PHA-Exchange> Scotsman: Poor doomed to early death, low achievement by 'poverty gene'?

[Claudio]

From:  <spiritof1848 at yahoogroups.com>
> 
> http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=753652006

ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE BOONDOGGLES?
....NO CONFOUNDING VARIABLES??
Claudio 
> 
> Scotland on Sunday Sun 21 May 2006
> 
> Doomed to failure by 'poverty gene'
> 
> RICHARD GRAY HEALTH CORRESPONDENT > 
> SCOTTISH scientists have discovered a "poverty gene" which causes people
> from deprived areas to age rapidly, pass on health problems to the next
> generation and might even explain negative attitudes to employment.
> 
> Research in Glasgow has established that deprivation can lead to an
> overactive immune system which quickly uses up the body's supply of
> spare cells needed to keep ageing at bay. It means a typical 55-year-old
> from the city's East End might have a "biological age" closer to 70.
> Advert for scotsman.com Rosslyn video podcast
> 
> Centuries of natural selection among poor communities mean those with
> highly active immune systems are more likely to pass their genes on,
> condemning the next generation to grow old before their time.
> 
> Most astonishing of all, it is suspected that a hyperactive immune
> system floods the brain with a cocktail of chemicals which suppress the
> natural desire for self-advancement.
> 
> The study, by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, is the first
> time the full extent of the link between health, genetics and poverty
> has been looked at scientifically. The findings have been seized upon by
> health campaigners as evidence that poverty is not simply the result of
> idleness and that more resources should be ploughed into tackling health
> inequality to break the cycle of deprivation.
> 
> But fears have also been expressed that linking poverty to genetic
> traits could have the opposite effect by encouraging the view that the
> poor should be abandoned as a lost cause.
> 
> Scotland has one of the worst health records in the western world, with
> shockingly high levels of chronic illnesses such as heart disease,
> obesity, cancer and diabetes.
> 
> There are enormous health gaps within Scotland, with men living in
> Glasgow's East End expected to die by the age of 64 while in Orkney life
> expectancy is 82.
> 
> Initial findings from the new research have shown that those from poorer
> areas are hit with a 'double whammy' of unhealthy environmental factors
> and an inherited predisposition to poor health.
> 
> Dr Chris Packard, a biochemist and principal investigator in the study,
> said: "We are looking at the idea that these people suffer from a
> chronic state of inflammation where their immune systems are constantly
> on a high state of alert.
> 
> "Compounds called cytokines, which talk to other parts of the immune
> system to prepare it for the invasion of bacteria, are far higher in
> people from deprived areas compared with the more affluent ones.
> 
> "This constant state of alert seems to be prematurely ageing the body
> beyond chronological age and so accelerates chronic diseases - they are,
> in a sense, old beyond their years."
> 
> Packard believes this overactive immune system has developed in poorer
> communities by being inherited over generations.
> 
> He claims that children with more aggressive biological defences were
> better able to survive potentially deadly Victorian-era diseases such as
> measles and so were able to pass on this trait to their own children.
> 
> This has led to large swathes of deprived communities who have lived for
> generations in the same area, now suffering from high levels of immune
> activity. While this can provide protection during childhood against
> diseases, it causes additional stress to the body in adulthood, which
> causes it to age far faster.
> 
> This ageing process can be gauged by measuring the growing thickness of
> artery walls. The team are also studying the spare DNA that helps cells
> to replicate to repair tissue damaged by wear and tear. With each
> replication this DNA reduces, and once it is gone the cells can no
> longer replicate, meaning tissues degenerate.
> 
> Packard said: "If you look at a person from the East End of Glasgow aged
> 55, they may look closer to 65 or 70, while those from a more affluent
> area of the same age will probably be far closer to their real age."
> 
> The researchers are also conducting brain scans on individuals in a bid
> to unravel the effect this high-level immunity has on their psychology.
> 
> Packard added: "Cytokines also affect mood and an individual's general
> mental outlook to make them feel very negative about their life. This
> may explain why people from these deprived backgrounds feel they are
> trapped in poverty and are unable to see the benefits of changing their
> lifestyle to improve their health. They feel very negatively about life
> and cannot see the point in trying to extend it."
> 
> The researchers now hope to find new ways of helping people from
> deprived areas to improve their health.
> 
> Shona Robison, SNP shadow health minister, said it was important the
> government made it easier for poorer people to pull themselves out of
> poverty. "My concern is that we don't start pushing responsibility for
> dealing with poverty and poor health on to individuals themselves," she
> said. "We can't write off whole generations of families as being damaged
> by poverty, as given support through improved economic conditions and
> education, they can turn their lives around."
> 
> But Lord Tebbit, the former Trade and Industry Secretary who famously
> urged the unemployed to "get on their bikes", said he did not believe
> poverty could be explained by genetics.
> 
> He said: "My sorrow is that on the left of politics these days, there is
> a great deal of running away from the sort of politics of the left in
> the Welsh valleys during the late 19th and early 20th century, where
> they didn't feel they had to be bound by poverty and fought their way
> out of it, partly through very high standards of education. The
> incentive to be a success is far higher in poor areas, which is why you
> frequently get individuals springing up to do very well from deprived
> backgrounds."
> 
> Professor Allyson Pollock, an expert on health inequalities at the
> Centre for International Public Health Policy, warned that linking
> poverty to genetics could lead to the idea that the poor were somehow
> inferior. "Poverty is not a genetic issue, it is an economic issue. If
> you go down that route you may end up with eugenics, and that is
> extremely worrying," she said.
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