Can’t women take estrogen injections?

They can and for a long time they did. But the popularity of such shots has fallen off in the face of numerous reports as to their adverse side effects. Such injections, so some research indicates, produce an appreciably greater risk of cancer, among other things.

Are some races more vulnerable to high blood pressure than others?

A. Apparently. For example, one out of three American Blacks can expect to suffer from high blood pressure. This is about double the rate for American Whites.

Isn’t this due to the greater stress which characterizes so much of Black life in this country?

A. This could be the case. Certainly, Blacks in Africa show no disposition in this direction. It could also come from the fact that Blacks lived for so many centuries in an environment that contrasts so sharply with that of the present-day United States. In doing so, they may have acquired certain physiological characteristics which make it more difficult for them to adapt to our present environment. For example, almost all doctors accept the fact that salt has an adverse effect on blood pressure and we know that salt was and is in short supply in many parts of Africa. This may have caused many Africans to become accustomed to less salt than Europeans and therefore to become less able to handle the tremendous amounts of salt in the current American diet.

The New York Times reported the results of an interesting 10-year study conducted in Detroit. It revealed that the darker a Black person’s skin, the more likely he or she was to have HBP. There was a direct relationship between pigmentation and blood pressure. As you probably know, over 90 per cent of all Blacks in this country have had one or more white ancestors. Thus, it may be that those Blacks with fewer or no white forebears are more vulnerable to HBP. In any case, those who conducted the study felt the greater emotional stress which Blacks are subjected to in our culture was only one factor in the situation and not the whole problem.

Did the same type of skin-colour relationship hold true for Whites?

No. For Whites the reverse is true: the darker the skin colour, the less likelihood of HBP.

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