Proclamation 5565 --
National Alzheimer's Disease Month, 1986
By
the President of the
A
Proclamation
Alzheimer's
disease afflicts more than 2.5 million Americans. It destroys specific cells of
the brain, impairing memory and judgment and producing confused thought and
irritability. Families and friends, no less than the patient, are caught up in
a daily battle to cope emotionally, physically, and financially with the
patient's loss of intellectual functioning. We owe these patients and their
families our understanding and our support.
No
cure or treatments yet exist for Alzheimer's disease, but scientific research
gives us hope. In medical institutions and laboratories across our country,
scientists, supported by the Federal government's National Institute of
Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and by voluntary
organizations such as the Alzheimer's Disease and
Related Disorders Association, are carrying out a wide range of studies on
Alzheimer's disease and similar forms of dementia.
Each
day, these efforts yield new knowledge about the functions of the brain and its
disorders. New imaging techniques have disclosed that Alzheimer's disease does
not affect the entire brain, as previously thought, but instead destroys
specific areas. Scientists can now target future research more precisely on
these areas and on certain brain chemicals that appear to play a role in the
disease. Much about Alzheimer's disease remains to be learned, but through
research we hope to find a way to overcome what we now know is a disease and
not ``senility'' or a normal consequence of aging.
To
demonstrate our commitment to conquering this disease and to enhance public
awareness of Alzheimer's disease, the Congress, by Public Law 99 - 520, has
designated the month of November 1986 as ``National Alzheimer's Disease Month''
and authorized and requested the President to issue a
proclamation in observance of that occasion.
Now,
Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the
In
Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of November, in the
year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the
Ronald
Reagan
[Filed
with the Office of the Federal Register,