--- title: Kidney Function: How Racism Is Bad For Your Health description: Feeling discriminated against may be bad for your physical health. People who felt they'd been targeted because of their race canonical: https://time.com/3586323/kidneys-health-racism-discrimination/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-15T16:48:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:27:33.777Z article:section: Health og:title: How Racism Is Bad For Your Health og:description: Feeling discriminated against may be bad for your physical health. People who felt they'd been targeted because of their race og:url: https://time.com/3586323/kidneys-health-racism-discrimination/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcedf3816343f4dff/698768ee8e0601301f45895a/145071379.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: blood pressure og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Racism Is Bad For Your Health twitter:description: Feeling discriminated against may be bad for your physical health. People who felt they'd been targeted because of their race twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcedf3816343f4dff/698768ee8e0601301f45895a/145071379.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Racism Could Negatively Impact Your Health, Study Finds  by [Mandy Oaklander](/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 15, 2014 4:48 PM CUT  Doctor checking blood pressure to patient Doctor checking blood pressure to patientGetty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 15, 2014 4:48 PM CUT Feeling judged because of your race could have a negative impact on your physical health, a new study finds. A team of researchers studied 1,574 residents of Baltimore as part of the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span study and found that 20% of the subjects reported feeling that they had been racially discriminated against “a lot.” Even after the researchers adjusted the results for race, this group had higher systolic blood pressure than those who perceived only a little discrimination. Over a five-year followup, the group who felt more racial discrimination also tended to have greater decline in kidney function. When the researchers, co-led by Deidra C. Crews, MD, assistant professor of medicine and chair of the diversity council at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, adjusted for age and lifestyle factors, the effect stayed constant for African-American women. “Psychosocial stressors could potentially have an effect on kidney function decline through a number of hormonal pathways,” Dr. Crews said. The release of stress hormones can lead to an increase in blood pressure, and high blood pressure is one of the leading causes of kidney disease. This isn’t the first time that perceived racial discrimination has been linked to chronic diseases: a 2011 [study](http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300523 "undefined") found that lifetime discrimination was linked to higher rates of hypertension. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3586323/kidneys-health-racism-discrimination/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3586323/kidneys-health-racism-discrimination/"},"headline":"Racism Could Negatively Impact Your Health, Study Finds","datePublished":"2014-11-15T16:48:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:27:33.777Z","description":"High blood pressure and kidney decline may be linked to feelings of discrimination","url":"https://time.com/3586323/kidneys-health-racism-discrimination/","keywords":["Research","Aging","Racism","Discrimination"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcedf3816343f4dff/698768ee8e0601301f45895a/145071379.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcedf3816343f4dff/698768ee8e0601301f45895a/145071379.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"blood pressure","caption":"blood pressure","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3586323/kidneys-health-racism-discrimination/","name":"Racism Could Negatively Impact Your Health, Study Finds"}}]}] ```