Study Reveals Racial Differences in Alzheimer’s Disease

hat African-Americans are at higher risk for dementia in general, and Alzheimer’s disease specifically, has been well documented, but the reasons for this remain unknown.

A study by researchers at Washington University of St. Louis (WUSTL) in Missouri, published on January 7, 2018, in the journal JAMA Neurology, takes a step in the direction of figuring that out. The research found that African-Americans with early signs of Alzheimer’s disease had lower levels of tau, a biomarker linked with the disease. This finding raises the possibility that the tools used to diagnose Alzheimer’sare missing African-Americans who are in the process of developing it.

According to figures from the Alzheimer’s Association, African-Americans are nearly twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease as white Americans.

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