23 and Me; How About You?

No news yet, but I’ll keep you posted. And no offense intended, but the day I go to a naturopath for medical information is the day I surrender my license to practice medicine… I trust my own relatively large knowledge base about genetics that I acquired in medical school and keep updated through my CME (Continuing Medical Education) much more. If I come up against a brick wall, I’ll consult a geneticist (like flyprof)!

ETA: Please stop blaming yourself for being (even partly) responsible for developing D. You did nothing to cause it! :slightly_smiling_face::heart:

Yes, Jim, there are all sorts of issues about releasing genomic information to those who are sequenced. I’m on a National Academy of Sciences panel to advise the veteran’s administration how to decide what genetic information to pay for, and I can tell you it is quite a problem. The panel has a lot of medical types (in contrast to me). Judging from some of the responses to this particular question I have to say that maybe those (generally doctors who do, after all, have a financial axe to grind) who object to giving out that information freely have a point. Most folks just don’t know how to interpret it. Genetic data can lead to a large number of unnecessary further diagnostic tests. On the other hand, I think that perhaps one of the best ways for folks to learn about what genetics means and doesn’t mean is to work through their own genome. The irony is that there are nowhere near enough genetic councilors to service all the folks who are likely to benefit from one. The “good” news is that there are really rather few genuinely actionable genetic variants at this point, particularly if one isn’t concerned with reproductive issues (e.g… I carry a nasty CS mutant allele, but that’s irrelevant, since I never had kids; more “interesting” is being heterozygous for the ApoE4 Alzheimer’s allele, but so far no problem).

All that said, I’d be perfectly happy to have my genome sequenced in connection with a Type I study, even if I didn’t get the information for my personal use.

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I tell our Genetics/Molecular Biology/Biochemistry students that I expect that in the next 10 years everyone will have had their genome sequenced. If the cost drops on a sort of "Moore’s Law) basis it will probably cost about $100 per run.

I agree that it’s the interpretation that will require the ongoing expertise.

Joel

If my medical practitioner were to tell me he/she was taking the advice of a naturopath I would be looking for a new doctor. Mind you, it’s still more likely to be effective than homeopathy.

Joel

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That sort of overt, patronizing paternalism makes me see red and want to bring back the public stocks. I just have no patience with it at all. None. Zero. Zip. Nada.

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I agree with what I’ve bolded one million percent!

I’m enough of a libertarian to agree with you that anyone who asks should be given their own data regardless of whether they might find in unnecessarily upsetting. I still bristle that my A1c measurements are not really my own – I always have to write “copy to patient” on each lab test requisition to get it without the two-week delay that Quest imposes on patients (after having finally made the results available without a doctor’s OK – but with that two-week delay. Insulting). I do think we will all be able to have high-quality genome sequence at a reasonable price relatively soon. Still, the interpretation is likely to remain VERY complicated for quite a few years. At least at the current time, I think that there is not really much that is likely to be actionable in one’s personal sequence. But that is almost sure to change. In that connection I was amazed to discover how skeptical doctors tended to be about the future utility of whole genome sequencing. Perhaps they feel threatened. I do know that my own GP dislikes patients getting their own lab results because she claims they don’t understand statistical variation and probability. I would prefer that she educate her patients rather than deprive them of info (and I do generally like her – I was surprised at her attitude in that case).

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i have found a lot of actionable information after having 23andme done, and i don’t like your patronizing attitude either. i decide if i am willing to take a risk on getting upset or not, not you. and i educate myself.

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Patronizing attitude??? Did you misread what I wrote?

Don’t they have anonymous student satisfaction surveys for courses at your University? You should be used to the occasional rant. My colleague and I were described as “Capitalist, imperialist and racist” in one response. The same student (we compared the handwriting) described the lecturers on another course as “sexist, misogynistic and transphobic”. It takes all sorts…

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Yes indeed, although your example sounds extreme. In fact one of my strongest frustrations with my university was the fact that they relied on student evaluations for promotion (including salary) decisions, yet refused to collect them in anything even vaguely approaching a scientific manner (for example, doing it on line as a requirement for getting course credit and including information on/correlation with the grade received), nor would they allow the students to fill out evaluations outside of class when they weren’t so rushed – preferably some weeks AFTER the course was over. Since I’m retired, I’m happy to say that I no longer have to deal with that frustration. I spent my academic life teaching a very difficult required course for majors, and hence was used to getting bimodal returns (love vs. hate). But all those complaints aside, it is a fact that student evaluations made many faculty take their teaching (and the entertaining that goes with it) more seriously than they might have otherwise (or that they did when I was a student).

What I haven’t done is get into the facebook and blog/response thing. Email is quite enough (sometimes too much). I very rarely respond to anything on line beyond the “question of the day” from Glu (which I find very valuable) I do know that otherwise remarkably normal people can behave like crazy people when it comes to online responses. One of my former colleagues was a prime example. He almost couldn’t respond to an email without being insulting. A curious behavioral phenomenon, but one that just shows how important face-to-face (or at least ear-to-ear) interactions are in communicating.

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Maybe a potassium overdose?
Or was the cereal killer called “Special K”?

(Bananas and milk are high in potassium, known as element K)

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