Although scientists have not been able to pinpoint an exact cause for the racial disparity, recent studies have indicated a number of medical and socioeconomic risk factors.
Last July, neurologists at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago studied the brains of patients who died from the disease and discovered that Black patients’ were more likely than whites to show signs of irregularities more commonly associated with Parkinson’s, heart disease and stroke, in addition to the oft-reported plaques and tangles found in most brains.
A more recent Michigan State University study suggested the racial disparity could be attributed to childhood disadvantages faced by many older African-Americans, such as growing up impoverished in the segregated South, and lower educational attainment in adulthood.
That’s why organizations like the African American Network Against Alzheimer’s are critical in spreading the word. The AANAA was launched in 2013 by USAgainstAlzheimer’s, an independent non-profit agency committed to increasing government, industry and scientific resources toward research for a cure.