of course the children are now in their 50's, 60's and the parents are in their 70's, 80's and beyond. and this issue, alzheimer's, an overwhelming tidal wave is coming on us and i know that in our own home, the last two years , my wife's mother's life was spent in our home. she and i, my wife and i, had night care taking care of her. fortunately we were able to have daycare come in. but this is a huge growing issue. one in which we need to provide ways to support the children taking care of their parents in their homes. i'd like now to turn to another colleague from ohio, one who has often joined me here on the floor and thank you so very, very much for joining us, marcy kaptur, who has a great deal to do with the appropriations process. congratulations on the omnibus bill just coming up. ms. kaptur: thank you, thank you, congressman garamendi, thank you for bringing us together, as you so often do. we're so fortunate that you're here and bringing us together as voices from the heart of america here in our nation's capitol to talk about what is on the minds of the vast majority of th

. >> if i'm watching this at home, should i just start taking omega 3's in large doses to ward off alzheimer's? >> it's interesting. we talk a lot about the idea of supplements and you know my stance is i don't take many of them. i don't think there's a lot of evidence that most of them work. i have a difference stance with regard to omega 3's for exactly what you're saying. i think short of having a head injury, that it can provide some benefit, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant benefit to the brain, it's really compelling. the one down side, i think, is that it can sometimes cause bleeding problems in people. so if you've just had a trauma, you're worried about bleeding, you got to be careful giving the high dose omega 3 fatty acids. b >> so how much do you take? >> the dose -- you really have two main ingredients, epa and dha. everyone look at their bottles and see those ingredients. in combination, they should be about a gram for day. >> and check with your doctor before they do this? >> if you have a concern about a bleeding disorder, talk to your doctor. you don't need a doctor's prescripti

with an older population, a lot of fuel in a 70's and 80's, dealing with issues like alzheimer's and dementia, parkinson's, all of these diseases will get totally different kinds of focus and accelerated levels of treatment. >> what you heard is we are on discoveryf a major and you wanted to put your money into accelerate that. >> yes. and help launch the whole school. that is exactly what happened. i am thrilled about ringing an additional researchers and other acclaimed physicians and experts in this world and creating a great center where a lot of this ink can be accelerated advance. >> one of the biggest questions is,ve for people like you how do you measure success and know the money you are putting aside for these causes is really working? >> i could go first on that. our diabetes center in oklahoma city, great things come out of cure,volving possibly a in clinical trials. we are also seeing a lot of other good things. maybe tied to genetics for the first time ever. the research is everything in regards to curing a disease like this. certainly, you could see good things almost

when you get them in your 30's and 40's and you have them into your aging process, you are not going to have a comfortable old age. you are also seeing in terms of epidemics, an increase in alzheimer's and it is going to increase as the population increases. there are quite a few seniors who have mental health problems but they are also, the majority of seniors, who are hard-working, who had minimum wage jobs their whole lives, who paid social security. think about living on $889 a month in the city of san francisco needing to buy medication, one meal a day, hopefully, and health care. if we could provide health care early on we might prevent (inaudible) and people would be less likely to end up in the emergency room with a drastic outcome. we could actually provide prevention and health care to people who had no other way of getting health care, those without insurance, it might be more cost effective

particularly after president reagan wrote his letter to the american people revealing his alzheimer's, i know president ford visited him more than once after that. and whatever old animosities there may have been were long since evaporated. of course even more so with jimmy carter. >> we're going to talk about her interest in issues. was she simply a supporter of her husband's beliefs and values? >> publicly she was arguably the most political first lady since eleanor roosevelt. she was the most outspoken advocate. she publicly disagreed with her husband on the row v. wade case which she discussed on the 60 minutes interview and other venues. so she was very much an independent force. and initially that terrified people in the white house. after the 60 minutes interview, the president said jokingly you've lost me 20 million votes. it was only a few days later when the first polls came in and the people in the white house were astonished that in fact there was an overwhelming 70% of those who were polled sympathized with the first lady's candor and views. >> here is her talking about t

she lobbied president george 2000's whenearly this was an issue. against the party, she called members of congress. she was a fierce advocate. she made speeches for it. you could trace everything she withone since then something that has to do with what her husband did or alzheimer's. >> in terms of party politics, in 1996, she was at the convention in san diego. she got involved in the mccain presidential efforts by endorsing him. when had she chosen to be involved with the republican party politics and why? >> she knew john mccain. the reagans are one of the first couples that mccain went to. another onehat as of nancy's friendships in which she was loyal. not be now if you are entering the arena, we would not think of her as a right wing of the republican party. we would think of her as a moderate republican. >> were there any other social interest -- social issues she was interested in? >> she was very strategic about it. peopleks with a team of who are very involved in this issue. they planned way ahead about where they can use nancy, where ca

a point came in the late 1990's when she was telling people he did not recognize her. >> in 1991, at the 80th birthday of reagan, it was held at the library and reagan got up and spoke. he spoke slowly about thatcher. he turned to nancy and he said his life began when he met her and it was rich and full ever since. there was a time when they left the white house that it was magical for them. >> this tour she gave -- she talked about alzheimer's and the effect on her. >> what have you learned about this disease? >> it is probably the worst disease you can ever have. >> why? >> you lose contact and you are not able to share all those wonderful memories that we have. we had a wonderful life. >> can you have a conversation that makes sense to you? >> not now. no. >> the letter itself, what were the circumstances in which he wrote the letter? >> i was with him and we were in the library. he sat down and wrote it. that was it. >> first draft? >> first draft. he crossed out one or two words in there. i don't know what that was. only ronnie could write a letter like that. >> she devoted, onc