Why does Peru have the shortest citizens in South America? This is what genetics and nutrition say
[ad_1]
The organization NCD Risk Factor Collaboration revealed, in its 2019 study, that Peruvians They have the shortest height in all of South America. With an average height of 1.66 meters for men and of 1.54 meters for womenthe country is located in the last position in the region, which contrasts significantly with Brazilwhich leads the ranking with 1.75 meters in men and 1.61 meters in women.
Although this information could have been considered anecdotal, behind this premise lies shortage of public policies and even research at the national level.
Specialists affirm that, among 80% and 90% of the height What an individual can have is conditioned by his genetic load and the rest by the environment that surrounds him. However, in the case of Peru, there is an element that changes the development of its citizens.
In 2020, the Sinc agency announced that, according to a genetic study carried out in Metropolitan Limait was found that a mutation of FBN1 gene would be responsible for the low height of the Peruvians.
This variant is found exclusively in people of native american ancestrySoumya Raychaudhuri, lead author of the report and researcher in the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. As is known, a large percentage of Peruvians have indigenous roots.
This means that each copy of the gene was associated with a decrease in height by approximately 2.2 centimeters. If an individual had two copies of the variant, they were 4.4 centimeters shorter.
For Fui Barca, professor of Human Medicine at the Southern Scientific University, We still need to know more about which genes could be decisive for Peruvians.
“In other parts of the world they are precisely looking for these genetic changes. In the future it could be predicted with certainty, in a little one or newborn, what would be your size,” he mentions in an interview with Infobae Peru.
“This way the follow-up could be managed more individually, in such a way that we could say that a patient can reach 1.70 cm, but we see that the growth he is having is going to be 1.65 cm. So, although it is within the normal range, it can be inferred that there is something that is affecting those five centimeters that are missing,” he adds.
Barca also comments that another cause of a person having a small stature is a deficiency in the production of growth hormone.
“That is why in the evaluation we do we see the size of the parents, mainly, the ideal is even to see that of the siblings, the grandparents, to see if there is an important genetic component that may be causing these people to have the size below normal,” he explains.
For patients who have deficits in growth hormoneYes, you can be given injections to remedy this problem. However, this is not a treatment that can be offered to all people who have short stature, warns the geneticist of the Southern Scientific University.
“Although our height is below the world average, there are clear definitions to say when a person has a short height and, therefore, when we have to start studying and looking for that cause and if it is within the group of pathologies”, he maintains.
The other 20% that determines a person’s height is the environment that surrounds them and within this component is the feeding. Although the influence is smaller compared to the geneticthe nutrition is an important element in the development of children and adolescents and that can determine their future in many ways.
Nutritionist Abel Falcón remembers that growth of a person It occurs during childhood, especially in the first three years of life, and in adolescence, which is when the well-known ‘growth spurt’ arrives.
In these years, diet is essential to determine if enough calcium is provided for bone growth and protein for bone growth. develop muscle mass.
“The National Demographic Family Health Survey It tells us that there is a prevalence of more or less than 7% of children with low birth weight. It no longer only involves the child from the moment he is born, but also from the moment he is in the maternal womb. The mother is not fed well enough to cover the calories this baby needs to grow inside the womb. So, at least in the rural part, the infant grows up short and underweight,” she argues.
This condition could worsen if acute diarrheal diseases, The specialist warns, since electrolytes and zinc can be lost.
“We also have incidents that in Peru, in the rural part, there are almost 21% of children who have chronic malnutrition in the first five years of life. If you already have one chronic malnutrition“They do not receive sufficient amounts of protein, energy or minerals, so they will reach adolescence with a short stature,” he says.
In addition, anemia has also been presented as a challenge for Peru. “When a child has anemia, it affects their height. That cannot be recovered. No matter how much milk you drink, no matter how much sport you do, you cannot recover,” said Falcón.
Falcón focuses on a transversal problem of everything that surrounds growth: family economy. In Peru, not all family groups have the same financial conditions and this affects the access they can have to better nutrition.
The specialist comments that in the city there may be a great variety of foods, but in rural areas sometimes only what is harvested and the few animals that are raised are available.
“For example, in the jungle it is more common to get River fish as the main meat food that suddenly beef or chicken. In the mountains, what is most abundant are tubers, potatoes, legumes, sweet potatoes and cassava. There is not a great variety,” he laments.
Although the State continues to implement educational talks for parents about how to avoid anemia or how to cover the necessary proteins in the diet, most likely this will not be enough due to the poverty situation in which they find themselves.
“What you usually see in these workshops is that the mother comes, who is from a very precarious situation, she does not even have a home with water and sanitation, nor can they have a place where to do your needs. A mother comes with three or four children and they are all malnourished,” he says.
“When you do these workshops and tell them to consume blood with chicken or beef, they say: but I don’t have the money to get these foods, I can give rice with stews and I don’t have the money to buy a portion of chicken every day. That part is foreign to our intervention. There what should be seen is a better Family planning and provide more Job opportunities in that sector so that it can develop better economically,” he added.
According to Fui Barca, there are specific treatments being developed for some genetic conditions such as achondroplasia, one of the most common skeletal dysplasias. For example, for more than two years, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Voxzogo, the BioMarin company’s drug for people who have this condition.
The drug can only be used for children under 5 years old, but it is still an important advance for this field of science.
Therefore, we would be seeking to continue down this path in order to help more and more patients. “For many people who have a size with a specific genetic change, over time we will have on hand these treatments that we call personalized or precision,” she explained.
However, in addition to waiting for progress laboratory scientists, The geneticist stressed that research must continue within the National territory
“It is important to expand these studies so that we do not focus only on the fact that the environment is what is causing the low stature, Furthermore, that wrong measures are not taken from a public health point of view,” he pointed out.
In conclusion, although it may be curious that Peruvians have the smallest height of all South America, In reality there are deficiencies that do not allow us to develop to our full potential.
The specialists interviewed by Infobae Peru They insist on more research and improving the financial situation of the country’s poorest families. Thus, we will be able to know not only why we look a certain way, but also the health problems that afflict the most vulnerable population and how we can solve them.
[ad_2]
