Definition
Social conditions — poverty, discrimination, chronic subordination, safety, community — have documented effects on gene expression, contributing to disparities in disease at the biological level.
Why it matters
Framing social conditions as biology names structural determinants of health as physiology, not sociology alone.
The Science
Cole’s Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity (CTRA) shows chronic social stress upregulating inflammatory and downregulating antiviral gene expression. Discrimination is associated with epigenetic and inflammatory signatures.
The NSI Perspective
NSI treats social justice as biology, not politics alone.
Clinical Implications
Individual care that ignores social context misses part of the biology.
Practical Application
The conditions you live in reach your genes. This is not metaphor.
References
- 1.Cole SW. Human social genomics. PLoS Genet. 2014;10(8):e1004601.