Revealing that early Europeans lived through the Ice Age by arthritis?

At a certain period in human history, arthritis played an important role in making early Europeans survive the ice age.

Early Europeans

Today, about half of Europeans carry a variant of the GDF5 gene, which almost doubles their risk of arthritis when they are young. People in other places also have this genetic mutation, but the proportion is much lower than that of Europeans. So, why? American researchers say that painful joints may protect early European settlers from frostbite and fractures in later snow and ice.

Small * * *, short and strong.

This mutation of GDF5 gene not only increases the prevalence of arthritis, but also shortens people by about 1 cm. Although this seems to be a shortcoming, it can help people who have just come out of Africa to better adapt to the cold territory of northern Europe. In cold weather, if you are short and strong, it is easier to keep warm. As the saying goes, the shorter a person is, the lighter he falls-that is, the less likely he is to break a bone. In those days, fractures were life-threatening.

Some people think that osteoarthritis is caused by wear and tear; But obviously, genes also have a place in it. Walking in a cold environment may be enough to screen out protective gene mutations, even if arthritis is caused by senile diseases. Because arthritis usually occurs after childbearing age, it will not weaken people's fertility, and genes will be passed down from generation to generation.

arthritis

In 1990s, scientists first confirmed the correlation between arthritis and GDF5. Later, the researchers also linked the gene expression of GDF5 with a genetic mechanism called "GROW 1", which would indicate that the gene would shut down bone growth. They analyzed the genetic material of people all over the world and found that this genetic mutation and this genetic mechanism of shutting down bone growth are more common in Europeans or Europeans. In warmer places such as Africa, this gene mutation is very rare.

In addition, this genetic mutation seems to be common among Neanderthals and Denisovans. They lived in Europe and Asia for about 600,000 years until modern people wiped them out. In fact, Europeans today may have inherited their genes.