The majority of Black people are aging faster due to stress-related stressors such as racism and discrimination, according to a new study published in the journal JAMA Network Open. The researchers discovered that racism harms the brain and causes advanced aging following a cellular-level observation.
Since Black women are exposed to racism often, the study unveiled that such victims had “stronger connections in brain networks involved with rumination and vigilance. We found that this, in turn, was connected to accelerated biological aging.”
“We are neuroscientists who use a variety of approaches, including self-reported data and biological measurements like brain scans, to answer our questions about the effects of stressors on the brain and body. We also use this data to inform the development of interventions to help people cope with this stress,” the research team explained.
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They admitted that aging is a natural process but people age faster unnaturally if they are stressed.
When stress sets in, these people are likely to face aging-related diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia.
According to regular Epidemiological studies, Black people experience these aging-related health problems at an earlier age than white people. Meanwhile, new studies have also shown crucial effects of aging on the brain and indicated disparities in brain aging between Black and white populations.
While race-related stressors, as well as racial discrimination, affect the biological aging of people, researchers are yet to understand how brain changes linked to racism contribute to accelerated aging.
Nonetheless, people who battle racism or face racial discrimination have their stress response system activated—and that’s not healthy.
Sadly, one of the stressors that’s often not noticed is racial discrimination. Most Black people constantly deal with this stressor – starting at a tender age. Citing an example, the researchers stated: “It might look like a doctor questioning a Black patient’s pain level and not prescribing pain medication, or a teacher calling a Black child a ‘thug’.”
Another factor that affects Black people due to constant racial abuse or discrimination is Rumination. The researchers said victims are always in the loop, being vigilant and watching out for future threats. In the cause of this, they are likely to lose energy which leads to an increasing energy expenditure as well as a biological cost.
“In our study of Black women, we found that more frequent racial discrimination was linked to more connectivity between two key regions. One, called the locus coeruleus, is a deep brain region that activates the stress response, promoting arousal and vigilance. The other is the precuneus, a key node of a brain network that engages when we think about our experiences and internalize – or suppress – our emotions.”
“These brain changes, in turn, were linked to accelerated cellular aging measured by an epigenetic “clock.” Epigenetics refers to changes that happen to our DNA from the environment. Epigenetic clocks assess how the environment affects our aging at a molecular level.”
“Higher clock values indicate that someone’s biological age is greater than their chronological age. In other words, the space that racist experiences occupy in people’s minds has a cost, which can shorten the lifespan,” they disclosed.
Indicating what isn’t known yet, the researchers averred: “Although we saw links between racism, brain connectivity changes and accelerated aging, we did not measure coping responses like rumination and vigilance in real time, meaning as people were experiencing them.
“We also do not know how other factors such as neighborhood disadvantage, gender and sexuality intersect to influence accelerated aging and related health disparities.”
On what’s ahead, the study finders, Negar Fani, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Emory University and Nathaniel Harnett, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard University concluded:
“Our next steps are to use real-time measurement of everyday racism along with physiological measurements and neuroimaging to take a deeper dive into these research questions.
“We want to know how different types of racial discrimination and coping styles influence brain and body responses. Understanding these issues better can bring more attention to prevention, such as programs that target implicit bias in physicians and teachers. It can also inform interventions like neuromodulation, which involves the use of external or internal devices to stimulate or inhibit brain activity. Neuromodulation can be used as a therapy aid to reduce stress.”
