Searcher

For this searcher post, I decided to look more into the decline in health of those exposed to high levels of stress, more specifically stress due to racism. I noticed that this topic ties in with the “Zebra Book Chapters” in that stress is not only due to physical racism, but also just the thought of it.  Due to racial profiling, certain groups are in constant anticipation of racism which, just the thought of it, is enough to trigger the stress response resulting in a chronic affliction. The constant fear of discrimination increases stress levels which therefore increases blood pressure which damages and wears out the heart. A recent study by Kathryn Freeman Anderson found that a significant amount of African American participants experienced both emotional and physical stress compared to white people. This large discrepancy can explain the seemingly racially preferred disease.  A lot of individuals try to cope with stress in unhealthy ways such as smoking, drinking, reckless behavior, etc. that will obviously damage their health. It is also known that not everyone is able to access the same healthcare as others only leading to more stress. I feel if we can extinguish the cause of increase stress among the racial groups we would not see a difference in disease among them.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/03/how-racism-is-bad-for-our-bodies/273911/ 

http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2009/04/16/racism-harmful-to-healt/

http://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/ethnicity-health/racism-stress.aspx