Racism Has Adverse Health Effects, New Study By DR. BILL J. RELEFORD, D.P.M. Over recent years there has been a remarkable increase in scientific research looking at the various ways racism adversely affects health.

1. Racism Has Adverse Health Effects, New Study
By DR. BILL J. RELEFORD, D.P.M.
Over recent years there has been a remarkable increase in scientific research
looking at the various ways racism adversely affects health. This research interest
has, in part, been driven by compelling evidence indicating that socio-economic
How Racism Affects Health
Racism Has Adverse Health Effects, New Study By DR. BILL J. RELEFORD,
D.P.M. Over recent years there has been a remarkable increase in scientific
research looking at the various ways racism adversely affects health. This research
AUGUST 14, 2019 Compton Herald 0 0 1045 Views     SHARE
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2. Dr. Bill J. Releford, D.P.M.
factors alone don’t account for ethnic/racial inequalities in health.
For years racism has been considered among the
fundamental causes of adverse health for racial
minorities. In a recent study published in April 2019
in the Journal of Psychoneuroendocrinology,
scientists have found racism has a toxic effect on
the health of African Americans.
A team of scientists from the University of Southern
California and the University of California, Los
Angeles revealed that racist experiences might
increase inflammation in African Americans,
exposing them to a higher risk of developing chronic
illness.
“We know that discrimination is linked to some health outcomes, but we were not
sure how exactly it adversely affected health,” said Dr. Aprill Thames, a psychology
and psychiatry associate professor at the University of Southern California’s College
of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. Thames and her team looked at racism as a chronic
stressor, and the results indicated that racial discrimination triggers inflammatory
responses among African American individuals at the cellular level.
According to research, the survival of any living thing depends upon its ability to
respond to stress, injuries, and infections. These threats often trigger immune
system responses to fight off pathogens and repair any damaged tissues.
Inflammation is usually a sign that the genes responsible for an organism’s defense
mechanism are working as they should to counter any threats or repair damaged
tissue.
Too Much of a Good Thing
So, in essence, inflammation often serves to protect organisms from health threats.
However, if an organism feels under a particular threat for a long time, its health may
suffer significantly from chronic inflammation. UCLA’s Steve Cole, who co-authored
the research, said if the defense
mechanism genes remain active for
extended periods, they can promote
neurodegenerative diseases,
metastatic cancer, and heart attacks.
In previous research, Cole and his

3. p e ous esea c , Co e a d s
team revealed that inflammatory
responses are exceedingly higher among individuals in socially-marginalized and
isolated groups.
“We have seen this before in PTSD, chronic loneliness, poverty, and various other
types of adversity,” Cole says. “Until now, however, no one looked at these effects of
discrimination, “
Link of Inflammation to Racism
In the new study, Thames and her team focused on 71 participants, two-thirds of
whom were African Americans. All other subjects were white. Thirty-eight (38) of the
subjects were positive for HIV, giving the researchers an opportunity to study the
health effects of racial discrimination independently from the health effects of the
disease. The team extracted RNA (ribonucleic acid) from the subjects’ cells and
measured the molecules which trigger inflammation, and those that are involved in
anti-viral responses.
Findings show that African Americans had higher levels of inflammatory molecules
than the other participants. The results also revealed that racial discrimination may
account for up to 50 percent of higher inflammation among African American
individuals. This includes those living with HIV.
Study Ruled Out Other Stressors
To rule out other stressors, the team ensured that all the subjects had similar socio-
economic backgrounds accounting for financial stressors and eliminating poverty as
a possible factor for the chronic inflammation among the participants. It means,
therefore, that racism is an entirely different kind of chronic stressor,
Thames explains. “People navigate poverty every day, and they are aware that it’s
happening. They may even address financial stressors through, say, job changes,
financial management, and changes in earnings. However, with racial discrimination,
you do not always realize that it is happening. One’s lifestyle or decisions can lower
the adverse effects of some stressors.
“Racial discrimination, however, is a chronic stressor over which many people have
no control. You cannot change the color of your skin,” Thames stresses.
The limitation of this latest study, as acknowledged by Thames, is that the sample
was small. She nevertheless notes that the findings open the stage for repeat
studies to determine and confirm the adverse inflammatory health effects of racism

4. on African Americans.
It is important to note that these research results are in line with a 1996 study, which
also found that racism had negative effects on the mental and physical health of
African American individuals.
Dr. Bill J. Releford, D.P.M., is founder of The Black Barbershop Health Outreach
Program and serves as Medical Director of The Releford Foot and Ankle Institute.
www.relefordinstitute.com
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