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African American women and diabetes

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African American women population and diabetes

It has been witnessed that dietary practice is closely linked with history and culture. According to the American diabetes association, mode of living (including eating habits) and food choices reflect many symbolic, familial, ethnic and gender-specific associations. There are numbers of the diseases that African American women become a victim of, as per the research of many experts. One of the most common health conditions found in African American women is diabetes. There are two main types of diabetes and researches show that most of the African American women have a high percentage of type 2 diabetes. According to a researcher, M.C Marshall Jr, there are various elements like genetic traits, insulin resistance and prevalence of obesity that increases the risk of diabetes (especially of type 2 diabetes) in African American women.

Human consumption, the standard of living and personal health practices

Many studies have been done to find out the causes that influence African American women. It has been found that human consumption (food choice); ways of living, and personal health practices are the components that mainly influence the health conditions of African American women. Taking a look at the study conducted by Leandris, it could be said that one of the prominent factors why African American women struggle with diabetes is that it is their ritual to use food that they grow in their gardens. Sharing and offering food to their guests is one of the best forms of showing their compassion and love to their hosts (Allen, et, al,2019,225-235). In most of the case, the selected population's life has been shaped by their past experienced. African American women along with men used to be the slaves and used to require a great amount of energy for performing various tasks, so they are culturally trained to utilize more carbonated food that would keep them energetic for long. Personal health practices of African American women are not much appreciable and that contributes to making the diabetic conditions worst.

Chronic conditions and their impacts

From the researches, it has been analyzed that various elements became the causes of the high prevalence of diabetes in African American women. Some conditions occurred together and stroke black American women harder than the rest of the population. Reports have shown that 5.4 percent white American females are diagnosed with diabetes, but this number is higher when African American women were diagnosed. As per the reports, 9.9 percent black women were found the victim of diabetes.

Chronic conditions because of which most of the African American women became patients of diabetes include improper functioning of the pancreas. Pancreas's failure to produce enough insulin or body's failure to use insulin proper both may result in diabetes. In African American women, diabetes has been recognized as one of the most serious chronic diseases because of economic and social factors, its prevalence and negative impacts on life quality of this selected population.

Behavioral factors

Both eating behavior and physical activity play a significant role in influencing the number of African American women with diabetes. Experts claim that in the past few years it has been noticed that progress in the development of the behavioral strategies modifies lifestyle behavior of selected population that suffers from diabetes. One of the most behaviors that have been adopted by African American women is that they avoid participating in recreational activities. 55% of the Black American women are reported to be physically inactive that points towards that cause why there is a high number of African American women with diabetes.

Experts have found that the majority lifestyle matters a lot when one has to found why a certain population gets a high percentage of a particular disease. The lifestyle of African American women comes under the category of behavior as it greatly defines how one is going to behave. According to the research conducted by Dr. Mercedes R. Carnethon socioeconomic and behavior risks contributes to high rates of diabetes.

Environmental factors

Environmental factors greatly affect the ratio of African American women who suffer from diabetes. Low income is also an environmental factor and reports show that African American women belonging to low-income families are more in number diagnosed with diabetes. Being a minority group, African American women live in low-income areas where they are forced to choose an unhealthy lifestyle.

Genetics factors

Certain types of genes are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. As per the medical observations, diabetes tends to run in certain family and racial/ethnic groups. African American women are among those racial groups that are at more risk of developing diabetes. Mutation in genes also becomes a cause of diabetes (Macaulay, et, al,2018,278-287). Dr. Kwame Osei had uncovered the symptoms of genetic predisposition to diabetes. Many experts claim that African American women produce double sugar than white genetically but utilize half of this sugar which puts them at more risk of developing diabetes. Genetic obesity is another cause of diabetes, so 50% of African American women are overweight that also drags them towards diabetes.

Influence of Environmental factors

The environment is one of the most obvious factors that affect the selected population and the health conditions after being diagnosed with diabetes. As per the pieces of evidence, environmental factors play a vital role in the etiopathogenesis of diabetes. This fact cannot be denied that fluctuation in the environment could have both negative and positive impacts on the health of the selected population. It has been seen that the deterioration of the environment greatly affects African American women.

The environment is the main factor that would define the health conditions of the selected population. Researchers have done for knowing the causes of why more African American women are diagnosed with diabetes supported the fact that the environment has a direct relationship with the prevalence of diabetes in Black American women in the USA. If the environment suits the selected population and are exposed to the ideal environment, the health of the selected population could be enhanced (Coogan et al, 2012, 767-772). The research was done in New York, North California and Maryland show that environment and physical activity both help in combating the diabetes risk. Shreds of evidence claim that physical environment greatly impacts risk and diagnose of diabetes. A stronger relation has been found between the environment (air pollution, water, temperature, rainfall, soil, etc.)

Research that was done at the Washington University School of Medicine found a close link between diabetes and air pollution. African American women being from a minority and low-class category mainly faces the issues of the environmental factors. Continual inhalation of polluted air is mainly responsible for the uncontrolled loss of weight in African American women suffering from diabetes.

Food production

In this category, both the amount and the quality of the food matters. It has been witnessed that African American women are not having access to the quality food because of their limited economic resources (Stojek,et,al,2019). The selected population would be influenced greatly by the quality and the amount of food produced. Quality food would help in recovering diabetes conditions. If the African American women are going to meet the required amount of the food then the health condition of this group would improve.

Water use

Water use by this selected group is not pure and this adds a lot in the deteriorating the health conditions of this Black American women. Shreds of evidence show that African American women usually live in low-income areas where they are using low-quality water that is enhancing the diabetes risk.

Climate change

There is a close link between climate and the diabetes conditions of African American women. Researches revealed that rising of the global temperature affects the health condition of African American women. Climate change is directly linked with threats to fresh food supply which cast negative impacts of the diet of diabetes.

Population growth

According to the reports, the growing population of the selected group and the diabetes are interrelated. Researchers have found that minorities i.e. African American women are being diagnosed with diabetes who are struggling to fulfill their nutritional needs for making the worst health conditions of diabetes a little better. According to ten recent reports, 12 % of the African American women are diagnosed with diabetes; if their population would increase, it will boost the number of the female Black diabetic patients automatically, as 9.9 out of 100 African American women struggle with diabetes.

Energy resources

Availability of the energy resources and diabetes could be inter-related as it has been observed that the more energy resources owned by the selected population, the better lifestyle they would be having. If the selected population would have improved lifestyle they would make a better life choice that would limit or mitigate the risk of diabetes.

References

Allen, A. M., Thomas, M. D., Michaels, E. K., Reeves, A. N., Okoye, U., Price, M. M., ... &Chae, D. H. (2019). Racial discrimination, educational attainment, and biological dysregulation among midlife African American women. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 99, 225-235.

Coogan, P. F., White, L. F., Jerrett, M., Brook, R. D., Su, J. G., Seto, E., ...& Rosenberg, L. (2012). Air pollution and incidence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus in black women living in Los Angeles. Circulation, 125(6), 767-772.

Macaulay, S., Ngobeni, M., Dunger, D. B., & Norris, S. A. (2018). The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus amongst black South African women is a public health concern. Diabetes research and clinical practice, 139, 278-287.

Stojek, M. M., Maples-Keller, J., Dixon, H. D., Umpierrez, G. E., Gillespie, C. F., &Michopoulos, V. (2019). Associations of childhood trauma with food addiction and insulin resistance in African-American women with diabetes mellitus. Appetite, 104317.