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Arctic Inuit, Native American adaptations to cold and body fat distribution
- cf100clunk 5y agoOdd to see Inuit pluralized with a trailing s. FWIW, they are referred to as "the Inuit" in Canada. EDIT: I see from the document gwern posted that "Inuits" does not appear in it, only in the HN title.
- cf100clunk 5y agoFurther, to be pedantic, it seems needless to call them the Arctic Inuit as they only live in the Arctic.
- mrfusion 5y agoSo far …
- loufe 5y agoPedantically that's incorrect. Some Inuit communities live far below the arctic circle, which technically makes them non-arctic Inuit.
- qiskit 5y agoThen it should only be Inuit since I'm assuming the Inuit outside of the arctic also have these ancient genes. The title makes it seem like only the inuit who live in the arctic have these genes. But I doubt that's the case.
- Turing_Machine 5y agoSince we're being pedantic, it should be pointed out that they are not all "Inuit" by any means. Inuit is primarily a term used in Canada. In Alaska, besides the Native American tribes ("Indians") that also live in some of the same areas, there are Inupiat, Yupik, and Aleut. The Inupiat are fairly closely related in culture and language to the Canadian Inuit, but the Yupik and Aleut are considerably further apart in terms of language. Calling a Yupik an "Inuit" is sort of like calling an Italian "French" just because they both speak a Romance language. They tend to not like that very much. :-)
- astrange 5y ago> In Alaska, besides the Native American tribes ("Indians") A twist on this is that even though Native American sounds more correct (doesn't imply being from India, is longer and bureaucratic), they'd actually rather be called Indians. It helps to claim it's short for Indigenous.
- Turing_Machine 5y agoFor that matter, I know Inupiat and Yupik who live in Los Angeles. :-)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- eloff 5y agoI think it's useful for people who are unfamiliar with who the Inuit are.
- giuliomagnifico 5y agoOkay I corrected the title. Sorry I’m Italian and I thought: one Inuit, two Inuits. My mistake!
- helloooooooo 5y agoInuit is plural; Inuk is singular
- Enk1du 5y agoand Inuak is dual (in the Baffin Island dialect[0], if I extrapolate correctly - a little knowledge is a dangerous thing) for when you need to talk about 2 people, because why _wouldn't_ you need a dual case. Wonderful language. Wish I had more tuits. [0] Inuit Languages and Dialects by Louis-Jacques Dorais, Nunavut Arctic College, 2003
- astrange 5y agoArabic also has dual cases. A strange thing I've found is that while ICU has all kinds of support for proper localization of plurals if you have a number in your UI, if there's no number then you still have to write `if (n == 1) singular else plural;`. Is that really serving people who want a dual/few/many distinction?
- gwern 5y agoFulltext: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5430617/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5430617/ (2016)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- sigzero 5y agoCan I get that gene...please? lol
- globular-toast 5y agoWhat for? Are you planning on having to survive periods of extreme famine and/or cold?
- alwillis 5y agoBecause people without such genes have to exercise more or take costly drugs or supplements to get their bodies to do the same thing.
- globular-toast 5y agoBut why would you want that? The only reason anyone (including Inuits) are going to burn fat is if you are in a caloric deficit and the only reason you put on fat is if you are in a caloric surplus. So unless you look forward to a life of yo-yo dieting, this won't do you any good. Since we have plenty of food it's better to only eat what you need to year round.
- yonaguska 5y agoExercising more has a lot more benefits than simply weight management. If you are not simply "surviving", I've come to the personal belief that exercise should be a higher priority than most would think. I place it up there with God, Family, and Country- since the benefits impact pretty much all aspects of my life. We are not built for sedentary lifestyles.
- jotm 5y agoYou can just use medicine, that's what it's for. Even salbutamol+caffeine works, there's also ephedrine, clenbuterol, and of course amphetamine at the high end. Sad that governments are doing their best to stop people from using medicine to solve their problems... you know, the reason why they were invented in the first place. But really, the best method is to eat less... not as simple as it sounds, but it's by far the best method to lose fat.
- FollowingTheDao 5y agoEven though I look Caucasian I have several Inuit genes from the Sami people, passed down from my mothers side. Will check later if I have these polymorphisms but I already carry the CPT1A gene changes linking me to the Inuit. Finding this in my genome changed my diet and changed my life.
- DoreenMichele 5y agoFinding this in my genome changed my diet and changed my life. I would be interested in hearing more on that if you are willing to share. (You can email me if you don't want to say it here.)
- wilkommen 5y agoI would also be interested to know more about that.
- tuomasj 5y agoYes, as a Sámi, I'd be interested to know more, desperately ;-)
- darebak 5y agoProbably some kind of keto/carnivore diet if I had to guess.
- FollowingTheDao 5y agoYes, but mostly all seafood and I eat berries as well. So it is not really either. I do not aim for ketosis of anything like that, mostly becasue my genetics protects me from it.
- golemiprague 5y ago
- rsync 5y agoAlthough it does not discuss Inuit specifically, the excellent book: _Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life_ [1] by Nick Lane discussed how mitochondria can be "geared" to lean one way or another when dealing with additional energy inputs. Which is to say, different mitochondrial DNA either leans toward generating additional heat or generating additional ATP (and, eventually, fat) when presented with surplus energy inputs. It appears the difference is subtle but you would expect it to manifest itself across very broad population surveys. On the other hand, if everyone is getting tremendous energy input surpluses it probably doesn't matter. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39001.Power_Sex_Suicide https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39001.Power_Sex_Suicide
- globular-toast 5y agoThe title here seems wrong. What does "burn more fat" even mean? Everyone is capable of burning 100% of their fat. The article instead seems to talk about generating heat from a specific type of body fat.
- giuliomagnifico 5y agoCorrect but since there's a characters limit in the title, I made a very small (and maybe not 100% accurate) excerpt. >a region in the genome containing two genes has now been scrutinized by scientists: TBX15 and WARS2. This region is thought to be central to cold adaptation by generating heat from a specific type of body fat, and was earlier found to be a candidate for adaptation in the Inuits.
- nonrandomstring 5y agoI started cold water sea swimming a few years ago. I always surfed and canoed in the summer, but started staying in the water through the winter (sometimes with 5mm wetsuit) . Where I am in the UK the winter temperature is about 7 degrees at the shoreline. I know nothing about genetics, in general or about my own genealogy, but apparently it can increase "brown fat" in some people, which burns energy in a different way. Maybe this ability is within all of us and can be switched on? Anyway I have found it easier to manage my weight as a result of cold water exercise.
- criticaltinker 5y agoHighly recommend reading about Wim Hof to anyone interested in this topic. He’s been the subject of quite a bit of research. > A 2014 assessment compared Wim Hof and his identical twin brother. The scientists had them practice Wim's breathing exercises, then exposed them to the lowest temperature that would not induce shivering. They concluded that, "No significant differences were found between the two subjects, indicating that a lifestyle with frequent exposures to extreme cold does not seem to affect BAT activity and CIT (cold-induced thermogenesis)."[28] Both had rises of 40% of their metabolic rates over the resting rate, compared to a maximum of 30% observed in young adults. However, their brown fat percentage—while high for their age—was not enough to account for all of the increase. The rest was due to their vigorous breathing, which increased the metabolic activity in their respiratory muscles. > One 2018 study of Wim Hof published in the journal NeuroImage used a combination of fMRI and PET/CT imaging, and found: forceful respiration results in increased sympathetic innervation and glucose consumption in intercostal muscle, generating heat that dissipates to lung tissue and warms circulating blood in the pulmonary capillaries. Our results provide compelling evidence for the primacy of the brain (CNS) rather than the body (peripheral mechanisms) in mediating the Iceman's [Wim Hof's] responses to cold exposure. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Hof https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Hof
- nonrandomstring 5y agoInteresting. So to clarify, would you say it's not the cold per se, but the fact that cold water swimming is just more strenuous and leads to more aerobic activity, which in turn burns more. The "brown fat" is a distraction/irrelevance?