Heritability & Inbreeding

In a study performed on Swedish twins, researchers found the estimated heritability rate for Alzheimer's disease to be .74. They also found that the heritability rate for dementia to be .43, which is generally one of the beginning signs of Alzheimer's disease.
A heritability rate of .74 is very high, meaning that an individual has a very large chance of passing this disease on to their offspring.

Inbreeding would have a significant effect on Alzheimer's disease. Since it does have a high heritability rate, inbreeding would cause substantial changes within a population. This could cause the prevalence of Alzheimer's to become much higher than the current rate right now.

What I learned from the paper

After reading this paper, I realized how FFI and Alzheimer's are related diseases. Before reading this paper, I had never even heard of FFI. Both of these diseases are devistating diseases that effect many peoples lives across the world. By studying protein folding, we will hopefully, one day be able to understand what exactly causes these diseases to occur.

It is important for doctors to know and understand evolution. When they are making a diagnosis of an illness, they need to be able to understand how exactly the illness is affecting their patient at the current stage and also how the disease can evolve in the future.

What I Learned From The Paper

Fatal Famalial Insomnia and Alzheimers Disease are fundamentally similar in many ways and the paper made me realize that. The protein misfolding of prions in FFI and the discussion paper made me realize how fundamentally tied they are. Although they produce effects, the general base for how these diseases happen is incredibly similar. Evolution is absolutely curcial in understanding the underlying principles through which these diseases develop. Considering the hereditary nature of these conditions, evolution is curcial in understanding them.

Ultimately, like Brad, I agree that doctors need a good grasp of evolution so they can see patterns within diseases and have a knowledge on how a certain disease or condition can develop. Through this doctors can more effectively develop treatments are incredibly importing in helping treat and hopefully cure these conditions and improve the overall health and wellbeing of many people. Through evolutionary science, doctors will hopefully one day be able to develop something to stop and potentially reverse the damage done by these conditions.

Jeremiah

What I leanred from the paper

The paper on FFI helped me to see the similarities between AD and FFI. It showed that there are more diseases that are caused by protein mis-folding than just AD. The similarity between the two showed just how much of an impact protein folding has on the development of a person. After I answered the questions I learned that evolution does play a role in these diseases. When I first learned about both of these diseases I did not think evolution had much of a role, but now I understand that it has an impact on the development of these diseases and the heredity of them.

I think a doctor needs to know about evolution becuase a doctor needs to understand that it affects how diseases are going to develope and how they are going to be inherited from generation to generation. It is important that they understand what causes a disease and if evolution has a role in its cause because that could help them understand its heredity and how it may affect a person. They also should understand evolution becuase it is the basis for all of biology. If they do not understand or know about evolution then they do not have any basis for everything they have learned before. It is crutial that a doctor know about evolution to be effective at their job.

Brad