Doctors have long known that black people are more likely than white people to suffer from diseases such as high blood pressure. A study suggests that racial discrimination may be playing a role in a surprising way.
The study, which involved 150 African-Americans living in Tallahassee, Fla., found that knowing someone who had experienced racial discrimination was associated with genetic markers that may affect risk for high blood pressure.
The genetic markers "seem to interact with" being close to someone who has experienced racial discrimination, says Connie Mulligan, an anthropologist at the University of Florida who published the findings in the journal PLoS ONE on Wednesday.
[For more of this story, written by Rob Stein, go to http://www.npr.org/sections/he...ffect-blood-pressure]
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