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Benefits And Disadvantages Of Race-Based Medicine

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Race is a social construct that categorizes individuals based on physical characteristics.
Characteristics can include skin color, hair texture, and facial features. Racial classifications are not consistent; an individual who may be categorized as Black in one area of the world could be defined as White in another. An individual self-reports their race therefore, it is fluid in nature. For example, an individual can identify with one race at the beginning of their lifespan but can identify with another over time as they have new experiences. Therefore, race is not measurable. There is no specific amount of melanin that biologically differentiates an individual from being Black or White. Furthermore, an individual’s race is also not defined by their ethnicity. Thus, …show more content…

They are personalized to consumers of a particular race. It is founded on the assumption that there are biological differences between races. The most well-known race-based medication is BilDil. BilDil is a pill for heart failure marketed specifically to African Americans.
Advantages
Although there are not biological differences amongst races, there are trends amongst races. According to the CDC, “African Americans ages eighteen to forty-nine are two times likely to die from heart disease than whites” (CDC, n.d.). Trends such as this allow healthcare professionals to identify possible risk factors. Race-based medicine also can help identify racial disparities. Focusing in on race also allows communities to see how race can affect factors that in turn affect health. This can include lifestyle factors, increased incidence of risk factors, life expectancy, and number of individuals insured.
Disadvantages
Race-based medicine seeks to personalize and market medication to a particular race. Since race is a social construct based on phenotypic traits it has no scientific

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BiDil is a heart failure drug for a specific racial-ethnic group. Controversy lies in that it was the first drug targeted towards African-American to be approved through the Food and Drug Administration. During research, specifically African-American patients were treated with BiDil; as a result, it is unknown how affective the drug is in other races not studied. There is a debate on whether it is ethical to personalize medicine to specific races since minority races have a history of being underserved regarding healthcare. There are concerns social and environmental factors to disease will be overlooked and instead be attributed to genetic differences, creating a disparity in drug

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Race is a socially constructed divider based on physical differences such as skin tones, but are not limited to facial features, body features, accents, etc. There are not separate genes, traits, or characteristics that define any single group from another group. Police once walked up to Korematsu to ask if he had seen a “short Asian man”, adding stereotypes to the classification, when the police were looking for Korematsu. Korematsu had surgery performed so his eyelids would have less folds to look more, white (I would say American, but Korematsu is American and that changed nothing). Hence, this touchy subject of race is what makes it so much harder to discuss.

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For example, according to the racial-genetic model health disparities are explained in terms of the individual’s genetics. Hence, African American women are at higher risk for breast cancer. However, even though through primary prevention efforts such as breast cancer awareness campaigns and other forms of education, women living below the poverty line are still at high risk. Primary prevention is the best approach in order to increase quality of life and prolong life.

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Certain studies have shown a damaging correlation between racial groups and health problems, such as high blood pressure in African-Americans or low birth weight for Arab newborns after 9/11 (Gravlee, 52). These indications are imperative to understanding how race affects biology because both are impacted by societal, cultural, and environmental factors. The author also recognizes the impact that anthropologists had on past ideology, such as eugenics (Gravlee, 48), and how it has shaped racialized thinking in the modern world. Gravlee argues that skin color is a major factor in social processes (Gravlee, 52) and ultimately, it contributes to the cycle of inequality and unseen health problems in minorities (Gravlee, 48). In response to the pre-existing notions in both pop culture and academia, the author unifies both statements and states that race manifests itself in the person’s biology (Gravlee,

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Schwalbe writes: “many people think that they belong to a race and that races are visible, biological realities. But races, too, are human inventions” (Schwalbe, pg.22). Although this may be true, it does not make the concept of race less real. Because people choose to believe race is real, race is a social reality. Schwalbe also talks about how who a person is, depends on the social world that person grew up in.

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I have seen the unique place in the organic world occupied by the human species, the profound physical, as well as moral, differences separating it from all kinds of living creatures. Race, technically, refers to differential concentrations of gene frequencies responsible for traits. They are separated from one another, on the basis of certain biological characteristics. Principle races are Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid. Most educated folks would settle for the actual fact that the planet isn’t flat which it revolves around the sun.

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One or the Other One of the many definitions that race has is: any contest or competition, especially to achieve superiority. Under a different context race is the way of classifying people based on their genetics; although they are different contexts in the real world both collide under the same context. Since, some people have the mentally that one race is superior to the other, even though no pure race exists. Zora Neale Hurston understands race as different color bags some of which have a priority in comparison to the other color bags. Her idea of race is similar to how I understand and have learned to see race because various individuals are discriminated against the color of their skin.

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One of the major obstacles affecting black women's access to health care is systemic racism. Racial biases pose a significant danger to black women, as they affect their physical and mental well-being. Studies have shown that race-based medical biases can result in incorrect diagnoses, prolonged wait times, treatment delays, and neglect. These issues make it challenging for black women to receive prompt and adequate health care. Additionally, many black women lack health

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The need for categorization resulted to race being defined in institutional contexts such as “a group of people who perceive themselves and are perceived by others as possessing distinctive hereditary traits” (Ore, 2014, p.9). With this definition, it becomes easier to group individuals in limited categories, such as by their color. What is important to note is the attached perceptions and assumptions based on one’s racial background; this constitutes the social construct of race. As Ore (2014) explains, we do not create these assumptions due to their biological factors as individual people, but rather as social factors. Social construction of race goes all the way back to when the person is born.

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There are four major barriers identified from the above status of the African American population and these are related to socio-economic status of this minority group as most of find healthcare extremely too expensive to obtain. Some of African American are immigrants with various language barriers and has difficulties in understanding the health care need or are scared to talk about their conditions with healthcare providers. Due cultural differences, lifestyles and beliefs acquired from their fore fathers, and are not willing to change from the old way of living to adopt a new healthy ones and lastly, health care workers also discriminate against African American patients and as such that most of them refuse to seek treatment for the ailment because experiences encounter in the past (American Nurses Association,

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Every racial/ethnic group has better health disparities than others, but African American are more likely to be affect by health disparities. African

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Thus, premature death and preventable losses of quality of life are probable outcomes. Elderly individuals may be less frequently provided the best data-supported healthcare simply because they are old. Thus, bias or prejudice against the aged may be a significant cause. Furthermore, Africa-American have poorer access to care than Whites, for one-third of core measures. Asians and American Indian/Alaska Native had shoddier access to care than Whites for 1 of 5 core measures.

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The individual must one, be aware of the disease. They must also know how to treat the disease with the prescribed medication. Lastly, the individual must be able to control it by maintaining a systolic blood pressure lower than 140 mm. One of the primary problem affecting racial disparities in hypertension control are differences between patient’s and provider’s attitudes about health (CDC, 2010) African American’s beliefs are based upon one’s socio-economical status, age, and their place of origin.

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The average genetic difference between two individuals of the same 'race' is about the same as that of two individuals from different so-called 'races’ and it is impossible to produce any meaningful genetic distinction between races. Skin colour correlates with sunlight and latitude therefore there is geographical variations not racial or genetic. Race might not be ‘real’ biologically speaking but, it is certainly relevant, it is a powerful socially constructed term. Anthropologist Peter Wade undertook research across Latin America to understand and break down the odd dual reality between racial democracy and racism. Geneticists have used sociological definitions to identify their sample populations and then they would present them as having these genetic profiles.

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