Racial Discrimination Affect Blacks' Health, Raises Blood Pressure, Says Study

Racial discrimination is bad. It's wrong. Researchers have found that discrimination is also bad for our health. In a recent press release, researchers released data that show that past discrimination contributes to large jumps in our blood pressure when we revisit or talk about the event.

African Americans have more incidents of heart attacks, strokes, and hypertension than any other race. Since many blacks have been targets of racial discrimination, researchers at Duke University's Department of Psychology and Neuroscience wondered if that played a part in the high incidence of cardiovascular disease that black America suffers.

While past studies on cardiovascular problems and stress were focused on white males who were from middle to high socioeconomic status, this study included whites and blacks, women and men, rich, and poor, in pretty equal proportions.

Past research has found that being optimistic can have a positive impact on one's health, African Americans who were both optimistic and had experienced racial discrimination had an even higher level of blood pressure when they talked about their experience with it.

Our individual views of the world, and our personalities, impact our expectations about life. People who are cynical expect to experience racial discrimination, so when it happens, it's likely not as stressful as when the optimist experiences similar racial discrimination.

"These results are consistent with discrimination being a chronic stressor that is related to acute stress responses, particularly for blacks. It also may help to explain why people who experience more discrimination in their lives tend to have worse health outcomes. It's being understood more and more that discrimination may be an important contributor to racial health disparities," said Laura Smart Richman, an assistant research professor in Duke University's Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.

While the amount of racial discrimination that African Americans and other minorities experience may be less than 50 years ago, it remains a part of our culture today. It's simply not polite or socially acceptable to discuss it, and many people pretend that it no longer exists.

Richman cautioned that these results do not mean that we should teach African Americans to be more cynical, or less optimistic, as a means to improve their health. Rather, our goal should be to understand how the underlying facets of it impact our health.

Racial discrimination may have many different forms, including education, health care, housing, and a myriad of other things.

Richman is one of a handful of researchers who bring the fields of health psychology and social psychology together. The study was funded by a grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Source:
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2007/11/richman.html