Finally, A Good Reason To Marry Your Cousin

Medical Daily has an article from April 13, 2017, about some people in Pakistan who are missing a key gene linked to heart disease:

Marrying your first cousin might raise a few eyebrows, but it also comes with some surprising health benefits. A new study suggests that first-cousin marriages could offer some protection against heart disease.

Scientists from universities worldwide have been working with the Center for Non-Communicable Diseases in Pakistan to collect blood samples from around the country. In a small fishing village on the coast of Pakistan, where first-cousin marriages are common, researchers found a small group of people were missing the APOC3 gene. This gene helps regulate metabolism and lipoproteins associated with heart disease in the body. People who were missing the gene had low triglyceride levels, and did not experience an increase in plasma triglycerides after a fattening meal, which is what usually happens.