Scientists Find Alarming Deterioration In DNA Of The Urban Poor

[KamaAina]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/08/poverty-race-ethnicity-dna-telomeres_n_7228530.html

The urban poor in the United States are experiencing accelerated aging at the cellular level, and chronic stress linked both to income level and racial-ethnic identity is driving this physiological deterioration.

These are among the findings published this week by a group of prominent biologists and social researchers, including a Nobel laureate. Dr. Arline Geronimus, a visiting scholar at the Stanford Center for Advanced Study and the lead author of the study, described it as the most rigorous research of its kind examining how "structurally rooted social processes work through biological mechanisms to impact health."

Researchers analyzed telomeres of poor and lower middle-class black, white, and Mexican residents of Detroit. Telomeres are tiny caps at the ends of DNA strands, akin to the plastic caps at the end of shoelaces, that protect cells from aging prematurely. Telomeres naturally shorten as people age. But various types of intense chronic stress are believed to cause telomeres to shorten, and short telomeres are associated with an array of serious ailments including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease....

The new study 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," Geronimus said in an interview with The Huffington Post.

[malthaussen]

1. Some eugenics are subtler than others.

That's one of those studies that will cause great concern and no action. And the people in power will smile, and congratulate themselves that the plan is working. Even if "the plan" has emerged only by osmosis.

-- Mal

[Octafish]

2. Survival of the Fittest

That, and Genocide.

[KT2000]

3. important discovery

for too long the assumption has been that racial differences are based on genetic differences with no attention paid to environment. That has been considered good science but I hope this will change that erroneous assumption. It would be a big step forward.

[Arugula Latte]

4. Wow.

I don't know what else to say except "Wow."

[mainer]

5. Double wow. Another reason why the poor die young.

It's not just poor diet and poor medical care. Stress makes their bodies age faster.

[BrotherIvan]

6. This is how social justice and income inequality are inextricably linked

Anyone who pretends otherwise is well...

[Octafish]

7. Did anyone see this in their local paper, broadcast media? Detroit?

I'm in Detroit -- zip, nada, not even in alternate media.

Important story for the entire country and planet, too.