Latino actor believes in caregivers

Alzheimer's, caregivers are near to actor's heart
by Connie Midey - Mar. 12, 2009 The Arizona Republic

He was Dr. Phillip Watters on the CBS medical drama "Chicago Hope," and he'll return for another season as psychiatrist to the title character on USA Network's "Monk."

But it's in his real-life role as son that actor Hector Elizondo is tackling a health issue that affects more than 5 million Americans, about 78,000 of them in Arizona.

Elizondo, 72, known for roles as wide-ranging as God in the Broadway play "Steambath" and security director Joe in "The Princess Diaries" movies, was in Phoenix recently to talk about an educational campaign for caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients. The campaign is sponsored by Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

The cause is near to Elizondo's heart. His mother, Carmen, was diagnosed with the then little-understood degenerative brain disease in the late 1960s, before she was 70. His father, Martin, was her primary caregiver for years. Both died in the mid-1970s, Martin on his birthday, just months before Carmen.

Question: How do you feel today when you look at family photos taken when your parents were young and healthy?

Answer: It's bittersweet, frankly. I realize what another world that was, what another life, and it reminds me again of what my father endured later during a time of darkness.

Q: We hear a lot about what Alzheimer's patients' experience. But that's just part of the struggle, isn't it?

A: My father was my mother's caregiver 24/7. I was in their neighborhood (in Manhattan), so I could see both of them deteriorating right in front of me. What he - what all of us - needed was help and understanding. He especially needed respite, but there was none then other than what we could afford him when we weren't working.

Q: You have said that four aunts and a cousin also had Alzheimer's disease. Are you worried by your family health history or by research showing the disease begins about seven years earlier in Latinos than in non-Latino Whites in the United States?

A: It concerns me, of course. It concerns me whenever I forget where my car keys are, (although) it's if you forget what the keys are for that you've got a problem. One of the problems in the Latino community is that people don't get early diagnosis, and that's one reason I'm doing this - to make folks aware. They wait six or seven years longer than they should. By that time, the ship has left the dock. So if you're having memory loss, don't take a chance. Just go see your doctor, take a simple test, and maybe you can circumvent it somehow.

Q: What helps?

A: The list is short, and these are ones that people don't like to hear. Exercise. Eat a proper diet. And keep yourself mentally engaged. It seems simple - no drugs involved, no money - but we're a culture that's not accustomed to that (lifestyle).

It's super important to create new social circles and not become isolated. We know stress is a huge, huge factor, and one of the ways to lessen that is, again, exercise. High blood pressure is a major factor, and other problems in the Latino community are obesity and diabetes.

Q: Do you lead your life differently after seeing loved ones affected by the disease?

A: I wasn't blessed with great natural health. That gave me the chance to reinvent myself at a very early age. I created a positive addiction to exercise at 15 and changed my eating habits drastically at 17, so I was ahead of the curve.

But I'm finding out now that I'm more relaxed when I'm more mentally engaged. That's why I'm going back to learning how to read music, for example. At my age, it's a daunting task, but it's the process that's important. To travel, hopefully, is more important than to arrive. (He laughs.) I'm traveling hopefully.

Reach the reporter at connie.midey@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8120.