Provided By Terence in Spain:
“Scotland – the mainland around Aberdeen, the Orkney and Shetland Islands – has the highest risk (of MS]. The best explanation is that this reflects the genetic background because those are areas where there is a very high influence of Nordic genes, probably delivered by the Vikings, as I understand it they were in the habit of leaving behind their genetic material in the most generous way.
Alastair Compston, professor of neurology and head of the department of clinical neurosciences at Cambridge University.
Other regions of high MS prevalence around the world were settled by Scottish immigrants. During the 18th and 19th centuries The Highland Clearances forced displacements of the population of the Scottish Highlands leading to mass emigration mainly to Canada, the United States of America, and Australia. In the USA British colonies were settled all along the US east coast, particularly Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North and South Carolina and later Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. Americans can thank these Scottish settlers for the Rev. Elijah Craig, Bourbon whiskey, “Blue Grass” music, paper-mills, and MS! During the English Civil War in the 1600s, Scots mercenaries from both sides were transported and the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745 also saw many Scots transported. A few hapless souls were kidnapped by pirates who sold them as slaves to work on plantations in the West Indies.
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