Alzheimer's goes to the Sundance Film Festival

It starts out as a typical movie review...

"A beautifully done film made with delicacy and classic virtues, it showcases a luminous Julie Christie in a drama revealing what the..."

But then it does something you don't see all that often. It discusses a plot line built on the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

The movie is called "Away From Her" and is coming to the Sundance Film Festival. With over 4.5 million people having Alzheimer's and a baby boom fed epidemic on the horizon the more exposure Alzheimer's gets the better.

Hollywood could do a lot to de-stigmatize the disease. The more that people discuss it openly the better. This is serious business.

From the National Institute of Aging:

Scientists think that as many as 4.5 million Americans suffer from AD. The disease usually begins after age 60, and risk goes up with age. While younger people also may get AD, it is much less common. About 5 percent of men and women ages 65 to 74 have AD, and nearly half of those age 85 and older may have the disease.

Scientists do not yet fully understand what causes AD. There probably is not one single cause, but several factors that affect each person differently. Age is the most important known risk factor for AD. The number of people with the disease doubles every 5 years beyond age 65.

One thing for certain. Alzheimer's represents a pending epidemic as the baby boomer population bubble enters the high-risk age. This is more than just a problem for the aged as the costs and responsibility for elder care effect everyone. The sooner that this issue achieves the level of awareness necessary to combat it the better and it won't be the first time that the arts played a vital role in generating that awareness.