Re: Cheating Destiny (book excerpt)
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Posted by klausen on 07:34:17 2006/07/11
In Reply to:
Re: Cheating Destiny (book excerpt) posted by Sarah
In fact, the increase in the risk of type 1 diabetic parents passing on the disease is not 20% higher than normal but 20 times higher than normal for male parents, 12 times higher than normal for female parents.
Since most type 1 diabetes occurs at puberty, and since humans, at least during the first million years or so of their evolution, promiscuously had sex as soon as they could (if we are to judge from modern examples of Stone Age cultures, such as the Kalahari Bushmen), diabetes was probably not very well sorted out of the gene pool by the early death of diabetics. Now that greater civilization has delayed the mating age for about twice as long as biology delays it, diabetes is ironically still not being sorted out of the gene pool, because insulin is keeping diabetes alive long enough to breed!
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