Greetings,
When I first began researching my Azorean heritage it was to find physiological
tendencies among the Azorean people. I first came across Machado Joseph disease
aka stumbling disease. It seems to be mainly among Azoreans and Flores has one
of the highest incidences but I remember that there had been at least 1 case in
some one from Japan. It's been at least 6 years since I did that research and
I'm sure there's much more info now. I do remember that the high incidence was
attributed to the amount of inbreeding on Flores. I don't remember if Corvo
also had the high amount although it would seem probable.
I do know that in my own family, which has cousin marriages in several of my
lines, most of my siblings and I inherited a "leaky mitral heart valve" from
my Mother. All of my moms people were from Sao Jorge. There are 6 of us.
There's also a prevalence of diabetes and lung cancer. The lung cancer is
mainly in the women in my family and when I looked up my MTDNA it's one of the
main types afflicted with lung cancer.Osteo arthritis has been horrible for the
men in my family but not the women. Rh factor has killed quite a few babies in
my family and I wonder how prevalent it is among Azoreans. This information
doesn't make me fearful but rather I find it valuable information to use to my
advantage. For instance, while I've never been too overweight the older I've
become the heavier I've become....when I found my ggrandmother, Catarina
Moreira Cabrals death record in Feb 2010 and found out she died at a fairly
young age of diabetes, it gave me the incentive to drop 40 pounds in 1 years
time. I would have remained complacent without that info. So, I do think
knowing the tendencies of our ancestral health is very important!
I didn't know about the bi-polar schizophrenia problem until I saw Debra's
email and I find that very interesting to know. I think we can all benefit from
this type of knowledge.
Best regards to all,
Nancy Jean Baptista
researching:
Sao Jorge for de Sousa Pereira, Texeira Baptista, da Silveira, Enos,
Bettencourt, de Quadros, Vieira and Oliveira
Pico for de Castro, Cardosa, Furtado, da Silva
Faial for Abreu and Goulart
Santa Maria for Cabral, Coelho, Moreira and Andrade
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