When Black Does Crack, part one
Why aging has accelerated in African-Americans, how Americans became the sickest we’ve ever been, and what we can do about it.
Why aging has accelerated in African-Americans, how Americans became the sickest we’ve ever been, and what we can do about it.
When I opened Facebook and saw the friend request, I thought I recognized the name. Didn’t I go to college with someone by that name? But the avatar picture was an unrecognizable face. Curious, I opened the friend request, and the larger picture seemed even less familiar. I racked my brain trying to match the mental picture of the name to the person I went to school with. The problem is that it has been 20 years since college!
As I clicked through more of this person’s profile pictures, hoping to see younger versions of him (there were none), the guy that matched the name suddenly popped into my head and my heart nearly leaped out of my chest.
Who the heck was this person in that image? There was absolutely no resemblance to the person I once knew.
The guy who sent me a friend request was someone I had a very short fling with in college, who was rather handsome in late adolescence and had great lips, which was a shame because he was a terrible kisser. I studied his current features for some physical similarities of the man I once knew, but there were none.
It wasn’t because of massive weight gain. He gained maybe 20–30 pounds since college but it suited him well.
It wasn’t because of a change of hairstyle, although he now had long dreadlocks and had a low fade in college.
I would still recognize him even if he got braces, changed his eye color, gained even more weight and had piercings and tats, because it would still be his face.
But this person basically got a face transplant. The sheen of his skin seemed to have faded. His lips seemed to shrivel. And his eyes darkened into the recesses of his orbits, losing the sparkle that used to wink at me across campus.
Simply put, he seemed at least 30 years older instead of 20. A chill ran down my spine and I immediately felt melancholy for my people.
Accepting his request, I perused his Facebook page and at the top of his page, he was mourning what appeared to be a close friend who recently passed away. That friend was around his age, “his heart went out” and he had young kids. Earlier that week, I was conversing with friends about how so many young, gifted, talented Black men were dying so young from chronic diseases or lifestyle choices that had nothing to do with gun violence.
Lifestyle choices are nothing new. Every generation has men and women that overindulge, gluttonize, engage in questionable activities, and life catches up to them. If they survive, their choices are evident in their appearance. There is no escaping years of abuse on your body. Except, Black people tended to age more gracefully even with years of physical and psychological stress…unless hard core drugs were involved, of course.
Until now.
Based on my small sample size of observation, I am flabbergasted at how accelerated the aging process has been for some, not all, African-Americans compared to times past. As mentioned, it is evident that their lifestyle is what accelerated their aging, but I don’t believe their lifestyle to be more indulgent than previous generations of Black people who still aged better than other races with similar lifestyles. But now, Black people are not only aging exponentially faster, they are dying even more prematurely and at an unprecedented rate, leaving behind their legacies.
When I was in medical school, I would cringe and squirm in my seat during Basic Sciences, which is the first two years of didactics that prepare medical students for board exams. This was because prior to discussing the pathophysiology and management of the diseases, the professor first reviewed the epidemiology of the disease, which in part breaks down the disease occurrence based on race. And for most diseases, African-Americans were listed as having the highest rate and/or the highest mortality from the disease. The racial disparity of most chronic diseases was disparaging. Black people had amongst the highest rates of many diseases.
But Black people could at least claim despite millennia of trauma, inequality, lack of resources, and diseases that try to wipe them out, that at least never looked their age. Their common refrain is: “I don’t look like what I’ve been through” and their claim to fame has always been: BLACK DON’T CRACK.
Until now.
What has changed over the years?
I believe the culprit is what has contributed to not only the accelerated aging in Blacks in the last decade or so, but in Americans being the sickest we’ve ever been.
As a nation, chronic disease prevalence in all categories is at an all time high. Cancer is afflicting younger and younger patients year after year. For the first time, the next generation will not outlive its previous generation despite advances in wealth, technology, access to clean water, food, and more time wealth than any other generation due to modern advances. Of course, mental health and vitality is also at an all time low.
There is certainly no one-size-fit-all answer to this, as many many factors play a role.
However, since 1958, the FDA has approved over 10,000 chemicals that are linked to cognitive and developmental problems in adults, children and unborn children. Amongst these are categories that the FDA has subcategorized. Beneath the food additives category are listed: direct food additives, indirect food additives, GRAS food additives which stands for Generally Recognized As Safe substances, pesticides, drugs used in animal feeds, and dietary supplements.
Let that list sink in for a moment as to what the FDA has deemed as safe for humans to consume.
Some of these chemicals are proven to be endocrine disruptors, which interfere, mimic or block the body’s own endocrine system which in turn affects the body’s growth, reproduction, fertility. They are found in everyday products, such as toys, food and beverage packaging, pesticides, carpets and cosmetics which can be consumed, inhaled, or be in direct contact on the skin. According to the Endocrine Society, there are nearly 85,000 human chemicals in the world and over 1,000 of them could be disrupting your hormones. Some of the more familiar ones are Bisphenol A (BPA), Phthalates, Phytoestrogens, Perchlorates, and Dioxins.
Unfortunately, children and adolescents are the most susceptible to endocrine disruptors since their neuro-endocrine system is still developing.
Some of these other chemicals are called “forever chemicals” because they do not break down in the environment, such as PFAs (perfluorooctanoic acid). After they were linked to cancer and were removed in the early 2000s, new versions have been created.
Now, let’s go back to that GRAS subcategory of food additives, which was meant to be foods that were known to be safe, such as salt, vinegar and oil. Unfortunately, almost any new chemical added to foods now goes through the GRAS loophole. That’s not what is most shocking, however. Even if the FDA deems a chemical not suitable for even GRAS submission, a company can remove their GRAS submission, and use the chemical “in secret” without having to tell the FDA.
About 1000 chemicals have been added to foods this way, according to the Environmental Defense Fund and it takes years to reverse this!
As you can see, we have a toxin problem! And yes, the FDA has let us down, and should have done more to regulate the thousands of chemicals that ended up in everything we have consumed, inhaled, and that has touched our skin over the last several decades. As a result, these chemicals have increased developmental problems, fertility issues, psychological problems, cancer rates, accelerated aging, leaky gut,resistance to weight loss since the excess toxins are stored in fat, and the list goes on. And yes, although no one can escape the wrath of these chemicals in modern society since they are literally everywhere, as always, BIPOC communities are disproportionately more exposed and affected by the harmful effects of these chemicals.
I also believe that factors such as increased physiologic stress which affects the immune system, poor gut health, and a fixed mindset, rather than a growth mindset also play a role in accelerated aging. Not to mention other factors that increase physical stress and decrease mental health such as a global pandemic, astronomical rise in cost of living without the concomitant rise in income level, the loneliness epidemic despite our increasing use of social media, the opioid crisis, climate change anxiety, doom scrolling, war anxiety, and a fiercely politically divided nation on the eve of an election. Toss in about 85,000 chemicals to that mix and the nation becomes a recipe for a popular 1970s Billy Joel song.
The beautiful thing about the body, however, is our three-pound brain. It is made out of flesh, but it is plastic, baby! Neuroplastic, that is. Meaning, despite years of abuse, stress, toxins, and chemicals that have inundated our bodies and minds, it does not take years to reverse the damage and in turn reverse the signs of aging. The brain is highly adaptable and can literally change its structure, function and activity based on what you put into it.
Black, White, Asian, Latinx, Native…does not have to crack, after all.
As an allopathic physician who studied Western medicine, it was quickly evident in medical school that we do a better job treating disease and mostly know what to do after a patient becomes ill. However, Western medicine does not prioritize prevention of disease. Doctors who specialize in prevention of diseases are not as lucrative as doctors who specialize in treating and billing for very expensive procedures, even though keeping a person healthy is much cheaper for the healthcare industry, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars saved. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and all that jazz.
Therefore, it behooves us to take prevention of disease into our own hands. Sadly, certain prevention efforts may not be covered by insurance, it will likely cost a bit more, and it will probably take a bit more effort on our part to implement.
But look at it this way: You will pay for your health either way. You can either take the path of least resistance, ignore your health in the former part of your life and pay loads for it in the latter part of your life with debilitating disease, poor quality of life and exorbitant medical bills. Or you can prioritize your health now, pay a little more with time, money and effort so that you may enjoy vitality and vibrance and vigor later and perhaps little to no medical bills when you die feeling young at a ripe old age.
So, what now?
How can you reverse years of damage done to your immune system from years of exposure to toxins and constant physiologic and mental stress to reverse aging once and for all?
Stay tuned for part two!
In the meantime, follow me on www.medium.com/she-writes-she-travels to receive updates on future article releases.
Sources:
Navigating the U.S. Food Additive Regulatory Program (wiley.com)
FDA must do more to regulate thousands of chemicals added to your food | CNN
Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals: An Endocrine Society Scientific Statement — PMC (nih.gov)