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Could heart disease in the South be a lingering effect of the American Civil War?
National Post ^ | January 5, 2016 | Carolyn Y. Johnson, Washington Post

Posted on 01/06/2016 2:07:30 PM PST by rickmichaels

A map of deaths from heart disease reveals the American South ablaze in red; of the 10 states with the highest rate of death from heart disease among white people in 2010, all but two are below the Mason-Dixon line.

To Richard Steckel, an Ohio State University economist, that striking pattern raises a seemingly outlandish, but utterly serious question: Could the heavy toll of heart disease in the American South today have been triggered, in part, by the region's rapid rise out poverty since the 1950s?

In a new paper, Steckel argues that decades of poverty caused by the Civil War shaped people's organs and physiology in a way that left them particularly unsuited for a cushy life. The current health disparities in the South, Steckel says, developed as Southerners encountered more prosperous lifestyle than their bodies were prepared for, including more food and less manual labour.

"Several generations of poverty from the Civil War onwards: You had mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers, whose offspring - I won't say learned - but received signals, anticipating a lean world," Steckel said. "The Civil War is not over. Intergenerational ripples of the Civil War are still with us in the South."

(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; History
KEYWORDS: civilwar
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To: SkyDancer

Maybe micro-aggression sensitivity?


21 posted on 01/06/2016 2:31:39 PM PST by NEMDF
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To: GrouchoTex

I’ll never forget my Great Grandmother in Oklahoma telling everyone that my cousin went to The Navy.


22 posted on 01/06/2016 2:33:31 PM PST by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken!)
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To: higgmeister

Cracklins. Mmmm Mmmmm Mmmm! :-)


23 posted on 01/06/2016 2:33:53 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: MarchonDC09122009

Translator needed at Commment #9. STAT!


24 posted on 01/06/2016 2:34:04 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: rickmichaels

Grits. It’s the grits, butter and salt that killed all the Southerners. Everyone knows that.

5.56mm


25 posted on 01/06/2016 2:34:47 PM PST by M Kehoe
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To: Cletus.D.Yokel
"The South" has a much larger percentage of minorities than northern states. Does this so-called survey break down by race, or is it just "Southerners".

Yankees love to imagine "The South" full of fat white rednecks, but they maybe should travel down South and see just who the fat people are. I trust no survey that trashes "The South" that doesn't break the statistics down by race.

26 posted on 01/06/2016 2:35:32 PM PST by sportutegrl
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To: MarchonDC09122009

Yup. Epigenetics is more likely the cause.(IMO)


27 posted on 01/06/2016 2:38:05 PM PST by blam (Jeff Sessions For President)
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To: NEMDF

As a Yankee and a Civil War Buff some of the best food I have ever had is Regional Southern Cooking.

It changes from State to State and often from County to County. Most of it is outstanding.


28 posted on 01/06/2016 2:39:14 PM PST by Little Bill (EVICT Queen Jean)
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To: sportutegrl

You ever been to “The Delta” In Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana?
Lots of blacks living in squalor. I felt humbled when I went through these places.


29 posted on 01/06/2016 2:42:46 PM PST by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastophic Anthropogenic Climate Alterations: The acronym defines the science.)
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To: M Kehoe

Of course, you must save the bacon grease to cook everything in. You could always use lard in a pinch.


30 posted on 01/06/2016 2:43:18 PM PST by GrouchoTex (...and ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.)
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To: BenLurkin

It’s crazy, but I’m re-reading Gone With The Wind right now and I’m at that EXACT point in the story.


31 posted on 01/06/2016 2:44:17 PM PST by CatherineofAragon ("Ted Cruz is the type of guy to swim across a moat with a knife in his teeth. He knows how to fight")
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To: rickmichaels

The logic states that the healthy in shape fighting men were slaughtered and the genetically inferior were left to procreate.


32 posted on 01/06/2016 2:45:18 PM PST by vetvetdoug
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To: Little Bill

We appreciate you. :)


33 posted on 01/06/2016 2:45:45 PM PST by CatherineofAragon ("Ted Cruz is the type of guy to swim across a moat with a knife in his teeth. He knows how to fight")
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To: higgmeister

So this head line should read:

Could THE heart disease in the South be a lingering effect of the American Civil War?


34 posted on 01/06/2016 2:46:53 PM PST by GrouchoTex (...and ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.)
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To: GrouchoTex

When I make bacon and eggs in the morning, I fry up 1 strip of thick cut bacon, then I fry up the egg in the same pan, to soak up all that flavor.


35 posted on 01/06/2016 2:51:56 PM PST by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life, Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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To: mountn man

Absolutely! The only way to go.
Even last night, my wife made wilted fresh spinach, to get me to eat healthier.
She first fried 4 strips of bacon, put the lettuce in that same pan, then broke up the bacon and put it in with it.
It was really good that way.


36 posted on 01/06/2016 2:54:50 PM PST by GrouchoTex (...and ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.)
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To: mountn man

I meant to say spinach twice, not spinach, then lettuce


37 posted on 01/06/2016 2:56:11 PM PST by GrouchoTex (...and ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.)
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To: sportutegrl

Several years ago, we traveled up North to Niagara Falls.
We stopped along the way, stayed in hotels, & ate the
food. We stopped overnight in a well-known Northern town &
had supper in the dining room at the hotel. This is gonna
aggravate some Yankees; but that dining room was FULL of
really FAT people. They were eating piroghis and we ordered
some, too. I was eating my dinner; commented to husband on
all the FAT people in there (quietly!) He told me, “Look
down at what you’re eating!” I looked down at my big plate
of piroghis. He said, “This is how they eat all the time!”
If you’re a Yankee, don’t get your feelings hurt. Those
winters up there are hard! (TSGRA!)


38 posted on 01/06/2016 2:58:06 PM PST by Twinkie (John 3:16)
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To: CatherineofAragon

I’m rereading GWTW, too! Prob 30th time. Only up to Melly in labor. :).


39 posted on 01/06/2016 3:05:59 PM PST by ZinGirl (kids in college....can't afford a tagline right now)
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To: rickmichaels

it is the tick and its bite that inflames the coronary arteries!


40 posted on 01/06/2016 3:08:34 PM PST by urbanpovertylawcenter (the law and poverty collide in an urban setting and sparks fly)
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