Future research on discrimination and health could also profitably focus its attention on those outcomes where prior research has documented that stress in general is linked to health. It is not reasonable to expect to find effects of discrimination on health in areas where the stress literature has not shown an effect of stress. Stam (2007) has identified five physiological categories where severe stress has been shown to affect intermediate physiological symptoms. These are: the neuroendocrine system, the cardiovascular system (increased heart rate and blood pressure responses), the gastrointestinal system (gastrointestinal ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome), pain sensitivity and chronic pain and immune function (suppressed immunity). Brotman et al. (2007) also indicate that components of the metabolic syndrome are promising places to look for the effects of stress on cardiovascular disease.
