16 Aug Some Populations Are Genetically Immune to Osteoporosis

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Constance Hilliard
Department of History
University of North Texas
Denton, TX

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: As an evolutionary historian, I have devoted the last several years to researching the health implications of genetic diversity. I was particularly concerned with the tendency of medical researchers to unwittingly use the biology of people with Northern European ancestry as a universal standard for everyone. For instance, lactose intolerance may be a disorder in that community, which suffers high rates of osteoporosis. But since 65% of the world’s population are lactose intolerant and have low rates of osteoporosis, a one-size-fits-all approach to bone health can prove dangerous for those whose ethnic-specific biological needs are overlooked.

This study shows that osteoporosis is not a global problem. It has a strong and devastating impact in dairy-farming societies and is virtually non-existent in the tsetse zone of West Africa, where cattle rearing and dairying are not possible. Previous studies have tried to correlate the degenerative bone disease with socio-economic income. However, this study compares two regions of Africa with similar socio-economic conditions. In dairy-farming East Africa, the incidence of osteoporosis is 245 per 100,000. However in the tsetse belt of West Africa, where people do not consume dairy products, it is 3 per 100,000. When regression analyses are performed on 40 countries around the world, the association between dairy consumption and osteoporosis is high (0.851). It only correlates with national Gross National Product at a regression rate of 0.447.

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response:
1. Just as we work to nurture a sense of unity among the demographics that make up our multi-ethnic population, we must also recognize and honor our nation’s genetic diversity. However, federal nutritional guidelines and certain other medical standards are based on the biological needs of lactase tolerant people of Northern European ancestry. If you do not fall into this category because your heritage is Southern European, or Ashkenazic Jewish or West African, you may be out of luck when it comes to recommendations regarding bone health.

2. Osteoporosis is a serious problem in certain parts of the world but not in others. Populations whose ancestors emanate from dairy-farming traditions, and who are predominantly lactose tolerant, are at highest risk of the disease. This includes Northern Europeans, East Africans, East Indians, and some Middle Eastern ethnicities.

3. Non-dairy farming populations such as West Africans (who are 1% lactose tolerant) are virtually immune to this degenerative bone disease.

4. In nature, we sometimes find powerful examples of genetic trade-offs. The genetic mutations that allow for dairy-farming populations to digest the lactose in milk have over time reduced the body’s ability to absorb sufficient calcium to maintain strong bones. This does not mean that milk or dairy should be shunned by everyone. But what it does mean is that medical researchers need to recognize the fact that ethnic groups who maintain strong bones but consume little dairy (on account of lactose intolerance) do not need the same level of dietary calcium as lactose tolerant populations.

5. In fact the consumption of more dietary calcium than our bodies require may have severe implications. [My current not yet published research shows a strong link between calcium consumption and two forms of cancer with high mortality rates. African-Americans come from low calcium ancestral environments. In the high-calcium, dairy food culture of the U.S., their fatality rates are more than two times higher from advanced prostate cancer in males and triple negative breast cancer in females].

6. My research also shows that osteoporosis entered the human genome with the introduction of dairy farming.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: It is crucial that medical researchers begin to look at the effects of feeding dairy products to lactose intolerant ethnic populations from Africa, Asia and Latin America. We should no longer assume that “milk builds strong bodies for everyone”.

Our federal nutritional guidelines also need to take into account the fact that different ethnic populations may metabolize minerals such as calcium and sodium differently. The standards that work for people of Northern European ancestry, may in some cases, be disastrous for the many ethnic populations from other parts of the world. The reason for this is because or human biology is exquisitely attuned to the geological and food environment of our ancestral homelands. We must honor those differences.

MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Response: Yes. This study is not about race, which I don’t believe in. While traditionalists try to divide the world into three so-called races, our planet actually has a rich array of population groups, who emanate from ecological environments to which their bodies are well-adapted. If all Africans are lumped together as the “black race”, we are unable to see the profound differences between those whose ancestors developed genetic mutations that enabled them to consume dairy products and those that did not.

MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.

Citation:

High osteoporosis risk among East Africans linked to lactase persistence genotype
BoneKEy
Reports(2016)5,Article number:803(2016) doi:10.1038/bonekey.2016.30
Published online: 29 June 2016

Note: Content is Not intended as medical advice. Please consult your health care provider regarding your specific medical condition and questions.

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Last Updated on August 16, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD