{"id":15897,"date":"2011-08-28T00:07:31","date_gmt":"2011-08-28T00:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=15897"},"modified":"2011-08-28T00:07:31","modified_gmt":"2011-08-28T00:07:31","slug":"op-ed-moving-beyond-race-based-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=15897","title":{"rendered":"Op-Ed: Moving Beyond Race-Based Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Op-Ed: Moving Beyond Race-Based Health<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Herald-Sun
\nDurham, North Carolina
\n2008-08-22<\/p>\n

Susanne Haga<\/a><\/strong>, IGSP Scholar, Assistant Research Professor
\nDuke Institute for Genome Science & Policy<\/em><\/p>\n

At a time when genetics research continues to reveal just how similar we all are, it’s frustrating to see the continued reliance on race as a basis to treat individuals differently when it comes to their health.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m not referring to the inequitable treatment experienced by some groups with respect to access to health care services, but rather to the development of race-based products such as vitamins and drugs.<\/p>\n

A company called GenSpec is selling vitamins specially formulated for African-Americans, Caucasians, and Hispanics.<\/p>\n

While there are some differences in disease prevalence among races, there are no diseases or conditions\u2014and certainly no nutritional requirements\u2014that are exclusive to just one group.<\/strong> If we’ve learned anything from the last decade of genetics research, it’s that our DNA is generally colorblind.<\/p>\n

Although genetics is involved in most if not all aspects of our health, the environment plays at least an equal role. Even if we knew which genes played a part in our dietary needs, it’s unlikely those differences would follow perceived racial divides…<\/p>\n

…The recent increase in the numbers of people who identify with more than one race would seem to pose a rather large problem to the companies marketing race-based products.<\/p>\n

Halle Berry, Tiger Woods, and Barack Obama are some of the more well-known names in this fast-growing group. Or perhaps these companies are smarter than we give them credit for.<\/p>\n

One blogger, apparently of mixed heritage, asked if she should take the ‘Caucasian’ vitamins in the morning and the ‘African-American’ ones at night…<\/p>\n

…Not only are companies misleading the public to believe that races are biologically distinct, requiring race-specific products, but the basis for their wares flies in the face of science.<\/strong> As we stride toward a more personal approach to health and medicine, we need to look beyond skin color. Population-based health and medicine should be a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

Read the entire op-ed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Op-Ed: Moving Beyond Race-Based Health The Herald-Sun Durham, North Carolina 2008-08-22 Susanne Haga, IGSP Scholar, Assistant Research Professor Duke Institute for Genome Science & Policy At a time when genetics research continues to reveal just how similar we all are, it’s frustrating to see the continued reliance on race as a basis to treat individuals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2039,8,26],"tags":[7360,7361],"class_list":["post-15897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-health-medicine","category-media-archive","category-politics","tag-susanne-haga","tag-the-herald-sun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}