The health advantage immigrants bring fades the longer they stay
Those who arrive on foreign shores often carry with them an invisible gift — bodies shaped by older rhythms, traditional foods, and the physical demands of lives lived differently. Yet new research presented at an American College of Cardiology conference reveals that this gift is not permanent: the longer immigrants reside in the United States, the more their cardiovascular health converges with — and eventually surpasses — the disease burden of the native-born. It is a quiet paradox of assimilation, where the price of belonging is sometimes paid in the body itself.
- Immigrants arrive in the U.S. healthier than native-born Americans — lower blood pressure, better cholesterol, fewer smokers — but that advantage quietly dissolves over time.
- After 15 years of U.S. residency, immigrants develop higher rates of diabetes than American-born adults, with Asian immigrants hit hardest at more than double the rate of U.S.-born Asian Americans.
- Processed foods, sedentary lifestyles, chronic stress, and the erosion of traditional health practices are driving the decline — compounded by barriers to healthcare access that delay diagnosis.
- Researchers are urging clinicians to treat duration of U.S. residency as a clinical risk factor, calling for culturally tailored prevention strategies before the health gap closes entirely.
When immigrants arrive in the United States, they typically carry a health advantage — stronger cardiovascular systems, lower blood pressure, better-controlled cholesterol than their American-born neighbors. But that edge does not hold. New research presented at an American College of Cardiology conference in Dubai shows that the longer immigrants stay, the more their bodies begin to reflect the disease patterns of their adopted country.
Scientists analyzed nearly 16,000 adults from a major national health survey, comparing U.S.-born adults to foreign-born residents divided by how long they had lived in America — under or over 15 years. The results were striking. Immigrants under the 15-year mark still showed clear advantages: lower rates of high blood pressure, cholesterol, and smoking. But past that threshold, the picture reversed. Long-term immigrants developed higher rates of diabetes than native-born Americans, and among Asian immigrants specifically, the diabetes rate climbed to more than double that of U.S.-born Asian Americans.
The lead researcher described the mechanism plainly: prolonged exposure to American dietary and lifestyle patterns — processed foods, sedentary routines, chronic stress — corrodes the protections immigrants brought with them. What is lost matters as much as what is gained; traditional diets and daily habits that once sustained health are gradually abandoned. Healthcare access barriers add another layer, allowing emerging conditions to go undetected until they have deepened.
The prescription runs in two directions: immigrants should seek preventive screenings and consciously preserve the protective habits of their origins, while clinicians must begin treating time spent in America as a risk factor in its own right — one that calls for prevention strategies shaped by cultural understanding. The findings are preliminary, but the pattern is already legible: assimilation, for all it offers, can carry a cost written slowly into the body.
When immigrants arrive in the United States, they typically bring with them a health advantage. Their cardiovascular systems are stronger, their blood pressure lower, their cholesterol better controlled than their American-born counterparts. But that edge erodes. The longer they stay, the more their bodies begin to mirror the disease patterns of the country they've adopted as home.
Research presented Friday at an American College of Cardiology conference in Dubai documents this troubling trajectory with precision. Scientists analyzed nearly 16,000 adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, tracking their health outcomes between 2011 and 2016. They divided participants into two groups: those born in the United States and those born abroad, then subdivided the foreign-born group by duration of residence—less than 15 years or more than 15 years.
The pattern that emerged was stark. Among immigrants who had lived in America for fewer than 15 years, the cardiovascular advantage was still visible. They showed lower rates of high blood pressure than U.S.-born adults (38 percent versus 49 percent), lower rates of high cholesterol (28 percent versus 30 percent), and significantly lower smoking rates (13 percent versus 20 percent). But something shifts after the 15-year mark. Immigrants who had been in the country longer than that developed higher rates of diabetes than native-born Americans (15 percent versus 11 percent) and comparable cholesterol problems (29 percent versus 30 percent). Among Asian immigrants specifically, the diabetes rate climbed to 15 percent—more than double the 6 percent rate among U.S.-born Asian Americans.
Krishna Moparthi, a medical student at the John F. Kennedy University School of Medicine in Curaçao who led the research, described the mechanism plainly: exposure to American dietary and lifestyle patterns over time corrodes the health protections immigrants brought with them. The culprits are familiar ones—processed foods laden with sugar and fat, sedentary routines, the chronic stress of navigating a new country. Equally important is what is lost: the traditional diets and daily habits that sustained health in their countries of origin.
There is another factor, less visible but no less consequential. Immigrants may face barriers to healthcare access in America that they did not encounter before, delaying diagnosis and treatment of emerging health problems. The system that promised opportunity can also obscure illness until it has taken deeper root.
Moparthi's conclusion carries both acknowledgment and prescription. "Immigrants arrive with a cardiovascular health advantage, but this fades the longer they reside in the U.S. due to acculturation, stress and lifestyle changes," he said. The remedy requires action on two fronts: immigrants themselves must seek preventive screenings and consciously maintain the protective behaviors that served them well before, while clinicians need to recognize that time spent in America itself is a risk factor—one that demands culturally informed prevention strategies tailored to the specific pressures and temptations of American life.
The findings remain preliminary until they appear in a peer-reviewed journal, but the pattern they reveal is already clear: the promise of a new country can exact a price written in the body's slow decline.
Notable Quotes
As immigrants are exposed to U.S. dietary and lifestyle habits for prolonged periods of time, it has a negative effect on their heart health— Krishna Moparthi, medical student at John F. Kennedy University School of Medicine in Curaçao
Immigrants arrive with a cardiovascular health advantage, but this fades the longer they reside in the U.S. due to acculturation, stress and lifestyle changes— Krishna Moparthi
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does this happen so quickly? Fifteen years seems like a short window for such a dramatic shift.
It's not really quick—it's the cumulative effect of daily choices made in an environment designed around them. You're not just changing your diet; you're changing how you move through the world, what's convenient, what's normal around you.
But immigrants must know that processed food isn't healthy. Why would they abandon what worked?
Knowledge and environment are different things. When you're working long hours, when the cheapest calories are the most processed ones, when your old foods aren't available or are expensive, you adapt. And stress itself—the effort of being an outsider—changes how your body metabolizes everything.
The healthcare access piece is interesting. Are they saying immigrants had better healthcare before?
Not necessarily better, but more accessible to them. They knew the system, they had networks, they understood how to navigate it. Here, even with insurance, there are cultural and language barriers that delay care.
So the solution is just telling immigrants to eat better and exercise?
That's part of it, but it misses the point. Clinicians need to understand that an immigrant's risk profile isn't the same as a native-born American's. You can't give them generic prevention advice. You have to account for the specific pressures they face and help them preserve what protected them before.