4 ms·
Has anyone used this and found it useful? It seems awesome from a geeky point of view but I'm still having a hard time understanding the value of it.
by sachitgupta 16y ago
Has anyone used this and found it useful? It seems awesome from a geeky point of view but I'm still having a hard time understanding the value of it.
- Alex3917 16y agoBasically it tells you whether you have the most common mutations of the breast cancer gene and the Parkinson's gene, each of which means an 80% chance of getting that disease. It also tells you whether you have the most common mutations of the diabetes gene, which means that your risk of getting diabetes goes from 20% to 30%. Beyond that everything else just tells you that your risk of some obscure disease has gone from .1% to .15% or from .1% to .08%. So if you find out that you have one of the big three things they test for then there are things you would want to start doing to reduce your chances of actually getting those diseases, but if you've already been tested for those things then it's just for entertainment. In general though the tests are much less accurate than the ones you would get from a doctor because they only do a couple of the most common mutations, so if you want to use your DNA for making health decisions then you still need to make an appointment with a clinical geneticist who specializes in whatever you think you might have or be at risk for. (E.g. breast cancer, metabolic deficiencies, etc.)