In Ecuador, there are a group of people who are helping to fight cancer and diabetes. They have Laron syndrome, which means that they have a gene mutation that makes it so they can't grow over 4 feet tall. It affects their use of growth hormone called IGF-1, which is may be the reason they live longer. The people were studied for 22 years, and during that time no one had diabetes, even though they had poor diets and 20% were obese. Only one person had cancer, but she was treated and it went away. They looked at 53 other severely short people, and none of them had diabetes or cancer. They also looked at 65 people from Brazil with a different type of dwarfism, and only one person had died of cancer. Although they Ecuadorians are being discriminated for their height, they are helping doctors to see how growth hormones affect diseases caused by aging, and even try to find the cure for diabetes and cancer.
No comments:
Post a Comment