In an attempt to make the Congress more aware of the catastrophic consequences of Alzheimer’s disease, former U.S. Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor made public her family’s private battle with the mind-destroying illness in front of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging on Wednesday.

Alzheimer’s disease causes a progressive loss of memory and mental faculties, which can be devastating for the patients concerned and those around them. About 5.2 million Americans live with the brain disorder, a number that is expected to grow as the baby boom generation ages. About 16 million people are forecast to have Alzheimer’s by 2050, as existing drugs can ease symptoms but do not stop the disease from developing. The disease already afflicts one in eight people 65 and older and nearly one in two people over 85.

“Our nation is certainly ready to get deadly serious about this deadly disease,” O’Connor told the Senate Special Committee on Aging, as quoted by the Associated Press.

She further said how she retired from the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006 to be near her husband who suffers from Alzheimer’s and who is “not in a very good shape at present.”

“And, as you know, I retired from the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006 to find a care center for John in Phoenix, where two of our children live. Many caregivers make similarly difficult decisions each and every day,” she said.

O’Connor is working with a group of scientists, former politicians and other public figures to boost research on the disease through a newly formed Alzheimer’s Study Group.

The hearing was attended by dozens of patients, caregivers and their advocates as part of a lobbying push by the Alzheimer’s Association, a nonprofit based in Chicago.

O’Conner testified with former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who also spoke of the need for more funds for Alzheimer’s research. Gingrich, as well a member of the Alzheimer’s Study Group, warned that “under current trends federal spending on Alzheimer’s will increase to more than $1 trillion per year by 2050 in today’s dollars,” which means more then one tenth of America’s current economy.

“With this amount of money at stake, the government simply will not be able to solve its looming fiscal problems if it fails to address the growing Alzheimer's crisis,” Gingrich said as quoted by Reuters.

O’Conner and Gingrich were not the only ones testifying for the Alzheimer’s cause. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told the story of his mother, an accomplished woman who now lives in a nursing home, as she is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.) recounted how the disease has ruined his mother’s life being in her family from at least three generations. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) mentioned his father, also an Alzheimer’s victim.

The National Institutes of Health spends about $644 million on Alzheimer’s research each year, an amount that has remained stagnant for the past few years. Advocates say Congress should boost that funding by $125 million a year.

Gingrich also argued that more research investment would boost the chances to find a way to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s by five years. This “would translate by 2050 into a 5.3 million person (40 percent) reduction in disease prevalence and roughly $515 billion (44 percent) in annual savings for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.”