Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological illnesses cost Americans about $789 billion in 2014 — a price tag that will go only up as the country's elderly population doubles by 2050. Yet the Trump administration's proposal to cut the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by $5.8 billion, or 18 percent, will only increase the economic burden of Alzheimer's in the long run, warns the American Neurological Association (ANA). The ANA's study,appeared inIt found that Alzheimer's and other dementias made up $243 billion of the total, followed by chronic low back pain ($177 billion) and stroke ($110 billion). Research beginning in the 1970s to mitigate the effects of cardiovascular disease and cancer has paid off. People live longer lives, yet with longer life expectancies come an increasing risk of dementia, low back pain, stroke, traumatic brain injury, migraine, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and Parkinson's disease. "Neurological research, like cancer, needs its own 'moonshot' to focus substantial research investment on the neurological diseases that are impacting the mortality and quality of life of more and more Americans every year," Clifton L. Gooch, MD, chair of the neurology department at the University of South Florida's Morsani College of Medicine, said in a Subscribe or log in to access all post and page content.