Are all races the same on the inside?
Question
Growing up, we're all told "Black people, white people - we're all the same on the inside". So why are there some diseases that black people get more than white people and vice versa. Are we all the same inside?
Leon, Kensington
Answer
** Definitive **
Name: David, Watford
Qualification: My daughter is studying to become a geneticist and I go over it with her every week!
Answer: We're not all the same inside. It all goes back millions of years ago with evolution when we started to travel around the world. Millions of years ago, we all had a certain gene pattern, but over the years these genes have naturally mutated. When you have populations sticking on the same continent, if you have two people will exactly the same genetic make-up and they both have this recessive gene, they will both suffer from the same disease. This is why in certain populations, they are more likely to pick up diseases. As the populations move about, it doesn't mean people suffer from the same disease because they are, say, Afro-Caribbean. It's because they have come across someone else who also has that recessive gene. This is the same reason that in-breeding is so dangerous.