By PAM BELLUCK, The New York Times

Antonio Vasquez was just 60 when Alzheimer’s disease derailed him.

He lost his job at a Queens bakery because he kept burning chocolate chip cookies, forgetting he had put them in the oven. Then he got lost going to job interviews, walking his neighborhood in circles.

Teresa Mojica of Philadelphia was 59 when she got Alzheimer’s, making her so argumentative and delusional that she sometimes hits her husband. And Ida J. Lawrence was 57 when she started misplacing things and making mistakes in her Boston dental school job.

Besides being young Alzheimer’s patients — most Americans who develop it are at least 65, and it becomes more common among people in their 70s or 80s — the three are Hispanic, a group that Alzheimer’s doctors are increasingly concerned about, and not just because it is the country’s largest, fastest-growing minority.

Studies suggest that many Hispanics may have more risk factors for developing dementia than other groups, and a significant number appear to be getting Alzheimer’s earlier. And surveys indicate that Latinos, less likely to see doctors because of financial and language barriers, more often mistake dementia symptoms for normal aging, delaying diagnosis.

“This is the tip of the iceberg of a huge public health challenge,” said Yanira L. Cruz, president of the National Hispanic Council on Aging. “We really need to do more research in this population to really understand why is it that we’re developing these conditions much earlier.”

It is not that Hispanics are more genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s, say experts, who say the diversity of ethnicities that make up Hispanics or Latinos make a genetic explanation unlikely.

Rather, experts say several factors, many linked to low income or cultural dislocation, may put Hispanics at greater risk for dementia, including higher rates of diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, stroke and possibly hypertension.

Less education may make Hispanic immigrants more vulnerable to those medical conditions and to dementia because scientists say education may increase the brain’s plasticity or ability to compensate for symptoms. And some researchers cite as risk factors stress from financial hardship or cultural adjustment.

The Alzheimer’s Association says that about 200,000 Latinos in the United States have Alzheimer’s, but that, by 2050, based on Census Bureau figures and a study of Alzheimer’s prevalence, the number could reach 1.3 million. (It predicts that the general population of Alzheimer’s patients will grow to 16 million by 2050, from 5 million now.)

“We are concerned that the Latino population may have the highest amount of risk factors and prevalence, in comparison to the other cultures,” said Maria Carrillo, the group’s director of medical and scientific relations.

In response, Alzheimer’s and Hispanic organizations have started health fairs and support groups. Some Alzheimer’s centers have opened clinics in Latino neighborhoods.

“There’s some taboos” about Alzheimer’s, said Liany Arroyo, director of the Institute for Hispanic Health at the National Council of La Raza, which surveyed Latinos. “Folks did not necessarily understand what it was.”

Antonia Lopez, who immigrated from Panama to Boston, showed symptoms at about 60, but it was 10 years before the family acknowledged it was Alzheimer’s, said her daughter, Carol Franklin.

“My mom was telling people, in her confusion, that I spanked her,” she said. “My brother believed that. He said to me at one point, ‘Don’t say that my mom has Alzheimer’s, because I believe it’s just part of being old.’ ”

Overwhelmingly, Hispanics with Alzheimer’s live with multigenerational families instead of in nursing homes. That support can be beneficial, experts say, but it severely stresses families.

When Maria Contreras, a Salvadoran immigrant, began wandering and hallucinating, her daughter, Teresa Navas, took her into her home in Silver Spring, Md. The strain on Ms. Navas and her children compelled her to place her mother in a nursing home, but when she kept getting sick, Ms. Navas took her home again and quit her job teaching Spanish.

“I have to be with her all the time,” she said. “Sometimes she doesn’t even know who I am.”

Mr. Vasquez’s daughter, Ana, 39, moved her parents to her Philadelphia home. She works at a neighborhood grocery and tells her sons, 6 and 11, “Watch out for your grandfather.”

Once, Mr. Vasquez was found hitchhiking on a major Philadelphia street. On a visit to the Bronx neighborhood where he had lived, he wandered away, leaving his family frenetically searching subway stations. “I was desperate, crying, especially when the night was coming,” said his wife, also named Ana.

Nine hours later, he appeared on their Philadelphia porch, having happened upon a bus to Philadelphia and given the driver a card with their address.

Scientists are searching for what sets Latinos apart. Dr. Rafael A. Lantigua, a professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University Medical School, said, “There’s no gene at this point that we can say this is just for Latinos.” Dr. Lantigua added that one gene that increased Alzheimer’s risk was less prevalent in Latinos than non-Hispanic whites.

Kala M. Mehta, an assistant professor in the geriatrics division at the University of California, San Francisco, analyzed autopsies from 3,000 Alzheimer’s patients, finding “similar neuropathology” among Latinos, whites and African-Americans.

And Mary Sano, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, found that different ethnic groups shared the most common behavioral symptoms, like repeating sentences and uncooperativeness.

But researchers say they have seen disparities in the timing of the illness and its severity when diagnosed.

Dr. Steven E. Arnold, director of the Penn Memory Center at the University of Pennsylvania, studied 2,000 white, African-American and Latino Alzheimer’s patients.

Dr. Arnold found that the Latinos, mostly low-income, poorly educated Puerto Ricans, many with diabetes, “have more depression,” and their scores on tests in Spanish measuring dementia averaged about 15 percent lower than African-Americans and about 30 percent lower than non-Hispanic whites. Latinos were on average about three-and-a-half years younger than non-Hispanic whites and about five years younger than African-Americans, he said.

Dr. Christopher M. Clark, director of the Center of Excellence for Research on Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Pennsylvania, studied the age at which 174 Alzheimer’s patients in California, New York and Pennsylvania first showed symptoms and found Spanish speakers were on average 6.8 years younger (about 67) than non-Hispanic whites, regardless of whether they were Mexican, Caribbean or South American. That Latinos are on average younger than other Americans accounted for a small part of the gap, but not most of it, Dr. Clark said.

Research is scant on the age of onset in Latinos remaining in their native homes, but Dr. Clark said patients in two clinics in Mexico and Puerto Rico did not show symptoms early.

Mary N. Haan, a University of Michigan epidemiologist heading the Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging, studied 1,800 Mexican-Americans over 10 years and found greater likelihood of Alzheimer’s for those more “acculturated” to American society, based on a number of factors, including diet and social networks. Dr. Haan attributed that to higher stress from being “relatively poorer off” and “more socially isolated.”

Dr. Cruz, of the National Hispanic Council on Aging, said, “As you acculturate, you lose those protective factors linked to nutrition, physical activity, social support system, that come with you when you first arrive here.”

Dr. Haan found more acculturated people more prone to diabetes, and people with diabetes or obesity more likely to have Alzheimer’s. Researchers theorize that high insulin levels and poor cerebral blood flow can cause brain changes that accompany Alzheimer’s, said Dr. Jose A. Luchsinger, associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center.

Dr. Cruz said many Alzheimer’s risk factors “have to do with poor education,” which aggravates nutrition, financial status and health care.

Mrs. Mojica, from Puerto Rico, with five years of schooling, developed diabetes and hypertension after a hard life in a rundown row house, where she and her husband care for their 39-year-old mentally retarded son.

Not all Hispanics have medical or sociological risk factors.

Ida Lawrence, whose Alzheimer’s has made her hide money in socks and shower obsessively, attended high school in Honduras, learning English. Her husband, Robert, said he thought her dementia might be inherited, adding, “She’s been healthy except for the fact that she was coming down with this Alzheimer’s thing.”

Mr. Lawrence, who has prostate cancer, struggles to care for his wife, still only 63. “Everybody says to me, ‘Bob it’s going to get worse,’ ” he said.

Ms. Franklin finally moved her mother, Ms. Lopez, to a nursing home, where she cries and “doesn’t want nobody to touch her,” she said.

“It hurts me so much to see her like that,” Ms. Franklin said. “It’s like I can see her on one side of the mountain and say, that’s not my mom.”

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LOS ANGELES — Public health officials and community leaders gathered in Los Angeles Tuesday to discuss the growing number of Latinos affected by HIV/AIDS.

“Our Community, Our Responsibility: Latinos in Action,” marked the start of a week of AIDS-related activities and free HIV testing and counseling centered around National Latino AIDS Awareness Day, which was Wednesday.

Free HIV testing and counseling will be offered at about 40 sites throughout Los Angeles County through Saturday, according to a statement from the county Department of Public Health.

Latinos make up almost half of all newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases in the county and 19 percent nationwide. Studies show that Latino victims are often infected for eight to 10 years before they are tested, increasing the likelihood that they will unknowingly spread the deadly disease, according to the statement.

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation issued a call for a concerted effort to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and increase testing to prevent new HIV infections in the Latino community. Testing is a key component of HIV prevention, and testing of pregnant women is a critical first step to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

“On this national day of awareness, let us make a pledge to increase testing and awareness,” said Pamela W. Barnes, president and CEO of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. “Together we can end the stigma and dramatically reduce new HIV infections.”

Universal, routine counseling and HIV testing are the most effective ways to increase the number of pregnant women who know their HIV status, and give them the chance to protect their own health and the health of their babies, Barnes said. Testing for HIV is a regular part of pre-natal care and can be done in places as convenient as community health centers. If a woman finds out that she is HIV-positive, she can receive the medicines that can reduce the risk of passing HIV to her baby to less than two percent.

“Medical advances have given us highly effective tools in the fight against HIV, allowing HIV-positive pregnant women to give birth to HIV-negative babies. The first and most powerful step is taking an HIV test, which is an act of courage the whole community can and should support,” Barnes added.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Even as the demand for health care continues to increase, the number of qualified Hispanic nurses lags behind, according to a recent study of the nursing industry in the Los Angeles area.

The findings not only highlight problems in healthcare, they shed light on the issue of unequal access to higher education for minority populations. Hispanics represent only 13 percent of Los Angeles nurses, according to the study conducted by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute. Headquartered at the University of Southern California, the Institute is a nonprofit, research-based organization focused on issues involving Hispanic communities.

Interviews for the study helped identify multiple barriers Hispanics face that lead to difficulty passing licensing exams and often delay of graduation. Seventy-four percent of respondents noted the lack of time to study due to family obligations as a barrier to becoming a nurse. Respondents also noted difficulty getting admitted to nursing schools (61.8 percent), lack of financial support (51.3 percent), and lack of academic preparation (39.5 percent).

Via Hispanic Business

Popularity: 10% [?]

An estimated 25 percent of Hispanics in the United States don’t have a regular health care provider to treat their medical needs.

And these people tend to be the newest documented and undocumented immigrants and those without health insurance, a new survey found.

The survey, conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is important because it paints a picture of health care among Hispanics in the United States, according to William Vega, a family medicine professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Hispanics make up the largest minority group in the United States, comprising 45 million people and growing, Vega noted during a teleconference Tuesday.

“The gradient of time in the country and being born in the country or outside the country has a lot to do with how people perceive and experience the health care system, and especially the deficits of that system,” Vega said.

One key finding of the survey was how many Hispanics lack a “medical home” — a regular provider to supply medical care.

“If you compare these numbers to those from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Latinos are more than twice as likely to lack a usual health care provider,” Gretchen Livingston, a senior researcher at the Pew Hispanic Center, said during the teleconference.

And that could pose problems because rates of diabetes are high among Hispanics. But nearly one-third of the survey respondents said they know little about the disease or how to prevent or manage it.

Hispanic men are less likely to have a usual health care provider than women, 37 percent to 17 percent, respectively, Livingston noted. And younger Hispanics are less likely to have a usual provider than older ones. Education levels also play a role, with one-third of high school dropouts lacking a usual provider, compared with 19 percent who have some college, she said.

“We found a number of characteristics of health care access that are particular to Latinos,” Livingston added. “Especially important is assimilation.”

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Popularity: 11% [?]

By LINDSEY TANNER AP

CHICAGO (AP) — Many immigrant children get even less vigorous exercise than their U.S.-born counterparts, the largest study of its kind suggests. Plenty of earlier evidence shows that U.S. children are pretty inactive. The new study of nearly 70,000 children simply found even lower levels of activity among immigrants.

Almost 18 percent of foreign-born children with immigrant parents got no vigorous exercise on any days of the week, and 56 percent didn’t participate in organized sports.

By contrast, 11 percent of U.S.-born children with American parents got no vigorous exercise, and 41 percent didn’t participate in sports.

Given the obesity epidemic and immigrants accounting for about 13 percent of the U.S. population, the authors said it is important to know whether there are ethnic differences in physical activity and sedentary behaviors. They were led by Dr. Gopal Singh, a researcher at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau.

Here’s how the researchers explain their results: Immigrant families surveyed were on the whole poorer than nonimmigrants and lived in less safe neighborhoods. That means they likely had less time for exercise and sports, and worse access to places to engage in those activities.

But also, many immigrant parents place a high emphasis on reading, language lessons, studying and other inactive pursuits.

Interestingly, earlier research found that immigrants tend to be less overweight and obese than people born and raised in the United States. That difference tends to wear off with longer exposure to U.S. culture including junk food and television.

The new study also found that immigrant children generally watched less TV than American-born kids, although it did not look at obesity levels.

“Many of our American norms are not healthy,” said Dr. Sarah Armstrong, a Duke University childhood obesity expert. “Could we just teach them our good habits, and not our bad?”

Armstrong said it was the largest study by far to look at the topic.

The study appears in Monday’s Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. It is based on 2003-04 telephone interviews with parents of children aged 6 to 17, including white, black, Hispanic and Asian immigrants.

Singh said the results among Hispanics were particularly striking: nearly 23 percent of children in families where both parents were born in Spanish-speaking countries got no vigorous physical activity. Also, two-thirds of them didn’t participate in organized sports.

Moreover, among Hispanics, U.S.-born children with foreign-born parents were less active than kids whose parents were both born in the United States. By contrast, among blacks and Asians, U.S.-born children with U.S.-born parents were less active than kids with at least one foreign-born parent.

Dr. Mita Sanghavi Goel of Northwestern University said the results in Hispanics are troubling because of high rates of obesity and diabetes — both related to inactivity — among Hispanics, the nation’s largest immigrant group.

“That just highlights how important it is to intervene early and set healthy lifestyle patterns early on,” Goel said.

Rates for other immigrants who got no vigorous activity were 13 percent for blacks, almost 10 percent for whites and 7 percent for Asians. For no participation in sports, the rates were 49 percent for blacks, 38 percent for Asians and 32 percent for whites.

The authors said more research is needed to verify results in Asians because relatively few Asians were studied.

Among all immigrant groups combined, 65 percent got regular physical activity, versus 75 percent of U.S.-born children whose parents were both born in America.

Regular physical activity was defined as getting at least 20 minutes of vigorous exercise such as running, swimming and basketball at least three days weekly. That was the minimum amount the government recommended when families were surveyed.

Newer government advice recommends an hour of moderate-to-vigorous exercise most days. Just last month, a study found that fewer than a third of U.S. 15-year-olds got even that minimum amount.

The authors acknowledged that parents may not always know exactly how much activity their children get, a potential limitation of the new study.

Popularity: 10% [?]

By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO AP

Mexican agriculture officials said Thursday that U.S. colleagues hunting for the source of a salmonella outbreak are rushing to a conclusion about finding the strain at a Mexican pepper farm.

The salmonella sample that one U.S. official called “a smoking gun” was taken from a water tank that had not been used for more than two months to irrigate crops, said the director of Mexico’s Farm Food Quality Service, Enrique Sanchez.

Sanchez told a news conference on Thursday that the tank held rain water and suggested that roaming cattle or other factors could have recently contaminated the tank with the same strain of salmonella that has sickened 1,300 people in the United States since June.

On Wednesday, Dr. David Acheson, the food safety chief for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, described the finding of the salmonella strain at a farm in the northern state of Nuevo Leon as a key breakthrough in the case.

“We have a smoking gun, it appears,” said Dr. Lonnie King, who directs the center for food-borne illnesses at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sanchez said the U.S. officials “totally lacked scientific evidence” to make such statements and said they had broken a confidentiality agreement by announcing findings before their investigation is complete.

“We’re eating this same produce in Mexico and we haven’t had any problems,” Sanchez said.

He suggested the FDA officials confused the source of the samples because the tainted water was found on a farm in the Tamaulipas state municipality of Hidalgo — not in Nuevo Leon as the FDA reported.

The FDA issued a statement later Thursday saying it was “surprised and disappointed” the Mexican response.

“We are confident of our findings,” the statement said. “FDA’s analytical methods are publicly available.”

Miguel Angel Toscano of Mexico’s Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks said Mexican investigators also took samples from the soil, water and vegetables the FDA had tested and found salmonella in some of the samples taken in Tamaulipas. But he said more tests need to be done to determine the strain.

Previously, the FDA had traced a contaminated jalapeno pepper to another farm in Tamaulipas. Both farms shipped through a packing facility in Nuevo Leon, raising the possibility that contamination could have occurred there.

The FDA has advised consumers to avoid raw serrano and jalapeno peppers from Mexico and any foods that contain them.

Sanchez said Mexico produces 2.4 million tons of peppers per year but exports only 12,000 tons are exported fresh to the United States. Another 267,000 tons of canned or bottled peppers are sent to the U.S. each year, he said.

He said pepper exports have not stopped, but U.S. authorities have been taking samples from shipments at the border and holding them up for up to a week until waiting for results.

Sanchez said officials have not yet determined the scale of the warning’s impact on Mexico’s pepper industry.

Popularity: 9% [?]

When it comes to Latinos and cancer, Ysabel Duron wants to take away the miedo.

It’s that miedo, or fear, that the veteran San Francisco television broadcaster - and a cancer survivor herself - believes is one of the many reasons her community remains in the dark about a disease that will claim the lives of one in five Latinos.

So Duron organized the National Latino Cancer Summit, a conference that starts today in San Francisco, bringing together oncology experts and health care workers from across the country with one main goal: bridge the gap between the Latino community and the experts who are on the cutting edge of cancer research and treatment.

“We are focused on bringing together those researchers with community members who are working in the trenches,” said Duron, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma 10 years ago. “It [the information] gets out there on television, but who really hears it and how much do they hear, and how do they understand it?”

Statistically, the incidence of cancer is higher among whites and blacks compared with Latinos.

But Latinos’ survival rates are lower, because their cancers are often diagnosed at an advanced stage, said Dr. Elmer Huerta, president of the American Cancer Society, and the first Latino to hold that position.

About 40 percent of the U.S. Latino population is foreign-born, according to the 2006 American Community Survey. Many of them lack health insurance, Huerta said, or don’t speak English and don’t understand the American medical system, so they wait to see a doctor.

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Popularity: 11% [?]