If you’ve ever known someone with epilepsy, you know how difficult life is for them. At any time, people with this genetic disorder can have a seizure, which means they may end up in danger, especially if they are not with someone who knows what to do. Due to the severity of epilepsy, scientists are studying the disorder in mice to find out the cause and a possible treatment so sufferers can finally find some relief.
According to The Press Association, researchers at the University of Leeds have found that replacing a defected gene helped mice have decreased occurrences of seizures and at a lessened degree if they did experience one. The findings suggest that inhibiting the gene that may cause seizures, humans may also find relief from the symptoms of epilepsy. As of now, people who suffer from epilepsy can undergo surgery if they have a severe case and most times, it doesn’t work.
This is just the beginning of the gene research on epilepsy. It may still be awhile before a treatment will become available for sufferers. However, it’s nice to know that scientists are looking for answers and maybe someday find a cure.
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August 7th, 2009 by Marcelina Hardy | Posted in Genetic Testing | Comments (0)
While genetic testing can be a useful tool to detect whether you are susceptible to a particular disease, the knowledge of your susceptibility may be enough to cause you mental anguish.
Let’s say that your close family member just died of cancer and now you wonder whether or not you may suffer the same fate. You decide to ask your doctor for genetic testing for the same type of cancer thinking that being proactive is better than finding out too late. Your results come back and its positive that you have the genetic marker cancer. All of sudden, you anxiety goes up and you think, “How much time do I have left?”
This worry can turn into depression and greatly influence how you live life. Just the knowledge of the potential of having a disease has made you feel doomed. Counseling or therapy would be helpful in this situation.
A therapist can help you mourn the loss of your loved one in a healthy way. Counseling can help you through your thoughts and fears. Many of the feelings you have are from negative thoughts, and cognitive behavioral therapy can help you change those thoughts, which will help you with your anxiety and/or depression and subsequently your behavior and attitudes towards life.
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August 5th, 2009 by Marcelina Hardy | Posted in Genetic Testing | Comments (0)
Due to the increase in popularity of genetic testing, health insurances may begin to use it as a way to figure out whether to insurance someone or how much a person has to pay for coverage. While this may not be fair, health insurance companies have been using health assessments for years, using other methods.
When you seek out health insurance, they will ask you about your health. They want to know whom they are insuring and if you will be using the insurance often or only once and awhile. Of course, the more medical needs you have, the higher your premiums or deductible. This is how insurance companies make their money.
Some companies require that you provide a letter from your physician with your current physical health. In this, you might also need to provide family medical history. Why? You may be susceptible to the same diseases as your relatives. This is the same reason why genetic testing may also be included. It will show which diseases you are susceptible to. It doesn’t mean you will definitely suffer from them, it’s just something the health insurances will consider especially when factoring in your lifestyle, such as if you smoke and have the genetic marker for lung cancer.
What do you think of this? Do you think it’s fair to use genetic testing for health insurance determination?
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July 2nd, 2009 by Marcelina Hardy | Posted in Genetic Testing | Comments (0)
After reading a recent article on research about genetic testing and high blood pressure, Lifestyle May Counter Blood Pressure Genes, I started wondering if maybe lifestyle really does have a bigger impact than genes do on whether someone suffers from a disease.
Since most genetic markers for disease only tell you that you may be susceptible to it and not that you will absolutely suffer from it, it makes you wonder if you really need to know whether you have a genetic marker at all.
In a past post, I discussed that some doctors are relying more on family history than on genetic testing because it’s cheaper and family medical history tells enough about susceptibility so that he/she can treat the patient to prevent an inherited disease. Furthermore, much of the prevention of a disease that could come about later in life has to do with changing your lifestyle to a healthier one…but shouldn’t everyone be living a healthy lifestyle…genetic marker or not?
As genetic testing advances and more people get it done, these people may start to rely on it a bit too much and this actually may have a negative impact on their life. How so? If someone gets a genetic test negative for high blood pressure, the person may think he/she is in the clear and begin eating unhealthy foods and not exercise as much as he/she would if told he/she was susceptible. This means that the person may be putting him/herself at risk for other illnesses such as heart disease or high cholesterol.
What needs to be remembered is that a healthy lifestyle should be lead no matter what your genetic test comes back as. The genetic test should help you receive medical prevention treatment as well as structure your diet and exercise a bit more to cater to the prevention of disease. It does not mean that you should think you have a “get out of a jail free” card.
(Photo Credit: http://news.health.com/2009/06/17/lifestyle-may-counter-blood-pressure-genes/)
June 29th, 2009 by Marcelina Hardy | Posted in Genetic Testing | Comments (0)
Most of us know that alcoholism runs in families. If you have a parent that suffers from alcoholism, you have a high chance of suffering from the disease. While family history is a good insight in your susceptibility to developing alcoholism, genetic testing may also be another way.
Let’s say you are an orphan or you were raised by only one of your parents. You may not know if one of your parents had a problem with alcohol. Alcoholism runs in families because genes were passed on. Genetic testing can identify if you have these genes.
You may wonder if you should get a genetic test if you know one of your parents has alcoholism while the other doesn’t. You can to know for sure but if you want to save some money (since most insurances won’t pay for expensive genetic tests), you can just assume you to and take precautions by watching your drinking habits and getting help for addiction if you are started to suffer from it.
Understanding Alcoholism and Genes
While having these genes does not mean that you will seek out alcohol, it does mean that if you were to start drinking you may end up developing a dependence on this. This dependence includes physical and psychological. You’re body will make you crave alcohol and you will think that you need to have it to live each day.
Many people are skeptical about calling alcoholism a disease. However, all the components of disease are a part of alcoholism. There are genes that make you susceptible and environment influences that set them off. This is just like heart disease, cancer, and illnesses such as allergies.
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June 22nd, 2009 by Marcelina Hardy | Posted in Genetic Testing, Genetics and Society | Comments (1)
In the article, Genetic Difference Found in Wild vs. Tame Animals, researchers have found regions of genes that are responsible for the niceness and nastiness of animals. Since I have started looking into human behavior and genetics, this article interested me because it makes me wonder if the results from this study 
would be transferred to humans.
While many people wouldn’t really care about having a genetic test to determine whether they were nice or not, it may help the world of mental health and criminology. It’s already well documented that mental illness can be rooted in genes, but what if a criminal doesn’t have a mental disorder but just the “nastiness” genes? This can rule out whether psychiatric care would help a criminal or not.
This genetic testing could also be detrimental to a criminal who hopes for release someday. If a criminal shows that he has the “wild” gene, it may lower his/her chances of release since there may be a higher probability of the person participating in another crime.
What do you think about this? Do you believe that studying genetic difference of wild vs. tame animals can be transferred to humans? How can this information help humans if it can?
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June 15th, 2009 by Marcelina Hardy | Posted in Genetic Testing | Comments (0)
If you are considering genetic testing and would like to use your health insurance to pay for it, there are some things you may want to keep in mind before you decide to file your claim. While genetic testing can be expensive, it may be worth your money to forgo using insurance.
- When you file a claim with health insurance for genetic testing, your genetic testing information may not be as private as you would like. Think about it; if you get your genetic test and pay for it yourself, no one knows about it except for you and the doctors. If you file for insurance, your doctor has to send the information from your genetic test to the insurance company and then it exchanges hands several time before it’s paid. You may not care if total strangers see your information, but it’s a small world and it’s wise to think that maybe someone you might know may come across your results.
- Insurance doesn’t pay for everything especially in genetic testing. Genetic testing is so new and most insurances don’t find it necessary. You may find that when you do file for insurance, you will have to end up paying for all of it or at least a big chunk.
Plan Ahead When Using Health Insurance
If you want to use insurance, it’s wise to plan ahead by calling your insurance company and asking what they cover with genetic testing. You also should ask what you need to do to help make the claiming process easier.
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June 12th, 2009 by Marcelina Hardy | Posted in Genetic Testing | Comments (0)
Associated Costs
If you are considering genetic testing, you may wonder how much you will have to pay for it. It’s important to know that there are many things involved in genetic testing other than just drawing your blood or swabbing the inside of your cheek. The expenses you will have to pay for have much to do with the process of testing your sample and interpreting the results.
Cost #1: Pay for the sample
The first thing that you will have to pay for is how the procedure is done to get a sample from you. You will have to pay a different amount if you do a blood test or a swab. Whether they do one or the other depends on what type of genetic testing you want done.
Cost #2: Pay for the size of the sample
Another factor in the genetic testing price is the size of the gene sample being tested. If you are wondering if you have breast cancer, only specific genes will be tested. Locating and analyzing the genes specific to this disease is what your money goes to.
Cost #3: Pay for labor
You will also have to pay for the time it takes to do the test and analyzing as well as for the salary of the researchers doing it. It also depends on if the test goes to a research or commercial lab and many times, you don’t have a choice on which one.
Billing Insurance for Genetic Testing
You may be thinking that you could just bill your insurance. Keep in mind that many insurance won’t pay for genetic testing. It’s much too new and insurance companies know that it can get expensive. While some will pay for it, you may still have to pay hefty co pays.
Is it worth it?
If you know a life threatening disease runs in your family and you’re worried about suffering from it, the price you pay for genetic testing may be worth it. You will be able to know if there is a chance you will suffer from it and take precautions to either delay or stop the onset of it.
For more information on the cost of genetic testing, check out Genetic Health.
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June 8th, 2009 by Marcelina Hardy | Posted in Genetic Testing | Comments (0)
According to Arthritis and Rheumatism, a new group of genes has been discovered that may play a role in people suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis. Along with these findings, researchers found that smoking could increase the risk of developing this type of arthritis if someone has this particular group of genes.
When people think of the risks of smoking, they usually think of cancer. Not many people think that it could lead them to suffer from arthritis. For many years, people have suffered from arthritis and just chalked it up to another annoying medical condition that really did not have much of a cause except for “bad genes”. Now with this research coming out, people can also look at their smoking habits as a possible explanation for the pain.
The thing that people need to be aware of is that just because they may have the group of genes for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), it doesn’t necessarily mean they will get it. It means that there is a chance, more so than someone without the group of genes. The chance just increases if someone with the genes smokes, but again, it doesn’t mean the person will absolutely suffer from RA.
So should you quit smoking? If the medical consequences of smoking bothers you enough, you probably just answered that question for yourself. If hearing about the possibility of suffering from cancer, RA or other medical problems doesn’t scare you…keep smoking. You have the power of information now, so apply it to your life any which way you choose!
(Photo Credit: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/w-gas060109.php)
June 4th, 2009 by Marcelina Hardy | Posted in Genetic Testing, Genetics and Society | Comments (0)
If you want a genetic test for breast or ovarian cancer, you may only be able to get it done once because your genes and the testing of them may have a patent. This is what happened to Genae Girard in a recent article in the New York Times, Cancer Patients Challenge the Patenting of a Gene.
With a diagnosis of breast cancer in 2006, Genae Girard wanted to know if she had the genetic marker for ovarian cancer as well. She received a genetic test for it and it came back positive. Before electing to have her ovaries removed, she inquired about a second opinion. However, she was presented with an astonishing situation; Myriad Genetics has a patent on genetic testing on the only two genes that indicate risk for breast and ovarian cancer. Ms. Girard filed a lawsuit against Myriad Genetics and the Patent Office to attempt to have this patent lifted offering her and others the opportunity to have additional testing on these two genes.
The Best Interest of the Patient
Ms. Girard’s frustration is understandable and valid. Does Myriad Genetics have the best interest of the patient in mind? How can they claim ownership of genetic testing on two genes? Cancer patients or individuals who would like to know if they are at risk should have the opportunity to receive genetic testing so they can prepare themselves and receive the treatment they need. Ms. Girard wants a second opinion before having surgery because she doesn’t want to go through invasive procedures before she knows, for sure, that it is needed.
Putting restraints on genetic testing on the two genes that they know indicate risk for breast and ovarian cancer means limiting the future research and treatment of these cancers. If Myraid Genetics patent lifts, other companies will be able to join in the testing and possibly extend it to better help patients. The other benefit is that these other companies may be able to offer this testing for less cost, which is most likely one of the reasons why Myriad Genetics has monopolized the testing on these two genes.
So what do you think? Does Myriad Genetics have the right to own the genetic testing of the breast and ovarian cancer genes? Does Ms. Girard have a case?
(Photo Credit: Mandam on Flickr)
May 20th, 2009 by Marcelina Hardy | Posted in Genetic Testing | Comments (0)
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