Are there any diseases or disorders that are racially specific?

[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.

[Sunspace]

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My father has it. His little fingers are so curled that he can’t grip things with them at all.

[Diceman]

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.

[BornDodgy]

*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

[BornDodgy]

*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

[mbh]

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.

[Kent_Clark]

*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.

[Lance_Turbo]

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.

[tisiphone]

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 if you want to know more.

:steps off soapbox:

Carry on . . .

Tisiphone

[curious_george]

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

[curious_george]

National Rosacea Society

works.

[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.)

[Geek_Mecha]

*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.

[evilbeth]

*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.

[Ace_Face]

*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.

[The_Ryan]

AFAIK, AIDS only affects members of the human race.
But I don’t think that’s what the OP meant.

[elucidator]

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.

[Cartooniverse]

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. <deep sigh>.

Cartooniverse

p.s. My son has a few freckles on his face, he’s 100% Korean blood too, like daughter.

[TwistofFate]

what about sunburn? Can everyone be sunburnt or is it simply the melanin- depraved?

[BunnyGirl]

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