What’s up with Slovakia?

How did I end up here?

So I’m reading up on this weird chemical listed on my chewing gum called Phenylalanine….

I’m digging through various articles and figuring out that it’s a man made amino acid that tricks your brain into sensing sweetness. I hit Wikipedia and figure out it’s a component in artificial sweeteners like aspartame. I’m going on and on…finding it fairly fascinating and coming to the conclusion it’s probably something I want to limit. Then all of a sudden I’m reading about Phenylketonuria….which is basically a sensitivity to this chemical. The entry goes on, then there’s this breakdown on the occurrence based on regions of the world….and I’m struck with this:

“The mean incidence of PKU varies widely in different human populations. United States Caucasians are affected at a rate of 1 in 10,000.^[37] Turkey has the highest documented rate in the world, with 1 in 2,600 births, while countries such as Finland and Japan have extremely low rates with fewer than one case of PKU in 100,000 births. A 1987 study from Slovakia reports a Roma population with an extremely high incidence of PKU (one case in 40 births) due to extensive inbreeding”

Now I could give two shits about the neurotoxin in my gum and all I need to know is WTF is up with Slovakia???