Merigreen

Did anyone read this article about the "New theory for global diabetes epidemic", in which PCOS is used as a basis of the theory?

www .virtualmedicalcentre.com/news.asp?artid=13789&title=New-theory-for-global-diabetes-epidemic&odr=&page=

(I can't post URLs yet, remove the space after www)

Am I reading the article correctly? Are the authors saying that PCOS will reduce the "modern epidemics of diabetes and cardiovascular disease" in the coming decades because women with PCOS cannot (theoretically) reproduce?

Maybe it's scientifically correct, but GOD this article peeved me. They make it sound like PCOS is actually a 'good' condition because all insulin-resistant people will be breed out of existence. Hooray! I can't conceive a child, so humanity will be spared my imperfect insulin-resistant genes!


(I'm probably taking it too personally.)

KatCarney

Very interesting find!

No, they're not saying that the epidemics will end because women with pcos can't reproduce. (No credible medical body has ever said that women with pcos can't reproduce)

I've posted the article below, and will try to find the full study:

New theory for global diabetes epidemic
19. June 2009 03:21

A new "fertility first" hypothesis published this week by a group of international experts in the American Journal of Human Biology, proposes that the global epidemic of Type 2 diabetes has its origins in the struggle, over millennia, to sustain human fertility in environments defined by famine.

A surprising and important implication for us in the modern world is that this hypothesis gives cause for optimism that the modern epidemics of diabetes and cardiovascular disease will diminish.

"If we are right, rapid human evolution should, in decades rather than centuries, reduce the prevalence of the conserved ancestral genes which underpin these conditions," said Associate Professor Stephen Corbett from the University of Sydney, one of the study's authors.

The key piece of evidence in support of this idea comes from a close look at a condition closely related to Type 2 diabetes, the Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). This condition is globally the most common cause of ovarian infertility and its very existence is a paradox because evolutionary theory would predict that a genetically based condition which reduces fertility would quickly erase itself.

In women with PCOS fertility declines with increases in body weight and improves with weight loss. It is this property in particular which suggests that PCOS may be associated with a fertility advantage, rather than disadvantage in women who are undernourished. "We have called this the Fertility First genotype because for much of human history these genes, if present, enabled hungry and undernourished people to continue to reproduce in lean times," Associate Professor Stephen Corbett said.

However, since the Industrial Revolution, improvements in nutrition and increases in body weight for a human majority have flicked an evolutionary switch. "The long standing fertility advantage of this Fertility First genotype has been turned on its head, and it is now a disadvantage, and should become less common," he said.

The authors this paper are Associate Professor Stephen Corbett from the University of Sydney and Sydney West Area Health Service, Professor Tony McMichael from the Australian National University in Canberra and Professor Andrew Prentice from the MRC International Nutrition Group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Their article, Type 2 Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease and the Evolutionary Paradox of the Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Fertility First Hypothesis goes on line this week in the American Journal of Human Biology 2009.

http://www.usyd.edu.au/

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Mishee

Wow. That article is really interesting. What I think the study is trying to prove is that Type 2 diabetes is related to fertility. The theory is that before industrialization malnutrition and famine was much more prevalent than it is now, so there was a need for women to be able to be fertile and conceive with a much lower body weight. So PCOS wouldn't have been a problem then. It only is now because industrialization has made wide spread increases in body weight possible.

It makes sense when you think about women who don't have enough body fat to ovulate, like malnourished women or some athletes. It sounds like women with PCOS's bodies haven't caught up to industrialization yet. I don't think they're trying to say that the incidence of PCOS will decrease because it will be bred out (women with PCOS won't have children and won't pass on their genes), but that the human body will adapt to industrialization. I'm not sure how their going to equate that with type 2 diabetes and heart disease decreasing from epidemic proportions, unless they're arguing that these conditions are always tied to PCOS. I mean I know that PCOS can lead to type 2 diabetes and heart disease but they also exist on their own. I'm definitely going to look up the study, that's facsinating.

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No PCOS diagnosis yet...
Feel free to ask me about hyperprolactinemia though, just had my prolactinoma removed through brain surgery. Happier and healthier already...
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ukcyster7

Ah ha! I read this post before I joined up, then couldn't find it when I wanted to comment....

I *think* what it is saying is that it used to be an advantage to be able to have kids despite poor bodyweight. Only now, we're TOO good at storing body fat etc and it's messing everything up. But yes I think he is implying that "natural selection" will act (well, it WILL act unless we counter it, which we do for every person who ever has medical treatment anyway).
To the OP - I read it as PCOS *was* a good condition, but our environment has changed. Maybe they looked at cardiovascular / diabetes problems because PCOS has links with insulin resistance, abnormal blood levels of things...?

This is particularly interesting to me as I (try to) follow a "Primal / Paleo" type diet. If my metabolism is prehistoric, maybe my diet should be too!

I try not to take things like this personally, sometimes it is hard, but just think of all the poor men reading those "Men to die out in 50'000 years" articles...!