January 25, 2017 The Skanner Page 9
News
By Lauran Neergaard
AP Medical Writer
S
haron Steen dons
her tennis shoes
and, with two fel-
low seniors, walks
streets that in her youth
were a vibrant center of
Portland, Oregon’s Afri-
can-American communi-
ty. Wasn’t this the corner
where an NAACP march
began in 1963? Look, the
record store is now a fan-
cy high-rise.
It’s more than a stroll
down memory lane.
Steen enrolled in a small
but unique study to see if
jogging memories where
they were made can help
older African Americans
stay mentally sharp and
slow early memory loss.
“What we find when
we walk, all of us, is that
there are a lot of things
we haven’t had to remem-
ber, and that we can’t re-
member. And then as we
walk and talk, the memo-
ries pop up and it’s reas-
suring that they’re still
there,” Steen said.
It’s part of a new and
growing effort to unrav-
el troubling disparities:
Why do Black seniors
appear twice as likely as
Whites — and Hispanics
1½ times — to develop
Alzheimer’s and other
dementias?
A crucial first step is
motivating more un-
derrepresented
popu-
lations to volunteer for
research. African Amer-
icans make up less than
5 percent of participants
in studies of cognitive
decline and dementia,
Dunkirk
cont’d from pg 6
artillery.and Luftwaffe
bombs. At 7 p.m. that eve-
ning, the desperate Brit-
ish prime minister de-
cided to issue an urgent
appeal to private boat
owners to join the rescue
effort.
By dawn, over 800 hun-
dred vessels had been
pressed into service. The
improbable flotilla in-
cluded everything from
speed boats and yachts
to tugboats and fishing
trawlers to ferries and
ocean liners.
For the next nine days,
they negotiated their way
back and forth across the
U-Boat infested waters of
the English Channel. And
although about a third of
the ships would be sunk
by the enemy, the altru-
istic patriots managed to
save 338,226 troops.
Leave it to Winston
Churchill to put a posi-
tive spin on such a dev-
astating military defeat.
which claimed the lives
according to the Alzhei-
mer’s Association.
Beyond possibly im-
proving their own brain
health, the Portland
study’s enticement is a
chance to help preserve
community and cultural
memories from histor-
ically black neighbor-
hoods that are disappear-
ing with gentrification.
“A lot of our wisdom
and stories about what
community
means
comes from our elders,”
said Raina Croff, an as-
sistant neurology pro-
fessor at Oregon Health
& Science University. She
leads the SHARP study
— it stands for Sharing
History through Active
Reminiscence and Pho-
to-Imagery.
Three times a week, 21
“
being social increasing-
ly is thought critical for
seniors’ brain health.
Adding
reminiscence
is novel, although some
previous research found
simply looking through
old family photos some-
times sparks memories
in dementia patients.
Some of the SHARP study
participants, like Steen,
are cognitively normal
for their age; others have
early memory problems
or what’s called mild cog-
nitive impairment. Tests
of brain function before
and after the six-month
program will show if it
makes a difference.
It’s an innovative way
to test what’s essential-
ly exercising memory
“when you still have a lot
of brain left,” said Maria
There’s something different
that happens as you walk
through the space and talk
about memories
seniors gather in groups
of three and reminisce
during mile-long walks
through streets once
filled with Black-owned
homes and businesses,
areas that in the last 20
years have become ma-
jority White. Along the
way, “memory markers”
— signs or historic pho-
tos — prompt “do you re-
member” conversations
about people, events or
long-gone
landmarks,
conversations recorded
both for the study and
for an oral archive.
Walking is healthy, and
Carrillo, chief science
officer at the Alzhei-
mer’s Association, which
is funding the SHARP
study.
Croff ’s theory: “There’s
something different that
happens as you walk
through the space and
talk about memories.”
It’s not clear why Af-
rican-Americans
face
extra risk of dementia.
Higher rates of chronic
health conditions such as
high blood pressure and
diabetes, known to be
toxic to the brain, don’t
fully explain the dispar-
of 68,000 British soldiers
and left the country in
fear of an imminent inva-
sion. On June 4, he took
to the floor of the House.
of Commons to deliver a
rousing speech assuring
the alarmed citizenry
that there was no doubt
that Great Britain would
ultimately prevail.
“Whatever the cost
may be,” he said in a stir-
ring summation, “We
shall fight on the beach-
es... We shall fight on the
landing grounds... We
shall fight in the fields
and in the streets... We
shall fight in the hills...”
concluding, “We shall
never surrender!”
All of the above
has been chronicled
in unique fashion in
“Dunkirk,” a visual-
ly-captivating,
World
War II epic directed by
Christopher Nolan. No-
lan, the best British direc-
tor besides Alfred Hitch-
cock never to win an
Oscar, has made a string
of memorable movies
that includes “Memento,”
“Inception,” “Interstel-
lar” and the Batman tril-
ogy to name a few.
Here, he’s found a nov-
el way to recreate the his-
toric evacuation. Instead
of having the docudrama
revolve around a single
protagonist or a single
unit, he has deftly inter-
woven a half-dozen or so
discrete storylines high-
lighting the different
perspectives of a num-
ber of unsung heroes.
Whether on land, by sea
or in the air, many among
this patriotic band of
brothers survive, but
some do make the ulti-
mate sacrifice in the val-
iant stand against the un-
speakable evil spreading
across Europe.
Shot
in
70mm,
“Dunkirk” is an instant
classic worth the extra
investment to catch on
an IMAX screen. An in-
spirational tribute to
Britain’s Greatest Gener-
ation that just might be
Chris Nolan’s best pic-
ture yet.
Excellent HHHH
Rated PG-13 for intense
battle scenes and some
profanity
AP PHOTOS/GILLIAN FLACCUS
Black Seniors Test ‘Power of Reminisce’ to Protect Aging Brain
In this photo taken July 6, 2017, from left, Ron Young, Gahlena Easterly and Sharon Steen and reminisce
as they take a mile-long walk through North Portland, Oregon, streets that once were full of Black-owned
homes and businesses. Researchers are studying whether jogging memories where they were made can
help African-American seniors stay sharp and slow early memory loss.
ity.
Studies presented at
the Alzheimer’s Associ-
ation International Con-
ference last week show
a growing interest in the
role of social and envi-
ronmental
influences,
from living in disadvan-
taged neighborhoods to
socioeconomic dispari-
ties in early childhood.
One particularly strik-
ing study suggests high-
ly stressful experiences
— the death of a child,
abuse or severe illness,
being fired or divorced
— can age the brain be-
fore its time. University
of Wisconsin-Madison
researchers tested cog-
nitive functions that
decline with age in still
healthy volunteers in
their 50s and 60s. Each
particularly traumatic
event over a lifetime add-
ed the equivalent of 1½
years of age-related de-
cline — even more, four
years, for African Amer-
icans, who experienced
disproportionately more
See SENIORS on page 10