Posted on 04/03/2008 5:55:20 PM PDT by blam
Natural Selection Protected Some East Asian Populations From Alcoholism, Study Suggests
ScienceDaily (Apr. 3, 2008) — Some change in the environment in many East Asian communities during the past few thousand years may have protected residents from becoming alcoholics, a new genetic analysis conducted by Yale School of Medicine researchers suggests.
Scientists have long known that many Asians carry variants of genes that help regulate alcohol metabolism. Some of those genetic variants can make people feel uncomfortable, sometimes even ill, when drinking small amounts of alcohol. As a result of the prevalence of this gene, many, but not all, communities in countries such as China, Japan and Korea have low rates of alcoholism.
The study is by Hui Li and others in the laboratory of Kenneth Kidd, professor of genetics, psychiatry and ecology & evolutionary biology.
Last year Kidd's team reported evidence that recent natural selection in East Asia had caused one particular variant of the alcohol-regulating gene to become common. In this new paper Li and others in Kidd's team analyzed this variant in the DNA of individuals in many different population groups in several more East Asian countries.
They uncovered evidence that the variant became widespread through natural selection in only some of those East Asian populations -- specifically, the Hmong- and Altaic-speaking groups. Those genetic clues, say the scientists, suggest that something was different in the environment of those populations and that the genetic difference assisted survival in that environment. The researchers have not yet identified that environmental difference and say the genetic change could be triggered by any number of factors, such as the emergence of some new parasite.
That these populations turn out to be less prone to the ravages of demon rum, says Kidd, "is just a serendipitous event'' of evolution. "What this finding does is highlight that something important in recent human history has affected the genetic composition of many East Asian populations," he notes.
Kidd's team was studying a variant of one of a set of related genes that code for alcohol dehydrogenases, enzymes that help in metabolism of alcohols, including ethanol. Variants of those enzymes have been known for many years to protect the individuals carrying them against alcoholism.
The particular gene studied, a variant of the ADH1B gene, is very common in some East Asian communities, as high as 90 percent in some areas. But he also noted that lower rates of alcoholism in many of the Asian communities may well be due to cultural as well as genetic causes.
"If a large part of the people got sick after they ate one particular food or drank a particular drink, you would not find many social situations where that food was served,'' Kidd said.
The article, Ethnic Related Selection for an ADH Class I Variant within East Asia, will be published April 2, in the journal PloS One.
Adapted from materials provided by Yale University.
Ping.
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.
I, too, have felt "uncomfortable, sometimes even ill, when drinking small amounts of alcohol", depending, of course, what your definition of "small" is.
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.
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.
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.
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!)
Mankind did not start out alcohol intolerant ~
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.
Too funny.
Alcoholics are typically ATTRACTED to each other. They both have the same problem. There is no “natural selection” going on.
I like this idea.
There are quite a few instances of Russian octogenarians and higher that cite a yogurt, vodka and cigarette diet.
?
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.
Maybe not.
Feta Cheese Made From Raw Milk Has Natural Anti-food-poisoning Properties
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.
And Asians, in general, have a tradition of tea and hot soups, reducing the need to rely on alcohol for safe drinking.
But bacterium die off at 20 proof (10%) alcohol?
I’m not sure mare’s milk could get that high in proof.
What is mare’s milk in terms of alcohol percentage? Can it get higher proof than grain based alcohol?
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