The At-home genetic testing has become more widely available for over a couple of decades. It has also provided us with remarkable for who we are, where we come from and what the future holds for our health. It has also provided the science and technology with invaluable data and a lot of it.
Millions of people around the globe are working on cleaning the insides of their cheeks in their living rooms in expectancy of improving their familial health. Armed with the genetic profiles of these voluntary test subjects. The researchers are beginning to pick out a more subtle understanding of the conditions that have long defied medical insight, no need mentioning about discovering the new ones.
The researchers are also utilizing the data for refining or entirely new treatments for the diseases that science had since announced untreatable. Since then the prospect of curing incurable conditions seems to be closer than it has ever been.
The more such genetic testing becomes “direct-to-consumer” as the more it becomes accessible to the general public the more the data researchers would have to work on it. With all that data is surely expected to come as an additional investment. along with this investment, it is sure that a rapid progress towards combatting diseases; not in just what the test can uncover but in when.
The Disease Report Cards
We are all living in a world where a newborn baby could be sent to home with a hospital blanket and a knitted cap: the parents could leave with a cost-effective yet a genetic profile of their child. Amit Khera, a cardiologist, and researcher at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts calls this a polygenic score, or more colloquially, a genetic report card of sorts.
“Where I see this going is that at a young age you’ll basically get a report card,” Khera told the MIT Technology Review. “And it will say for these 10 diseases, here’s your score. You are in the 90th percentile for heart disease, 50th for breast cancer, and the lowest 10 percent for diabetes.”
Can you imagine: A roadmap of risk for your child’s health. Not only for the sake of your child’s health or for the upcoming years but for the child’s entire life.
As soon as we uncover more links between our genes and our selves,- everything from the earwax consistency to personality quirks to taste aversions, we would be able to predict a lot more about the child’s entire life.
The genetic risk for a number of conditions could be mitigated by an environment, lifestyle, and the other factors over which we can make use of some control. On the other hand, the risk of the diseases like Type II diabetes is currently adaptable; that there are more than one or two genes that we need to keep an eye on. The genetic numbers of the culprits behind the certain diseases are not in the dozens but hundreds.
Genetic Reports: Is it Really Worth The Risk?
The humans have thousands of genes that are in varying positions in our genome. When it comes to assessing the risk, the presence of genes we know are involved in certain conditions is most probably found balanced against the others, the number is usually in percentages. As soon as more genes are identified, as being linked to certain conditions, these predictions are likely to become more precise.
It could be that by the time we may expect a genetic report card in our childhood but on the other hand, the options for treating the age-related diseases may mean that our risk score hardly troubles us at all. Moreover, between the now and then, there would be a great deal of uncertainty. Looking to read more? Read here.