Why does it seem that some ethnic groups can never get ahead
in life? No matter what legislation is passed, no matter what agreements are
made, some groups never seem to be able to be free of hardship. This post is going to discuss both African
American women and certain Native American tribes in Arizona and the factors
that have a huge impact on the health of the population. I believe that our community and interactions
between populations not only contribute to vulnerable populations, but they
cause health disorders.
African American women, at every socioeconomic level, have
higher rates of pre-term birth and infant mortality than white women who
haven’t finished high school or black women who immigrated here from other
countries. In the United States, we
falsely believe that we have created a society where everyone is equal and
nobody is denied any civil rights. But
we continue to see prejudice against gender and ethnicities, including black
women. Lifelong prejudice has a positive correlation with lifelong stress. Tyan
Parker Dominguez, an assistant professor at USC School of Social Work, talks
about stress in this way: “you have a reaction to a situation in your life that
makes you anxious or gets you stressed out…you also have a body reaction.” This body reaction he is talking about is the
release of stress hormones including (but not limited to) cortisol and
epinephrine (better known as adrenaline).
Dominguez then goes on to describe that labor may be triggered by these
hormones and that because of chronic stress due to racism, and the added stress
of pregnancy, some healthy African American women may “reach that tipping point
for labor to begin sooner.” This point
shook me. I have never thought about the
problem of low birth weights in a population ever being contributed to
prejudice. Stress could cause a woman to
go into labor prematurely and in return, the baby will have a low birth
weight. Birth weights are the biggest
predictor behind infant health.
Prejudice is many times just words. Words aren’t supposed to hurt you, or your
baby, physically. But, it seems that words, and situations, can have a
long-lasting effect on your health. I believe that we could apply this theory
to other diseases and conditions that remain linked to certain
populations. For example, could the
theory of continued stress response be applied to obesity also? African American adults are nearly 1.5 times
as likely to be obese compared with White adults. Could this be due to the
increased levels of stress hormones?
I believe that Dominguez’s theory may be able to be applied
to the topic of extremely high levels of diabetes in Arizona Native American
populations. The Tohono O’odham and Pima
tribes have the highest rates of diabetes in the world. Half of the adults in these tribes are
diagnosed with diabetes. Scientists have explored genetics, poverty, and social
injustices to explain this surprising statistic. In a study I read, it was found that obesity
and poverty were large risk factors for diabetes. However, I believe that the social injustices
contribute the most to the extremely high diabetes rates in these tribes. The Pima
tribe used to be able to survive and thrive because they had access to the
life-giving waters of the Gila River allowed this population to grow crops in
the desert. This water was stolen from
them when the water was damned further up the river in the 1890s. For more than a century, these people were
deprived of their water and starved until the government stepped in to feed
them. These food commodities were
extremely unhealthy and greatly promoted to the obesity problem within the
population. All these factors together
have been determined to have contributed to the ungodly high level of diabetics
in the tribes.
I
believe that prejudice could also contribute to the high levels of diabetes in
Arizona tribes. Could the continuous
stress response, caused by inequality, be linked to health conditions and
diseases for the Native American population, just as it did for the African
American population? Stress causes the
blood sugar levels to rise to boost energy when it is needed. These fight-or-flight hormones may be linked
to the rise in diabetes. Under stress,
most cells become insulin resistant, which is what causes of Type II diabetes
(insulin resistance). If this is true,
then the continued repression of the Native American people will continue this
trend of high levels of diabetes.
Prejudice
is something that must be stopped. Racism
is believed to be eradicated here in the United States but remains. Because prejudice causes a systemic stress
response, it can have huge effects on a populations health. Words are no longer just words. Words can have the power to determine if an
infant is going to survive, or if an entire population will suffer from
disease. Prejudice is a risk factor that
must no longer be ignored.
Works Cited
"Can stress cause type 2 diabetes?"
Can stress cause type 2 diabetes? N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Mar. 2018.
"Maximizing The Impact of
Obesity-Prevention Efforts In Black Communities: Key Findings and Strategic
Recommendations." Special Report: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in
Obesity - Black Communities. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Mar. 2018.
"The Stress-Diabetes
Connection." [Go Back]. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Mar. 2018.
"UNNATURAL CAUSES | CALIFORNIA
NEWSREEL." UNNATURAL CAUSES | CALIFORNIA NEWSREEL. N.p., n.d.
Web. 6 Mar. 2018.
I think this is a really interesting way to look at medicine. It shows that subjective factors can play a role into personal health. If this became a more widely accepted idea, I think would revolutionize our health care system.
ReplyDeleteThank you Caitlyn! I cannot take credit for this idea of course but I too found this to be a super interesting topic. I was actually forced to watch this series for one of my nursing classes and now I am kind of glad I was. I wonder if this really could be a large player in the health conditions that plague our minorities.
DeleteActually, that is not at all true.
ReplyDeleteIf we look at this issue from a scientific, not a political standpoint, we'll see that:
1) Higher diabetes rates in Native Americans, particularly Pima Indians are caused by their genetic HLA-A2 phenotype and genetic markers on the 4th and the 7th chromosomes. There is also strong evidence that parents pass their disease directly to their offspring (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK233089/).
2) Same with African Americans, again, if we look at diabetes, multiple statistical analyses showed that there's no correlation in diabetes rates between blacks and whites of the same socioeconomic status (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2089102/).
Interestingly, here's another hypothesis suggesting that it is caused by the Western wheat-based diet (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10421090).
There are multiple risk factors for diabetes, such as diet, low physical activity, genetic predisposition. We need to look at the whole picture before embedding some kind of political agenda whenever possible.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteEEEEEEEy, I'll be quietly sitting right here, waiting for Megan to reply.
DeleteBut for real though, your two viewpoints are not mutually exclusive. However, Megan, if you could show studies supporting that prejudice could produce stress in the oppressed population, it will make your argument stronger.
I don't disagree with you that their are other risk factors that are known to directly connect to various disorders in minorities. However, I find it hard to completely reject an idea without looking into it further. This was not a political post I swear. This post was inspired by a mini series looking at underrepresented groups and their connected ailments. It is a well known medical fact that some disorders are caused by/connected to stress and that stress management is the optimal way to help treat/prevent. To me, it would not be crazy to admit that it is possible that stress induced by minority related causes, could in fact be considered a risk factor. Thank you for your reply though. I fully agree with the facts that you have stated but I do believe that you cannot merely reply that "this is not true" without further evidence and studies into this.
Deletehttps://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/617820?redirect=true