Racist Trauma Promotes Hypertension Among Black Americans: A Study

Wednesday, July 1, 2020-Health Day News-Cardiologist Dr. Willie Lawrence continues to be haunted by police memories of shooting his best friend during the 1966 riots in Cleveland.

“I saw my best friend shot back and legs by the police. I saw his sister shot five times. I witnessed it all, and that was the rest of my life. The Health Research and Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

“I think you’re more afraid of police than anyone you’ve come across, and that’s a stressor,” added Lawrence, Black.

The trauma’s lasting response didn’t surprise Lawrence at all with a new study linking American racism to a high risk of high blood pressure among black Americans.

Blacks who endure life-changing discrimination are one-third to two times more likely to develop high blood pressure than those who are not traumatized as well, the researchers reported in the July 1 issue of the journal. ing High blood pressure..

Allana Forde, lead author and post-doctoral researcher at Urban Health Collaboration in Philadelphia at Drexel University, said these results were “many of the racial differences in people’s health outcomes, and African Americans with hypertension. May explain why it is overly affected by.”

“Discrimination is bad for your health,” Ford said. “Discrimination is measurable and negatively affects your health.”

Lawrence agreed and said even more frankly.

“Racism is a public health problem. We need to be aware and understand it first,” Lawrence said. “This paper is killing African Americans like bullying.

“It’s not a sudden death from strangulation,” Lawrence said. “It’s a late discrimination death.”

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, high blood pressure is more common in black adults than in any other ethnic group, affecting approximately 54% of black Americans. Blacks are also more likely to develop high blood pressure at a young age.

The new study followed the heart health of 1,845 blacks enrolled in the Jackson Heart Study, a long-term study of heart disease among black Americans in Mississippi.

Forde and her colleagues asked participants if they had experienced a major life-changing event related to racism-difficulty finding employment or careers, finding a place to live, bank lending. Receiving or receiving medical care.

Participants did not have high blood pressure when they entered the study in the early 2000s. Doctors followed their health for about 10 years, during which time more than half of the participants developed hypertension.

Blacks who reported a moderate level of lifelong discrimination had a 49% increased risk of hypertension after considering other risk factors, the researchers found. People with a high level of lifelong discrimination were 34% more likely to develop hypertension.

Ford and Lawrence speculated that the stress associated with racism was probably a major factor in this increased risk.

“It’s a cumulative exposure to stress on someone’s life course that ultimately leads to physical wasting, resulting in physiological changes that can lead to high blood pressure,” Forde said.

Forde added that dealing with these stresses could also lead to a lifestyle that is bad for heart health, such as eating unhealthy food or drinking too much alcohol, Forde added.

In fact, the effects of racism on the heart health of Black Americans may be even greater than those reported in this study. Because it explains the risk factors for blood pressure that can result in increased discrimination.

The study supports “general knowledge of illness, knowledge of zip codes compared to the genetic code, social determinants of health,” Lawrence said.

It also illustrates the importance of the Black Live Matter movement and other efforts to eliminate racism and discrimination in the United States.

“We need to redefine policing because it is a major source of racism and stress, especially for African Americans,” Lawrence said. “Eliminating discrimination is one of the altruistic goals we all have to strive for as a culture. There is sudden death and slow death. High blood pressure represents slow death.”

For more information

The American Heart Association Hypertension and African Americans..