The chronic stress of living in neighborhoods with high rates of violence and poverty alters gene activity in immune cells, according to a new study of low-income single Black mothers on the South Side of Chicago.
The changes in stress-related gene expression reflect the body’s “hunker down” response to long-term threat, a physiological strategy for lying low and considering new actions rather than launching an immediate “fight-or-flight” response. This has implications for health outcomes in communities of color and other marginalized populations, said researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and collaborators at the University of Kentucky and UCLA. The researchers published the study in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.
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IMAGE: Living in a violent neighborhood increased stress-related gene activity in low-income Black mothers, a study from the University of Illinois and collaborators found.
Illinois professors pictured, from left: Sandra Rodriguez-Zas, animal. view more
Credit: Photo by L. Brian Stauffer
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. The chronic stress of living in neighborhoods with high rates of violence and poverty alters gene activity in immune cells, according to a new study of low-income single Black mothers on the South Side of Chicago. The changes in stress-related gene expression reflect the body s hunker down response to long-term threat, a physiological strategy for lying low and considering new actions rather than launching an immediate fight-or-flight response. This has implications for health outcomes in communities of color and other marginalized populations, said researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and collaborators at the University of Kentuc
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