“Why Succeeding Against the Odds Can Make You Sick”
“Over the past two years, Dr. Brody and colleagues have amassed more evidence supporting this theory. In 2015, they found that white blood cells among strivers were prematurely aged relative to those of their peers. Ominous correlations have also been found in cardiovascular and metabolic health. In December, Dr. Brody and colleagues published a study in the journal Pediatrics that said that among black adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds, “unrelenting determination to succeed” predicted an elevated risk of developing diabetes.
The focus on black adolescents is significant. In much of this research, white Americans appeared somehow to be immune to the negative health effects that accompany relentless striving. As Dr. Brody put it when telling me about the Pittsburgh study, “We found this for black persons from disadvantaged backgrounds, but not white persons.”…
Globally, there is no association between skin color and the length of one’s life. This is an American phenomenon. In medical school we are taught that black men are much more likely than other patients to have hypertension, as if this were simple biology…
The Trump administration could do much more to damage Americans’ health than just repeal the Affordable Care Act and leave people without access to hospitals and medications. “The consequences around the divisiveness, and increased instability and uncertainty for families and children, combined with increased racial tension and overt acts of discrimination,” Dr. Mujahid noted, all stand to heighten the John Henryism effect.”
Related: “Black Americans may be more resilient to stress than white Americans”; “Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure”
