Would you want to know what diseases you are pre-disposed to?

[Phanuthier]

Asked this to a few here, but I thought I'd throw this out to gen pop.

Got this email from work a week or so ago and I don't know if I should take advantage of this:

An exciting new service will be available to X employees and their family members over the age of 18. You can now learn more about your health through personalized genetic analysis, offered through Navigenics, a personal genetics company.

How it works

With a simple DNA test, you can find out your genetic predisposition for a variety of common health conditions such as breast cancer, colon cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes, as well as sensitivities to a host of medications. Your results are completely confidential and secure and will not be shared with X or any other third party. This is a great way to augment your family history and can be especially helpful for adoptees, who many not have access to this information.

Navigenics only includes conditions that you can act on, so once you know your specific risks you can work with your doctor or a genetic counselor from Navigenics to learn how to prevent and/or detect these conditions early.


Cost

As a X employee, you and family members over the age of 18 can receive these services at a discounted fee of $299. (If you were to pursue these services on your own, the cost would be $1,000.) If you are among the first 200 people to sign up for genetic analysis, you will get an additional $100 discount—you will pay only $199.

Genetics are a powerful part of the next generation of healthcare, which will enable each of us to take control of our health and tailor our prevention strategies in an informed way that is unique to us. We encourage you to take advantage of this valuable service.

Would you want to know what you are pre-disposed to? Or would it make you paranoid wondering every smallest related symptom?

[Wookie]

I heard one person got it back. It said they were predisposed to suicide and they killed themselves that afternoon. Really makes you think.

[GreenLantern]

Not saying this is a re post but there is an interesting discussion going on in this thread about the same topic if I am not mistaken:

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=90347

You might be able to gain some insight there as well.

I personally would do this if I had the money laying around.

[To Be Quite Honest]

I'm predisposed to being annoying. Just ask my oldlaidee.

[Russic]

meh why not? Not sure how much I'd spend though. I suppose it could be useful if you had a predisposition to something avoidable you could take precautions against it. That being said I'm not sure I'd spend $200 on it ... I'd probably rather just look at my more recent family tree.

[MoneyGuy]

Think of the impact this could have on rates for life and other forms of personal insurance.

[Draug]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Think of the impact this could have on rates for life and other forms of personal insurance.

Hehe... You aren't called MoneyGuy for nothing!!!

You raise an interesting point though. What about the effects on Healthcare? Really, it could evolve similar to the current issues around Euthanasia, but multiplied by a huge factor. "Sorry, you cant be on the liver donor list because you have a 75% chance of getting diabetes in the next 5 years". The implications are pretty scary, really.

As for the original question, I would probably find out my genetic dispositions if I had the opportunity. That information doesn't change reality, just my current perception of it.

[missdpuck]

Gruesome as it is I'd like to know about Alzheimer's.
My dad passed away from lymphoma, and my nephew from leukemia. All my other blood relatives have lived to be pretty ancient. But Alzheimer's scares me most of all. There are always ads on the radio here stating that it often actually starts in your forties, and that if you know you're predisposed to it the effects can be lessened if you start treatment early. Wonder what the treatment is .

[Thor]

I stated my thoughts before on the accuracy of these tests, a lot of unknowns still about it, trying to put percentages on your likely hood to contract or develop any number of diseases.

That being said, I'm getting this test done and becoming part of National Geographic's genographic project.

https://genographic.nationalgeograph...hic/index.html

[blankall]

I'm having this test done. I just received my kit in the mail.

https://www.23andme.com/store/

The kit that regularly goes for $500 was on sale for $100 a couple of weeks ago (I posted a thread on it), so I figured why not?

If in the not so distant future, this information is released to insurance companies etc.. I could be screwed. However, as a lawyer, I find this very very unlikely.