Slavery hypertension hypothesis

The slavery hypertension hypothesis proposes that disproportionately high rates of hypertension among black people in the New World are due to selection bias preferring individuals who retain more sodium among black slaves during the Middle Passage.[1]

History

It was originally proposed in 1983 by Clarence Grim and Thomas W. Wilson, who subsequently promoted it heavily during the remainder of the 1980s. It gained considerable media attention when Grim presented it at a conference in 1988.[2] In 1990, the first medical textbook mentioning the hypothesis was published. The first peer-reviewed paper advancing the hypothesis was published by Wilson and Grim in 1991.[3] This study also received considerable media attention.[4]

In December 2004, a paper titled CYP3A Variation and the Evolution of Salt-Sensitivity Variants was published which drew attention to the importance of the CPY3A5*1 and CPY3A5*3 alleles of cytochrome P450 CYP3A5 in hypertensive disease.[5] The paper showed a substantial correlation between geographical latitude and the CPY3A5 allele distribution, with African Americans descended from the slave trade having retained the equatorial haplotype.

In 2005 the thesis that black Americans who trace their immigration to the slave era experience lower life expectancy due to hypertensive disease associated with the slave trade was revisited by the distinguished academic team of David Cutler (senior health care advisor to Barack Obama), Roland G. Fryer Jr. (economist and 2011 MacArthur Fellow) and Nathan Glazer.[6] This paper was circulated in mimeo, was presented at a conference, and received 12 citations in the literature despite never being published in a formal journal. The paper shows that Black Americans having descended from the slave trade have largely retained the allele associated with equatorial populations, have higher sodium retention than other populations in America (including black people who later emigrated to America after the slave trade had ended), and have correspondingly higher hypertensive disease.[7]

The thesis gained renewed media attention when Oprah Winfrey mentioned the hypothesis in an interview with Dr. Oz in 2007.[8]

Since it was originally proposed, the hypothesis has been challenged,[9] and it has been described as a "myth".[8][10] Detractors argue that the hypothesis is inconsistent with historical evidence regarding salt deficiency in Africa or the causes of death aboard slave ships.[11] Grim and Robinson responded to Kaufman and Hall, maintaining the validity of the hypothesis and its consistency with historical descriptions of slavery.[12]

See also

References
  1. Kaufman, Jay S. (2008). "Slavery Hypertension Hypothesis". International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  2. Kaufman, Jay (7 June 2006). "The Anatomy of a Medical Myth". Is Race Real?. Social Science Research Council. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  3. Wilson, Thomas; Grim, Clarence (1991). "Biohistory of Slavery and Blood Pressure Differences in Blacks Today". Hypertension. 17 (1 Suppl): I122-8. doi:10.1161/01.HYP.17.1_Suppl.I122. PMID 1986989. S2CID 8043564.
  4. Kaufman, JS; Hall, SA (January 2003). "The slavery hypertension hypothesis: dissemination and appeal of a modern race theory". Epidemiology. 14 (1): 111–8. doi:10.1097/00001648-200301000-00027. PMID 12500059.
  5. Thompson, E.E.; Kuttab-Boulos, H.; Witonsky, D.; Yang, L.; Roe, B.A.; Di Rienzo, A. (2004). "CYP3A Variation and the Evolution of Salt-Sensitivity Variants". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 75 (6): 1059–1069. doi:10.1086/426406. PMC 1182141. PMID 15492926. The observation of a significant rank correlation between the frequency of the CYP3A5*3 allele that defines this haplotype class and distance from the equator further suggests the action of spatially varying selective pressures.
  6. Dubner, Stephen J. (20 March 2005). "Toward a Unified Theory of Black America". New York Times. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  7. Cutler, David; Fryer (Jr.), Roland G.; Glazer, Nathan (1 March 2005). "Racial Differences in Life Expectancy: The Impact of Salt, Slavery, and Selection". The only data set that allows us to compare health outcomes for a representative sample of African-Americans versus black immigrants is the National Longitudinal Mortality Study (NLMS), a national population sample drawn from the Current Population Surveys (CPS) [circa 1980]
  8. Chowkwanyun, Merlin (11 June 2007). "Race Against History". The New Republic. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  9. Obasogie, Osagie K. (May 17, 2007). "Oprah' unhealthy mistake". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 1, 2017. [...] if that were so, a sizable number of today's West Africans would similarly exhibit hypertension as their own salt consumption increased in modern times. This has not been the case. Epidemiologist Dr. Richard Cooper has shown, for example, that the prevalence of hypertension among Nigerians is significantly lower than white Americans, while Germans and Finns have a higher prevalence than black Americans. Surely, much more is going on here than genes.
  10. Armelagos, George J. (October 2005). "The Slavery Hypertension Hypothesis—Natural Selection and Scientific Investigation: A Commentary" (PDF). Transforming Anthropology. 13 (2): 119–124. doi:10.1525/tran.2005.13.2.119.
  11. Curtin, PD (December 1992). "The slavery hypothesis for hypertension among African Americans: the historical evidence". American Journal of Public Health. 82 (12): 1681–6. doi:10.2105/AJPH.82.12.1681. PMC 1694537. PMID 1456349.
  12. Grim, Clarence; Robinson, Miguel (2003). "Commentary: Salt, Slavery and Survival: Hypertension in the African Diaspora" (PDF). Epidemiology. 14 (1): 120–122. doi:10.1097/00001648-200301000-00029. JSTOR 3703294. PMID 12500061. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-04-20. Retrieved 2021-04-20.
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