# Are there any diseases or disorders that are racially specific? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2001, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385 "2001-01-04T10:51:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cheese\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cheese\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheese_Head)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2001, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/21 "2001-01-04T21:57:39Z")
Rosacia is a skin disease only white people get. I think it’s just cosmetic (red coloring) and not harmful. Likewise, I think Reagan has some strange disease (besides Alzheimers) that bends his fingers or something, that only old white people get. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2001, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/22 "2001-01-04T22:55:04Z")
Dupuytren’s Contracture: [http://www.centraljerseyhand.com/dupuytren.htm](http://www.centraljerseyhand.com/dupuytren.htm) > **[WordPress Hosting Comparison: 11 Ways Compared - Prime Hosting](https://www.wpfox.org/wordpress-hosting-comparison/)** > > To put a WordPress website online, you need hosting. So in this article is an overview of all possibilities to host a WordPress site. [http://www.newbernortho.com/dupuytren\_s\_contracture.htm](http://www.newbernortho.com/dupuytren_s_contracture.htm) My father has it. His little fingers are so curled that he can’t grip things with them at all. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2001, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/23 "2001-01-04T23:06:50Z")
Can white people really get vitiglia? And if they can, how much does it really effect their appearance? I’ve seen a few dark-complexioned blacks with vitiglia; one lady had a face that was half dark-skinned and half light-skinned. It was pretty strange. ---
**Author:** ![BornDodgy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@BornDodgy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BornDodgy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2001, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/24 "2001-01-04T23:16:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AVSC916 \* > \*\*Kuru - the laughing sickness, was once pretty much confined to a group of natives, in, I think, South America. It was a neurological disorder which affected the brains of the victims, causing them to sporadically laugh, gradually develop jerky motions of their limbs, which they started loosing control of, and their mental facilities. Eventually, it led to death. > > The disease was confined to a small group which had practiced cannibalism in the not all that distant past. It often affected women and old men or children. The disease is only caught by eating brain tissue of an affected person and since warriors tended to consume the hearts and other choice parts of a capture, the women, children and old men ate the brains and lessor parts. > > It was estimated that the small group of local tribes had been eating people for a long, long time for a disease to have developed specifically transmitted in such a way. I don’t recall if cooking the brains killed the disease or not. > > Currently, Kuru is assumed to be extinct. The last known record of it, IIRC, was in the early 1970s. > > \*\* That sounds pretty similar to Kreuzfeld Jakob… / mad cow disease… Just a thought… dodgy ---
**Author:** ![BornDodgy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@BornDodgy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BornDodgy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2001, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/25 "2001-01-04T23:19:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cheese Head \* > \*\*Rosacia is a skin disease only white people get. I think it’s just cosmetic (red coloring) and not harmful. > > Likewise, I think Reagan has some strange disease (besides Alzheimers) that bends his fingers or something, that only old white people get. \*\* … if we mean the same there are also little kids who have that… it s on the tip of my tongue… grrr ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2001, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/26 "2001-01-04T23:55:50Z")
Some anthropologists believe that, 300 years ago, smallpox and other “old world” diseases had significantly higher fatality rates among Native Americans than among Europeans or Africans. The Spanish conquest of the Americas may owe more to microbes than to gunpowder. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2001, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/27 "2001-01-04T23:58:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diceman \* > **Can white people really get vitiglia? And if they can, how much does it really effect their appearance?** Yup, I know a couple who have. Obviously, it’s not going to affect their appearance as much as someone with darker skin, but consider that if you put a white patch (that does not tan, if I recall) on a pink patch, you’ll see a definite difference. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2001, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/28 "2001-01-05T00:21:59Z")
I have a white patch that does not tan! I didn’t know there was a name for it. In winter, it is pretty much unnoticeable, but come summer time it really stands out. ---
**Author:** ![tisiphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tisiphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tisiphone)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2001, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/29 "2001-01-05T00:24:13Z")
IANAD warning! :gets out soapbox: > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cheese Head \* > \*\*Rosacia is a skin disease only white people get. I think it’s just cosmetic (red coloring) and not harmful. > \*\* Rosacea is a skin disease indeed. It is not, however, just a red coloring, and I’m not 100% sure it’s confined to whites, either. However, it would be harder to spot in its early stages on people of color. Please see this link for more info, if you’re interested. And it’s spelled VITILIGO, in case anybody wants to go searching for it. Here’s another [link](http://www.nvfi.org/menu.htm) if you want to know more. :steps off soapbox: Carry on . . . Tisiphone ---
**Author:** ![curious\_george](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b487fb/32.png) [@curious\_george](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curious_george)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/30 "2001-01-08T20:40:39Z")
tisiphone, thanks for the info but your link doesn’t work: Not Found The requested URL /sdmb/www.rosacea.org was not found on this server ---
**Author:** ![curious\_george](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b487fb/32.png) [@curious\_george](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curious_george)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/31 "2001-01-08T20:42:43Z")
> **[National Rosacea Society](http://www.rosacea.org/)** > > The most comprehensive source for information about rosacea, a chronic disorder of the facial skin. works. ---
**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/32 "2001-01-09T06:12:15Z")
BTW, according to a women’s magazine I was reading recently (cannot remember which one–probably _McCall’s_ or _Redbook_-sorry) the occurrance of Tay-Sachs disease is on a dramtic increase in families of Irish decent. (There was an article profiling a family of pure Irish decent who gave birth to a child with Tay-Sachs.) ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/33 "2001-01-09T07:11:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by grienspace \* > **And how about freckles. Do asian people have freckles?** Steal your wife or daughter’s Cosmo or Glamour, and find Lucy Liu’s Revlon ad. She’s got some freckles. I think she’s all Chinese, ethnically speaking, but I’m not absolutely sure. I only have doubts about it because I’m Asian, and I’m surrounded by Asians, and neither I nor anyone else here has freckles. The only Asian kids I’ve met that had freckles were siblings who were part Irish from their father’s side. ---
**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/34 "2001-01-11T05:14:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by evilbeth \* > \*\*BTW, according to a women’s magazine I was reading recently (cannot remember which one–probably _McCall’s_ or _Redbook_-sorry) the occurrance of Tay-Sachs disease is on a dramtic increase in families of Irish decent. (There was an article profiling a family of pure Irish decent who gave birth to a child with Tay-Sachs.) \*\* Found the article. It is in the October 2000 issue of _Parents_ magazine. I apologize, it does not indicate that there is a dramatic increase in Tay-Saxhs among those of Irish decent. It does mention that the disease has been striking other ethnic groups (besides the Ashkenazi Jews) such as French Canadians, Louisiana Cajuns and Irish Americans. Just wanted to clarify and provide the cite. ---
**Author:** ![Ace\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Ace\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace_Face)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/35 "2001-01-11T08:25:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AudreyK \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by grienspace \* > > **And how about freckles. Do asian people have freckles?** > > Steal your wife or daughter’s Cosmo or Glamour, and find Lucy Liu’s Revlon ad. She’s got some freckles. > > I think she’s all Chinese, ethnically speaking, but I’m not absolutely sure. I only have doubts about it because I’m Asian, and I’m surrounded by Asians, and neither I nor anyone else here has freckles. The only Asian kids I’ve met that had freckles were siblings who were part Irish from their father’s side. \*\* It’s not common, but some Japanese have freckles, including a good friend of mine (and all her ancestors are Japanese). I don’t think it’s categorized as a disease, but osteoporosis is more common among caucasians. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/36 "2001-01-11T09:18:30Z")
AFAIK, AIDS only affects members of the human race. But I don’t think that’s what the OP meant. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/37 "2001-01-11T13:30:36Z")
Freckles are most assuredly not a disease, or even a blemish. It is a signal, much like other species, of the marked genetic superiority of the freckled. Our society’s fear of freckled represents the inferior beings alarm at the representative of evolutionary advance. With the arrival of Pinto Power, the _ubermensch_ will become a reality. Hijacking threads will, of course, be illegal. Robin Williams will stop making gooey, ucky movies and all the lawyers will be shot. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/38 "2001-01-11T13:46:33Z")
That Lucy. Oye gevalt. Not only does my 9 year old Korean daughter wanna be just like her, but I WANNA be just like her. \. 😃 Cartooniverse p.s. My son has a few freckles on his face, he’s 100% Korean blood too, like daughter. ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/39 "2001-01-11T13:53:44Z")
what about sunburn? Can everyone be sunburnt or is it simply the melanin- depraved? ---
**Author:** ![BunnyGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@BunnyGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BunnyGirl)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385/40 "2001-01-11T14:09:10Z")
> [@](#): > > Sickle cell anemia is most common in people whose ancestors came from parts of Africa, Saudi Arabia, India and the Mediterranean region. People of South American, Central American or Cuban origin may be affected as well. Just FYI. See link: [http://www.pacific-attitude.com/gw/medifocus/medifocus66.html](http://www.pacific-attitude.com/gw/medifocus/medifocus66.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-diseases-or-disorders-that-are-racially-specific/48385.md?page=1)