A must read in the Sunday Review section of the New York Times, “Status and Stress,” by Moises Velasquez-Manoff, describes how the long-term health effects of stress are even more toxic when hopelessness is also experienced. The piece develops the thesis that combination of poverty and powerlessness is ruinous to one’s health and its ill effects can persist even when one overcomes poverty.
Velasquez-Manoff describes the impact of stress and lack of control or helplessness on overall health:
That sense of control tends to decline as one descends the socioeconomic ladder, with potentially grave consequences. Those on the bottom are more than three times as likely to die prematurely as those at the top. They’re also more likely to suffer from depression, heart disease and diabetes. Perhaps most devastating, the stress of poverty early in life can have consequences that last into adulthood.
The writer cites research that finds links between early-life poverty and higher risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and arthritis in adulthood. He quotes Martha Farah, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania:
You don’t need to be a neuroscientist to tell you less stress, more education, more support of all types for young families are needed, but seeing an image of the brain with specific regions highlighted where financial disadvantage results in less growth reframes the programs of childhood poverty as a public health issue, not just an equal opportunity issue.
Velasquez-Manoff cautions that children need a nurturing bond in a stimulating environment for proper brain development and “such bonds, and the broader social networks that support them, are precisely what poverty disrupts.” The nation’s growing income inequality and increase in child poverty reduce longevity and economic stability. The writer concludes, “Early-life stress and poverty aren’t a problem only of the poor. They cost everyone.”
President Obama appears poised to make income disparity a focal point of his last years in office (Obama Says Income Gap is Fraying U.S. Social Fabric, New York Times 7/28/13). It is up to those of us who recognize the links between poverty and poor health outcomes to make sure these realities are understood as central to the discussion.
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