RESEARCH - Evolution may have pushed humans toward greater risk for RA and type 1 diabetes

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Evolution May Have Pushed Humans Toward Greater Risk for Type 1 Diabetes

ScienceDaily

18 Aug 2010)

Gene variants associated with an increased risk for type-1 diabetes

and rheumatoid arthritis may confer previously unknown benefits to

their human carriers, say researchers at the Stanford University

School of Medicine. As a result, the human race may have been evolving

in the recent past to be more susceptible, rather than less, to some

complex diseases, they conclude.

" At first we were completely shocked because, without insulin

treatment, type-1 diabetes will kill you as a child, " said Atul Butte,

MD, PhD, assistant professor of pediatric cancer biology and a

bioinformatics expert. " Everything we've been taught about evolution

would indicate that we should be evolving away from developing it. But

instead, we've been evolving toward it. Why would we have a genetic

variant that predisposes us to a deadly condition? "

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Read the full article here:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100817171603.htm

Not an MD