Why Northern Europeans Get Pernicious Anemia (Vit B12 Deficiency) A Hypothesis Involving Peat Fuel

[McCamy Taylor]

This one is pretty easy to follow. What did people in ancient Scandinavia and the British Isles use for fuel. Peat. Peat fire is loaded with lung irritants and carcinogens.

The incomplete combustion that occurs during smouldering peat fires means that they are responsible for more substantial atmospheric and air quality impacts than vegetation fires. In addition to emissions of direct (CO2, CH4) and indirect (CO1) GHGs, they are the source of toxic compounds (e.g. benzene, hydrogen cyanide) and also high levels of small particulates (PM2.5—particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 µm).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4874413/

The above is talking about widlfires, but if you are an stone age human who burned peat in your cave or hut because the Bog gave it to you to keep you warm in the long cold Northern Winter (and you were so grateful that you regularly gave human sacrifices to the Bog) then you got to breathe the equivalent of cigarette smoke every day of your life. That means lung cancer risk.

So, what does Vit B12 have to do with cancer? Easy. If your natural levels of B vitamins are low, cancer has a harder time growing. That is the principle behind the chemotherapy agent methotrexate.

Here is a study from Norway that has led some doctors to declare high dose Vit B12 and Folic acid "dangerous"

Folic acid and B12 supplementation was associated with a 21% increased risk for cancer, a 38% increased risk for dying from the disease, and an 18% increase in deaths from all causes.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4874413/

This was far from a perfect study. This was a study of "heart patients" meaning these folks are more likely than the general population to have been heavy smokers. Interestingly, it was done in a Scandinavian country where there are more likely to be people with the disease pernicious anemia--a condition that causes folks to stop absorbing dietary Vit b12 in middle age, leading to neuropathy, anemia, dementia and finally death. Slow death.

Lung cancer death, on the other hand, is relatively quick.

So, for primitive Northern Europeans who relied upon peat fire, developing an essential B vitamin deficiency in middle life may have prolonged that life, allowing the village elders more time to pass down the tribes lore and wisdom. Humans, with their long lives (compared to most rodents) and menopause (allows women to live longer) and language (essential if you are going to pass down wisdom) are a species that thrived because of lore sharing. Sort of like some water mammals--whales, Orca. Meaning if you can squeeze five more years of life from a lung cancer victim through a nutritional deficiency, the tribe prospers.

[bottomofthehill]

1. This makes me sad

I love the smell of a peat fire. I occasionally throw a few briquettes on the wood fire in my fireplace for the smell I will now stop.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. The random briquettes of peat

won't harm you, really. Keep on doing it and enjoy the smell. Plus, did you notice the apparent protection from cancer?

[Backseat Driver]

3. Which the lesser of two evils?

Deficiency versus immortal cell line (cancer). Very interesting theory on ancient health issues brought forward into the modern ages by genetics and SNPs.