My great-grandmother recently celebrated her 96th birthday. My grandmother just started collecting social security. So as you can imagine, there has been a pretty good run of good health in my family. No history of cancer. No history of Alzheimer’s. Just a bad case of high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

My husband, however, has two grandparents in their 80s who are suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s. According to More Alzheimer’s Risk for Hispanics, Studies Find, that’s when most people begin to suffer from these illnesses. But more and more immigrant Hispanics are showing signs as early as their late 50s and early 60s. However unfounded, this is the type of news that makes one descendant of immigrant Hispanics more than a little uncomfortable.