Genomics and Diabetes Continued - Part II

After I sent an email to Marc Santora, one of the lead reporters on the New York Times Diabetes Reports, he graciously sent me one back letting me know that the New York Times would indeed be proactively following-up on the City epidemic. He also sent me this link, Gene Increases Diabetes Risk, Scientists Find. The New York Times was in fact doing their job! (I accused the NYT of having nothing substantial written on diabetes and genomics.) What I find most interesting about this article is the following statement:

While Type 2 diabetes is more common in African-Americans, Latinos, American Indians, and Asian-Americans, Dr. Stefansson said more studies were needed to see whether there were significant differences in the variant gene's distribution among races.

He said he could not yet say if the genetic variant was more common in African-Americans and so might explain their greater burden of Type 2 diabetes. But he noted that the variant was ancient, having arisen before the dispersal of modern humans from Africa some 50,000 years ago, and would probably be found to exist to varying degrees in all populations.

Wow...

Also today, and to keep you informed about media activity...the BBC has run a story about the New York City crisis and diabetes - New York City's Battle...