ACES and dementia

     In the University of Wisconsin study noted, only 82 of the 1,300 participants was reportedly 'African-American'. An Epidemiologist I heard present at then Dartmouth [now Geisel] Medical School, back in 2000, noted: "52% of Detroit Metropolitan Area School-CHILDREN met the then DSM-IV criteria for PTSD". Methinks there's more to this Alzheimer's story, as well as more recent 'Epidemiological' reports about children in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Atlanta.

     Certainly, "Toxic Stress" from either the CDC/Kaiser-Permanente ACE Study criteria, or the additional 'factors' noted in the World Health Organization's [WHO ACE International Questionaire] Screening tool, merit our 'investigative curiosity'. I'd seen similar 'phenomena' in the Southeast Bronx in the early 1970's, before some of the current 'diagnostic constructs' were developed and later 'adjusted'.  

      Perhaps we might explore the genetic changes to African-Americans, subjected to Racism and Slavery, and later 'Peonage', and 'Police Profiling', as well as ACEs in a similar fashion as Rachel Yehuda's recent [genetic changes due to 'toxic stressors'] Study of Holocaust survivors and their children done at Mount Sinai just a few years ago. It may enhance our learning and perspective if the neuro-scientists are included in it, too!