May 13th 2024.
A recent study published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity-Health has revealed that discrimination can have a significant impact on biological aging. The research, led by a team from New York University, highlights the damaging effects of discrimination on our health, including an increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and depression.
The study, according to a press release from NYU, categorized discrimination into three forms: everyday, major, and workplace discrimination. It found that all forms of discrimination can lead to accelerated biological aging. Adolfo Cuevas, an assistant professor at NYU's School of Global Public Health and the senior author of the study, stated that "experiencing discrimination appears to speed up the aging process, which can contribute to poor health and ultimately, health disparities. While certain health behaviors may play a role, there are likely other factors at play that connect psychological stressors to biological aging."
Cuevas went on to emphasize the importance of addressing discrimination in all its forms in order to promote healthy aging and achieve health equity. The study also revealed that the link between discrimination and biological aging varies by race, with even white individuals being affected by discrimination, albeit to a lesser extent. This could be due to a lack of coping strategies for dealing with discrimination.
It should be noted that the study did not have data on other racial or ethnic groups. According to the study's abstract, "Reports of discrimination were more strongly associated with accelerated biological aging among white participants, although black participants reported experiencing more discrimination overall and showed signs of older biological age and faster biological aging. These findings suggest that interpersonal discrimination is a contributing factor to accelerated biological aging and that interventions to reduce discrimination and promote adaptive coping could support healthy aging and promote health equity."
The introduction of the study also focused on the impact of discrimination on Black Americans, stating that while the study could not determine if discrimination directly causes poor health outcomes, it is certainly a contributing factor. "The theory of biological weathering suggests that ongoing exposure to discrimination and other psychological stressors can accelerate the aging process, particularly in Black Americans, making them more vulnerable to disease and premature death. This theory is supported by data that shows that aging-related illnesses appear at a younger age in Black Americans, and that disparities between Black and white individuals become more pronounced as they age, across a wide range of health conditions. While we have made some progress in understanding how discrimination increases the risk of disease, there is still much we do not know about the underlying biological mechanisms."
In conclusion, the study calls for further research into the specific ways in which discrimination affects biological aging and how we can prevent this phenomenon. "Our findings shed light on a potential mechanism for the link between discrimination and disease. As far as we know, this is one of the first studies to examine various forms of discrimination while also considering multiple epigenetic clocks in a large community-based sample of adults. Our results clearly demonstrate that everyday and major discrimination are associated with accelerated biological aging."
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