As if white America's genocide of Native Americans wasn't enough! Hope
you are proud of yourself white America for destroying the health of
the African-American race. One must ask who's next? Doesn't much
matter does it as long as it is a people of color right?
Keke Goldfeller

Racism, Anger Up Blood Pressure in Blacks
By Alison McCook

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - African Americans are more likely to have
high blood pressure than whites, and racism may be partly to blame,
new study findings suggest.

U.S. researchers found that African Americans who said they believed
they had encountered a lot of racism over the course of their lives
showed higher daytime blood pressure levels than blacks who said they
had less experience with racism.


Furthermore, African Americans who said they often held back feelings
of anger tended to show a smaller drop in blood pressure that normally
occurs during nighttime.


These findings show "that racism is a powerful stressor that may
affect physical health," study author Dr. Patrick Steffen of Brigham
Young University in Provo, Utah, told Reuters Health.


"Recognizing this fact may encourage people to deal actively with the
stress and find ways to reduce the impact in their lives," he added.


Steffen and his colleagues took repeated blood pressure measurements
from 69 African Americans over a 24-hour period. All participants were
between the ages of 25 and 44, and had blood pressure that was in the
normal range or slightly elevated.


Study participants completed questionnaires that measured how much
racism they had encountered in their lifetimes, and how they dealt
with feelings of anger. The findings appear in the journal
Psychosomatic Medicine.


Despite the apparent detrimental effects on blood pressure from
holding back anger, Steffen insisted that these results should not
encourage people to always express their anger by any means necessary.


In fact, research shows that venting a lot of angry feelings can lead
to high blood pressure, he said, "so you want to be able to express
yourself without 'flying out of control."'


Instead of holding back anger or being aggressive about expressing it,
Steffen recommended that people try to channel their reactions to
racism toward being assertive, and maintaining respect for themselves
and for others.


Racism remains a pervasive problem, Steffen said, and understanding
the role it plays in health can be very helpful.


"I think the most important thing for people to realize is that racism
is a significant stressor, and that stress typically has significant
physiological effects," he noted. "On the positive side, this
realization of the physical effects of stress may lead people to be
proactive in coping with the negative effects in their lives."