A new study from the Montreal Neurological Institute says that Inuit in Nunavik have a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disorders and increased incidents of brain aneurysms compared to the general population.
The study, funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research and The Heart and the Stroke Foundation of Canada, says isolated populations often develop “unique genetic traits that result from their successful adaptation to specific environments.
“Unfortunately, these adaptations sometimes predispose them to certain health issues if the environment is changed,” according to the study.
“The genetic background of these populations are often poorly understood because they live far from scientific research centres,” it reads.
The study also shows that Nunavik Inuit are genetically unique.
”I think the first, very obvious fact that we observe in this study is that they are very isolated, homogenous population genetically,” says Sirui Zhou, lead author of the study.
“They have no gene flow like from European descents or other Aboriginal people.”
The study has been ongoing for decades.
According to Zhou, the Inuit adapted, at a cellular level, to a typically high-fat diet and climate factors like extreme cold.
Using advanced technology, researchers determined that their genes can indicate future health problems.
“The tools are so different from when I was doing these kinds of things myself,” says Patrick Dion, co-author of the study.
“It changes very quickly.”
Dion says this complex genetic information was impossible to obtain when a Montreal neurologist, Dr. Guy Rouleau, began interviewing the first of 170 study participants in the 1990’s – patients flown from Nunavik for treatment at the Montreal General Hospital.
“Essentially, since 2010, we can apply genetic tools to sequence the entire coding portion of the genome of any individual,” Dion said. “And now it’s possible to sequence the entire genome of an individual.”
“Even though we collected samples 25 years ago, we were asking very singular kind of hypothesis questions. But now we can ask more questions because we’re probably going to get more answers,” he added.
Simply put, the smaller the genome snip, the more information you can extract.
In this case – that includes an unexpected origin story.
“We also could potentially place them in a migration tree or development tree between, like, Siberia’s Indigneous people, Alaskan Inuit, and the Greenlandic Inuit,” says Zhou.
The study revealed a close genetic link to Paleo-Eskimos – a group scientists believe populated the Arctic before the Inuit following a mass migration during the ice age.
The first genome sequence of a Paleo-Eskimo was obtained in 2010 from 4,000 year old hair follicles belonging to an ancient Saqqaq man from Greenland.
This discovery bolstered the theory about a mass migration of groups from Greenland and Siberia to Northern Canada over 5,000 years ago, towards the end of the Ice Age.
Though genotyping can’t yet answer questions about risk of addiction, or mental illness, for example – the hope is that technological advances will eventually glean answers to medicine’s more pressing questions, at least as far as genetics are concerned.
“Eventually, we might find, (or) we might construct some genetic panels for disease – that’s long run,” says Zhou.
For now, they plan to continue research using the smallest of small pieces to construct a bigger picture of Canada’s north.
We are all ‘predisposed’ to addiction from the Western diet. Sugar, processed foods mixed with unnaturally fed meats including steroids and growth hormones, unnatural saline solutions and more. Pure animal fat without carbs can be digested with help from some berries and roots. Again, without sugars. However, fat and sugar, complex carbs combined causes heart diseases, makes plaque in arteries, diabetes and makes cancer. Innuit didn’t have addiction problems till western diet turned up on its doorstep. Both Westerners and innuit are predisposed to sickness and addiction, purposely made to benefit pharmaceutical industry who make a fortune out of illnesses and treatment from addictive bad food. We are what we eat. The genes mutate. This study seems to be based on archaic, prejudice reasoning. What they should understand from there research is how our bodies were Not to eat processed food and the innuit at this later date are being targeted and contaminated like the rest of us.