H F I is not a childhood disease anymore

The story of Myra

I am the oldest person I know of who has HFI. Hereditary fructose intolerance was once thought to be a childhood disease because all known cases in America were children. The original research of the disease was at the Cleveland Clinic, and today Boston University has that distinction. I never liked or ate sweets, no sugar, no fruit. The latest overseas research has been done by geneticists who seem to pinpoint a ‘bent’ gene to ancestors whose gene was mutated and when an HFI carrier combined his genes with those of another carrier a child born would sometimes have HFI. I am 71 this year. The youngest person I know with HFI is my nephew who is now nearly 40 although I have talked to people in other countries who are more familiar with HFI than Americans, especially Australians.