till it eventually kills them. and helpless family members are left to watch it happen before their eyes. and with warnings that the number of cases will triple by 2050 as the population ages, it s a growing disease that has doctors sounding an alarm. we have not somehow impressed on people how common it is, how terrible it is and how much we need to combat it. dr. jeffrey cummings of the cleveland clinic says the medical community is far behind where it needs to be. we spend $6 billion a year on cancer. we spend $3 billion a year on hiv/aids research. we spend $500 million a year only on alzheimer s disease research. and it is just as much of a killer as hiv or cancer is. imagine your own mind, which is really how you relate to the world, your mind creates the world for you, in a sense, and now it s betraying you.