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Black Americans

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by GmatKiss » Wed Mar 07, 2012 7:37 pm
Black Americans are, on the whole, about twice as likely as White Americans to develop high blood pressure. This likelihood also holds for Westernized Black Africans when compared to White Africans.
Researchers have hypothesized that this predisposition in westernized blacks may reflect an interaction between western high-salt diets and genes that adapted to environmental scarcity of salt.
Which of the following statements about present-day, westernized black Africans, if true, would most tend to confirm the researchers hypothesis?

a) The blood pressures of those descended from peoples situated throughout their history in Senegal and Gambia, where salt was always available, are low.

b) The usually high salt consumption in certain areas of Africa represents a serious health problem.

c) Because of their blood pressure levels, most White Africans have markedly decreased their salt consumption.

d) Blood pressures are low among the Yorubam who throughout their history, have been situated far inland from sources of sea salt and far south of Saharan salt mines

e) No significant differences in salt metabolism have been found between those people who have had salt available throughout their history and those who have not.

OA:A
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by sam2304 » Thu Mar 08, 2012 1:39 am
I went for D. :(
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by MaryJane » Sun Apr 01, 2012 2:58 am
You make reference to the Yorubam in (D). Can you please point me to te origin of that name as it is usually spelled Yoruba, without the final 'm'.

Thanks.
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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Sun Apr 01, 2012 8:04 am
The hypothesis is that the high blood pressure among black Americans and westernized black Africans is due to their development of low-salt evolutionary adaptations combined with a western high-salt diet. We're looking for an answer that will make this more likely to be true.

A--Works pretty well. If salt were always available, then the people in Senegal and Gambia would not have the low-salt adaptations.
B--Irrelevant to the hypothesis about the cause of high blood pressure.
C--Irrelevant, since the hypothesis is about westernized blacks.
D--It could help if we know how they reacted to a high-salt diet, but that info is not given to us.
E--Irrelevant; salt metabolism is not part of the hypothesis.
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by Gaurav 2013-fall » Fri May 11, 2012 7:03 am
very good question.
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