A Warning for Baby Boomers

Were you born between 1946 and 1964? Welcome to Baby Boomerville! Baby Boomers are in trouble! Big trouble! I would know. I am one of you! Today is May 15 and today 10,000 of us Baby Boomers will become 65 years old. Tomorrow, another 10K and so on and so on. As a group once again we are3 putting population numbers on their head. Never in America has an age group had such an impact! And the ugly stat dwarfs the trend. 65-75 million Baby Boomers are projected to become Alzheimer's patients in the very near future. It will be the disease that America will soon be talking about and keep talking about for the next 20 years! How much do you know about it? You might know this. Not a single person has been cured. It is a death sentence. No happy thoughts here. A current book written by the restaurant glamor couple Barbara Smith and Dan Gasby BEFORE I FORGET is the most informative book written on the history of and treatment of Alzheimer's in America and where we stand today. It has copious information for both those dealing with Alzheimer's and family members who will be their caretakers. It must be read! Now! Most of the book deals with B. Smith, a celebrity restaurant entrepreneur and fashion model who was diagnosed at 62 and is now, like me, 66 years old. She was born in August of 1949 to my December. Her husband Dan, a marketing superstar and the CEO of her celebrity career is blown away by the freight train that rolls over everyone who falls into the Alzheimer's trap. Everyone dies from it! It is not if--it is when! All the talk is about "managing" the disease. Despite great advances in determining the genetic and cellular causes, there has been no breakthrough. There is no wonder drug. There is no breakthrough drug cocktail on the horizon. There is no cure coming as when the health community focused on a cure for HIV and Magic Johnson led the charge for change. In 1992 Dr. George Glenner looked for all the world as he had solved the Alzheimer's puzzle. In isolating the substance known as amyloid he had discovered what appeared to be in the brains of all Alzheimer's patients to some degree. And the world braced for what was next---a cure! It never came. Twenty-four years later we are still waiting. Dr. Glenner has passed on and his great work is still carried on by the George Glenner Memory Centers in San Diego where my son Scott is currently the CEO. And apparently any more breakthroughs in this maddening disease died with Dr. Glenner and as Americans we seem to be OK with this! And as a self appointed Baby Boomer spokesperson I for one won't tolerate this! If I can do one thing to stop this insidious disease I will champion a cause that has been known to stop this nightmare in its tracks! Today, I declare war on Alzheimer's! Will you join me? I will walk with my Baby Boomers brothers and sisters and I will lead them to the promised land. I have performed Casey at the Bat for audiences since I was 15 years old. Many of my fans think I am Casey and I am OK with that. If it were true however, I would be turning 128 on June 3 instead of my Baby Boomer chronological age of 66. Whatever my age is I am asking all Baby Boomers to join me today and fight a war we must win to protect ourselves. If Alzheimer's is planning on attacking our age group in record numbers, I am going to act like Paul Revere and summon a posse. So in the words of the great Gene Hackman as said to warren Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde. "What are we going to do?" This is what this Baby Boomer is going to do. I have motivated one million in the past 50 plus years to join me and Walk America. I ask for one mile a day. If you can do more (I walk 10 miles per day) fine and if it takes you a month to gather your stamina to walk 5,280 feet--so be it. It has ben theorized by the greatest minds in the Alzheimer's community that regular walking, that is walking daily, as part of one's lifestyle sparks the brain and can be one of the leading factors to fight the onset of Alzheimer's. And one of the first companies to join me in this fight was the manufacturers of the personal security pepper spray Sabre Red and their visionary CEO David Nance and his marketing guru Claire. In my decade long blog (steve-tarde.blogspot.com) it is documented that over nine years ago, in February 2007, I was mugged in San Diego by two teenage punks. It scared the crap out of me! I was able to get away that day without injury, but what if I wasn't that lucky? It was three years later that Chelsea King made news in our city and nationwide when she wasn't so lucky--when she met a madman on the jogging trails. Every first Saturday in march we walk, jog and run to finish the run that Chelsea never did on the day she met her killer. My daughter Lindsey was in the same graduating year as Chelsea, 2010 and has been there in support of Chelsea and her family from day one. And what David Nance of Sabre Red fame saw that I would be performing Casey at the Bat ( on July 11) for servingseniors.org an amazing non-profit in San Diego who feed seniors with limited resources and hardly enough fro nutritious meals, he wanted in! And I want Sabre Red to walk with me. Why? Because after I was mugged in 2007, I promised myself this. I would never walk alone again. And from day one, I turned to Sabre Red to be my walking buddy! It was on that day nine years ago that I first put Sabre Red on my key ring and I have been loyal ever since. In 1947 3.8 million babies were born in America. 3.9 more followed in 1952 and more than 4 million every year from 1954 to 1964. By that time, there were 76.4 Baby Boomers in America. They made up almost 40% of the nation population. By changing America's lifestyle and challenging all Baby Boomers to walk one mile per day with me we can fight both obesity and onset of Alzheimer's as we promote brain health. We are advocating safety with Sabre Red on our person joining our walks and fighting crime as we fight this American tragedy. We have declared war on Alzheimer's and guess what? You are drafted! Will you be joining us? I look forward to hearing from you today and how you and your special talents can contribute to our cause. stevetarde@gmail.com Bookmark my blog today! steve-tarde.blogspot.com