| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"stoney" |
| Date: |
08 Dec 2007 12:42:08 AM |
| Object: |
Evidence of TB Found in 500,000-Year-Old Fossil |
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100183286>1=10710
Evidence of TB Found in 500,000-Year-Old Fossil
Finding contradicts belief that disease only emerged several thousands
years ago
-- Robert Preidt
FRIDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) -- The oldest evidence of tuberculosis
has been discovered in a 500,000-year-old human fossil from Turkey, a
finding that contradicts the widely held belief that the disease
emerged only several thousand years ago, according to a team of
international researchers.
The discovery, made during investigation of the new specimen of the
human species Homo erectus, lends support to the theory that
dark-skinned people who migrated northward from low, tropical
latitudes produced less vitamin D, which can have a negative effect on
the immune system and the skeleton.
People with dark skin produce less vitamin D because the skin pigment
blocks ultraviolet light from the sun.
"The production of vitamin D in the skin serves as one of the body's
first lines of defense against a whole host of infections and
diseases. Vitamin D deficiencies are implicated in hypertension,
multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease and cancer," John
Kappelman, a professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at
Austin and a member of the international team, said in a prepared
statement.
This specimen, believed to be a male, had a series of small lesions
etched into the bone of the cranium. The shape and the location of the
lesions are characteristic of a form of TB that attacks the lining of
the brain.
The findings are published in the Dec. 7 issue of the American Journal
of Physical Anthropology.
Before antibiotics were available, doctors prescribed plenty of
sunshine and fresh air for TB patients.
"No one knew why sunshine was integral to the treatment, but it
worked. Recent research suggests the flush of ultraviolet radiation
jump-started the patients' immune systems by increasing the production
of vitamin D, which helped to cure the disease," Kappelman said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about
tuberculosis.
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