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The price of aging

By Mariana Ramírez-Corría

One hundred years after having been first diagnosed, Alzheimer's disease is still playing havoc among old people.

Its prevalence rate in Cuba has been on the upswing lately. Estimates show that senior citizens will make up 18 percent of the local population by 2010.

Dr. Alois Alzheimer made the first diagnosis at a hospital in Frankfurt (Germany), in 1901. The patient was a 51-year-old woman who died five years later.

He carefully studied the brain of this woman and published his work entitled A serious brain-cortex disease in 1907. When Dr. Kraeplin, who also discovered a patient with the same syntoms , found out that Alzheimer had actually determined the major neuro-pathological component of psychiatric disorders, he decided to name the disease after him.

Dr. Mayra Carrasco, second-degree specialist in Geriatrics, head of the internal medicine service at the Salvador Allende Hospital in Havana, and vice-president of the Cuban Alzheimer Association, told WNS that the disease is currently affecting around 60 percent of older people. "This is the price of aging", she added.

Out of 138,131 people living in El Cerro, the municipality where the hospital is located, 10 percent are currently suffering from the disease, she announced.

People over 65 make up 19.9 percent of the total. By sex, women sufferers account for 16.4 percent of the 60- to 69-year bracket and men, for 8.2 percent. In the 70- to 79-years bracket, the former make up 20.1 percent and the latter, 11.3 percent. In the 80- to 89 years-group, women make up 28 percent and men, 14 percent. Patients over 90 years of age are all women.

"The so-called cognitive reserve plays a key role in this disease", she stressed.

Those who have a greater natural or acquired cognitive capacity (IQ, cultural level and academic training) and actively participate in intellectual activities are usually affected by Alzheimer at later stages of life than poorly educated people, she commented.

The disease causes progressive, bilateral and diffuse atrophy in the brain's temporal mesial regions first and temporal-parietal and frontal neo-cortex later.

Memory loss is one of its first symptoms. Patients often lose recent memory in an early stage and past memory in subsequent phases. " Memory is like an onion, the past memory is deep inside and the first thing it looses is the outside" she explained.

They forget the names of inanimate objects first and the names of close relatives later. This finding came from a study jointly conducted by the Parc Cientific, the University of Barcelona and the Bellvitge Hospital in Llobregat.

A vaccine for Alzheimer's disease was launched at a congress in the United States in 2000, but it did not prove to be successful, Dr. Carrasco said.

An ABC News TV report recently indicated that electric stimulation applied to a 50-year-old Parkinson's disease sufferer who was being operated on made him recover part of his memory.

He managed to recognize those around him and remember recent events that he had completely forgotten, it added.

Electric stimulation is now being applied to some Alzheimer patients and is expected to provide alternative treatment in the future.

"The disease is incurable, for the time being at least. The patient's family needs professional help to understand changes in mood and behavior and loss of individual initiative. Some treatments only seek to slow down its progress and/or symptoms", Carrasco noted.

Dr. Juan Libre Rodríguez, head of the Cuban Chapter of the World Alzheimer Association, had told WNS in 2004 that the disease was affecting around 100,000 people in the island.

He added that half of caretakers endure so much stress and over-burden that they end up suffering from psychic disorders. This was corroborated by a study in 2002, he stressed.

The World Health Organization and the International Alzheimer Federation agreed to observe the International Alzheimer's Day on September 21.

 RECUADRO

Lack of restrain

By Ilse Bulit

Veronica shudders from fear every time she hears somebody mention the term "get-together".

She is now 40, but when she was 16 this word meant an informal social gathering where someone fingered a guitar while people sang the songs of Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés, drank punch with their hands taken and occasionally kissed each other. There was no excess because they were at a friend's upon authorization from parents. If they got back home late, they were reprimanded.

Some days ago, however, her daughter Malú explained to her the new meaning of "get-together". It is a gathering where you relieve tensions and stress, and discharge fluids and hormones through free sex. "Down with restrictions and responsibilities", she emphasized.

Veronica managed to control her anger. Schools in the countryside have opened the doors to sexual freedom. Young people started to have sex out of curiosity, only after some initial conversation and body rubbing while dancing.

Some young girls got pregnant and had to make a choice: either resort to abortion or quit school. Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) did not pose the threats they do pose today, and AIDS had not made its debut at the time.

Now it scares Veronica to realize that women are never in the winning position. Her daughter is thus at risk. To really enjoy an orgasm, women need to be caressed. They seldom confess that they experience no pleasure.

It is precisely the search for pleasure what leads many girls to change sexual partners quite often and give priority to eroticism over anything else. If sexual orientation is not yet well defined, new confusions will certainly arise.

The spread of STIs and AIDS poses a real threat today, even when condom is used.

Where will dreams end up?, Veronica wonders.

She looks at her cat Toña sleeping on her favorite rocking chair. She is tired. She has just got back home. She remembers that some youngsters have lately developed very violent attitudes. Is animalism gaining ground?, she asks herself.

Those who live on this planet are worried about climate change, price rises and many other worldly things. Time has come to worry about the new approach to sexual relations!

Health and sex

By Sara Más

Good health and appropriate control over chronic diseases are closely connected with satisfactory sex life.

Studies have shown that diabetes mellitus, kidney diseases, metabolic syndromes, cancer, high blood pressure and obesity do not only reduce life expectancy and cause discomfort and pain, but also negatively affect sexual performance.

Diabetes in women is often related to pregnancy, but it is seldom connected with sex life, said Dr. Daysi A. Navarro, head of the Working Group on Endocrinology and Aging at the National Institute of Endocrinology.

Diabetes mellitus, a non-transmissible chronic disease, causes lack of metabolic control and is usually accompanied by hyperglycemia, non-enzymatic protein glycosilation, and vascular and neuropathic disorders that negatively affect sex. She made the statement at the 4th Cuban Congress on Sex Education, Orientation and Therapy, which was held in Havana earlier this month.

Clinical studies have focused mainly on erectile sexual dysfunction, which affects 20 to 80 percent of diabetes mellitus male sufferers.

"This disease poses a risk factor for atherosclerosis, because the penis is basically a vascular organ", she added.

"Most men are aware of the fact that this pathology poses a threat to sexual life", she commented.

"Research works on women have fundamentally dealt with reproduction, pregnancy and fetus growth", she explained.

They have not gone deeper into the impact of the bloodstream on the clitoris, and the genital and non-genital changes that are closely related to women's sexual response.

Surveys have revealed that women do not believe that diabetes mellitus, for example, has a negative bearing on sex. "Most men, however, do believe that this disease can affect their virility", she remarked.

On the other hand, Dr. Beatriz Torres highlighted the important role played by myths and prejudices in sexuality.

When some non-transmissible chronic disease is diagnosed, the patient usually becomes weak, disabled, dependent and passive. Men automatically associate it with failure in sexual response, she stressed.

Risk factors in chronic diseases and sexual dysfunctions have many risk factors in common: smoking, obesity, alcoholism and sedentary living.

Healthy lifestyles have a favorable impact on sex, said Dr. Alberto Quitantes, head of the Endocrinology Service at the Salvador Allende Hospital in Havana.

After having devoted 30 years of his professional life to the slimming consultation, Quitantes holds the view that obesity and related discomforts (including those connected with sex) are completely reversible processes.

Most of his patients are obese or over-weight women who want to lose weight or reach the ideal weight. "They do not like to talk about their sexual life", he noted.

As they think that they have a grotesque figure, they often suffer from low self-esteem and depression. "The latter play a catalytic role in sexual performance", he emphasized.

"Obese women are discriminated against, feel rejected, and evade sexual relations. They believe they are wholly responsible for their condition and visualize no apparent solution. They become sexually vulnerable", he explained.

All this is compounded by mechanical difficulties, as he puts it. They include impossible positions, incomplete or no genital contact, and permanent substitution of sexual intercourse for masturbation and oral sex.

They do not feel at ease with their sexual partners, who sometimes marginalize them, do not introduce them to their friends, and abuse them verbally or otherwise. This can lead to insecurity, instability and breakup.

"To top it off, obesity can cause diabetes, vaginal sepsis, dermal lesions, osteo-articular diseases, little nimbleness and mobility, and high blood pressure", he commented.

In an interview with seven of his morbid-obesity patients (around 37 years old), who had lost 20 to 80 pounds, they all said that they had been rejected by their partners before they were on treatment. Three of them had broken up with their couples.

One of them, who was diagnosed with cancer, told the doctor that she had divorced not because of cancer, but because of obesity.

"My husband used to tell jokes about me. I was never aware of how much we were drifting apart", she added.

"I am a different person now, she told the doctor. I have lost 60 pounds and become self-confident again", she added.

Women in parliament

By Raquel Sierra

Out of 614 local MPs, 265 are women who work in various fields: education, scientific research, politics, and others.

The National Election Committee announced that workers and farmers make up 28 percent of the new members of the National Assembly of People's Power (Cuban parliament), and women, 43.1 percent. Average age is 49. Over 99 percent are intermediate-level technicians or university graduates.

Last January 20, 8.2 million people (96 percent of registered voters) elected the new MPs at 38,200 electoral colleges, María E. Reus told media representatives. She is the Cuban Minister of Justice and chairperson of the National Election Committee.

The new legislature will meet next February 24 to elect the Head of State. Convalescent President Fidel Castro has been away from power since July 2006.

The National Assembly will also elect the members of the Council of State: a president, a first vice-president, five vice-presidents, a secretary and another 23 members, including ministers.

There are today five women ministers in Cuba: Basic Industry, Audit and Control, Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, Finance and Prices, and Agriculture.

A total of 10,799 women had been nominated for local governments in the first stage of the election process. The number of women nominated on this occasion exceeded that of the previous process (in 2005) by 1,600.

On October 21, 3,270 women were elected for provincial governments (out of 12,208 nominees), accounting for 26.7 percent of the total. There were 4,159 women elected for the National Assembly.

The number of women at different levels of government has grown by 14 percent since 1976 (first legislature of the revolutionary period). It moved from 21.8 percent in 1976 to 34.3 percent in 1986.

The figure dropped to 22.7 percent in 1992, when the economic crisis reached bottom, and went up to 27.6 percent in 1998. The number of women has been on the upswing after 2002.

Inter-parliamentary Union data show that Cuba ranks eighth on the list of countries with women in parliament.

Some other data

Women make up 65.9 percent of Cuban professionals and technicians, but only 37 percent of them are currently holding managerial positions.

They account today for 67 percent of university graduates, while they had been just a minority before 1959 (when President Fidel Castro took over).

Although they are actively involved in social life, they are still responsible for most house chores and children's education.

"I often decide not to vote for a woman because this will bring more work and responsibility to her", said Marina Estévez, a 40-year-old professional.

Such a paternalistic attitude, however, did not prevail this time, when 265 women became MPs.

Among them is Presbyterian pastor Ofelia Ortega, vice-president for Latin America at the World Council of Churches. Out of four religious leaders in parliament, none is Catholic or lay Catholic.

Mother, there is only one

By Ilse Bulit

It is an old joke, but it is often told. Pepito( like Dennis the Menace) is a leading character in Cuban stories, which are based on street philosophy and usually involve sex and politics.

Pepito's mother asks him to fetch a couple of soft drinks from the fridge for some visiting friends. The mocking and daring character goes against all social principles, places a comma after the vocative and shouts: Mother, there is only one!

Behind this innocent joke there lies the duplicity of the so-called love for mothers. Of course, there is only one mother and there is also only one father, at least, until they are biotechnologically engineered.

The joke came up a long time ago, when genetics was connected with atrocious acts committed in Nazi concentration camps, when women cried a lot at local movie theaters watching a stocky Sara García(Mexican actress) with her arms wide open to receive her black children-sheep, when criminals had hearts tattooed as a tribute to perfect, irrevocable and unique mothers, although these offenders could well be serving sentences for having killed any other mother.

Years earlier, the well-known phrase had appeared in a tango sung by Carlos Gardel and composed by José de la Vega. This extraordinary popular Argentinian artist promoted the image of the old woman always willing to forgive.

Years later, Pedro Infante(Mexican actor and singer) followed him suit. Soap operas over the radio featured suffering women who made mothers of flesh and blood cry so much that their tears caused short-circuits in many sets. If they were loved, why make them cry?

There is no doubt that the image of women has got better over the years, mostly due to their own efforts. Such an improvement has demanded and will continue to demand blood, sweat and tears. Most films and radio and television shows distort their capacities. And the situation is even worse in printed media and the web.

Let's be fair. They play with reality in their own way, but that reality is overwhelming. It is there, unfortunately, within hand's reach for mothers who are showered with gifts once a year, on a day that is well publicized to increase sales and profits as much as possible, in any country and under any political system. A harsh reality surrounds them out of the screen.

Gang boys, by-products of poverty and war, now have mother prayers tattooed on their arms. Eight years ago, Cuban child Elián saw his mother die in the ocean, and attempts were made to separate him from his grandmothers. Today, Colombian child Emmanuel finally has his mother Clara with him.

The Women's News Service from Latin America and the Caribbean, International News Agency, offers this weekly service. No reproduction without authorization. Any comment o suggestion please contact us: semlac@redsemlac.net