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posted by cmn32480 on Monday May 11 2015, @04:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the DNA-needs-a-manual dept.

Nico Pitney reports that the urban poor in the United States are experiencing accelerated aging at the cellular level, and that chronic stress linked both to income level and racial-ethnic identity is driving this physiological deterioration. Researchers analyzed telomeres, tiny caps at the ends of DNA strands that protect cells from aging prematurely, of poor and lower middle-class black, white, and Mexican residents of Detroit and found that low-income residents of Detroit, regardless of race, have significantly shorter telomeres than the national average. "There are effects of living in high-poverty, racially segregated neighborhoods -- the life experiences people have, the physical exposures, a whole range of things -- that are just not good for your health," says Nobel laureate. Dr. Arline Geronimus, the lead author of the study, described as the most rigorous research of its kind examining how "structurally rooted social processes work through biological mechanisms to impact health." White Detroit residents who were lower-middle-class had the longest telomeres in the study. But the shortest telomeres belonged to poor whites. Black residents had about the same telomere lengths regardless of whether they were poor or lower-middle-class. And poor Mexicans actually had longer telomeres than Mexicans with higher incomes. Geronimus says these findings demonstrate the limitations of standard measures -- like race, income and education level -- typically used to examine health disparities. "We've relied on them too much to be the signifiers of everything that varies in the life experiences of difference racial or ethnic groups in different geographic locations and circumstances."

One co-author of this new study is Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn who helped to discover telomeres, an achievement that won her the Nobel Prize in physiology in 2009. Blackburn ticked off a list of studies in which people's experiences and perceptions directly correlated with their telomere lengths: whether people say they feel stressed or pessimistic; whether they feel racial discrimination towards others or feel discriminated against; whether they have experienced severely negative experiences in childhood, and so on. "These are all really adding up in this quantitative way," says Blackburn. "Once you get a quantitative relationship, then this is science, right?"

 
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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by rts008 on Monday May 11 2015, @07:06PM

    by rts008 (3001) on Monday May 11 2015, @07:06PM (#181589)

    I have not heard of any studies of that nature, but I would be surprised if none were conducted, given the impact that bussing had on society at the time.
    (maybe a wikipedia article on bussing has external links that would get you started)

    I can only offer personal anecdotes from my own experiences and direct observations, so YMMV. :-)

    I was one of the 'token whites' bussed to a formerly all-black middle school(Malcolm X Middle School) in a small town about 25 miles SW of Wash., DC. IIRC, the town was called Dogpatch, Maryland, or near there.
    6th, 7th, and 8th grades I spent there. I not only learned to fight, but came to enjoy it. The first time I was stabbed with a knife was the at the end of the first day, getting on the bus to go home. Every day was school-day long fightclub training session.
    And, I met a black kid in my class that shared the same last name(and initials!), and we became close friends, but his older brother and I went at it like crazy(also had same initials! LOL).

    Hmm..they sweat like I do, they bleed red like me, we share most likes and dislikes...Ah! A Clue!
    In the end, hair color became more significant to me than skin color. This was also how it worked out with most(but NOT all) of my 'white peers' who accompanied me to the school. Interesting times.

    Admittedly some became even more racist from the experience, but they were surprising(under the circumstances) a minority of 'us'. I attribute my 'positive learning experience' to my upbringing and childhood role models.

       

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2015, @09:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2015, @09:06PM (#181647)

    This is what I would expect. The good comes from "upbringing and childhood role models" while the bad comes from being around a bunch of ruffians at a crap public school.

    Very interesting thing that I didn't expect was the moving from racism to hair-ism. I knew there will always be something arbitrarily escalated as a trait to discriminate against but I didn't expect hair. Even minorities discriminate, often worse and more trivial, but that doesn't make for ratings or help the agenda to point out they are just as bad. I guess I would judge more by smell.

    Sounds like you turned out mostly alright even though being stabbed is a real good point to leverage for long-term personal racism. Of course then again maybe the seething bitterness has helped you move up the ranks of the clan. Don't know for sure.

    <sarcasm>Well at least the minorities turned out better people because you were there.

    • (Score: 2) by rts008 on Tuesday May 12 2015, @02:03AM

      by rts008 (3001) on Tuesday May 12 2015, @02:03AM (#181751)

      The hair-ism actually had nothing to do with bussing. That came from poor choices dating, and several encounters with some truly psycho blondes in high school. Now to be clear, the level of prejudice is small, but just large enough that since high school I have no interest in dating blondes. (all of my siblings and most of my family are blondes)

      I don't understand the reference to 'seething bitterness' that you alluded to. There was none on my part, so I'm not sure what you are getting at there. Those I fought almost never wanted a second go except Reggie, my friends older brother I mentioned. And even with Reggie, there was no bitterness. It quickly became more of a 'friendly competition' for both of us; we frequently hung out after the brawl. At high school, I ran into most of the bunch from middle school, but it was a different situation, respect was earned on both sides, and we all got along pretty well.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @01:26PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @01:26PM (#181925)

        The seething bitterness was an alternative outcome or conclusion since I couldn't get the feel for how you actually turned out so I included the statement to leave a large possible range of outcomes.
        Your reply cleared up a lot that I couldn't read from the earlier post.

  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday May 12 2015, @12:14AM

    by kaszz (4211) on Tuesday May 12 2015, @12:14AM (#181712) Journal

    Time to bill the state for endangering your health and wasting your time?

    • (Score: 2) by rts008 on Tuesday May 12 2015, @02:20AM

      by rts008 (3001) on Tuesday May 12 2015, @02:20AM (#181757)

      What?
      Why?
      Breathing the air back then was more of a danger to my health than going to school was.

      And as for the 'wasted time', I have no clue what you mean. I saw it as a valuble learning experience that shaped who I am today. I never would have learned to fight well, and that built confidence. By adulthood, I could be tossed into new envoirments, new culures and new people, new territory, and land on my feet, able to effectively cope easily.(I should know-Uncle Sam tossed me often enough) I learned humility, pride, and respect, both for myself and for others. How could that be 'wasted time'?

      • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday May 12 2015, @08:28AM

        by kaszz (4211) on Tuesday May 12 2015, @08:28AM (#181859) Journal

        Waste as in education interrupted by physical violence. But if that didn't happen then good for you. The secondary issue is the mental load of being on the alert at all times. But if that also worked out, then all is good.