Socioeconomic status (SES) is linked to health outcomes across a range of diseases, with increasing health at *every* level of the SES gradient (so it’s not just that being super poor is a risk factor, it’s that with every incremental increase in wealth, we see improved health).  Data suggests that in addition to the obvious culprits (access to health care, access to good food, health behaviors, etc.), stress is a major factor in SES/health disparities.

A recent article in SCAN reported one possible pathway linking SES and stress:

“after accounting for potential demographic confounds, subclinical depressive symptoms, dispositional forms of negative emotionality and conventional indicators of SES, self-reports of low subjective social status uniquely covaried with reduced gray matter volume in the perigenual area of the anterior cingulate cortex (pACC)—a brain region involved in experiencing emotions and regulating behavioral and physiological reactivity to psychosocial stress.^“

Reduced ability to regulate stress and emotion may have major health implications.

^{See also: why zebras don’t get ulcers and Naomi Eisenberger’s commentary on the article above.}