For today’s #TheatricalThursday, let’s talk about the granddaddy of all African-American epic dramas, ROOTS.

With 37 Emmy nominations and the third nighest Nielson rating of a finale (after M.A.S.H. and Dallas).  That was a story about family instability, violence, courage, and the family history of our nation.  Anyone who watched it would probably conclude that it was stressful to be a slave (or a slave owner) and that was not a great health situation for anyone.  A recent study suggests that family instability and violence affects telomeres in a study of families in New Orleans.  If you know how fundamental telomeres are to health and wellness as well as disease and illness, then this shouldn’t come as any surprise.

A study from Tulane (from a $2.4 Million dollar grant) suggests that family instability and violence is associated with shorter telomeres.

As I mentioned in my blog, this is akin to proving that Ginsu knives can cut all kinds of things. Here is a similar study in African-American boys.

The good new is that we have a firm grasp of the obvious.  The bad news is that the state-of-the-art for telomere research will be studies like this for the next $2 Billion dollars and twenty years while Nero fiddles away at our telomeres.