I'd just like to add a little caution to risk factors for disease, although we've come along way you should certainly not take any results as absolute.
You'll find lots of legal notices with your results stating this as well, just so you don't freak out if you find something genetic that puts you into a risk group for a particular disease.
We have lots to learn still.
Oh found it, PBS recently did a show on this, check it out if your interested in the science of it.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0302/01.html
Here's a quote from a geneticist speaking on the reliability and accuracy of personal DNA tests:
Quote:
Q: The genetics associated with common diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes are very complex. How do companies quantify an individual's risk of getting one of these diseases? Which genetic markers are being used? Have they been extensively studied? Is the basic knowledge about the association between genes and disease really at the point where we can use that information to start predicting disease risk? Don't you think the general population, with its lack of genetic literacy and understanding, will misinterpret the significance of their results?
Anonymous
A: The fact is that we are still in the very early and foundational days of being able to reliably predict one's lifetime risk for common age-related diseases, e.g. cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease. Personally, I have serious concerns about the validity of the numbers being provided by Navigenics regarding one's lifetime percent chance for getting common age-related diseases (as shown on the NOVA segment). This is because for the various diseases they are testing, there are many different risk-conferring and protective gene variants, and it is the combination of all of these risk-conferring and protective gene variants that influence one's lifetime risk for late-onset common diseases. For most of these diseases, only one or two established genetic risk factors are known; the majority of risk/protective genetic factors involved have yet to be established.
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from:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/science...02/01-ask.html