trumpet his bill -- Bond said the disease can't be ignored.

One out of every two Americans over 85 years of age suffer from Alzheimer's, Bond said. The disease results from the gradual destruction of brain cells. The cause is unknown and there is no known cure.

An estimated 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's, a number that has more than doubled since 1980. Missouri has 110,000 Alzheimer's patients.

By 2050, some 16 million Americans could have the disease, Bond said.

Bond said he and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland, plan to reintroduce the Ronald Reagan Alzheimer's Breakthrough Act in the next few weeks. It's named for the nation's 40th president, who had Alzheimer's and died last year.

It would increase research funding into the disease from $700 million to $1.4 billion annually. Bond said added funding could accelerate medical breakthroughs to combat the disease.

Under the measure:

* Funding would be increased from $153 million to $250 million for the national caregiver support program.

* Grants would be provided for respite care, home-health care and day care.

* $1 million would be earmarked to assist in the identification and safe, timely return of Alzheimer's patients who wander off from their caregivers.

* A public education campaign would be launched to educate people about prevention techniques that can "maintain their brain" as they age.

* Caregivers would be eligible for $3,000 tax credits.

* Families would be allowed a tax deduction for the purchase of long-term care insurance.

Dr. John Morley, a physician and professor of gerontology at St. Louis University who treats Alzheimer's patients, supports the legislation.

Reached at his office in St. Louis, Morley said more research money would help. "We are very close to having great breakthroughs over the next five to 10 years," he said.

Alzheimer's can't be confirmed 100 percent except with an autopsy of the brain, he said. But there are diagnostic tests that doctors use in concluding if a person has the disease.

Morley, however, believes that more Americans have Alzheimer's than are diagnosed with it. Many doctors and families are reluctant to single out such dementia, he said.

But as baby boomers age, society increasingly will have to cope with the disease, Morley said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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