...is still occurring in Europe today.
The disorder is Dupuytren's disease, which is also called "viking hand disease" and "Dupuytren's contracture." It affects older people and is aggravated by diabetes. It causes thickening of tissue in the palm of the hand, which results in fingers curling in. Right now, there's no cure, although it can be treated by using various methods to break up the thickened tissue. Unfortunately, it comes back.
It also runs in families.
Including mine.
And now they have identified three major risk factors. Two of the three have been confirmed to be...Neanderthal genes. They aren't sure on the third.
But even after all of these generations, people are still getting a disease inherited from Neanderthal's. How?
Dupuytren's disease almost never affects anyone younger than 50. A lot of cases are mild and never require any kind of treatment. It's essentially cosmetic lumpiness in the palm. Even those that are may not impact the person's ability to live.
So, it doesn't affect reproductive fitness in any way. There's zero selection pressure against it. Which allows it to survive.
It's also possible that it is associated with some kind of beneficial trait, such as an immune system trait that helps protect us from certain diseases. We don't know yet.
But this speaks to just how conserved a deleterious trait can be if it doesn't affect your ability to have kids.
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