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I was always convinced that my redheaded, light blue eyed husband had Neanderthal genes (a point agreed to by the scientists who believe that the redheaded celts of Britain have such genes). His was Scottish ancestry. He also had a prominent brow ridge, a weak chin, short legs, long very strong torso, and very thick body hair, including on one shoulder. He was smart, but was dislexic, a dramatic mimic and teacher, and a warrior.

Both our sons had some reading disability, especially the fairer complexioned one. I wonder if any scientists have checked into the possibility of a gene or genes for dislexia, and whether or not they are more common in these same redheaded people who they believe have the N genes.

My husband also developed Alzheimers. Before he lost his capacity to walk well, he took to escaping from the house when he was hungry and before I could get dinner on the table. This leads me to hypothesize that the wandering in Alzheimers may be a genetic pro survival gene. If the no longer very useful elderly wandered off looking for food during periods of starvation, especially at night when their families might think they went out to pee, they would die and no longer need to be fed, leaving more food for their offsprings. I think this would be more likely in primative sparsely populated areas of the globe. I checked on the rates of Alzheimers in two long populated urban areas of India and Nigeria, and found that the rate of Alzheimers was 1/4th the rate in the US. Hope to do more research on this area of spectulation.