Kenya’s Turkana people genetically adapted to live in harsh environment, study suggests

[Riftvalley]

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Kenya’s Turkana people genetically adapted to live in harsh environment, study suggests

Research which began with conversations round a campfire and went on to examine 7m gene variants shows how people survive with little water and a meat-rich diet

www.theguardian.com

 

[Riftvalley]

2 interesting takeaways:


Yet, after years of documenting the Turkana people’s lifestyle and studying blood and urine samples to assess their health, researchers found that, although the community consumes too much purine, which should lead to gout, the condition rarely appears among the Turkana.

Second:


However, as more members of the Turkana community move to towns and cities, the same adaptations that once protected them may now increase risks of chronic lifestyle diseases, a phenomenon known as “evolutionary mismatch”. This occurs when adaptations shaped by one environment become liabilities in another, highlighting how rapid lifestyle changes interact with deep evolutionary history.

When the researchers compared biomarkers and gene expression – the process by which information encoded in a gene is turned into a function – in the genomes of city-dwelling Turkana people with their kin still living in the villages, they found an imbalance of gene expression that may predispose them to chronic diseases such as hypertension or obesity, which are more common in urban settings where diets, water availability and activity patterns are radically different.


I think the second point has some pertinence to Somalis.

 

[Riftvalley]

Genetic study of nomadic herders in Kenya shows what it takes to adapt to desert living - Berkeley News

The Turkana people consume an animal-based diet in one of the hottest, driest places on Earth. Scientists uncovered the genetic variation behind this desert adaptation, and how it leads to problems as the Turkana transition to city life.

news.berkeley.edu

 

[cunug3aad]

2 interesting takeaways:


Yet, after years of documenting the Turkana people’s lifestyle and studying blood and urine samples to assess their health, researchers found that, although the community consumes too much purine, which should lead to gout, the condition rarely appears among the Turkana.

Second:


However, as more members of the Turkana community move to towns and cities, the same adaptations that once protected them may now increase risks of chronic lifestyle diseases, a phenomenon known as “evolutionary mismatch”. This occurs when adaptations shaped by one environment become liabilities in another, highlighting how rapid lifestyle changes interact with deep evolutionary history.

When the researchers compared biomarkers and gene expression – the process by which information encoded in a gene is turned into a function – in the genomes of city-dwelling Turkana people with their kin still living in the villages, they found an imbalance of gene expression that may predispose them to chronic diseases such as hypertension or obesity, which are more common in urban settings where diets, water availability and activity patterns are radically different.


I think the second point has some pertinence to Somalis.

I remember seeing a documentary about these people in southeast asia or oceania who traditionly do spearfishing to get their food and their bodies evolved to help them stay underwater for longer without needing to breath. People bodies and consequently diets is affrcted by their way of life

 

[Riftvalley]

I

I remember seeing a documentary about these people in southeast asia or oceania who traditionly do spearfishing to get their food and their bodies evolved to help them stay underwater for longer without needing to breath. People bodies and consequently diets is affrcted by their way of life

My family who transitioned from the baadiya to the countryside in the post colonial world all have diabetes and the diseases mentioned in the study. I think Somalis are suffering from a large scale epidemic of the evolutionary mismatch described in the study because we have migrated to the west in large numbers and still consume high rates of protein/fat/carbs.

 

[Mohamedamiin120]

2 interesting takeaways:


Yet, after years of documenting the Turkana people’s lifestyle and studying blood and urine samples to assess their health, researchers found that, although the community consumes too much purine, which should lead to gout, the condition rarely appears among the Turkana.

Second:


However, as more members of the Turkana community move to towns and cities, the same adaptations that once protected them may now increase risks of chronic lifestyle diseases, a phenomenon known as “evolutionary mismatch”. This occurs when adaptations shaped by one environment become liabilities in another, highlighting how rapid lifestyle changes interact with deep evolutionary history.

When the researchers compared biomarkers and gene expression – the process by which information encoded in a gene is turned into a function – in the genomes of city-dwelling Turkana people with their kin still living in the villages, they found an imbalance of gene expression that may predispose them to chronic diseases such as hypertension or obesity, which are more common in urban settings where diets, water availability and activity patterns are radically different.


I think the second point has some pertinence to Somalis.

Obviously the Somali people cannot stay in the wilderness forever, so what is the solution here?

 

[Riftvalley]

Obviously the Somali people cannot stay in the wilderness forever, so what is the solution here?

Who said they have to? And those in the baadiya mainly eat carbs, sugar and milk these days. Somali has lost millions of animals over the past decades. We will become one of the fastest urbanising communities in Africa as more and more move from baadiya to towns and cities due to climate change/economic opportunity. The risk is that millions of Somalis will develop gout and diabetes unless there is a cultural shift in attitudes towards exercise and diet.