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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: NEMDF

Northerners moving into the South?


41 posted on 01/06/2016 3:09:20 PM PST by SkyDancer ("Nobody Said I Was Perfect But Yet Here I Am")
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To: rickmichaels
How about the facts that blacks have a significantly higher death rate from heart attacks than other ethnicities, and blacks make up a much higher percent of the population in the south vs other areas of the country?

_________________________________________________________________

Number of Heart Disease Deaths per 100,000 Population by Race/Ethnicity in the US

White - 168.2, Black - 210.4, Other - 97.3

http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/number-of-heart-disease-deaths-per-100000-population-by-raceethnicity-2/

42 posted on 01/06/2016 3:17:56 PM PST by Ken H
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To: ZinGirl

I haven’t read it since I was in high school, which was thirty years ago! I don’t know why it took me so long to get back to it. It’s so good.


43 posted on 01/06/2016 3:18:25 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 question is not whether the civil war contributed to the rise in heart disease in southerners but rather how much federal grant monies did Richard Steckel receive to conduct this ridiculous study?

He remind me of this guy who is the epitome of all the federal grant recipients:

Jagadish Shukla

44 posted on 01/06/2016 3:25:37 PM PST by Hot Tabasco (Dear Santa: Please find a home for every homeless and unwanted cat and dog that is suffering)
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To: MarchonDC09122009; rickmichaels
Francis Pottenger worked it out in the 40s and 50s.

Pottenger's Cats

45 posted on 01/06/2016 3:25:45 PM PST by pa_dweller (Go ahead Libs, drink the kool-aid. It's got electrolytes!)
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To: M Kehoe

Stress is what kills people, imho. Grits are just corn. And margarine will kill you a lot faster than butter. You’ll be thinner without butter or margarine (or mayo), but it won’t usually kill you. The chemical plants on the Gulf coast aren’t helping.


46 posted on 01/06/2016 3:32:18 PM PST by KGeorge (I will miss you forever, Miss Mu. 7/1/2006- 11/16/2015)
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To: GrouchoTex
As God is my witness

...I thought turkeys could fry.

47 posted on 01/06/2016 3:35:39 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (I shot Schroedinger's cat with Chekhov's gun.)
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To: ZinGirl; CatherineofAragon

So I’m not the only one in double digits for rereading GWTW. Do you remember the scene during the war when Scarlett lamented the slim pickings on the Christmas table and looked back on past tables filled with hams, greens swimming in pot liquor, and multiple kinds of cake? Kind of makes me think of my grandmother’s table except add scalloped potatoes, mashed potatoes, and mac and cheese along with three pies. Oh heart disease. Yep lost two uncles that way and they were rail skinny all their lives.


48 posted on 01/06/2016 3:39:02 PM PST by lovesdogs (Think Mr Trump can't make Mexico pay for the wall? He made the media give him a free campaign.)
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To: rickmichaels

It’s amazing what and who passes for journalism and journalists today.


49 posted on 01/06/2016 3:41:38 PM PST by Original Lurker
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To: rickmichaels

Pellegra - deficiency of Niacin caused by corn rich diet was
rampant through much of the South early in 20th Cent


50 posted on 01/06/2016 3:43:24 PM PST by njslim
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To: Twinkie

I have to correct you on your spelling. I’m a Pennsylvania Yankee, and it is spelled Pierogies. You should have tried a Pastie. They’re a local treat in Eastern Pennsylvania.


51 posted on 01/06/2016 3:55:47 PM PST by EvilCapitalist (Ted Cruz is the thinking mans candidate.)
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To: Ken H

Southerners. Black, white, still southerners,


52 posted on 01/06/2016 3:57:31 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: rickmichaels

Having been born and raised in the South, I can tell you this is a crock of bullshit. Southerners have excessive heart disease because too many eat crap food, including lots of cheap, poor quality fast food, guzzle soda pop all day, eat foods deep fat fried in partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, drink excessive amounts of hard liquor, smoke excessive amounts of tobacco, and get minimal exercise.


53 posted on 01/06/2016 4:06:21 PM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: sportutegrl
The very first line posted said:

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

54 posted on 01/06/2016 4:11:12 PM PST by Robert DeLong (u)
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To: rickmichaels

Nope, we just like our food deep fried and our drinks sugary.


55 posted on 01/06/2016 4:13:14 PM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: rickmichaels

And my dr, Dr BBQ, says this article is hogwash. His nurse, nurse Blue Bell, agrees.


56 posted on 01/06/2016 4:14:59 PM PST by biff
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

Some genes can be turned on or off depending on environment. There is a famine gene but I think the US obesity is tied to stress.


57 posted on 01/06/2016 4:16:25 PM PST by huldah1776
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To: vetvetdoug

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

I think that explains a lot: the current disintegration of the UK and Germany, as well as the past downfall of many ancient civilizations, including Rome, Greece, and Egypt, which today seem to be populated from a gene pool equivalent to a stagnant, dried up pond full of dying tadpoles and carp.

And if you think about it, we might be able to trace the ongoing downfall of the U.S. to WWII.


58 posted on 01/06/2016 4:17:04 PM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: Twinkie

“Twinkie?” Ironic. :) One thing I noticed is that many of my mid-zone Yankee neighbors do not go out ALL winter. East coast stress is another reason.


59 posted on 01/06/2016 4:19:44 PM PST by huldah1776
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To: rickmichaels

That is one disease that Hillary and Bill Clinton do not have to worry about catching.


60 posted on 01/06/2016 4:20:05 PM PST by sport
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