comment on "Whites fare worst with Alzheimer's disease"

No one likes to live like that. But it is harder than you think. Sure some people admit they have Alzheimer's early on and try to live on to cope with it. It is not easy to just drop dead because it is a slow disease and there are families who care about them. 

It is so slow that it practically gets worse in a year or 6 months gradually, not in days. My father-in-law has had ALzheimer's for years although he was only diagnosed in Nov. 2006. Now he is stepping into the severe stage - the last stage where he would be in bad shape. But right now he is ok with caregivers' help at home. He just has trouble walking outside of his house and needs help for bathing and sitting down and getting up.

He needs help for daily activities. It is expensive to hire two caregivers for 24 hours. He lost lots of memory and he forgot most of his friends and his elder son sometimes. Our conversations often got mixed up and he would come up with some funny thoughts because of that. But he does not admit it and he still tries to get better. Somehow he likes to live on. Once he asked how he would die from such problems (not thinking he has Alzheimer's.)  It is indeed a hard question.

Nina

of course they do. blacks and hispanics have shorter life spans. a lot of asian families, at least here in the bay area, take care of their old folks at home, so there is not as much diagnosis. so what??

this is a waste of a grant.

I am not sure what is the purpose of examining the disease regarding races. It is a dissease that everyone would have. The only differences I would think of are the cultures, diets, habits and life styles... It is kind of not fair to compare. I think it is hard to compare. In the USA, lots of races are mixed and it is kind of biased to study just a race. Yet at times it helps to study a race to find out what is going on. It depends on the motive. Everyone would get worse with late Alzheimer's. It depends on how long one lives. I am not sure you can really say which is race is worse or better. If one studies one specific race in Asia with specific habits (eating rice everyday, for example), then it may help to understand what the causes are. The only thing that makes sense to me is to find the causes that help to prevent Alzheimer's for all races.

In fact, lots of scientiests study diseases with races. I think it is done with control factors, not in random.

Nina

probably we never hear about a lot of people with alzheimer's because some people, of all races, don't even have the money to get minimal diagnosis or care and don't want to admit what they see. my father had real obvious symptoms for eight years before he died. even after i took my parents on a trip to grand canyon and saw the disconnects, my mom kept saying 'it's only dementia'.  when she was finally scared enough of his sundowning, she allowed him to go to the home. within two weeks, she looked ten years younger. we were lucky, because my mom had done the homework on homes and found a good one. nobody can give the care at home they have at homes, if you know what i mean.