Faroese people
In 1995 the first Faroese patient with systemic primary carnitine deficiency (SPCD) was diagnosed. Later other patients were found, but nothing was done to find out if the illness was common or if something should be done about it. Not until 2008 when a young woman died just a few days after being diagnosed with SPCD (in the Faroes, the illness is named CTD), actions were finally taken by the Faroese health authorities. The young woman had not been treated, and this caused a big discussion about how to prevent this from happening again. Shortly after, all Faroese people in the Faroes were invited to take a blood sample for a small cost and get it screened for SPCD. Several persons with the illness were found and got treatment immediately. It is now known that several Faroese people have died a sudden death at a young age because of this illness. Around one third of the Faroese population has been screened for SPCD (with a blood sample), and scientists think that at least one of every 1000 inhabitants of the Faroes have the illness. There have also been found elderly people who have survived the illness without treatment. The treatment is to give the patients carnitine supplement. The German physician and scientist Ulrike Steuerwald, who has done research in the Faroe Islands for several years, has argued that the Faroese diet of red meat, like sheep meat and whale meat which contain high amounts of carnitine, may have protected many Faroese people from a sudden death at a young age from SPCD. The whale meat contains nutritions like carnitine, taurine and selenium. The concentration of selenium in raw fresh cod fillet and raw fresh pilot whale meat is 28 µg/100g and 185 µg/100g. The whale's blubber is rich in vitamin D, which around half of the elderly population and many amongst the younger generations in the Faroe Islands are lacking. Reasons for this can be changes from traditional food to pizza, chicken, etc. The fat of sea mammals provide excellent sources of vitamins A, D and E.