This is not the case of the mouse that roared, but instead the one where the mouse stayed plaque-free.

Imagine what it must be like to move to a nursing home. You spend your days in unfamiliar surroundings, removed from loved ones and dependent on strangers to tend to your most basic needs. Worse, losing the ability to live at home exacts a great personal financial price. The Alliance for Aging Research estimates that the total average cost of care for a person who remains independent during the year is $4,800. But should that person need to spend any time at all in a nursing home, the average cost expands more than seven times to $36,000 per year! Because of loss of independence due to chronic diseases of aging, the United States pays through the roof, too. We spend an additional $26 billion in health care costs annually because older Americans begin to lose their independence due to loss of mobility, macular degeneration, Alzheimer's, incontinence, and other chronic disabling conditions.

Personal independence, the capacity to live where you wish, to do the things you want, with the people you want to be with; this is the essence of freedom that we all cherish. But with age, and with the rising risk of chronic diseases, these essential freedoms become even more precious.