Chronic pain in Black people in US may be linked to gene expression

Stress-linked changes in the activity of genes may be why Black people in the US often have worse chronic pain than white people

By Jason Arunn Murugesu

Black people in the US have worse chronic pain than white people due in part to gene expression.

Chronic stress has previously been linked to racial discrimination, and can lead to changes in gene expression. Edwin Aroke at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and his colleagues collected blood samples from 98 people – half were Black and half were non-Hispanic white, and they had an average age of 45. Half the group had chronic lower back pain, …