CNN’s ‘Black in America’ erroneously portrayed cause of health disparities says expert
A public health expert criticizes the program for re-introducing the pseudo-scientific 'salt-sensitive theory' dating back to the slave trade
Thomas LaVeist, a health disparities expert at Johns Hopkins is concerned that one of the segments on CNN’s popular series “Black in America” fed into old and “bogus” theories about why blacks are unhealthy compared to whites and other groups.
LaVeist said he was alarmed when he saw the segment touting the pseudo-scientific “salt-sensitivity theory” as a key reason for health disparities among racial groups. “I commend CNN and Soledad O’Brien for tackling this very important topic, but to expose an audience to this theory is very troubling and disappointing,” said LaVeist who is director of the Center for Health Disparities Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
Paging Dr. Gupta
O’Brien made the curious choice to interview Roland Fryer, a Harvard economist, on the health disparity segment. In his comments Fryer reintroduced the discredited salt-sensitive theory as a key reason for the poorer health of blacks. According to the theory, Africans taken as slaves survived transatlantic voyages only if their bodies were predisposed to retain salt. Those survivors, according to the theory, populated the black gene pool with offspring who also maintained salt reserves.
“This bogus theory just won’t seem to die,” said LaVeist. “Even though public health researchers have discredited the theory it continues to be promoted by people who are not knowledgeable about the field. Promoting unproven theories as a key cause of the enormous health gap between African Americans and other ethnic groups will likely widen the gap further.”
“I respect professor Fryer, but quoting an economist as an expert on health disparities is like interviewing me for a story about why gas prices have spiked,” said LaVeist.
Decades worth of research by every major institution concerned with public health has identified the main reasons that black health lags behind that of whites and other groups:
- Less access to quality healthcare
- Higher levels of poverty
- Exposure to higher levels of environmental toxins
- Higher levels of tobacco and other harmful products
- Less healthy diets
- More stressful living environments
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It is obvious that one significant area they missed is a study that may explain the reason for the disparity of cardio vascular health between African Americans and the rest of the population.
How did CNN not know about and include the recent study at Ohio University with the research published in a recent issue of Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association?
It is well known that African Americans suffer from cardiovascular disease at a rate about five times higher than the rest of the U.S. population.
If you are producing a program called ‘Black in America’ wouldn’t that disparity be important to research and include? Apparently not all the research was included or worse yet, even discovered.
In the new study, scientists believe they may have found the culprit: a serious defect of nitric oxide, a small molecule vital in the regulation of blood flow and blood pressure.
The research team, led by Ohio University biochemist Thadeusz Malinski, examined the blood vessel cells of 12 white and 12 black healthy female subjects.
Using a system of nanosensors, they discovered that the cardiovascular systems of African American subjects as young as 20 years of age could show signs of an unbalanced nitric oxide system that could become increasingly worse as they grow older, according to research published in a recent issue of Circulation.
“What we found was the basic mechanism of the cardiovascular dysfunction at the molecular level,” said Malinski, the Marvin and Ann Dilley White Professor of Biochemistry at Ohio University.
Nitric oxide performs critical functions throughout the body, but survives only a few seconds after cells and neurons create it.
Malinski and other researchers have since proven that nitric oxide is a fundamental regulator of bodily functions—such as blood pressure, beating of the heart and the relaxation of blood vessels—and that imbalance between levels of nitric oxide and oxidative stress can be a sign of dysfunction and disease.
Other researchers almost a decade ahead of Malinski and his team include scientists Furchgott, Ignarro & Murad. These three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize In Medicine in 1998 for discovering nitric oxide's role as a vasodilator.
Furchgott, Ignarro & Murad found in a healthy endothelium (inner wall of a blood vessel), nitric oxide (NO) will: keep vessels pliable and elastic, dilate (open up) blood vessels keeping blood flowing smoothly, relax blood vessels, keep platelets and white blood cells calm and prevent them from sticking to the vessel wall, prevent oxidation, slow plaque growth, suppress atherosclerosis and melt away plaque that already exists
In the new study, Malinski found that the cardiovascular system of black subjects has more enzymes to produce nitric oxide and can be more efficient than those of white subjects.
However, black subjects did not produce enough of the amino acid L-arginine to complete the process of nitric oxide production. Instead the enzyme produces another oxidative molecule, superoxide, which reacts with nitric oxide to create even more powerful and damaging oxiant, known as peroxynitrate.
Peroxynitrate not only attacks cell DNA and RNA, making black subjects more susceptible to cancer and various dysfunctions, but it gobbles up ever-increasing amounts of nitric oxide, which can lead to hardening of the blood vessels, increase in blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems.
As the balance in the system shifts to greater amounts of peroxynitrite relative to nitric oxide, the danger of cardiovascular dysfunctions and diseases increases as well, said Malinski.
“At the age of 20, African Americans can have perhaps twice as much of these oxiants as in other ethnic groups, and that causes an acceleration of aging and the dysfunction of the entire cardiovascular system,” Malinski said. “The final outcome is a heart attack or stroke.”
How and why did CNN miss such critical recent research that may help explain why African Americans suffer from cardiovascular disease at a rate about five times higher than the rest of the U.S. population?
CNN could have followed up the segment with a review of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize in Medicine about the role of nitric oxide in vascular health.
CNN could have made genuine contribution with their ‘Black in America’ if they had gone on to report that the deficiency in nitric oxide can be supplemented with therapeutic doses of liquid L-arginine which causes the endothelium to produce the ‘miracle molecule’ nitric oxide.
“In the field of medicine and health it is one of the revolutions of our time: the discovery that the amino acid arginine may be a ‘magic bullet’ for the cardiovascular system. A virtual arterial cleanser, arginine helps eliminate blockage and maintains blood flow.” Woodson Merrell, M.D., Columbia University Medical School
“Oral arginine taken regularly has time and time again proven its ability to lower cholesterol, prevent LDL oxidation by free radicals, restore endothelial function, normalize blood-vessel dilation, reduce platelet stickiness, and generally tune up your cardiovascular system.” Dr. Robert Fried, PhD., Senior Professor of Biopsychology at Hunter College, Columbia Univ. NY
"There is magic within all of us. It comes in the shape of a molecule known as nitric oxide. A substance so powerful that it can actually protect you from heart attack and stroke. Best of all your body can make it on its own. Nitric oxide is your body’s best defense against heart disease. The body is capable of healing itself. " John P. Cooke M.D., Ph.D. head of Stanford University’s Vascular Unit
Dr. Louis Ignarro, one of three 1998 Nobel Laureates in Medicine, declares; "You do not have to wait for the rest of the world to see the light and the drug companies to put new Nitric Oxide-based prescription drugs on the market—in order to take advantage of what Nitric Oxide has to offer. Even if you have high blood pressure, have suffered a heart attack, or are at high risk...You can beat the odds. The power to lead an entirely new and healthier life is in your hands. Carpe Diem—Seize the day! Start boosting your Nitric Oxide production right now!“
The Nobel Prize in Medicine, Ohio University, Colombia University and the publication of the American Heart Association, Circulation, are not exactly low profile.
Maybe it’s that wading through the over 75,000 published, clinical studies on L-arginine and nitric oxide was just too daunting a task for the CNN research staff.
Will we ever know why CNN with all their research power did not report such critical and important research that could have dramatically positive impact on the health of African Americans?
How many lives could be saved? How many lives improved?
We wait with breathless anticipation.
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