On March 15, 2013, the Alliance for Aging Research submitted testimony to the House Appropriations, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee, calling for $32 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in FY 2014. To justify this increase, the Alliance highlighted important NIH-supported work administered through the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and other of the NIH's 27 Institutes and Centers. Particular attention was paid to advances in understanding the basic biology of aging and its link to chronic disease and the formation of a Geroscience Interest Group (GSIG) comprised of 20 Institutes and Centers to coordinate discussion and action across the NIH on research into the processes of aging that underpin most major age-related disease.

To read the Alliance's testimony, click here.

Around 100 million Americans live with persistent pain--more than are affected by diabetes, cancer, and heart disease combined. This latest volume of The Silver Book brings together all of the data on persistent pain, all into one place.

On February 11, 2013, Steve Usdin, Washington Editor of BioCentury, published an article in BioCentury The Bernstein Report on Business focused on the future of the FDA’s Division of Neurology Products following the expected retirement later this year of the current Division Director, Russell Katz, M.D. Representatives from the biopharmaceutical industry and the patient advocacy community were interviewed for this article, including Daniel Perry, President & CEO of the Alliance for Aging research and Chair of the ACT-AD Coalition. Mr. Perry highlighted ACT-AD’s positive relationship with Dr. Katz and expressed hope that Dr. Katz’s successor will approach the review of therapies for Alzheimer’s disease with similar openness and flexibility.

To read the BioCentury article, click here.

Alzheimer's disease is a slow, dehumanizing, and fatal disease that strikes 1 in 8 people over the age of 65. While it's typically thought of as a disease that affects memory, it goes well beyond memory loss and eventually leads to death.

Typically, our muscles grow larger and stronger as we age. That is, until about the time we celebrate our 30th birthdays. That’s when most of us start down the other side of the hill and begin to gradually lose our muscle mass, strength, and function. While it’s usually not very noticeable in our 30s and 40s, the loss increases exponentially with age and tends to accelerate between the ages of 65 and 80.

This progressive loss of muscle mass is called sarcopenia, and it’s found to play a major role in the increased frailty, disability, and functional impairment that too often come with aging. While sarcopenia is a condition that is not uncommon with age, we don’t have to just sit back and accept it. There are things we can do to slow its progress, and current research promises to make that trip over-the-hill less traumatic.