Low Income, C-reactive Protein, and Heart Disease
Living with very little money is not easy to say the least but it also comes with a number of health consequences because of lack of health insurance and healthcare. Researchers have recently found that those living below the poverty line are more likely to have elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), which can be an indication of a number of chronic conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, or myocardial infarction.
Eileen Crimmins, professor in the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology:
We have long known that poor people have worse health. This paper provides evidence that people living at or near the poverty line are almost twice as likely to have very high CRP, which poses risks for long-term, chronic conditions like heart disease and cognitive loss. This may be one of the explanations for why poor people age faster.”
CRP is a controversial measure of cardiac risk but some studies have shown that CRP appears to be as useful as cholesterol levels for predicting a person’s risk of developing heart disease.
More information on CRP from the Cleveland Clinic.
EurekAlert, September 21, 2006
Technorati Tags: poverty, poverty line, low income, health, disease, illness, c-reactive protein, crp, heart disease, heart, cardiovascular, cvd
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Hearty Research
0 opinions for Low Income, C-reactive Protein, and Heart Disease
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: