African Americans (AA) experience disproportionate rates of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. Of particular interest is the tendency for hypertensive AA to also be obese or diabetic. In response to the frequent clustering of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes in AA, researchers have proposed that these diseases share a common pathophysiologic pathway. Recent evidence suggests that this common link could be dietary calcium. While this project focuses on a common pathophysiologic pathway to explain the prevalence of hypertension with diabetes and obesity in African Americans, there are also psychosocial, behavioral, and environmental factors that influence disease incidence and morbidity. Working with our Community Engagement and Outreach Core we will directly investigate the role of calcium in the management of diabetes, hypertension, and obesity in rural areas of North Carolina. The Outreach Core will investigate non-biological factors such as social interaction (family), diet, and exercise;consequently, this project is expected to enhance a systems-level understanding of the relationship of calcium to these diseases in a community setting with identified health disparities. Therefore, the overarching goal of this proiect is to more fully elucidate the role of Ca^
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