The cheerful lexicon of the Spanish language could help solve a health puzzle called the Hispanic Paradox

In early December 2021, I went to a physical therapist for a shoulder injury. During certainly one of my visits, the physical therapist alternated between me and one other patient in the following bed who had a knee substitute. While the therapist was working on the opposite patient's leg, stretching it and bending the knee, I overheard their conversation. The patient was in pain and was desperate to finish probably the most difficult a part of therapy. The therapist encouraged him to maintain working. At one point, the patient expressed a desire to quit smoking. The therapist replied, “You have one more week.” In English, meaning, “You have one (small) week left.” The patient agreed to proceed.

By adding the suffix “ita” to the word “week,” the therapist gave the patient insight into the remaining time of therapy in a way that made it sound shorter, though it was still a full week.

This ability to downplay or exaggerate a situation just by adding a suffix is ​​a feature of the Spanish language that would contribute to a surprising resilience within the health field Researchers have documented within the Hispanic population of the United States, called “Hispanic Paradox.»
As a Hispanic quantitative psychologistI even have been researching stress and cardiovascular health on the University of Miami since 1988. Most recently, I used to be a researcher with the Hispanic Community Health Study/Latino Study. The Observational study of greater than 16,000 adults documents the health of Hispanics of diverse ethnicities in 4 urban communities within the United States.

Unraveling the Hispanic Paradox

just a few 30 years, researchers reported that Hispanics within the United States lived longer and suffered less from heart disease than their non-Hispanic white counterparts. And this despite a high prevalence of risk aspects of heart diseases comparable to Obesity and diabetesand suffer from stress Discrimination and low wages. Heart disease They killed 696,962 people within the USA last 12 months.

The causes lie in interactions between genetics and environmental aspects comparable to smoking, lack of exercise and a high-fat food plan. These behaviors can contribute to heart disease and stroke.

Stress too contributes to heart disease. How people reply to that stress can also be essential. Therefore, the extent to which our language facilitates the way in which we process our emotions in response to emphasize may matter in heart disease. For this reason, knowing Spanish will be a bonus. Having lived a bilingual life, I believe that's true.

This apparent paradox between the greater health risk of Hispanics and the general lower rate of heart disease has been called The Hispanic ParadoxBefore the COVID-19 pandemic, Hispanics lived on average three years older than their white colleaguesin keeping with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The explanation for this resistance has occupied researchers for many years. You have suggested explanations from statistical distortion to Bean consumption to cultural values ​​comparable to “familismo”, the concept of Hispanic culture puts the family above the person.

Family ties alone cannot explain the Hispanic paradox

This phenomenon began to fascinate me after I joined the Hispanic Community Health Study in 2008. My first attempt to search out an evidence for the Hispanic paradox led me to research whether family might provide some protection against the stresses of the early years of life.

In this work, I estimated the prevalence of hostile childhood experiences amongst U.S. Hispanics. If the family is a source of resilience, I’d expect there to be few experiences of abuse, neglect, or family dysfunction. But to my surprise, the prevalence of those hostile events was actually in these populations quite highIn fact, 77% of the goal population reported having experienced at the very least one hostile event during childhood, and almost 29% reported having experienced 4 or more hostile events before the age of 18.

This led me to conclude that the source of the resilience observed within the Hispanic paradox was not necessarily the family safety net.

Exploring the contribution of culture

Next, I focused my attention on other cultural resources comparable to social support and optimism, aspects that may cushion the results of stress.

Is Hispanic culture more optimistic than American culture? An optimistic attitude may also help people imagine that stress is temporary and manageable. Optimism could make an individual feel capable of address stress.

I discovered an article in regards to the positivity of human language. The researchers had developed aHappiness Index» that they desired to measure the variety of positive words in numerous sources from different languages. For example, they analyzed books, newspapers, song lyrics and tweets. A figure within the article showed the distribution of the happiness index across sources and languages. The result was surprising. The sources with the best happiness index were those written in Spanish.

After I focused on Spanish, the pieces fell into place. I based it on Language evaluation to research the role of language in emotions. A current theory of emotions describes how people need language in order that their brains can construct emotions. Studies show that Influence emotions in the way in which blood pressure and heart rate reply to and get better from stress. And our stress responses and recovery play an important role. in the event of heart disease.

In other words, the wealthy and positive emotional lexicon of the Spanish language can, over time, influence not only the culture but in addition our emotional response to emphasize.

The contribution of verbs

However, it might not only be positive words that contribute to raised cardiovascular health within the Hispanic population. There are other features of language that facilitate emotional expression.

Take, for instance, the 2 types of the verb “to be”. In English, simply “are”. But in Spanish, we will be temporary in a certain way – “estar” – or more everlasting, “ser”. This could be very useful in negative situations. In English, I will be chubby. In Spanish, I will be permanently chubby, which translates to “to be fat”, or I will be temporarily chubby, or “to be fat”. The latter is temporary and reflects on the potential of change, which in turn can encourage motivation to alter.

Spanish is certainly one of the Romance languages ​​spoken by the Subjunctive of verbs. The subjunctive expresses hypothetical situations, wishes and possibilities. Consider, for instance, the “magical realism” of The Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. His use of the subjunctive allowed for the potential of alternative realities.

The Spanish language's ability to attenuate and exaggerate with the straightforward addition of a suffix also expands the range of emotions and perceptions. In the instance, the therapist helped his patient get through a difficult phase of therapy.

Although English is the language of science—precise and succinct—I believe the flowery nature of Spanish contributes to a culture that encourages emotional expression. This way, you may also help your speakers manage stress reactions.