Telegraph "Genetic 'magic bullet' cures have proven a 'false dawn'
Leading scientist Prof Steve Jones has claimed that the hope that genetic
research could provide a cure for a host of common illnesses has proved a "false
dawn".
The front page headlines of the Telegraph written by Richard Alleyne and Kate Devlin described the famous geneticist Steve Jones as making an about turn on the value of the human genome research.
Undoubted the research is of fundamental interest to science, however the geneticist is quoted as saying that "the belief that a few genes held the key to ridding the world of conditions such as cancer and diabetes had proved to be 'plain wrong' ". Professor Jones said he was one of a number of "renegade" scientists who were beginning to question the research.
The McCarrison Society would be one of his renegades. When the Human Genome was published we held a conference in epigenetics and genomics at which Professor Ted Tuddenham (Royal Free, Haematology - then at the Royal Post Graduate Medical School) gave a paper to the Society, in which he showed that the gene code for the 7 coagulation factors in humans was much the same as it was for the puffer fish whose genome dates back 450 million years. He said the rise in death from heart disease - coagulation of the blood - was not the unchanged genes but a bad diet operating on ancient genes.
[It was clear to anyone with common sense that the idea which Jones describes "that a few genes held the key to ridding the world of conditions such as cancer and diabetes had proved to be "plain wrong". was pretty obvious] Last century heart disease rose from a rarity to no 1 killer. Similarly cancer of the prostate, colon and breast rose. Yet Africans and Japanese had little of these diseases. Nonetheless when they moved to the US both sets of people had children who acquired the US diseases. So it is not genes but nutrition and envirnment. Of course one person may be more susceptible than another and that wil be due thir different gene make up and also to their past nutritional history, even before birth.
That view of diet being a major driver of heath and disease of course dates back to Sir Robert Mccarrison's studies in India early last century.
It is unbelievable that Western Governments refuse to confront this situation. There is simply no excuse for the lack of realisation of the need for a revision of the food system to place it firmly on the principle of nutrition and health.
Professor Jones is robust in his comments He is quoted as saying "We have wandered into a blind alley and it might be better that we come out of it and start again."
He is right but it is not just research that is needed, it is long past time for action and that is especially true of the rise in mental ill-health.
Graham Rose in the Sunday Times wrote in 1972 on our studies on the loss of essential fats in the diet required for the brain which Andrew Sinclair and I had just published. In reviewing this and the book I wrote that year, he said - unless something was done to correct the food system, "We would become a race of morons" Mental ill health has now overtaken all other burdens of ill health in the UK at £77 billion in 2007 which is greater than cancer and heart disease combined. Obesity which everyone including the Government talks about only costs about £2-£4 billion. They do not talk about the mental health problem.
Another obvious landmark in research is that there have been striking advances in cystic fibrosis, and phenylketonuria which led to brain damage. Children with CF now live to about 40 whereas 40 years ago life-expectancy was to their teens. The children with PKU have been protected from severe mental decline. The greatly enhanced quality of life of children born with these diseases has not come from the human genome project, it has come from nutritional and health management.
There is a stunning mental block about the health of the brain and its special nutrient requirements. With the present incompetence, now blatantly apparent from actions by leaders of major financial institutions of this country I wonder if that Graham Rose prediction has not already come to pass!?