Prometheus 6: I knew that

October 17, 2003

I knew that

Racism Keeps Pressure on Blacks

By Christine Phillip, BET.com Staff Writer

A new study on hypertension confirms what some African Americans have been saying for years -- that racism raises the blood pressure of Black folks.

Researchers at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, confirming earlier studies on the phenomenon, have found that Blacks who say they believed they had encountered a lot of racism over the course of their lives showed higher daytime blood pressure levels than Blacks who said they had less experience with racism.

It has been well documented that Blacks, in general, are more likely than whites to suffer from high blood pressure and related complications including strokes and kidney disease.

Dr. Patrick Steffen, author of the Utah study said that racism remains a pervasive problem in society and understanding the role it plays in health is helpful.

"I think the most important thing for people to realize is that racism is a significant stressor, and that stress typically has significant physiological effects," he said.

Also
The recommendations urge health care providers to manage high blood pressure in Blacks in three new ways:

ISHIB advises that many African Americans will need to start on at least two medications in order to successfully lower their blood pressure.
ISHIB recommends a lower blood pressure target of 130/80 mm Hg for African Americans with high blood pressure and other conditions like heart disease, kidney disorders or diabetes.
ISHIB suggests that African Americans with diabetes should receive medications that have been shown to slow the progression of kidney disease such as ACE inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), as part of their combination of medications.

Posted by P6 at October 17, 2003 11:51 AM | Trackback URL: http://www.prometheus6.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2012

Comments

Dealing with crap from other people all the time does affect health, both physical and mental. High blood pressure is surely only part of it.

Posted by at October 17, 2003 12:47 PM

I'm almost afraid to lend a critical eye to this (since it always seems to attract anger) but correlation does not automatically equal causation. High Blood pressure is a stress reaction. Stress is caused by perceptions of stressors as much as anything. People who are more likely to percieve racism are certainly going to be stressed by that perception.

I'm not saying that they didn't experience bona fide racism, or trying to blame the victim. I'm just looking at the research with a critical eye. It is in my nature. Saying that

racism raises the blood pressure of Black folks

isn't accurate -- what the study shows is that people who think that they deal with a lot of racism have high blood pressure -- and like you said, "I knew that."

Posted by at October 17, 2003 03:15 PM

i always thought it was genetic...and I have to agree with correlation doesn't necessarily equal causation.

Posted by at October 17, 2003 03:19 PM

Correlation, causation, yeah. And it is, of course, a matter of perception. I remember an article that said minorities folk that feel they can effectively resist racism are less stressed than those whi feel totally victimized by it (don't remember where the article came from). I said "I knew that" when I read that one too.

But just like when I corrected the white heritage vs. European heritage thing for r@d@r the other day, I really feel it's a level of specificity that ain't necessary.

Just explaining why I'm not sweating the difference.

Posted by at October 17, 2003 04:23 PM