Re: Genome Study: Africans Have Gene For Salt Retention

"Rich Travsky" <traRvEsky@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4419AC77.621ADFD7@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Coupla interesting bits in this article but I want to focus on the
salt retention...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1725177,00.html

Scientists have spotted signs of recent evolution in the human genetic
code, suggesting that diet and changes in habitat have had a lasting
effect on our make-up.

In one of the first detailed scans of the entire human genome,
researchers discovered more than 700 tweaks to genes they believe have
arisen in the past 5,000 to 10,000 years, a period of time that saw
humans spread north from equatorial regions and develop agriculture as
a means of securing food.
...
Moving north had other implications for our health. While the genetic
code of the Africans tested revealed a gene that makes our bodies retain
salt that would be lost through sweating, the Europeans and Asians had a
version that causes more salt to be released, possibly acting as a
defence against salt-induced hypertension (high blood pressure).

I reckon most of this is the end result of a
series of 'chinese whispers' along a line of
guys who had not the faintest clue what it
was all about, and who knew nothing of
biology, medicine or evolution . . . or of
much else.

a) There has been little 'movement north'
in the last 10 Kyr.
b) Hypertension is virtually unknown
outside of 'western' nations or those
populations which have recently
emulated them.
c) Salt-induced hypertension does not
exist in any event.

The rest is all probably imaginary -- at
every level.


Paul.



.

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