Peripheral and Cerebral Vasodilation in Black and White Women: Examining the Impact of Psychosocial Stress Exposure Versus Internalization and Coping.

BACKGROUND: Black women have among the highest rates of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease prevalence and mortality in part due to blunted vascular function. Psychosocial stress likely also contributes but its relationship to vascular function remains incompletely understood. Recent studies suggest that stress internalization and coping strategies are more important than stress exposures alone. We hypothesized that Black women would have blunted peripheral and cerebral vasodilation and that, among Black women, this would be inversely related with psychosocial stress internalization/coping but not stress exposures. METHODS: Healthy Black (n=21; 20±2 years) and White (n=16; 25±7 years) women underwent testing for forearm reactive hyperemia, brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD), and cerebrovascular reactivity. Psychosocial stress exposures (adverse childhood experiences; past week discrimination) and internalization/coping techniques (John Henryism Active Coping Scale; Giscombe Superwoman Schema Questionnaire) were assessed. RESULTS: Reactive hyperemia and cerebrovascular reactivity were not different between groups (P>0.05), whereas FMD was lower in Black women (P=0.007). Neither adverse childhood experiences nor past week discrimination were associated with FMD in either group (P>0.05 for all). John Henryism Active Coping Scale scores were negatively associated with FMD in Black women (P=0.014) but positively associated with FMD in White women (P=0.042). Superwoman Schema-Succeed was negatively associated (P=0.044) and Superwoman Schema-Vulnerable tended to be negatively associated (P=0.057) with FMD in Black women. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that blunted FMD in Black women may be due more to stress internalization and maladaptive coping than stress exposures alone.

The acute effect of whole-body heat therapy on peripheral and cerebral vascular reactivity in Black and White females.

Among females in the U.S., Black females suffer the most from cardiovascular disease and stroke. While the reasons for this disparity are multifactorial, vascular dysfunction likely contributes. Chronic whole-body heat therapy (WBHT) improves vascular function, but few studies have examined its acute effect on peripheral or cerebral vascular function, which may help elucidate chronic adaptative mechanisms. Furthermore, no studies have investigated this effect in Black females. We hypothesized that Black females would have lower peripheral and cerebral vascular function relative to White females and that one session of WBHT would mitigate these differences. Eighteen young, healthy Black (n = 9; 21 ± 3 yr; BMI: 24.7 ± 4.5 kg/m2) and White (n = 9; 27 ± 3 yr; BMI: 24.8 ± 4.1 kg/m2) females underwent one 60 min session of WBHT (49 °C water via a tube-lined suit). Pre- and 45 min post-testing measures included post-occlusive forearm reactive hyperemia (peripheral microvascular function, RH), brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (peripheral macrovascular function, FMD), and cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) to hypercapnia. Prior to WBHT, there were no differences in RH, FMD, or CVR (p > 0.05 for all). WBHT improved peak RH in both groups (main effect of WBHT: 79.6 ± 20.1 cm/s to 95.9 ± 30.0 cm/s; p = 0.004, g = 0.787) but not Δ blood velocity (p > 0.05 for both groups). WBHT improved FMD in both groups (6.2 ± 3.4 % to 8.8 ± 3.7 %; p = 0.016, g = 0.618) but had no effect on CVR in either group (p = 0.077). These data indicate that one session of WBHT acutely improves peripheral micro- and macrovascular but not cerebral vascular function in Black and White females.

Peripheral and Cerebral Vascular Reactivity in Black and White Women: Examining the Impact of Psychosocial Stress Exposure Versus Internalization and Coping.

Black women have the highest rates of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease prevalence and mortality in part due to blunted vascular function. Psychosocial stress likely also contributes but its relationship to vascular function remains incompletely understood. Recent studies suggest that internalization and coping strategies are more important than stress exposure alone. We hypothesized that Black women have blunted peripheral and cerebral vascular function and that, among Black women, this would be inversely related with psychosocial stress internalization/coping but not stress exposures. Healthy Black ( n = 21; 20 ± 2 yr) and White ( n = 16; 25 ± 7 yr) women underwent testing for forearm reactive hyperemia (RH), brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD), and cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR). Psychosocial stress exposure (adverse childhood experiences, ACEs; past week discrimination, PWD) and internalization/coping techniques (John Henryism Active Coping Scale, JHAC12; Giscombe Superwoman Schema Questionnaire, G-SWS-Q) were assessed. RH and CVR ( p > 0.05) were not different between groups whereas FMD was lower in Black women ( p = 0.007). Neither ACEs nor PWD were associated with FMD in either group ( p > 0.05 for all). JHAC12 scores were negatively associated with FMD in Black women ( p = 0.014) but positively associated with FMD in White women ( p = 0.042). SWS-Succeed was negatively associated ( p = 0.044) and SWS-Vulnerable tended to be negatively associated ( p = 0.057) with FMD in Black women. These findings indicate that blunted FMD in Black women may be due more to internalization and maladaptive coping than stress exposure alone.