In early June, I wrote a story about my virtual dementia tour at Blue Mountain Health System Medical Plaza in Bowmanstown. It was an eye-opener.

Sure, I knew what my mother went through, but I didn't know how she felt or what she saw. The tour gave me an inkling into what her world was like.Before my mother discovered in 2003 her forgetful problem was more serious than old-age senility, my world, and I think that of most people at the time, really had not become acquainted with the term Alzheimer's disease.How is it different from dementia? Are they the same thing? What is senility?Our understanding was that as most people got older, they lost some of their mental capabilities and of course physical capabilities, but the this slow, progressive loss of eventually everything, well, that was different.Senility was just something that happened to people as they got older. It wasn't something you wanted, but it was not frightening. Grandma couldn't always remember your name, but she was still basically Grandma.Alzheimer's disease is different. Alzheimer's strips away everything about who you are and everything you know about the world you live in.Piece by piece, it peels away one decade after another, planting you in a world deeper into your past where you know no one anymore, because they're 80 years old instead of 20 or weren't even born yet.Unlike senility, Alzheimer's has a connotation to it, and for good reason, similar to the way cancer was thought of 30 or 40 years ago - death sentence.The only glimmer of light at the end of this tunnel was that although Mom wasn't Mom anymore, she never lost the ability to recognize love, compassion, tenderness, kindness and gratefulness for the care.Shortly after my story ran about the dementia tour, I received an email from a woman who organizes a fundraiser for research for Alzheimer's disease prevention and treatment.I called her back.Hearing the frustration in her voice, Grace Kern said she doesn't understand why there isn't a resounding national outcry pushing for research to prevent or halt the progression of this disease.I don't know either.According to the Alzheimer's Association, more than 5 million people are living with this disease in this country. One out of every 10 people age 65 and older has Alzheimer's. By the year 2050, there could be as many as 16 million people with it.Currently, it's the sixth leading cause of death, and kills more people than breast and prostate cancer. It is the only cause of death in the top 10 that cannot be prevented, cured or slowed.The number of deaths from heart disease has dropped by 14 percent since 2000, but the number of deaths from Alzheimer's has increased by 89 percent.Who gets the disease statistically? In America, woman make up two-thirds of the patients, but women have been known to live longer than men. African-American women are twice as likely and Hispanic women one and a half times more likely to get Alzheimer's over Caucasian women.I also learned during the dementia tour that Alzheimer's is the most common, but there are actually more than 100 types of dementia.Feeling significantly depressed now?Instead of wallowing in despair, I know I plan to try to do something. I plan to participate in the 2017 Walk to End Alzheimer's-Carbon County onSept. 23 at Mauch Chunk Lake. Registration is at 9 a.m. and the walk begins at 10 a.m. I'm going to join Grace and her team called the Forget Me Knots, but there are several other teams and walks, too. They can be found on the association's website:

www.alz.org. Maybe there is one for you.