Researchers: Alzheimer's disease skyrocketing among Latinos + Comment

http://www.txcn.com/sharedcontent/dws/txcn/houston/stories/khou090127_tnt_latino-alzheimers.c35d0f9.html

Researchers: Alzheimer's disease skyrocketing among Latinos

03:03 PM CST on Wednesday, January 28, 2009

By Vicente Arenas / 11 News

HOUSTON—One day in 1993, Jesus Ulloa noticed something was wrong with his wife, Frances.She started to repeat things and exhibit other odd behaviors, like ordering checkbooks they didn't need.

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Then came the shocking news: The strong, charismatic, loving mother of his six children had Alzheimer's.

It didn't take long for the debilitating brain disease to take its toll.

Her forgetfulness soon got worse, and she lost the ability to walk.

Then her old friends started shying away.

"To me, this is the new leprosy, like the leprosy of the 21^st Century. People, as soon as they know somebody has Alzheimer's, they stay away," daughter Laura Garrett said.

Doctors said that's one reason why so many Latinos and Spanish-speakers wait so late to get diagnosed – they consider the disease to be taboo.

Even though friends left, the family came together, and now they work as a team to care for their mother at home.

The Alzheimer's Association of Houston knows one of its biggest challenges will come from the city's growing Hispanic population.

"And that's why we try to educate the community that there are certain neurological changes that occur in the brain, and the earlier they can get a diagnosis, the earlier there can be an intervention," John Meade of the Alzheimer's Association of Houston said.

When it comes to Latinos, Alzheimer's forecasts are startling.

Researchers expect a 600-percent increase in Hispanics suffering from the disease by the year 2050.

They believe the dramatic rise will be partly due to diabetes and lack of medical care.

Others simply won't be diagnosed early enough. 

"So what has happened is that the Hispanic community is now eight times more at risk," Dr. Adrianna Strutt of Baylor Neuropsychology said.

Strutt is trying to turn those numbers around by studying current Alzheimer's tests and coming up with new ones designed specifically for Latinos and Spanish-speakers.

"At least with this research, what we are trying to do is get rid of all those extra factors that could be clouding the results," Strutt said.

Strutt said traditional tests don't always catch Alzheimer's early enough in the Latino community.

As for Frances Ulloa, she's now in the final stages of Alzheimer's.

Her family agreed to share her story in the hopes that other families will seek help early on.

Related Link and Information:
http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.asp#brain

Introduction

Alzheimer's disease is a brain disorder named for German physician Alois Alzheimer, who first described it in 1906. Scientists have learned a great deal about Alzheimer's disease in the century since Dr. Alzheimer first drew attention to it. Today we know that Alzheimer's:

• Is a progressive and fatal brain disease. As many as 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's destroys brain cells, causing problems with memory, thinking and behavior severe enough to affect work, lifelong hobbies or social life. Alzheimer's gets worse over time, and it is fatal. Today it is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. For more information, see Warning Signs and Stages of Alzheimer's Disease.

• Is the most common form of dementia, a general term for the loss of memory and other intellectual abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Vascular dementia, another common type of dementia, is caused by reduced blood flow to parts of the brain. In mixed dementia, Alzheimer's and vascular dementia occur together. For more information about other causes of dementia, please see Related Dementias.
  
  
• Has no current cure. But treatments for symptoms, combined with the right services and support, can make life better for the millions of Americans living with Alzheimer's. We've learned most of what we know about Alzheimer's in the last 15 years. There is an accelerating worldwide effort under way to find better ways to treat the disease, delay its onset, or prevent it from developing. Learn more about recent progress in Alzheimer science and research funded by the Alzheimer's Association in the Research section.
  
  

Comment: Several years ago I was a CNA (Certified Nurse Assistant) at Sutter Oaks Alzheimer's Center in Sacramento. It was a tough job but I learned a lot about humane compassion from my patients. At first when a patient is admitted the family comes every day, then as time goes by less and less. Maybe on Christmas. The Alzheimer patient and his or her personality begins to shrink away more and more with memory. We find out that our concept of who we are is largely based upon our memory. We are who we remember ourselves to be and those we remember from our family.

It is not a linear disease in the sense that some days the patient is more lucid than other days, there are ups and downs in terms of cognition and interpersonal communications. It is a terrible devastating disease that mainly those who have had a family member stricken with it can appreciate, especially if it is a parent. I believe in the long run that Alzheimer's research and new discoveries will help humankind better observe, understand and treat a whole range of mental disorders and learning disabilities.

Preventative measurs include creating new memories, being open to new experiences, learnng on a constant daily basis and taking care of our nutritional needs.
 

Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

KeyLink: http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

http://sev.prnewswire.com/publishing-information-services/20090128/DC6353027012009-1.html

Latino Voting in 2008: Part of a Broader Electoral Movement

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In the 2004 general election, President Bush garnered perhaps 39 or 40 percent of the Latino vote. Four years later, after extensive debate on immigration, Sen. McCain received approximately 32 percent of the Latino vote. Some have suggested that the GOP's stance on immigration has hindered political gains among Hispanic voters.

The Center for Immigration Studies has released a new Backgrounder challenging that assertion. "Latino Voting in the 2008 Election: Part of a Broader Electoral Movement," by Prof. James G. Gimpel of the University of Maryland, argues that GOP losses in the election were not limited to Hispanic voters and not affected by the immigration debate.

The Backgrounder is available online at: http://cis.org/latinovoting

Among the findings:

• Exit polls from Election Day indicated that President Barack Obama won 67 percent of the Latino vote, and John McCain 32 percent. This compares to estimates of Latino support for George W. Bush in the range of 39 percent or higher in 2004. In 2000, Bush is thought to have received 35 percent of the Latino vote.
• McCain's consistent history of advocating a legalization program for illegal immigrants made no impression on Latino voters.
• McCain lost the Latino vote by a wide margin even in his home state of Arizona, 56 to 41 percent. This was in spite of widespread news coverage of his immigration stance in that state.
• The drop in Republican support among Latinos between 2004 and 2008 was part of a broad-based electoral movement away from the GOP, and was hardly specific to that demographic group. McCain received only 57 percent of the white male vote, compared with 62 percent for Bush in 2004, and McCain's 55 percent of regular church goers was significantly lower than Bush's 61 percent.
• Credible surveys indicate that the major policy concerns of Latinos were no different than the concerns of non-Latinos: The economy and jobs topped the list.
• There is little evidence that immigration policy was an influential factor in Latinos' choice between the two candidates once basic party predispositions are taken into account.
• In 2008, Latino voters supported the GOP ticket at levels above the usual 30 percent only when they resided in states that were already safely in GOP hands.
• The size of the Latino voting population should be kept in perspective alongside other subsets of the electorate. An estimated 11.8 million voters were of Latino ancestry, compared with 17 million African Americans, 19.7 million veterans, 23.6 million young people, 34 million born-again white Christians, and 45 million conservatives.

The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent research organization that examines the impact of immigration on the United States.

Website: http://cis.org/latinovoting/

 

Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

KeyLink: http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

Youth Charged With More Attacks on Latinos: NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/nyregion/29patchogue.html?hp

Pool photos by Ed Betz

Seven defendants in the slaying of an Ecuadorean man in Patchogue, N.Y., have been accused of attacks on other Latinos. Five of the accused — Nicholas Hausch, Christopher Overton, Jordan Dasch, Anthony Hartford and Jose Pacheco, from left — pleaded not guilty on Wednesday. Prosecutors said they believed that other teenagers were also involved in the attacks, but have not been identified by their victims.

Youth Charged With More Attacks on Latinos

By ANNE BARNARD

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — When Suffolk County prosecutors charged seven teenagers in the deadly assault on Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorean immigrant, in Patchogue, on Long Island, last November, one of the more disturbing accusations was that they engaged in a regular and violent pastime: hunting for Hispanics to attack.

On Wednesday, the prosecutors painted a newly detailed picture of what they said was a yearlong rampage by some of the teenagers, announcing new indictments that accuse the seven defendants in the fatal attack of assaulting or attempting to assault a total of eight other Latino men.

Prosecutors believe that many more teenagers — they are not sure how many — were involved in attacks on Hispanics in and around Patchogue, and are still at large. Investigators believe that there is a separate group of teenagers who roam Patchogue on bicycles attacking Latinos, according to a law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

"There is a lot of work still to be done," District Attorney Thomas J. Spota said, "to ensure the safety of all the people who choose to call Suffolk County home."

Five of the defendants — Christopher Overton, Anthony Hartford, Jose Pacheco, Jordan Dasch and Nicholas Hausch — pleaded not guilty in Suffolk County Criminal Court. The other two, Kevin Shea and Jeffrey Conroy, are expected to plead not guilty at arraignments next week. Not all of the defendants are charged in each case.

Jose Perez, a lawyer for LatinoJustice P.R.L.D.E.F., an advocacy group, said the new cases were "the tip of the iceberg" in a pattern of violence against Hispanics, and show that a more aggressive police response to earlier attacks could have prevented Mr. Lucero's death.

After Mr. Lucero died, many other immigrants came forward to describe attacks. Some had never been reported; others were reported to police at the time, but no one was arrested, in part because language barriers made communication difficult, Mr. Spota said.

Investigators who were searching for new suspects showed more than 20 victims photographs of more than 20 of the defendants' friends and acquaintances, but none were identified as assailants by any of the victims, the law enforcement official said.

In one of the new indictments, Mr. Pacheco and Mr. Conroy, who is accused of fatally stabbing Mr. Lucero on Nov. 8, were charged with beating Carlos Orellana on July 14, 2008.

Mr. Orellana was one of 11 Latino men who gave detailed accounts of 13 similar attacks to The New York Times for an article published this month. The cases reported in the article are now under investigation, a law enforcement official said.

On June 24, 2008, prosecutors said, a group of teenagers attacked Robert Zumba, kicked him and restrained his arms while Mr. Conroy lunged at him with a knife, cutting him.

Another man, Jose Hernandez, was attacked three times in a week in December 2007 by members of the group, prosecutors said. In one incident, they said, Mr. Conroy held a pipe in one hand and smacked it against his other palm, saying "We're going to kill you."

Lawyers for the defendants questioned how the victims could have identified their clients after so long, and suggested that prosecutors were pinning every possible assault on them.

Mr. Spota said prosecutors had considered the possibility that victims only thought they recognized the defendants because they had seen them in media coverage, and were careful to seek corroborating evidence.

The law enforcement official said that photo lineups were used to identify the suspects. In one case, Mr. Hartford, Mr. Hausch and Mr. Dasch are charged with attacking a man prosecutors identified as Petronila Fuentes Diaz on the night that Mr. Lucero was killed. A baseball cap that Mr. Diaz reported missing was found in Mr. Dasch's car, the official said.

One of the challenges, the official said, was getting teenagers who may have known of the regular attacks to come forward. A few cooperated "reluctantly" with the investigation, recounting how some of the defendants bragged of certain attacks, the official said, but "they were resentful that their friends had been caught."

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Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

KeyLink: http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

Opinion Briefing: Latin America’s Leftists: GALLUP

http://www.gallup.com/poll/113902/Opinion-Briefing-Latin-America-Leftists.aspx

January 21, 2009

Opinion Briefing: Latin America's Leftists

U.S. should respect region's political leanings, promote accountability

• Multi-country
• Business and Economy
• Governance
• Leadership
• Americas
• Latin America

by Steve Crabtree and Jesus Rios

Issue at Hand: Strengthening U.S. alliances with Latin American countries in light of the region's increasingly leftist politics.

As in other regions around the world, the United States currently has strained relations with several of Latin America's leaders and an image problem among many of its populations. The perceived failure in the 1990s of "Washington Consensus" prescriptions for market-driven reforms set the stage for a leftward shift in the region. The flag-bearer for this trend has been Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, who over the past few years has fed Latin Americans a steady diet of anti-U.S. rhetoric, regularly calling for resistance against the U.S. "empire."

Obama's Stance: Barack Obama's general approach to Latin America seems to be one of cautious engagement. During last year's presidential campaign, Obama criticized the Bush administration's "negligent" policy toward Latin America, saying it is one reason "demagogues" like Chavez have been successful in the region. Obama has indicated he is willing to open a dialogue with such U.S. adversaries as Chavez and Cuba's President Raul Castro -- but he has also opposed the proposed U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, citing ongoing violence against Colombian labor leaders.

Latin Americans' Perspective: First, it's important to distinguish between Chavez's polemics and the general leftist sentiment that holds sway in most Latin American countries. Any U.S. policy toward Latin America needs to recognize that "socialism" is not a dirty word in the region -- though Chavez's conception of it is controversial.

In 2008, Gallup asked the following two questions in 19 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean:

• Nowadays, people in this country talk a lot about socialism and capitalism. How would you consider yourself? Would you say you are 1) more socialist than capitalist or 2) more capitalist than socialist?
• And how about this country these days? Would you say it is 1) more socialist than capitalist or 2) more capitalist than socialist?

By dividing the percentage of residents in each country who choose socialism by the percentage who choose capitalism, we get a single odds ratio describing the population's overall position and their view of their country's overall position. A ratio of 2.52 to 1, for example, means that residents are about 2½ times as likely to lean toward socialism as they are to lean toward capitalism. Figures below 1.0, on the other hand, imply that the population leans more toward capitalism than socialism overall. The same calculations were applied to residents' ratings of their country's position in the right column in the following table.

The only two countries surveyed whose residents are more likely to describe themselves as capitalist than socialist are Panama and Mexico. But perhaps the more important point is that in every country but one, residents are more likely to describe themselves as socialist than they are to say the same about their country. The sole exception is Venezuela -- not because Venezuelans don't describe themselves as socialist, but because they are just as likely to view their country that way. Overall, these results imply that, given the choice, most Latin American populations would move their countries further to the left than they currently are.

However, the socialism most Latin Americans have in mind does not necessarily correspond to the "strongman" approach Chavez has pursued. Even those who say they lean toward socialism are more likely to disapprove (42%) than approve (30%) of Chavez's leadership. In fact, in most Latin American nations, residents are far more likely to agree that their country is heading toward "a better democracy" than to say it is heading toward "a socialist revolution."

What's more, there's little evidence that Chavez has poisoned the United States' image throughout the region. It's true that in South America and Mexico (though not Central America) residents of most countries polled in 2008 were more likely to disapprove than approve of U.S. leadership. However, this is not necessarily evidence of a "Chavez effect" given the prevalence of anti-American sentiment in most global regions.

Obama -- a left-wing leader who happens to be nonwhite -- presents a completely different figure from George W. Bush; this fact alone will likely improve perceptions of U.S. leadership in Latin America. Asked in 2008 whom they preferred to see win the U.S.. election, the median level of support for Obama among Latin American countries was about three times as high as that for John McCain.

What's more, as noted previously, Venezuela's leadership didn't fare well in Latin Americans' ratings either. Among South American countries for which data are available, only in Uruguay and Venezuela itself were respondents more likely to say they approved of Venezuela's leadership than that of the United States. In Colombia, Peru, and Brazil, they were significantly less likely to do so.

Policy Implications: The prominence of Chavez and other populist leaders is as much a symptom as it is a cause of Latin America's leftward tilt. Obviously, the kind of blatant disregard for democratic checks and balances that Chavez has been accused of should meet with disapproval and penalty from the United States. But there is also a need to recognize that Latin Americans may be more willing than U.S. residents to provide more powers over to their governments in return for promises of economic security -- that this isn't a condition being forced on them, it is grounded in the legitimacy of public support. The trick is to always be cognizant of this line, respecting Latin Americans' social and political preferences while pushing for transparency and accountability in the region's leftist regimes.

Survey Methods

Results from Latin America are based on face-to-face interviews with approximately 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, conducted August 2008-October, 2008. For results based on these total samples, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

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- And Act On -
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Comment: Take it for what it is worth... with a grain of salt and a granule of sugar.

 

Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com
Key Link: http://www.NetworkAztlan.com