The type 2 diabetes epidemic we are now witnessing among first- and second-generation Latinos (and in Mexico and South America), he says, may simply be nature's way of getting rid of populations that still carry the so-called thrifty gene a gene that is no longer necessary for survival in modern societies of abundance.
Fortunately modern medicine, for all its foibles, performs extraordinary feats every day and survival rates for all kinds of life-threatening health problems are better than ever.