SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — (KGTV) — Whether we want to admit it, we all have a favorite person in life.
For me, that person was my grandma — or as I liked to call her, my ma.
She sacrificed a lot for our family and took care of me.
She loved photos. Toward the end of her life, photos are what helped her remember.
Just like she took care of me, I helped take care of her during her final weeks.
My ma was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s about 4 years before she passed away.
It’s a disease that Alzheimer’s Association say impacts the Hispanic community one and a half times more often than white people.
It was a contributing factor to her death.
With a family history of the disease, I fear I will be diagnosed with it one day.
So, I sat down with an Alzheimer's expert; Dr. Jose Soria-Lopez.
His work at the Neuron Clinic in San Diego County has the potential to help shape the future of treatment and care.
"I predict that within the next 5,7 10 years there is going to be even more medications to come, even more changes, more diagnostic pathways and along the way, we want to make sure that historically underrepresented groups can get access," said Dr. Soria-Lopez.
In the past year and a half, he said developments have come a long way.
"We now have the ability early on to do the detection and confirmation through a blood test,"
Disease-modifying medicines are also available.
"Intravenous anti-monoclonal antibodies-- these are a group of medications that target the pathology- that target the bad proteins that affect memory early on," said Dr. Soria-Lopez.
He offers the FDA-approved drugs at his clinic and monitors patients through clinical trials.
He and his research assistants say they've seen the drugs reverse some of the disease's symptoms, like memory loss.
He says medicine isn't for everyone, though.
The drugs available are for people in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease.
"It can be really scary to come to a clinical office for the first time, not knowing what you're going to see-- the people you're going to find--whether those individuals can relate to you," he said.
The neurologist said access to health insurance, transportation and support are barriers that impact detection and treatment in the hispanic community.
He said family plays a big role in detecting the changes that come with the disease.
I asked Dr. Soria-Lopez why it is important for the Hispanic community to discuss medical histories.
"If we open up, if we bring these symptoms to our primary care doctors. If we then get referrals to a specialist, The specialist can evaluate us and provide us treatment," he said.
Doctor Soria-Lopez said education about family history and monitoring things like sleep quality, cholesterol, blood pressure, and hearing loss later in life could all help.
While options for detection and treatment weren’t available for Ma, I can now remember her through the photos and memories she left behind and I can hold on to the hope that more are to come.
