There is a wide group of brain diseases that affect the Latino community; are can affect movement, language, memory, reasoning, and many other abilities, leading to 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 talk with Manuel Ortiz during the Península 360 Radio program in collaboration with Marcos Gutiérrez from «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.
As a result, 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, among others.
However, Dr. Carla Abdelnur commented that she is conducting a study to determine the behavior of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's in the Latin community in order to understand, study and help affected people.
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 continue to be carried out to determine if the Latino community is more prone to having this disease.
It is very important to prevent, ?If you look at your cholesterol and sugar, you also have to look at your memory?, pointed out the doctor Abdelnur, adding that we all have memory failures and at some point we forget things, but the causes may be due to stress, not sleeping well, being depressed, and/or other circumstances that lead to these failures.
In the case of older adults, these changes are progressive, he stressed, and one must be alert when it becomes constant, which is why attention must be paid when the failures are more present on a daily basis or when compared with other people of the same age without showing these memory problems.
In particular, more precise attention should be given to people over 65 years of age who present memory loss, since it is more common to develop a neurodegenerative disease at that age, which is why it is recommended to go to the doctor in time to determine what is happening. added Abdelnur.
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 time when the neurons die and those that remain alive are the that they must assume the work of everything, that is why when they cannot cope, the consequences are inevitable.
?The death of brain cells occurs with the accumulation of protein, for some reason they begin to be deposited in the brain and that leads to an inflammation process appearing, 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 are vascular problems; The blood vessels become more rigid with age and this causes not enough blood to reach the neurons of the brain while the blood contains the food for the neurons, glucose, and if it does not reach them, 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 ensure that exercising and staying physically active, as well as having a healthy diet, staying socially active, helps these diseases develop more slowly, he highlighted.
If a person detects Alzheimer's at an early stage, a treatment can be given that helps slow down the disease process; on the contrary, if it is done in a late phase it is very difficult for a treatment to be favorable, he indicated. .
Dr. Carla Abdelnur is conducting a healthy aging study, so people over 65 years of age are invited to take part. Let us remember that the more information we have, the more we can help people who suffer from these diseases.
The invitation is open to older people in the Latin community, if they are interested in participating, you can fill out the form clicking here, or you can contact Verónica Ramírez at 650 721 2409 and also at adrcstanford@stanford.edu
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