The slavery hypertension hypothesis proposes that disproportionately high rates of
hypertension
Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a Chronic condition, long-term Disease, medical condition in which the blood pressure in the artery, arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms i ...
among black people in the
New World
The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...
are due to
selective pressure preferring individuals who retain more sodium among black slaves during the
Middle Passage
The Middle Passage was the stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of Africans sold for enslavement were forcibly transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manu ...
.
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History
It was originally proposed in 1983 by
Clarence Grim and Thomas W. Wilson, who subsequently promoted it heavily during the remainder of the 1980s. It gained considerable media attention when Grim presented it at a conference in 1988. In 1990, the first medical textbook mentioning the hypothesis was published. The first peer-reviewed paper advancing the hypothesis was published by Wilson and Grim in 1991. This study also received considerable media attention.
In December 2004, a paper titled ''CYP3A Variation and the Evolution of Salt-Sensitivity Variants'' was published which drew attention to the importance of the CPY3A5*1 and CPY3A5*3 alleles of
cytochrome P450
Cytochromes P450 (P450s or CYPs) are a Protein superfamily, superfamily of enzymes containing heme as a cofactor (biochemistry), cofactor that mostly, but not exclusively, function as monooxygenases. However, they are not omnipresent; for examp ...
CYP3A5
Cytochrome P450 3A5 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''CYP3A5'' gene.
Tissue distribution
''CYP3A5'' encodes a member of the cytochrome P450 superfamily of enzymes. Like most of the cytochrome P450, the CYP3A5 is expressed in the ...
in hypertensive disease. The paper showed a substantial correlation between geographical latitude and the CPY3A5 allele distribution, with African Americans descended from the slave trade having retained the equatorial haplotype.
In 2005 the thesis that black Americans who trace their immigration to the slave era experience lower life expectancy due to hypertensive disease associated with the slave trade was revisited by the academic team of
David Cutler,
Roland G. Fryer Jr. and
Nathan Glazer. This paper was circulated in mimeo, was presented at a conference, and received 12 citations in the literature despite never being published in a formal journal. The paper shows that Black Americans having descended from the slave trade have largely retained the allele associated with equatorial populations, have higher sodium retention than other populations in America (including black people who later emigrated to America after the slave trade had ended), and have correspondingly higher hypertensive disease.
The thesis gained renewed media attention when
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American television presenter, talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show' ...
mentioned the hypothesis in an interview with
Dr. Oz in 2007.
Since it was originally proposed, the hypothesis has been challenged, and it has been described as a "myth".
[ Detractors argue that the hypothesis is inconsistent with historical evidence regarding salt deficiency in Africa or the causes of death aboard slave ships. Grim and Robinson responded to Kaufman and Hall, maintaining the validity of the hypothesis and its consistency with historical descriptions of slavery.]
See also
* African American health
* Intergroup anxiety
* John Henryism
* Minority stress
Minority stress describes high levels of stress faced by members of stigmatized minority groups. It may be caused by a number of factors, including poor social support and low socioeconomic status; well understood causes of minority stress are ...
* Seasoning (slavery)
Seasoning, or the Seasoning, was the Acclimatization, period of adjustment that slave traders and slaveholders subjected African slaves to following their arrival in the New World, Americas. While modern scholarship has occasionally applied this ...
* Slave health on plantations in the United States
* Weathering hypothesis
Arline Geronimus wrote about the weathering hypothesis the early 1990s to account for health disparities of newborn babies and birth mothers due to decades and generations of racism and social, economic, and political oppression. It is well docum ...
References
Hypertension
Hypotheses
Slavery in the United States
African-American health
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