Jewish Diseases

and Intellect

Jewish achievement cannot be gainsayed yet I promise not to use expressions like "Yiddishe Coup" and "Goyishe Coup" here. We have all heard those expressions, those of us who are Jewish. It is indeed, a simple and often aptly descriptive thing to say about some things and people but may just be our way of describing what is often obvious. After all, Jews with their small population are no more than 2-3% of the American population yet make up 50% of the top intellectuals (a study by Lipset and Rabb), 40% of ALL Nobel Prize winners in Math and Science and Economics, 20% of all university professors in the U.S., 40% of the partners and top lawyers in the NY and DC law firms, and most of the directors and producers of the top films in Hollywood, 59% of the writers (directors and producers) of the top 50 grossing movies, 39% of the winners of the National Association of Science and 50% of the world's chess champions and 25% of the all Turing awards, a prestigious award from the "Association of Computing Machinery" - of which I am also a member.

The list of music and musical productions by Jews and in show businesses is so long that it would take a whole book to list them all - so I won't. None of this is a secret. Neither is the knowledge that Jews score higher on IQ tests than any other ethnic/cultural group. Well, what do you think? Nature or nurture?

There is now ample evidence, though admittedly more research needs to be done because in science we check and double check and triple check everything. A recent study however did come up with some remarkable results. There is a list of Jewish achievers that list will surprise you.

The are also the following Jewish IQ and genetic disorders.

"University of Utah researchers found a link between Ashkenazi intelligence genes and susceptibility to genetic disorders among the descendants of Eastern European Jews. According to the study, slated to appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Biosocial Science, Ashkenazim do better than average on IQ tests, scoring some 12-15 points above the test's mean value. But they also are more likely than any other ethnic groups to suffer from diseases such as Tay-Sachs (affecting 1 in every 2,500 Ashkanasi newborns), Gaucher's disease (Gaucher disease Type 1 is the most prevalent Jewish genetic disease, occurring in one in every 1,000 Ashkenazi Jews) and Niemann-Pick related conditions that can be debilitating and deadly. The new study hypothesizes that the genetic disorders could be the unfortunate side effects of genes that facilitate intelligence."

Chanan Tigay wrote an article for JTA on 6/07/2005 which describes the link between Ashkenazi intelligence and their susceptibility to certain genetic disorders - and most of us who are Jewish knew about this mixed bag anyway and it cites a report in the Journal of Biosocial Science that "Ashkenazim do better than average on IQ tests, scoring some * 12-15 * points above the test's mean value."

The downside is susceptibility to Tay-Sachs, Gaucher's disease and Niemann-Pick - and some other diseases of the mind and the body. Not mentioned is Jewish susceptibility to some of the other diseases, i.e. Cystic Fibrosis, Torsion Dystonia and Libid 1 disorders (which is described in by Steven Pinker, the renowned neuroscientist elsewhere - which I only remember from my memory of it.)

Tigay writes, "The new study hypothesizes that the genetic disorders could be the unfortunate side effects of genes that facilitate intelligence. But for some people, ascribing collective traits to entire ethnic groups - especially to European Jews - reminds them that the Nazis heaped a pile of supposed genetic characteristics on that continent's Jews and used the characteristics as a basis to exterminate them."

He says the researchers from that earlier study "say they had difficulty finding a journal that would publish their findings."

An interesting, but unproven hypothesis stated in the article by Tigay states, "Rabbi Arthur Green, dean of the Rabbinical School at Boston's Hebrew College, wondered whether the findings took into account all relevant factors in the development of Jewish intelligence. He noted that during the period in which the researchers believe the Jewish intelligence gene began to be selected, the majority Christian world was, in a sense, selecting against such a gene. In that same period of 1,600 to 1,800 years, Christian Europe was systematically destroying its best genetic stock through celibacy of priests and monks, he said."

A more recent study, The 2005 study Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence by Gregory Cochran, Jason Hardy, and Henry Harpending at the University of Utah

The following PDF elaborates upon the hypothesis that, "the unique demography and sociology of Ashkenazim in medieval Europe selected for intelligence. Ashkenazi literacy, economic specialization, and closure to inward gene flow led to a social environment in which there was high fitness payoff to intelligence, specifically verbal and mathematical intelligence but not spatial ability. As with any regime of strong directional selection on a quantitative trait, genetic variants that were otherwise fitness reducing rose in frequency. In particular we propose that the well-known clusters of Ashkenazi genetic diseases, the sphingolipid cluster and the DNA repair cluster in particular, increase intelligence in heterozygotes."

The study states: "We evaluate the hypothesis that the high intelligence test scores observed in the Ashkenazi Jewish population are a consequence of their occupation of a social niche over the last millennium that selected strongly for IQ. We summarize the evidence of high intelligence test scores in this population, approximately one standard deviation higher than the northwestern European average, and then the relevant social history. We suggest that there was an increase in the frequency of particular genes that elevated IQ as a by- product of this selective regime, which led to an increased incidence of hereditary disorders."

According to this study this high IQ and increased incidence of disorders only applies to Ashkenazim, the Eastern European Jews, and not to Sephardic and Oriental Jews from Arab countries and from Spanish areas.

"There are several key observations that motivate our hypothesis. The first is that the Ashkenazi Jews have the highest average IQ of any ethnic group, combined with an un- usual cognitive profile, while no similar elevation of intelligence was observed among Jews in classical times nor is one seen in Sephardic and Oriental Jews today."

.. "The second is that the Ashkenazim experienced very low inward gene flow, which created a favorable situation for natural selection." ..." The third is that they experienced unusual selective pressures that were likely to have favored increased intelligence. For the most part they had jobs in which increased IQ strongly favored economic success, in contrast with other populations, who were mostly peasant farmers. They lived in circumstances in which economic success led to increased reproductive success."

As noted in Steven Pinker, the rapid selection of a single trait is known to bring along deleterious byproducts is contributory to the higher disease rate. I know this problem exists in many Jewish families I know, including my own.

Tay-Sachs Disease

(Quote)

Tay-Sachs Disease Carrying Tay-Sachs disease may protect against tuberculosis (TB). In Ashkenazim populations, up to 11 percent of the people are Tay-Sachs carriers. During World War II, TB ran rampant in Eastern European Jewish settlements. Often, healthy relatives of children with Tay-Sachs disease did not contact TB, even when repeatedly exposed. The protection against TB that Tay-Sachs disease heterozygosity apparently offered remained among the Jewish people because they were prevented from leaving the ghettos. The mutant allele increased in frequency as TB selectively felled those who did not carry it and the carriers had children with each other. Genetic drift may also have helped isolate the Tay-Sachs allele, by chance, in groups of holocaust survivors. Precisely how lowered levels of the gene product, an enzyme called hexoseaminidase A, protect against TB isn't known.

Cystic Fibrosis Balanced polymorphism may explain why cystic fibrosis is so common- the anatomical defect that underlies CF protects against diarrheal illnesses, such as cholera.

Cholera epidemics have left their mark on human populations, causing widespread death in just days. In the summer of 1831, an epidemic killed 10 percent of the population of St. Louis, and in 1991, an epidemic swept Peru. Cholera bacteria causes diarrhea, which rapidly dehydrates the body and can lead to shock and kidney and heart failure. The bacterium produces a toxin that opens chloride channels in the small intestine. As salt (Na Cl) leaves the cells, water follows, in a natural chemical tendency to dilute the salt. Water rushing out of intestinal cells leaves the body as diarrhea.

In 1989, when geneticists identified the CF gene and described its protein product as a regulator of a chloride channel in certain secretory cells, a possible explanation for the prevalence of the inherited disorder emerged. Cholera opens chloride channels, letting chloride and water leave cells. The CFTR protein does just the opposite, closing chloride channels and trapping salt and water in cells, which dries out mucus and other secretions. A person with CF cannot contract cholera, because the toxin cannot open the chloride channels in the small intestine.

Carriers of CF enjoy the mixed blessing of a balanced polymorphism. They do not have enough abnormal chloride channels to cause the labored breathing and clogged pancreas of cystic fibrosis, but they do have enough of a defect to prevent the cholera from taking hold. During the devastating cholera epidemics that have peppered history, individuals carrying mutant CF alleles had a selective advantage, and they disproportionately transmitted those alleles to future generations. However, because CF arose in Western Europe and cholera in Africa, perhaps an initial increase in CF herterozygosity was a response to a different diarrheal infection.

(End Quote)

Torsion Dystonia is also a disease of Ashkanasi Jews. Those with it have an IQ of about 10 points higher than the rest of the population, although the disease is very painful. The following article vis-a-vis Torsion Dystemia is from the Center for Genetic Jewish Diseases:

(Quote)

Torsion Dystonia

The tragedy of dystonia, a disease affecting movement control, may be best described through the brief case history of a young girl. Her early development was quite normal, but at age six she complained of difficulty walking. Medical evaluation first revealed no explanation, and the problem was mistakenly considered psychological. However, her torsion spasms progressed and by age 10 she could hardly walk. At age 11, the dystonia was generalized, her limbs became rigid and contracted, and she had to rely on a wheelchair for mobility. By age 12, she required help for all her daily living activities; she could not feed or dress herself or get in or out of bed unassisted. However, her voice and her mind remained normal.

The earliest description of familial dystonia may have been in 1907 by a psychiatrist-in-training who reported on two brothers and a sister who were hospitalized for "hysterical" torsion spasms. One brother committed suicide in the institution, the sister eventually died of the disease, but the second brother was discharged after several years and later married and had an affected son and daughter.

Life expectancy for individuals with dystonia is usually normal. Some medications have been found to be useful in a proportion of patients, particularly children. Injections of certain drugs into contracting muscles in order to weaken them can be helpful in those who have dystonia limited to only one or two parts of the body. Brain surgery may be useful in some cases of severe intractable dystonia.

One inherited form of dystonia is more common in Ashkenazi Jews. This form of dystonia is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner. As with the girl described above, the disease generally appears between the ages of six and sixteen years, and progresses fairly rapidly. The sustained, twisting spasms may be limited to one limb at first but often spread to other limbs and the midsection. The mind is not affected and patients usually are intelligent and mature.

The disease can affect non-Jewish families as well, but at a much lower frequency. In 1997 the gene responsible for dystonia in the Ashkenazi Jewish population (as well as in seven non-Jewish families) was identified on chromosome 9. This gene has been excluded as the cause of dystonia from at least five non-Jewish patients, indicating the existence of at least one other gene causing dystonia in these patients. A disorder mimicking dystonia may also occur as a result of environmental causes, such as drug reaction, encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), or trauma to the head.

The children of an individual affected with dystonia due to mutations in the gene on chromosome 9 have a 50% chance of inheriting the gene mutation which causes the disease, but symptoms of dystonia occur in only 30% of individuals who inherit the dystonia gene mutation. Thus, although approximately 1 in 900 Ashkenazi Jews carries the dystonia gene mutation, only 1 in every 3,000 Ashkenazi Jewish individuals develops symptoms. Because symptoms of the disease are not always expressed, the disorder may occur in individuals with no previous family history.

One mutation in the gene appears to be the cause of torsion dystonia in almost all affected Ashkenazi Jews, and genealogical research has shown that this dystonia gene mutation in the Ashkenazi Jewish population came from a single mutation about 400 years ago. Genetic testing, including prenatal diagnosis, is therefore now available for Ashkenazi Jewish individuals.

(End Quote)

The most prevalent Jewish disease is Gauchers Disease. It presents itself in 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 12 Ashkanasi Jews is a carrier. (Type 2 disease is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder of infancy, similar to Tay-Sachs disease. Type 3 disease is a slowly progressive neurologic disease with survival into adulthood. The occurrence of type 2 or 3 Gaucher disease among Ashkenazi Jews is extremely rare, and the incidence of these subtypes is not increased beyond what is observed in other populations. - Those who have it, have the following symptoms: "...bone and joint pain, fractures, and other orthopedic problems. Involvement of the spleen and liver cause enlargement of these organs as well as blood abnormalities such as anemia, easy bruising, and impaired blood clotting.."

In addition to the above and higher IQs, the following diseases are also considered Jewish genetic diseases; that is, those diseases with a higher prevalence among Jews:

Bloom's Syndrome, Canavan Disease, Familial Dysautonomia, Fanconia Anemia, Gaucher Disease (mentioned above), Mucolipidosis IV, Niemann-Pick Disease (also mentioned above), Tay-Sachs Disease (mentioned above), and Torsion Dystonia (also mentioned above). In addition to which there is a higher incidence of Cystic Fibrosis, as mentioned above.

Hank Roth

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Today is Friday March 12, 2010