Freedom from stress and hypertension

OUR NEED TO BE FREE, STRESS and HYPERTENSION


Since the dawn of time, since the dawn of humankind, we have had the need to be free. Born within you and me, within every racial type and human variety, is the need to be free.

No human, woman or man, was ever born with the desire to be enslaved. Nor, were any of us ever born desiring to live and function, throughout life, at the whim of some other man or woman.
I believe that we all come into a lifetime with the primal urge to attain happiness and prosperity for ourselves and our loved ones. The freedom to pursue prosperity in peace is a prime requisite for happiness.

We were not all born free, but we were born desiring to be free. We desire freedom for ourselves. We desire freedom for our children. We desire freedom for our unborn progeny.

It seems to be immeasurably difficult for members of our society to whom freedom has never been denied to fully comprehend the degree of stress experienced by those of us to whom comparable freedom has been consistently denied.

For most of my late adolescent, and all of my adult life I have argued with medical practitioners about so-called hypertension. "What," you ask, "does hypertension have to do with freedom?"

Well, the one is the price some of us pay for our pursuit of the other. Freedom does not come automatically for many of us. It has to be fought for. Once it is attained, constant vigilance is required in order to retain it.

It has consistently been my contention that the persistent hypertension that we persons of color exhibit is the natural response of our systems to the consistent stresses we experience as we strive for freedoms equal to those enjoyed by many of our fellows in this society.



For us, hypertension is the price paid for our determined efforts to survive, adapt, prosper and gain and maintain equal freedoms within this society. The struggle is life long. The high blood pressure is life long.

As high blood pressure continues from generation to generation, our systems do not adapt to it in ways that allow it to lessen, or its effects upon our bodies to diminish. Continued stress results in continued hypertension.

We bless the medical professionals for their on-going efforts to discover ways to help our physical bodies suffer less from the stresses placed upon them and the resulting ravages of high blood pressure.

It seems likely, however, that gains in the societal arena may eventually result in the kinds of stress relief that are needed in order for the deleterious effects of hypertension to be reduced.

Sources:
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com /retrieve/piiS0002961005008731
http://www.psych.sc.edu/facdoc s/greer.html
http://arjournals. annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1 146/annurev.psych.57.102904.19 0212
http://aje.oxfordjournals. org/cgi/content/abstract/128/5 /1075

American Journal of Epidemiology vol. 128, N0.5: 1075-1083, 1988 by The Johns Hopkins Universit School of Hygiene and Public Health Ellen A. Skinner, Melanie J. Zimmer-Gembeck, The Development of Coping, Annual Review of Psychology. Volume 58, Page 119-144, Jan. 2007

Megan Gunnar, Kanna Quevada, The Neurology of Stress and Development, Annual Review of Psychology. Volume 58, Page 145-173, Jan. 2007

Greer, T. M. (2007) Measuring Coping Strategies Among African Americans. An Examination of The Latent Structure of the COPE Inventory. Journal of Black Psychology, 33(3), 260-277.





Greer, T. M., & Chwalisz, K. (2007) Minority-Related Stressors and Coping Processes Among African American College Students. Journal of College Student Development,48(4), 388-404.

Greer, T. M. (2005). The Index o f Race-Related Stress Brief Version (IRRS-B): Instruments and Office Forms. In J. Allen & L. VandeCreek (Eds.) Innovations in Clinical Practice: Focus on Health and Wellness. Sarasota: Professional Resource Press.