The Medical Care Blog, January 4, 2024, Weathering And Its Impacts on Health
Public health researcher Dr. Arline Gernoimus coined a term for this process that she calls “weathering”. Racism, poverty, and discrimination “literally wears down your heart, your arteries, your neuroendocrine systems, all your body systems so that in effect, you become chronologically old at a young age,” she says. In fact, poverty and racism ‘weather’ the body so much that they accelerate aging and disease. This is a very different type of stress than non-marginalized and affluent populations experience, one that you can’s take a break from. This particular type of social and systemic stress affects Black women’s maternal and infant health outcomes. It’s also critical in looking at chronic diseases as markers for growing health inequities among marginalized populations.
