<
https://www.gpb.org/news/shots-health-news/2023/03/29/how-poverty-and-racism-weather-the-body-accelerating-aging-and>
'In 2020, the overall life expectancy in the U.S. dropped by 1.5 years, largely
due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the reduction wasn't shared equally among the
general population; Native American people lost an average of 4.5 years of life
expectancy; Black and Hispanic people lost, on average, 3 years, while white
people lost only 1.2 years.
This figure tracks with other health trends: In general, Black and Hispanic
people and those living in poverty in the U.S. have worse health outcomes —
more high blood pressure, higher rates of diabetes and increased maternal and
infant mortality — than the overall population.
Public health researcher Arline Geronimus from the University of Michigan says
the traditional belief that the disparities are due to genetics, diet and
exercise don't explain data that's accumulated over the years. Instead, she
makes the case that marginalized people suffer nearly constant stress from
living with poverty and discrimination, which damages their bodies at the
cellular level and leads to increasingly serious health problems over time.
Geronimus coined a term for this chronic stress — she calls it "weathering,"
which, she says, "literally wears down your heart, your arteries, your
neuroendocrine systems, ... all your body systems so that in effect, you become
chronologically old at a young age." She writes about the phenomenon in her new
book,
Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust
Society.
Geronimus' theories drew criticism when she first promoted them in the 1990s.
But in recent years, her work has generated a wealth of support. She says
weathering helps explain why Black women who give birth in their 20s have more
complications than those who become mothers in their teens. The older women had
endured the stress of their difficult living conditions longer, she says, and
thus had suffered more damage to their health.
"It's not that every Black person has more damage than every white person," she
says. "It's really about how much stress versus social support you get in your
everyday life. ... Because African Americans and low-income Americans are more
likely to suffer more of these stressors, they are more likely to be weathered,
weathered severely and weathered at younger ages."'
Via Doug Senko.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
