Iron Deficiency Anemia in Two Prehistoric American Indian Skeletons: a Dietary Hypothesis

Abstract

Two prehistoric adult skeletons exhibiting pathological bone changes resembling those of hemolytic anemia were examined to determine the nature of these changes. Our findings show that abnormal hemoglobin variants responsible for these disorders do not exist in modem day American Indian natives. On this basis, it is very unlikely that their predecessors possessed the genes for these variants. A condition known as porotic hyporostosis similarto those bony changes produced by hemolytic disorders occur in high incidence in neighboring Anasazi people, andit has been found that the condition results from a lack of iron and protein in their diet. Since the Evans Mound people (reported on here) subsisted on a similar diet, it is suggested that these pathological changes are also the result of a dietary deficiency