My stocks are doing O.K., but my gene portfolio took a big hit recently. Doctors at Johns Hopkins announced that they have discovered a genetic mutation in Ashkenazi Jews that doubles the risk of colon cancer. Ashkenazi Jews are those with roots in Central and Eastern Europe. That covers most Jewish Americans, including me. Only 6% of Ashkenazi Jews are thought to carry the defective gene, but that's enough to make it, according to the New York Times, "the most common known cancer gene in a particular population." And colon cancer is just one disease for which Ashkenazi Jews seem to...
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