Cognitive Aging As Related By Race

Just like all muscles in your body, the brain also declines or deteriorates as one ages. In recent years researchers have been studying the effects of cognitive decline in elderly individuals. They have concluded that senescence, which is the process of deterioration with age severely affects the brain of elderly individuals buy reducing the production of neurotransmitters, glutamate, acetylcholine, serotonin, and dopamine that allow nerve impulses to jump across the synaptic gap between neurons (Berger,2014). In addition to these significant findings there is also evidence, which suggests that neural fluid production decreases, myelination or the insulative process that allows neurotransmission to occur more rapidly, begins to thin as cerebral blood starts to circulate slower (Berger,2014). The combination of the processes of senescence on the aging brain causes the individuals cognitive performance to decrease, in other words, the processing speed is drastically reduced affecting reaction times, movement, speech, and thought and the brain volume itself becomes smaller (Berger,2014). Although there are changes in cognitive function with normal aging, not all cognitive functions are affected equally with aging and there are differences in the degree and pattern of decline (D'cruz,2013).

In a study that was done called aging, demographics and memory study (ADAMS) it was found that older African Americans are two times more likely than older whites to develop Alzheimer or any other dementia. Some of the reasons that have been discovered as to why older African Americans are more common to have Alzheimer’s is because they are found to have higher rates of high blood pressure, diabetes, along with other vascular diseases. Some other factors that can affect who may end up with Alzheimer’s are lower level of education, and socioeconomic characteristics which are found to be more common in African Americans. In the health and retirement study (HRS) 80% of African Americans were found to have high blood pressure. Other risks that have been found to have increased risk of Alzheimer’s are those with lower educations, low income being below $18,000 a year, and

One of the major obstacles for researchers in the field of Health Psychology and Aging is understanding the role of health disparities across different populations. Health disparities can be understood in terms of differences in some facet of health and well-being across different groups of people. The issue of health disparities across different populations is one that must be understood not only in the context of genetic and biological factors, but also in the context of a broader sociocultural perspective. The influence of health disparities are implied in the context of aging, but are discussed across the entire lifespan. The existence of health disparities in later life is often a product of a lifelong experience and life-course trajectory. This essay will address some of the major

From birth, the body and mind go through physical and cognitive changes that human beings will have to adapt to throughout life. Some individuals lose mental and physical abilities age they age that allow them to live a normal lifestyle. The most common age-related physical changes include hearing impairment, weakening vision, and the increasing probability of multiple chronic conditions such as arthritis, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis (Abeles, 1998). The most common cognitive changes associated with normal aging are short-term, or primary, memory loss, long-term, or secondary, memory loss, and the overall levels of performance in sustained attention. Other issues relative to aging and cognitive memory impairments are anxiety disorder, panic disorder, chronic pain, and mood disorders. This issue may cause several social, medical and family problems as individual

This is relevant in developing and developed countries as many developed countries are now multicultural with an estimated one fifth of the world's population being a migrant. [109] Two studies on UK based South Asians demonstrated lack of awareness of dementia as an illness, and perceptions about dementia being attributed to social stressors and spiritual wrong-doing. There were also strong views on self-reliance and family responsibility to cure the patient. This could present barriers to help-seeking via health professionals or community services. [109, 110] Racial influence on the ability to recognize cognitive impairment was demonstrated in a US study comparing informant's report of cognitive decline between blacks and whites. [111] There is potential cultural, language and racial bias in test instruments with development of race specific norms which may result in false negatives and lead to racial disparities in access to anti-dementia drugs and services. [111,

The same multivariate model was fit for women of color and non-Hispanic White women separately to see whether the predictors were the same for each subgroup. Non-Hispanic White women were significantly older than women of color participants.

It is said that Alzheimer have a higher risk among African Americans than white Americans (Fortune 93). This disease is prevalent up to 14% or even 100% among aging African Americans due to higher risk factors. It is believe that the lack of education of this degenerative disease cause the most damage as minorities

as the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States and the fifth leading cause of death for individuals age 65 and older. While living with the disease an individual may face years of ill health as the disease progresses over time. Alzheimer’s is a terminal a brain disease that affects an extensive number of Americans. Alzheimer's is the most common type of dementia. Although the disease itself can be associated with aging; it is not synonymous with aging (Grossberg & Karmat, 2011). The relevance of the previous statement is significant to African Americans because they tend to associate aging with a decline in memory; hence they are less likely to

The “great migration” is a historical movement of approximately 1.3 million African Americans from the Southern to the Northern United States from 1910 to 1930, settling primarily in large industrialized cities such as New York, Cleveland and Chicago. A second wave of northward migration occurred from 1940 to 1970 and involved approximately 5 million African Americans. This historical movement provides an opportunity to explore differences in cognitive test performance in old age among the African-American community related to early life environment.

The aging population of the United States is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. In 2010, the white race alone comprises 84.8% is down from 86.9%in 2000.

A topic I learned more of this semester in regards to the older population was dementia. Some loss in memory function is an inevitable consequence of aging, and as one ages, it takes more time to process information and retrieve memories. However, "Dementia is a general term that refers to progressive, degenerative brain dysfunction, including deterioration in memory, concentration, language skills, visuospatial skills, and reasoning, that interferes with a person's daily functioning" (Mauk, 2014, p. 377). This loss of mental skills affects the ability to function over time, causing problems with memory and how one thinks, impacting these individual's overall quality of life.

There are also cognitive changes during middle adulthood. There is a mixed pattern of positive and negative changes in cognitive abilities. Processing speed starts to decrease during this time period however crystallized thought does not decline until older age (pg. 456). Working memory begins to decline however semantic memory continues to increase as we learning throughout our older years (ph 456). Usually most memory decline is during older age and can be attributed to Alzheimer’s disease of dementia.

Cognitive aging is commonly labeled strictly as memory and only found in “some people”. However, this is not true. The knowledge of cognitive aging has grown immensely, but there is still much to be learned. The surface has only been scratched with many more questions to be answered. Cognitive aging is worthy of study and effects everyone, but there is also much more is still to be learned.

Environmental exposures is only one of the extrinsic factor that affects our brain. Another factor that can affect our brain is nutrition. Although food has traditionally been perceived as a means to provides energy and also aid in repairing and restoring the body, its capability to prevent or protect against diseases is becoming well known. Research over the past 5 years has contributed evidence as to how specific systems and mechanisms that maintain mental function are possibly influenced by dietary factors. For example, a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids is known for supporting cognitive processes in humans. Furthermore, diets that are high in saturated fat are also becoming more known for causing an increase in the risk of neurological dysfunction in humans and animals. Through the years, diet, along with other aspects of daily living such as exercise played an important role in constructing an individual’s cognitive capacity. (Gómez-Pinilla) This could explain the fact that any negative impact on cognitive abilities is not entirely due to biology, but

Healthy aging has become an important field of research of the 21st century. Today, people aged 85 and older are the fastest growing demographics in the United States (Lock & Belza, 2017). Aging has been associated with decline in cognitive performance such as executive functioning, episodic memory, and attention (Memel, Bourassa, Woolverton, and Sbarra, 2016) as well decline in volume of such brain structures as grey and white matters (Sowell, Peterson, Thompson, Welcome, Henkenius & Toga, 2003). Therefore, it is important to understand mechanisms and processes that influence decline in cognitive abilities and brain structures with age to reduce its occurrence or at least to reduce the speed of its decline (Ska et al., 2009). It is hypothesized that bilingualism promotes healthy cognitive aging by enhancing the executive control functions, preserving grey matter volume, and contributing to the cognitive reserve that can delay the onset of dementia in older age.