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Amish people possess gene trait that may prevent heart disease

2008-12-12 18:02:26 (GMT) (Caymanmama.com - Health News News)

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Amish girls walking

Members of the Amish community possess a rare genetic abnormality that may prevent them from getting heart disease

Gary, Indiana (CaymanMama.com) — Light years behind the technologically advanced, modernized world of computers and cars, the people of an insular Amish community may have more advanced bodies than most.

According to a recent report by Reuters, some of the members of the community possess a rare genetic abnormality that may prevent them from getting heart disease, as per a new research discovery that could lead to the development of drugs to prevent heart disorders, American researchers said on Thursday.

Approximately 5 percent of Old Order Amish people in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County have only a single functioning copy rather than the standard two copies of a gene that generates a protein which slows the breakdown of triglycerides, a fat that moves through the blood, researchers stated in the journal Science.

“People who have the mutation all have low triglycerides,” said Toni Pollin of the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, who led the study.

“This gives us clues that ultimately could develop future treatments.”

Triglycerides naturally dissolve faster in the Old Order Amish people than in those without this interesting gene mutation.

Elevated levels of triglycerides are caused by consuming a high-fat diet and can contribute to the hardening and narrowing of major arteries, increasing the risk of heart attack, heart disease and stroke.

“The Old Order Amish are ideal for genetic research because they are a genetically homogenous people who trace their ancestry back 14 generations to a small group that came to Pennsylvania from Europe in the mid-1700s,” Dr. Alan Shuldiner, one of the researchers, said in a statement.



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