Thanksgiving is National Family Health History Day

A generic direct-to-consumer test box With Black Friday advertised low prices, are you purchasing Ancestry.com or 23andMe for all your relatives? If so, you soon may be one of the estimated 100 million consumers who will have direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing by 2021.1 With improved technology and increased profits, consumer-directed companies promote easy and affordable tests for both ancestry and health information. However, both the general public and the health care provider community need to be aware of the potential utility and limitations of such tests. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which promotes health and quality of life, and the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates the manufacturers of genetic tests and has approved certain tests such as Parkinson’s disease and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease for the commercial market, genetic tests are not a suitable substitute for a traditional health care evaluation. Medical exams that include conventional laboratory tests like blood chemistry and lipid profiles are a more appropriate starting point for diagnosing diseases and assessing preventive measures. In fact, a critical assessment tool for evaluating your risk factors for inherited medical conditions and diseases is a family conversation. You know that your family members share genes, but do you know that common behavior, such as exercise habits and what you eat, as well as where you live and ...
Source: The Cornflower - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Blog Consumer Health From the GMR Source Type: news