A MEDICAL expert who has conducted studies in the Caribbean and London has suggested that the turmoil of the Atlantic slave trade could have played a role in African-Caribbean people having a higher chance of developing hypertension.
Dr. Damien Cohall, a lecturer in Pharmacology at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at University of the West Indies’ (UWI) Barbados campus, first explained his theory last year while presenting a talk called Cardiovascular Diseases: The Trans-Atlantic Journey at a seminar in Barbados.
Cohall suggests that the poorly ventilated and overcrowded conditions of the slave ships forced the kidnapped Africans, who later became slaves, to adapt to the humid squalid conditions in order to survive the horrific passage from Africa to the West Indies.
He told the seminar that the trauma of these conditions caused slaves to develop a higher prevalence of low renin, a protease produced by the kidneys that is integral to the body’s regulation of sodium.
He said that a low renin state meant that the body retained more salt, meaning that people of African descent were at a higher risk of developing hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases.
Cohall said that his studies of African-Caribbean people in the UK also showed they have a higher incidence of strokes and end stage renal failure than whites.
According to Cohall, the adaptation to harsh social and economic conditions made by slaves have become a trademark of African-Caribbean people across the diaspora.
Your Voice
CommentsBlack People have Hypertension
This is a very interesting question i honestly do not believe black people have hypertension because of our slave ancestors. black people are at risk for high blood pressure because they are more salt sensitive than other races. also the level of nitric oxide in blacks is lower than in other races
Start buying all your cheap online medications at International drug mart.
High Blood Pressure in Blacks
Slavery, and the resulting bigotry and racial discrimination does indeed lead to extreme stress in Black people. Dealing with 'white' people in Charleston, SC is indeed stressful on many different levels. Of course diet is critical, so is peace of mind.
What 'poppycock' is this ??
As an educated black man I conclude- What a load of utter rubbish! slavery has no physical of mental effect on the black man what so ever. If you do your research which I have done you will find there is a rise in people suffering from high blood press in Africa where they never experienced being on slave ships so this argument is blown out the water. The main reason is that as black people we eat far too far much salt in our diet and more research needs to be done to draw comparisons with Africans who suffer the same problems. I never trust these scheming scientists who will say almost anything for a pay cheque. They will never blame genetically modified foods which is the cause of an alarming increase of diseases throughout the world, where the nutritional content of these foods that we find in our super market s have been severely downgraded as a result of being genetically modified. In Africa and the Caribbean they are all importing these cheap genetically modified foods from American who have made many African and Caribbean nations impoverish through IMF loans and downgrading their economy. Haven’t you noticed how so many foods that grew up on and used to love just don’t taste the same anymore? These so called scientists know that if they speak the truth and start to attack such they would be ridiculed by the large establishment or face being out of a job. As black people we need to grow up and move on and stop blaming slavery for every problem. If you look back in history you will find that almost every race has been enslaved at some point. Every meat seasoning has salt let’s face it black people love spice. We put salt in rice, dumpling, soup almost everything we eat. Time would be better spent facing up to the truth and educating black people about food preparation and healthy eating instead sowing seeds of bitterness and talking ‘jibberish. Al this talk just serve to alienate young Afro Caribbean black people from society in England and keep they from Universities. It’s only through being educated that we can finally be emancipated from mental slavery.