Natural Selection Protected Some East Asian Populations From Alcoholism, Study Suggests

Science Daily ^ | 4-3-2008 | Yale University

[blam]

Ping.

[BIV]

I am a proud non-member of the Hmong- and Altaic-speaking groups.
The “recent” event is either an earthquake, a deviant hepatitis communicable easily in all forms to all who used alcohol, or an attack from Mars.

[norwaypinesavage]

"people feel uncomfortable, sometimes even ill, when drinking small amounts of alcohol."

I, too, have felt "uncomfortable, sometimes even ill, when drinking small amounts of alcohol", depending, of course, what your definition of "small" is.

[muawiyah]

Just thinking of the Silk Road circa 1500 BC ~ up to 250 AD and what hepatitis would have done to the folks who worked that route ~ sure, kill off everyone, or nearly everyone, who didn't have a gene that made them very sick when they drank alcohol from the community beer or wine pot.

Raises a question ~ do Jews abstain culturally, or do they get nauseus?

I know folks with the gene and sometimes they find themselves in the middle of projectile vomiting without warning.

This is similar to the genes that control celiac disease. Eat the wrong stuff (wheat gluten) and within half an hour your system is expelling the clymatis containing grain product (if you're an early agricultural revolution type). Cherry/apple/peach allergy genes would protect against eating baby birch trees which have enough cyanide to kill humans. Lots of these genes around.

[fso301]

people feel uncomfortable, sometimes even ill, when drinking small amounts of alcohol

Hmm. I'm from neither of the cited groups but I too feel uncomfortable when a dinner host produces just a single bottle of wine which when divided among the guests is just enough for just one glass.

I've also experienced these feelings when I look into my liquor cabinet and see that I don't have enough for one full cocktail.

[blam]

I knew you'd add something interesting. Thanks.

[BIV]

I don’t know much about Jewish culture, but I think their springtime holiday called Purim puts to rest any notion that Jews, collectively, have an alcoholic or alcohol-averse gene.

[John Locke]

Fascinating study.

The principle advantage of being able to drink alcoholic beverages is that you don't have to drink water - a substance that for most of human history has varied from nasty to lethal. So perhaps these Altaic people had access to uncontaminated water, and so never evolved the ability to tolerate booze.

And, as I see it, that's probably the order of events: humans were initially alcohol intolerant (also lactose intolerant, but that's another long story); alcohol tolerance is a mutation that caught on in regions where the water supply was problematic.

(And I'll drink to that!)

[muawiyah]

The Sa'ami, who were isolated in the Arctic from about 9500 years ago to 1000 years back, had no alcohol and they do not have the particular gene that's discussed in this article.

Mankind did not start out alcohol intolerant ~

[muawiyah]

BTW, with my natural born immunity to cholera I can pretty much drink anything but water choc full of e-coli. Now that's a gene that survived some nasty environments Fur Shur.

Could be a technology advance that encouraged this anti-alcohol gene to get a foothold. Living in yurts and drinking fermented mares milk probably served to kill off all the folks who persisted in letting it get "too fermented". Must be a gazillion diseases that just love mares milk.

[nmh]

Too funny.

Alcoholics are typically ATTRACTED to each other. They both have the same problem. There is no “natural selection” going on.

[blam]

"The principle advantage of being able to drink alcoholic beverages is that you don't have to drink water - a substance that for most of human history has varied from nasty to lethal. So perhaps these Altaic people had access to uncontaminated water, and so never evolved the ability to tolerate booze. "

I like this idea.

[txhurl]

There are quite a few instances of Russian octogenarians and higher that cite a yogurt, vodka and cigarette diet.

?

[muawiyah]

They're European ~ no problem with drinking fresh milk and so forth.

It's the fermented mares milk keg in the yurt that I'm focused on.

I don't think there are any ethnic Russians that live in yurts.

[blam]

"Could be a technology advance that encouraged this anti-alcohol gene to get a foothold. Living in yurts and drinking fermented mares milk probably served to kill off all the folks who persisted in letting it get "too fermented". Must be a gazillion diseases that just love mares milk."

Maybe not.

Feta Cheese Made From Raw Milk Has Natural Anti-food-poisoning Properties

[muawiyah]

That's feta cheese, in Greece, and there's an enormous tourist industry behind the research (I'm sure).

No reputable scientist living in Greece would ever dare say fresh feta was not the healthiest thing in the world.

Over in Bulgaria the big deal is mares milk cheese ~ not feta.

Communism kept the Bulgarians so cut off from the mainstream of modern development that once the Iron Curtain was lifted and people were allowed to revert to their natural order of life, the Bulgarians found they were still making what had become high priced, boutique type agricultural products ~ mares milk cheese, rough bread with pockets of crushed grain hulls, etc.

They still make a fortune off this stuff and export it everywhere ~ even to the Afghan store down the street. Talk about a reputation for doing it the old way ~ the Afghans came here KNOWING about Bulgarian cheese and bread.

[tbw2]

And Asians, in general, have a tradition of tea and hot soups, reducing the need to rely on alcohol for safe drinking.

[txhurl]

But bacterium die off at 20 proof (10%) alcohol?

I’m not sure mare’s milk could get that high in proof.

[tbw2]

What is mare’s milk in terms of alcohol percentage? Can it get higher proof than grain based alcohol?