and rest in peace but yet someone was collecting on the debt still. so i called the agency i wrote them of letter actually and i said i requiring about the calls you're sending to this woman because they would sue her what is your claim to ownership of this debt? i thought i would hear from someone like a chop shop but i talked to the owner beverly hills would ask them he said that we looked into this. this belongs to a portfolio of debt to purchase from a stock'' -- a stockbroker in florida said the numbers have been manipulated by his attitude was not shocked

that this is par for the course in this business you're just purchasing data and you never know what. there is a chilling and religious purchasing data but a profoundly affects their lives. somehow when whoever sold it to them sold it to someone else and to this day heard dash it is floating around in cyberspace and someone else will buy it and try to collect. somehow that more than anything else speaks to the chaos and this functionality of this industry. >> host: to give one message to fix this one is

the take away? >> give skeptical who was calling you on the phone and you cannot assume blindly they have a legitimate claim that what they're asking for is accurate that there is no legal obligation and to pay the debt. and would ensure financial reaction to these calls but thirties' to be better enforcement with the projection of zero and the banks have to be more careful on what they pass along that there is a documentation there is supposed to be. and their needs to be a change of the support network said 90 percent no-shows' rate creates these garnishments and problems are there is a fair amount that needs to be done simic

84 writing this book. and other regulatory basis this is in the? setting i could not stop so thank you for writing the book. >> guest: thanks so much spin again calling on a comment on a debate that i

saw regarding the declaration of war and the war powers act for but was quite interesting with the ineptitude of the neocons with the ultimate hearsay of the country's ability to go to war. >> alibi to command c-span and to for airing the information from the writers on greece and the military. it was excellent information. with the debt level interaction with the nuances

with ptsd but if you continue to try various interventions. >> it is one of the best programs of which we to do more than once a week.

>> i am one of the managers here at politics & prose and i welcome all of you today we have many events here at the store. sometimes multiple times a day ahead you are connected through the mail list to be a male subscriber we encourage you to do is that. we do consider ourselves much more than a bookstore but we are a community space at wellcome's conversation

with class's and author talks and thank you for coming. meryl comer is a 30 year veteran reporter producer and talk-show host and among the first tv newswomen in the '80s to specialize in business news as it relates to public policy with the national and syndicated debate show. she also coanchored the nation's business today. now the president of the alzheimer's initiative of geoffrey beene prominently providing 100 percent of the net profits of the geoffrey beene inn, dedicated to the foundation along with the work with cancer and wounded warriors and protection of

women and children. she has provided testimony before congress serving on alzheimer's study group a founding member of u.s. against alzheimer's and the co-founder of the women against the alzheimer's network. her husband was a chief of hematology at the national institutes of health when he was diagnosed with early onset alzheimer's at age 58. ms. comer chose to leave her television career to become a caregiver for her husband and her mother who had leaked alzheimer's and home hospice. since that diagnosis she is an outspoken advocate for greater awareness and more research for the rights of

care givers and patients alike. in her book teeeleven lost and found in the age of alzheimer's" this struggle to get us a diagnosis that are chipping and the limitation of long-term facilities is in on the story of courage and hard work. to enhance the conversation she sharing her book with us today. thank you very much meryl comer. [applause] >> thinks for coming on this glorious day the last day of summer i am touched. the issue is very important i would like to do a survey i am much more interested in the audience and myself. how many have a family member or relative with this disease in the audience?

how many have a friend or colleague who is loved one has been affected? a family member or a friend in the caregiver role? are you concerned about a loved one or yourself? raise your hand are there any doctor's lawyer psychiatrist or politicians in the audience? good. [laughter] we have a good conversation this is a special audience to me because you are engaged around the body politic and to the c-span audience this is one of the most important stops there will ever make on a book to our. -- tour this morning i look to see how many books written on alzheimer's there is over 11,000 books.

to really need another book on alzheimer's? sought out of respect to better tell you what it is and what it isn't. first of all, i applaud the thousands of authors who have written books to loved ones to honor their memory who speak spiritually within the disease this is been around for a long time and they had to help people live in a moment with the disease with no care you have to live in the space with a loved one that stretches out over years. and i am right on the tip of 20 years prove that my husband would not last long but he was of the onset.

we could get into that issue later. most of the books that i have read cannot keep up with idiosyncratic twist after all that's be respectful of ourselves it is our brain. it is hard to write the book that will tell you how to manage a loved one to the process. but i could not write a book that except the status quo. but this is a disease that will ravage baby boomers to create the untenable burden and i find that totally unacceptable.

so to share the descriptions you really put yourself out there. unvarnished but i also believe the reason i was willing to write it a shot out to all caregivers we know the details. but most people don't want our details. the it is our responsibility of dignity. but we to that by hiding her loved ones away so we never see with the disease like. it is hard to see a smart individual reduced totally dependent or someone who cannot remember who you are is one of them as dramatic things that happened.

so to share some of the latest statistics those of you in the new republic this week that the age of alzheimer's we will be touched by this disease by living with it does not need to be so cruel. this is a very cruel disease. 50 percent of people will develop some form of dementia by the time they're 85 years of age and now that is the fastest-growing demographic and by the way predominantly women. it is a huge issue. i will not go beyond 2030 because politicians cannot get beyond one year. [laughter]

we will have 76 million suffering from this disease. the impact is growing. 10 million baby boomers and $1 trillion of annual cost from this disease in with a crisis of generation $215 billion annually on this disease less than 1% is on research so do a comparative we spend about 9 billion on hiv/aids. cancer has around 5 billion per year and less than 1% with 76 million baby boomers turn 65 that the rate of

10,000 per day and 4 million per year for the next 20 years that the youngest baby boomer turns 50 anyone younger than 50? i want to talk to your generation also. this just came not from the merrill lynch study more people now cite alzheimer's as a serious condition more than a cancer stroke heart disease diabetes and arthritis combined. the most worrisome diseases. look at the age brackets 55 or over it is definitely alzheimer's. then cancer. this is the most worrisome diseases later in life but what is most breaking it is not just the baby boomers but our children who are worried. they are watching us take

care of our parents looking at the wear and tear and what it causes havoc to their dreams that might be put on hold to say is that our future? this is one of the first times we are beginning to understand how infectious and i say that although it is not a disease that way but the way it is to the family. to those of us who have spent time in this town the debate was social security to create that intergenerational old rivalry. this time it will be alzheimer's. this tells you how to fix the brain. sorry.

this is too good. we just lost the video for you. here it goes. >> it comes on gradually as to abnormal protein fragments called plaque and tinkle and kill brain cells. they stir in the hippocampus the part of the brain where memories are first formed. over many years time the plaque untangles slowly destroy the hippocampus and it becomes harder and harder to form new memories simple

recollections from a few hours or days ago that we may take for granted are just not there. after that more plaque spreads into different regions of the brain killing cells and compromising function wherever they go. the spreading around causes the different stages of alzheimer's. from the hippocampus it spreads to the region of the brain were language's process. when that happens it is tougher to find the right word. next it goes to the front of the brain were logical thought takes place. very gradually a person begins to lose the ability to solve problems, a grasp the concept and make plans. next to evade the part of the bravery motion is regulated. when this happens a patient loses control of movements and feelings.

after that the disease moves to where it makes sense of sees and hears and smells. every ecstatic on a person's senses and can spark hallucinations provincially the plaque erases the oldest and most precious memories that are stored here in the back of the brain. near the end the disease disease, romances of balancing coordination and in the very last stage it destroys the part of the brain that regulates breathing and the heart. the progression is slow and steady and takes place over an average of eight years. >> i need another power source.

that is what life is all about. [laughter] the bottom line is what happens this is not a normal part of aging is a regenerative diseased that is always fatal. 20 years ago when my husband got the disease there was no modifying drugs whatsoever except one or two to deal with the symptoms. today there are no diseased modifying drugs except the four that were available at that time. when my mother became ill with the disease as well it became quite obvious to me that what was going wrong? why for people being responsive in be offended?

what i realized is peopled never saw the disease because we would hide the loved ones away and the care givers are the secret the only reason i wrote the book to a unlocked a conversation that has been hidden away. look at the top concerns of alzheimer's disease. how many are worried about being a burden on your family? losing dignity? that compares with the merrill lynch study, to be isolated from friends and family? not being able to do the things that i enjoy? health care costs and

related expenses? being in pain or discomfort? dying? quite frankly after spending 20 years my husband as a physician if you define yourself by your intellect and who you are, this is not a disease that you want to live with or impose upon family. the idea you can control what happens to you with this disease, forget it. my mother hid away prescription drugs but it slips over you as you saw that video done who is also an author. but you were in and out of reality. i am my husband's copilot and his guardian. he hasn't known who i am for the last 12 years but he

knows my touch. i have to be persuaded he knows my touch because i leave the team with a 12 hour shift everyday not only for my husband before my mother as well. somewhere deep you have to believe you can reach a loved one in this space. of "washington post" reporter said i lost my prime. and it seemed to be a bitter overtones that you cannot take care of a loved one for 20 years and be better it would eat you alive. you have to find a place where you can help one in the space. now pierre research has gotten better but has not filtered down to all of us. music therapy is all wonderful but it only works

in a very small period of time then you have to let it go. if you fight the disease you will be destroyed with the victim. i mean that we all do palliative care and to play to whatever strength they have been when they cannot do it anymore, let it go. i beg you. it will be too frustrating. if you were not persuaded this is an important issue there is a 50 percent greater risk for this disease, a sorrier having problems with the slide. overweight or metabolic like diabetes or depression or addiction you are 50 percent more likely to get this disease.

does sex matter? this is the challenge we have globally remember cardiovascular disease? everyone thought that was the man's disease but it turns out to be the biggest killer of women. we thought it was important to ask that question sex based differences matter that is why we ask the research question now is a bigger and bigger issue. think of ambien and what they'll burn about differences of how women respond to pharmacological substances verses men. we must tease these differences out. greeting us against alzheimer's it is an entire network with african-americans and latinos and clergy and

researchers we need to come together that this is unacceptable for ever future. the reason it is such a of big women's issue we outlive men statistically we are more prone to get it but science does not know why but they do know women's progress into the disease faster than man. into full-blown alzheimer's if it is on your maternal side you are at higher risk for getting the disease. two-thirds of the care givers in the country are women. it is an unpaid care 70 percent try to take care of loved ones at home but there is typically an episode that makes it impossible to keep one at home.

the caregiver gets sick children are endangered by the behavior's and that causes institutional is asian. in our case and a husband was a physician. chief of hematology. they are the worst he was in denial all the way into the disease which made more difficult. my husband maintained his brain he was a long-distance runner very tram very disciplined 200 published papers but it did not matter that is the most important point as a generation we are into the use it or lose that mentality 60 is the new 40 i try that every day.

though we are in serious denial and that is what inhibits us to have the conversation we need about this disease this is the disease of our generation. we went to the moon. 76 million we are transformational when we want to do something why aren't we in arms about this disease that will destroy our families and our lives and diverted the next generation? and deny all made my husband difficult to take care of by could pave a shave and taken to a reception in washington and everybody is so involved in this town nobody noticed.

if you kept moving nobody noticed. my antenna are up every time i go to a reception. the woman who goes to the buffet and doesn't know what to pick up the husband who says could you check on my wife and the baby's room? she has been away too long. for spouses to fill in for each other when they return from a wonderful trip and they don't remember where they were. that creep of the disease is everywhere but we're buying into the denial that we do not want to see what we are about to live west. go back 20 years the diagnostics are not as good as they are today.

that whether or not you have a high risk for the disease i need to know because i have seen what the disease does to families. it is too soon before it is too vague that end of life conversation that is so hard deal know if you put your life and order so your family doesn't have to guess about your end of life issues? the columnist from boston has a conversation and project you can download all the forms you will need to have that conversation. my husband left me with no road map although i do know that my husband would not have considered this living by any stretch of the

imagination. some are here who space has been professionally and they shake their heads. this is a cruel disease. the doctors did not want to diagnose. i doctor to doctor? good luck. i am a doctor's wife so i typed up observations and to respect their time with no gross abnormality but what i have learned to a detail the journey but i was ignored totally ignored then i became his victim and i was meryl comer my husband and access to things. try to take up porsche away from a 56 throat man.

-- year old man we wait too long to keep them there and dependents. anticipate. one night i pulled the plug on his car for bridal understand foreign cars when i pulled whatever was there and a lot to the garage door and for five years my husband said where is my car and i said you had to get to that foreign car and it is in the shop. every day he would ask for his car was. but my peace of mind was his independence ended when he could endanger another human being i could not live with that idea if i was not proactive they want to give it to them for as long as they can't but always remember the people around them and who they might endanger. when someone wanders away

even dementia are wildly in their space my heart tells me the family waited too long. they lived in to the denial. i went public 12 years and because i was frustrated by the conversation that was going on. though little old lady who forgot her keys. i don't remember my daughter's wedding. no one was telling it like it was. as a reporter i thought i have to show people of physicality because we do need to respect the people. i said because you lose control of the narrative and respect my has been some dignity no shots below the

waist of i bade him. and this is that story. >> i am a prisoner of alzheimer's and the extension of this disease. i feel compelled to speak out for victims who have no voice and caregivers who are worn out. >> this is how meryl comer begins each day. in the morning light to empty his urine bag. she removes his catheter and helps them out of bet. -- out of bet then she will get to the occasional fleeting acknowledgements that he knows that she is there but he is not aware she is his wife but a familiar presence.

her seven year-old husband is in the 12th year of alzheimer's entering the final stages when patients completely withdraw as devoted as she is to care for him but now she is in her 12th year of something like hell. that is of millions of families coping with the ravages of the un treatable and incurable disease. >> it does not care what color you are or how much education you have or how much money you have, it can destroy you.

>> there is always us second patient with their caregiver required. >> the second patient in this case he was a long way from that. >> then she spent her days interviewing newsreaders and presidents and divorced from her first husband stayed married in 1980 and he was at the peak of the prestigious career as the physician specializing in blood related cancers at the national institutes of health but then diagnosed with early onset alzheimer's same as that thing to do with the use of the mind. eventually to a nine? her job to become his full-time caregiver and he

also became paranoid and delusional and occasionally violent. and then to have their own personal care i had my teeth knocked out in the hospital. >> it goes another direction it is frightening and it is terrifying. >> you don't have a good memory. i wrote this book it is not about me but it is my story but it is 50 million care givers like me think of the families with young men and women who come back with ptsd with long-term chronic

diseases. i wrote what they are afraid to say out loud i was willing only try to unlock a conversation because the care givers are the keeper of the secrets. i believe whether optimism and -- autism tres mean i do not do comparative pain i just see it. a breaks my heart young families with children with disabilities that is a lifetime. if that is the point of a conversation we owe them a future with increased dementia we're on a trajectory and understand alzheimer's is just the most popular form of dementia.

you pick it is all horrible. i would like to begin a dialogue. you offered to read something that caught your attention? >> i've read the book. before it was published i am a psychiatrist in washington. i have known many people with alzheimer's and i was very touched by this book. i just want to read it to pages what meryl comer showed us of the interview and the story from the life of harvey on the pbs show it goes to the question that she faces of why. there are two pages because

at the end of the book people came up to her after the show and say things to her. that were very insightful to think about her work and this book a well-dressed man in his mid-50s, up to meet to say your story was hard to watch too bad your husband doesn't know how lucky he is head of the wife would be as good to meet i'm afraid to ask and find out. then he turned and crossed the street before i could respond. but to offer that lack of sleep over time increases the risk of dementia so be careful not to become the other victim of this disease i smiled then closed my eyes i had been up all night.

added dinner meeting a call they pulled me aside please forgive my blunt question. are you doing what you out of love for just trying to do the right thing? i must have appeared perplexed because he quickly added i struggle with this question myself. my wife was diagnosed the woman i love is becoming less the woman i fell in love with a fellow love with a person not a body how does my vision ship seibald? i ask because you have had three times longer to think about it also because i believe you will tell me what is real not what is correct he deserved an answer that now was not the time her or offered him my business card with a hug and a whisper. professional women contacted

me out of the blues through emails and both admired the and admonish me for sacrificing my career and if you shares of what the toll had taken their own marriage one-woman emails she thought i was brave to go public she would drive up bond dash draw the line on her husband 21 dwyer became incontinent most said they did not plan to take care of their spouse at home. one woman i knew professionally called me and said she urgently needed meet over breakfast at a neighborhood bakery she confessed she was struggling to get both her husband and herself through the early stages of his diagnosis. of washington and insider was on the early stages but for now she preferred to keep it that way then she

stopped her voice catching and said i saw you on the news hour program of what to hear what she would say next a few moments passed in silence. i cannot do it she confessed i do not want to be like you. before she could say any more i stopped her. with all my certainty the debate over the right words to use i finally knew what i wanted to say and i told her i don't want anyone to be like me. >> that opens up a wide range of conversation. what would you do for your spouse or would they do it for you? friends ask me that all the time that was most interesting to me after pbs eliot realized after

rulebook i was so intent and then being offended what happened to harvey are realized after right read the book is they were watching me. and the toll that was on meet but what disturbs me is that i was one of the first generation of women into the workforce and i had no options. i was told he was too dangerous to bring home built the city would take my husband not even $100,000 private pay and it is all private pay by the way. no one understands the cost of care around this disease. but then i suddenly realized there watching me. 20 years later the average caregiver to date is 48 years old in the military is 28.

women today are forced to do exactly what i did. to the their career to take care of their parents or a loved one because the care is inadequate. this is a huge problem caregivers are getting sick because of the intensity of care and now we're six times more likely to get to mention because of the care we are suffering our own form of post-traumatic stress how many will say that is unacceptable? water redoing for our loved ones? but that personal conversation is very personal my husband was

restrained is a the hospital when you see your loved one restrained i knew in any facility he would be over medicated and i could not live with myself as a human being knowing someone i loved would be restrained the only mcadoo led was to do it myself and manage the care doctors don't like to diagnose because they cannot treat so they do a disservice to all of us so let us decide what we can manage a cardiologists who don't like to tell their patients because they don't want to depress them? give people opportunities to put their lives in order with them quit their jobs and live the life because this disease is relentless there is no way back. the idea with a little more exercise because we know

that is the only thing there is no empirical evidence that this will save us or the mediterranean diet or wine or sex. go for it but it will not save you. and i showed the numbers. less than 1% spent on research 500 million of the epidemic heading our way globally one of the last countries really paying attention to what is going on. japan all through western europe trying to to do the society's two is on the front line as a first responder? we make an assumption we're getting sick taking care of our loved ones they're paying lip service and that should make some of you

upset. i wrote this because i don't want anyone to live the life i have lived. i made my choice is then to the bitter not i had reporters second cast why i would do this. if you see the dizzies up close because smart people hideout the hippocampus goes into overdrive they fight so hard to stay in control even as they lose it the behavior is bizarre. the struggles that you have the drop-off is very precipitous because they fought so hard so long not

as slow progression but doctors say that those with early onset don't last very long. i and in my 20th year but the doctors don't know. they owe us to tell us. when they said harvey could only last a couple years years, what was my reaction? but we were trained to internalize the pain and swallowing and lived in its. and how you manage pain is very important. you can get sucked in and what saved me is i became an advocate. but now i of fearless.

i do not want my son and his family whom i adore them are my antidepressants of choice to do for me but i have done for my husband and my mother with love. unacceptable i do not want to be remembered that way. i have detailed this in the book. i am happy to talk to any of you will have a little bit of time remaining you have been a generous audience. i'll stick my son has read the book. [laughter] to get it out there then let them know. go to the microphone if you don't mind.

we worked out together. by the way that is survival trading for me because the physicality of lifting a loved one and 200 lb dead weight that has frozen my shoulder. [laughter] >> i am a psychologist and the magic by the content but what i am struck with how can we change what is done in research with the amount of research? i am thinking about that aids model and had in the way of speaking that people

could get very upset that there were very clever and averages change the course of research tremendously but now the only thing it seems to me is the number of people. i am searching to find a country that has 76 million maybe germany it is like germany i am guessing. so what is your suggestion to change that 1% to be what we need? >> we need to billion dollars annually the nih budget is off 20% across-the-board which is really unacceptable. . .

we have learned to live with cancer, with hive ahead hiv/aids. there are no cues. i'm sorry. we have learned to live with disease but manage disease. i will recall the breast cancer movement. a woman who work for me had breast cancer. i saved her job, protected her space. she came bac