instead of being disappointed, the young people are so misinformed, we start to educate them. young people to volunteer their time is a huge accomplishment. considering the xbox and playstation came out this year. i came here today for a few reasons. house of cards" fan.

i've seen the massive amount of financial strain of this disease has caused. i can't begin to imagine how limited ith more incomes this. as you've heard, competitions the most ementia are costly disease in the united states. what does from other major like heart disease, hiv, and strokes, deaths from alzheimer's has increased. over 5 million americans have alzheimer's. the third reason i'm here is to are not ple that they alone.

so few people share their personal stories, so few people have something to relate to. and my wife is me saw someone like me talking about this, we would feel a little less alone. although whispers better than alzheimer's community -- it needs to be yelled and screamed until it gets the attention and funding that needs. i dream of the day when my charity is no longer necessary and i can return to being the lazy man child that i am. i would like to thank the committee again for the share my story. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. rogen. that was great. i'm sorry you had to unmask me

spacey in y kevin disguise. not to me people knew that. [laughter] thank you. i am pleased to see a research may be aware, you not aware -- some of my colleagues in the house of representatives hold a different view of the role of the nih. the house draft of the last year's appropriation bill -- not h they release, but did pass -- included language that in age ave prevented from supporting any health research. hurt is in and

accomplished researcher -- how important is an age to your research? is extremely important. several holder of investigative initiatives, as center grant -- the of nih funding comes from its long-term reach, and also its multidisciplinary aspect. cognitive involve scientists, economists, that kind of assembling of the team outside of the nih umbrella. i mention the hrs was the foundation for the study -- it not have been possible without the hrs.

funded in 1992. of sustained funding outside of nih does not happen. do not think the kind of study that we did would be feasible outside of nih. i do not know of an agency that a uld support that kind of long storm study, as well as the multidisciplinary aspects. >> i appreciate it. get that out, so that people understand that, and hopefully the house will again this year. a presentative moore -- aas former policymaker, is there anything you have personal would change --

do we need to better educate primary physicians on? you have spent a lot of time on the side -- if you were here, of t questions would you ask nih -- is there anything that we did not ask or did not cover? >> i think you have asked appropriate questions of nhi. i think it is important that people in this country understand that this is a disease that is affecting more and more people. i was not terribly surprised when i was diagnosed. their rstand that genetics involved. i hope that one day they find a cure. as a nation, we need to deal with this disease as best as we can.

i really appreciate that you are holding this hearing, and trying to get more information see the do the right thing. you very much. rogen, i have to be honest, i night ading this last i said, hillary for charity? forgot the t. us more about " hilarity for charity" and why you focus on young people. >> we chose to focus on young people because they are the ones who will be affected by this very soon. this seems to be very little knowledge about this among young people. very low to be a priority. again, people think this naturally when people enter into the 90's.

they don't understand, it is not the grandparents be affected, but their parents being affected, and soon than the affected. i saw this first hand. like there was a hole mass missing out informing young people about the disease. it did not seem like a priority. should do it at we because no one else was going to do it. >> thank you. >> i'm a dull, boring person. i would be reticent to have a i was fully -- you, red to be shown up by but a really bothers me that more or harkin is even funny. line was evin spacey great.

a question -- is let me put this in the record, it is a question for dr. crew at nih.his it occurred to me that would be useful to understand whether alzheimer's ce of is increasing, or such as the factor of us living longer? i do not know the answer. have significant consequences. are you expecting greater cost future as a result of longevity? then, scientifically, under research bases, has alzheimer's been with us to the degree that it is today? in the past, is it that we now live longer, therefore the evidence exists. question know that's a

for you or not, but before i forgot my question, i wanted to make sure i got it out. >> i can say something about that. in two ways, we looked in our data to see if there was any in prevalence -- you're quite right -- one needs to be quite careful in increased increased age o in population. it would suggest that as the population ages, we may see less prevalence than had been forecast. forecasts are based on cost and prevalence, holding age constant. up earlier on ame page over 90. we assume that that rate remained constant until 2040.

as the population ages, the increase in overall ppopulation prevalence. our data quite -- we saw a suggestion that, but we're not ready to write a paper on that. there was a recent study in suggested a decline in age-specific a large , quite decline, i think before we would want to take that and put in the forecast, we would want to have more examples from a wider range of populations. right now, from our perspective, we do not see any change in age-specific prevalence.

>> dr., we have been using the word alzheimer's, and you use the word dementia. is there a distinction to be drawn? >> yes. our study was about dementia what our data not have -- we do enough observations to distinguish alzheimer's. this is somewhat outside the my specialty, but great majority of dementia is alzheimer's, but there may also dementia in addition. >> should we expect another study from you related to these topics? >> we're working right now.

we're looking at the cost of of g-term care, and the role health insurance for long-term care. why do we not have a functioning long-term care market? it is very clear that this cost are highly skewed. we do not have well functioning market for that. we are produced one paper on that, and we will produce further papers. >> thank you. mr. rogen i've appreciate your work, "hilarity for charity." i appreciate your efforts to educate and communicate with young people. that is something that i have no doubt is missing. one thing i might suggest in that regard -- we need to men and women ng pursue degrees,

education and science, research, medicine. we need the next generation of doctors who were in the preceding panel. would encourage you to do everything you can to instill a noble e that this is calling. >> yeah, i would love to do that. i think one of the most i learned g things before tthe panel -- the explained to me how the for the research in this area is so sporadic and that people -- i young person as a -- people are discouraged from entering this pursuit because it is not as financially stable

as many other diseases that are in ng great strides taken conquering them. i will do my best, but i encourage the government to create a situation financially with means e people financially. their people come to us with ideas that could literally be the disease cure -- what we have to tell them is that there is the one in six chance of that getting funding. so, they turned to heart disease. unfortunately, alzheimer's is not a cool disease. that waas one of the most distressing things i heard today. even people whose natural instinct is to trying cure the are turned away

by the financial landscape. while you eearn your living as a comedian, you are very effective lobbyist. sent a noticed -- you will request, the plea for increasing of funding is one that we've made for a number of reasons. but, included in those reasons those who derstanding are making decisions about their careers that weathered as alzheimer's or another disease, nih funding will be there. uncertainty that congress can create on spending can create a real challenge. >> i think that mentality trickles down to people of my age -- it shows that is not hire a parody on