Tristan de Cunha and the Genetic Mapping of Asthma

I was reading brilab45's post about Tristan de Cunha and it's remoteness. I'd heard of the Island before and have vague memories of the news of the islanders being moved to Britain in '61 because the volcano was erupting. So I had a look around on the web for up to date information and came accross this fascinating half hour documentary about their assisting medical science with discovering the DNA sequence for asthma.
Because of unfortunate circumstances 3 of the early women settlers and two of the men had asthma out of fifteen settlers I think it was. The island's isolation and the obvious inbreeding ( even today there are only seven surnames on the island ), has led them to the incidence of asthma to be around 50% or six times the usual occurence.
When they arrived in Britain they came to the attention of Dr Noe Zamel who was researching his PhD at the time and who would eventually go on to discover the Gene linked to asthma and who is still researching the islanders for any other sequence involved

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Asthma Island


Edit links should be ok I've put a more direct link and it works in preview.

reply to post by goldentorch


Can't find the ATS thread and the BBC link is not working? I am curious about the story though, but Google is not much help it seems. I have wondered about asthma and how much of it is nature vs nurture. My impression was that it was more of an environmental factor, but I would like to learn more.

Peace,
spec

ETA: Is this the thread you referenced? www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by goldentorch


Hi Golden, the link for Asthma Island is giving me a redirect notice. It's still amazing to me that I have never heard of the island before, much less about the problem the islanders were having. Hopefully you can fix the link so I can devour its contents. Thanx. And thank you for mentioning my thread.

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


Thanks for pointing out the link fixed now. The other link is to a myspace page and it's on that page. Will try link direct in a moment but it's not on BBC iplayer anymore.
From the film it would seem that asthma is entirely genetic. Even though one could quite easily speculate that enviromental problems will aggravate it.

reply to post by brilab45


Links improved now. Thanks for the thread wouldn't have found this without it.
The documentary was sparked by him going back and as I said he hopes to find further sequences and eventually a cure. All good stuff

reply to post by goldentorch

Cool, thanks gt, I will give the doc a gander this evening and respond later. Good subject though...

spec

reply to post by goldentorch


Yes, the documentary did take my breathe away. What great hope for all asthma sufferers around the world. The Doctor is amazing and I hope he is still conducting his research.

Really have to say that I envy their life style. Simplicity at its best. They got their first phone line in 2007. They seem to be completely independent. They pay one another in potatoes. I think they have much more to teach us. They have an equatable structure in their society. Frankly, I completely envy them. Ok...the volcano thing would bother me a bit.

Great documentary. Amazing new information to pack away in my little brain.

Genes do NOT control disease, that's now be known for several decades.
Perception of environment is the controlling factor.
See the epi-geneticist Bruce Lipton's work for details.
Best
RT

reply to post by RogerT


The Dr in this case monitored the population whilst it was in England and also whilst on Tristan de Cunha which is one of the least polluted areas on Earth. So his work would seem to counter other assertions. If you watched the video it is one of the most Genetically homogenous populations on Earth with rates of asthma running 6 times normal incidence in one of the least enviromentally polluted human societies on Earth. Although a tanker ran aground at the beginning of the year so unfortunately it's pristine nature has been compromised somewhat.

I think you missed my point, or I missed yours.
Genes are somewhat responsible for our pre-disposition towards disease, but they have no influence over whether we succumb or not. That is 100% down to perception of environment, and by environment, we are not talking specifically about trees and rivers.
If you are interested in this subject, you will enjoy Bruce Lipton's information, it is all over youtube etc.

reply to post by RogerT


I presumed you were referring to the pulmonary effects of polution in this case air quality and the air quality in this case on the island is unsurpassed yet the same asthmatic problems are found on the island as they were when the islanders were resident in Britain.
Not familiar with the work you cite but will look at it as soon as I get a chance and reply to you on that one.

reply to post by RogerT


I'm having difficulty in penetrating beyond his new age beliefs and feel that as a personal choice I would rather go with things like this.

The study team says that an implication of their findings is that allergies are probably a consequence of asthma, rather than a cause. The study also suggests that childhood-onset asthma differs biologically from adult-onset asthma, as the gene that affected children the most did not affect adults. Professor Miriam Moffatt, one of the study's leaders, said: 'As a result of genetic studies we now know that allergies may develop as a result of defects in the lining of the airways in asthma. This does not mean that allergies are not important, but it does mean that concentrating therapies only on allergy will not effectively treat the whole disease.'

source

As his field is mainly musculature I feel I would rather go with the specialist in pulmonary diseases. As I say the air quality on the island is possibly unsurpassed in most areas of human settlement because of it's isolation and this would seem to point heavily toward the genetic principal.

No worries. If you're into the mainstream medicine approach I can understand why you'd struggle with Lipton, even though he was doing stem cell research before the rest of the world knew what that was (1960's).

Lipton has left the fold of the white-coats because he realised they knew little about how things actually work in reality and were teaching at least a decade behind even the current scientific knowlege, which was still usually way off the mark, or at least rather incomplete!

I think he had an epiphany when his own 'white coat' research led him to the realisation that the so-called mystics that his profession labelled as cranks and superstitious laymen had actually been right all along

New-agers enjoy Lipton because he brings a credible scientific affirmation to their often shakey beliefs. Personally I just enjoy hearing scientists admit they've been 180 degrees off target whenever that shows up, and his quotes and work are useful when discussing 'medical' stuff outside of 3D with people stuck in the allopathic box.

Good luck with your research.
Best
RT