There is a wide group of brain diseases that affect the Latino community; are can affect movement, language, memory, reasoning, and many other abilities, resulting in a progressive loss of autonomy.
Given this, the Stanford Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, has begun its Healthy Brain Aging Study, which includes the Latino community.
And there is data that indicates that the Latino community is more likely to have a neurodegenerative disease, he said. the doctor Carla Abdelnur in a chat with Manuel Ortiz during the program Península 360 Radio in collaboration with Marcos Gutiérrez of «Hecho en California».
The expert explained that neurodegenerative diseases mainly affect older people, the main cause being progressive death of neurons in different regions of the nervous system.
Derived from this, there are several diseases such as: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Friedreich's ataxia, Huntington's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, among others.
However, Dr. Carla Abdelnur said she is conducting a study to determine the behavior of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's in the Latino community in order to understand, study and help those affected.
Compared to Caucasian whites, Latinos are more affected, he said, this is because the Latino population is more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure, among other diseases that could influence Alzheimer's.
In the case of Parkinson's, he said, there is no concrete data, but studies are still being conducted to determine whether the Latino community is more prone to suffer from this disease.
It is very important to prevent, "If you look at your cholesterol and sugar, you also have to look at your memory.", the doctor pointed out. Abdelnur added that we all have memory lapses and sometimes forget things, but the causes can be stress, not sleeping well, being depressed, and/or other circumstances that lead to these lapses.
In the case of older adults, these changes are progressive, he stressed, and one must be alert when they become constant, so attention must be paid when the failures are more present on a daily basis or when they are compared with other people of the same age who do not show these memory problems.
In particular, more precise attention should be given to people over 65 years of age who have memory loss, since it is more common to have neurodegenerative diseases at that age, which is why it is recommended to go to the doctor in time to determine what is happening, Abdelnur added.
The death of brain cells is extremely important in these diseases, since these cells have a minimal capacity for regeneration. Over time, it becomes more difficult to produce it, reaching a point where the neurons die and those that remain alive are the ones that must take on the work of everything, so when they cannot cope, the consequences are inevitable.
"Brain cell death occurs with the accumulation of protein, for some reason they begin to be deposited in the brain and that leads to the appearance of an inflammation process, and that makes the environment in which the neurons live more hostile and they begin to die.", explained the doctor Carla Abdelnur.
Another point to consider is vascular problems; blood vessels become more rigid with age and this causes not enough blood to reach the neurons in the brain while the blood contains the food for the neurons, glucose, and if they do not get it, then they begin to die.
All of this is multifactorial, which is why work is being done to find a cure for neurological diseases.
There are studies that confirm that exercising and staying physically active, as well as having a healthy diet and staying socially active, help slow down the development of these diseases, he said.
If a person detects Alzheimer's at an early stage, treatment can be given to help slow down the disease's progress. On the other hand, if it is detected at a late stage, it is very difficult for a treatment to be favorable, he said.
Dr. Carla Abdelnur is conducting a study on healthy aging, and people over 65 are invited to take part. Remember that the more information you have, the more you can help people who suffer from these diseases.
The invitation is open to seniors in the Latino community, if they are interested in participating, you can fill out the form by clicking here, or you can contact Verónica Ramírez at 650 721 2409 and also by email at adrcstanford@stanford.edu
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