It isn't just Flint: Scientists find alarming deterioration in DNA of the urban poor

[Octafish]

Important news missing from my television screen, my local paper, and the rest of Corporate McPravda:

Residents of the nation's cities are contaminated by all manner of toxins affecting health and well-being, as measured by genetic deterioration. And the poorer the resident, generally the greater the deterioration.



Scientists Find Alarming Deterioration In DNA Of The Urban Poor

by Nico Pitney
Huffington Post, 05/08/2015

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."

What They Found

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.

Evidence increasingly points to telomere length being highly predictive of healthy life expectancy. Put simply, "the shorter your telomeres, the greater your chance of dying."

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.

CONTINUED...

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

Seems we're going to need a bigger jail or Snyder's cell is going to be overcrowded.

[Omaha Steve]

1. Thanks for posting

K&R!

OS

[Octafish]

19. You're welcome, Omaha! Wish we had more info...

What we could learn about the health effects of poverty, were scientific research not so closely tied to money.

The trend is undeniable. In 1965, the federal government financed more than 60 percent of all R&D in the United States. By 2006, the balance had flipped, with 65 percent of R&D in this country being funded by private interests. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, several of the nation’s science-driven agencies—the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, and NASA—have been losing funding, leading to more “outsourcing” of what were once governmental science functions. The EPA, for example, recently began conducting the first nationwide study on the air quality effects of large-scale animal production. Livestock producers, not taxpayers, are slated to pay for the study. “The government is clearly increasing its reliance on industry and forming ‘joint ventures’ to accomplish research that it is unable to afford on its own anymore,” says Merrill Goozner, a program director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group.

SOURCE: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/oct/sciences-worst-enemy-private-funding

[/div class]

Captivating. And considering how these are the wealthiest times in human history, especially shows Austerity for the corporate-conservative government organized hypocrisy it is.

[Enthusiast]

2. Interesting article. Thanks, Octafish.

[Octafish]

11. Social disadvantage, genetic sensitivity, and children’s telomere length

SIGNIFICANCE: This paper makes two contributions to research on the link between the social environment and health. Using data from a birth cohort study, we show that, among African American boys, those who grow up in highly disadvantaged environments have shorter telomeres (at age 9) than boys who grow up in highly advantaged environments. We also find that the association between the social environment and telomere length (TL) is moderated by genetic variation within the serotonin and dopamine pathways. Boys with the highest genetic sensitivity scores had the shortest TL when exposed to disadvantaged environments and the longest TL when exposed to advantaged environments. To our knowledge, this report is the first to document a gene–social environment interaction for TL, a biomarker of stress exposure.

ABSTRACT: Disadvantaged social environments are associated with adverse health outcomes. This has been attributed, in part, to chronic stress. Telomere length (TL) has been used as a biomarker of chronic stress: TL is shorter in adults in a variety of contexts, including disadvantaged social standing and depression. We use data from 40, 9-y-old boys participating in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to extend this observation to African American children. We report that exposure to disadvantaged environments is associated with reduced TL by age 9 y. We document significant associations between low income, low maternal education, unstable family structure, and harsh parenting and TL. These effects were moderated by genetic variants in serotonergic and dopaminergic pathways. Consistent with the differential susceptibility hypothesis, subjects with the highest genetic sensitivity scores had the shortest TL when exposed to disadvantaged social environments and the longest TL when exposed to advantaged environments.

SOURCE: http://www.pnas.org/content/111/16/5944.abstract

You are welcome, Enthusiast! I tried learning more about this, but it seems to just be coming into focus for researchers.

Sadly, I believe those whose livelihoods are helping create the problems have near-zero interest in supporting research to help ameliorate the suffering they cause.

[Enthusiast]

14. Yes. The ones causing this are leaving a path of destruction in their wake.

[LiberalArkie]

3. Thank you

[Octafish]

20. Lackadaemia has played a major AWOL...

Science's Worst Enemy: Corporate Funding

And you thought the Bush administration was bad.

By Jennifer Washburn
Discover|Thursday, October 11, 2007

EXCERPT...

Research universities, too, are rapidly privatizing. Both public and private institutions now receive a shrinking portion of their overall funding from government sources. They are looking instead to private industry and other commercial activities to enhance their funding. Last summer, an investigation by the San Jose Mercury News found that one-third of Stanford University’s medical school administrators and department heads now have reported financial conflicts of interest related to their own research. These included stock options, consulting fees, and patents.

SOURCE: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/oct/sciences-worst-enemy-private-funding

Imagine what New Frontiers we could have reached, without the corporate academic government axis of trickle down weasels?

[malaise]

4. Sending this to some folks

Thanks Octafish

[Octafish]

21. Hope Gov Rick Snyder has his day in court real soon.

Nothing personal against the ultra rich corporate BFEE toadie, but Justice might go a long way to publicly airing what should be a top probity of government: protecting the lives of the communities it serves. This guy and his team swore the water was safe and six months later we know 7,000 children under the age of six have suffered permanent injury.

http://www.wsws.org/en/topics/socialIssuesCategory/flint/

[Prism]

5. Modern urban living is pretty unnatural for homo sapiens

I read a series of articles a few years ago - wish I could find them - about how scientists measured neurogenesis in the human brain. Basically, the less natural the environment (concrete, buildings, traffic, lack of vegetation), the more stress hormones the body released and the more limited brain development. This was especially pronounced in children. Urban children did not develop as quickly or perform as well in testing as their suburban and rural counterparts. These results were consistent across racial and economic lines.

The studies found improvement in urban areas with reduced traffic, more sunshine, and more green spaces.

The article in the OP doesn't surprise me. We've known this for awhile now, but it's nice to have more evidence on paper. Living in an urban area and being poor will literally kill you and damage your children.

[Katashi_itto]

6. He will never do any time. Probably will get reelected

[Octafish]

9. His term is through 2018

Much to my chagrin. The guy's been a regular tool in the conservative kit, advancing the cause for the wealthy and the wealthier, whether as a vulture capitalist or cutting jobs at GATEWAY. For a while I was worried he'd get promoted out of the Michigan GOP ranks, but when Dan speaks, Dan squeaks. Other than that, he's all for the poor and working classes to carry the water. Heh heh heh.

[jwirr]

7. Is this evidence just now being found but been there all the

time? And we have always known that lifestyle in the urban areas, especially for the poor, were bad. Tenement living, rats and other pests, mold, poor diets, etc. would likely effect anyone's health conditions.

[Octafish]

8. It fits in with the greedhead M.O.: Take the Money and Leave the Blame.

When it comes to all the man made toxins coursing through our bodies and lives, the worst likely would befall the poor -- whose neighborhoods often are the ones near the chemical plants etc.

one would think a class-action lawsuit or two would be in order. But, no.

[jwirr]

15. So right. And haven't they made class actions suits illegal a

couple of years ago?

This does provide us with one thing thought. I we ever get the greedy out of government we have evidence of what needs to be done to help the poor - finally.

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. kick. important story

[bobthedrummer]

12. It certainly isn't just Flint, nor America for that matter. Now watch the "experts" feud, again.

Chapter 21-Omaha
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016139460

[libodem]

13. The 1%

Doesn't give a crap if they turn us into mutants as long as they never have to pay appropriate taxes.

Maybe that's what is behind the zombie craze?

[jwirr]

16. And remember Alan Grayson's description of the R health care

program "Die fast."

[libodem]

17. Yes I do

It has sure been the way they voted for Iraq vets PTSD treatment programs. Let them just commit suicide.

[jwirr]

18. Exactly.