Neuroscience now knows that chronic stress and impoverished environments - the two hallmarks of human poverty - are debilitating to the primate brain. Stress releases glucocorticoids which, if they hang around long enough, turn into poison, while impoverished environments diminish the growth and density of our dendrites. As I wrote in my profile of Elizabeth Gould:
The social implications of this research are staggering. If boring environments, stressful noises, and the primate's particular slot in the dominance hierarchy all shape the architecture of the brain--and Gould's team has shown that they do--then the playing field isn't level. Poverty and stress aren't just an idea: they are an anatomy. Some brains never even have a chance.
But now the field of "poverty" research is starting to move beyond dendritic arbors and structural plasticity. Medicine is discovering that class can also have profound effects on a person's health. First, there was this review, which documented the intimate relationship between enriched environments and the onset and severity of nervous system diseases. And now there's this bit of tantalizing evidence:
People living below the poverty line are more likely to have very high levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation that increases the risk for heart disease and death, a new study has found. C-reactive protein is produced in response to injury or infection, but some people have chronically high levels of it.
The study, published in the September issue of Brain, Behavior and Immunity, found no significant difference by socioeconomic status in those with moderate or high levels of C-reactive protein, but there was a significant difference in very high levels.
The researchers used data from a nationally representative group of 7,634 adults who were 20 and older and who enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Only 9.1 percent of participants above the poverty line had C-reactive protein levels above 10 milligrams a liter, compared with 15.7 percent of people below the poverty level.
About two-thirds of the high levels could be attributed to acute or chronic illness, obesity and lack of exercise. The explanation for the rest was unknown. Dawn E. Alley, the study's lead author, said, "People in poverty are more susceptible to infection, and because they lack health care and have other social stresses, they are less likely to recover."
I really hope this research is just the beginning of a new trend. It's time we recognize poverty for what it is: a serious disease with profound implications.
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