Sunday, March 1, 2015

Anne Wojcicki’s quest to put people in charge of their own health - San Francisco Chronicle

Anne Wojcicki’s quest to put people in charge of their own health - San Francisco Chronicle: "But there have been media reports about different genetic tests providing different interpretations of health risks, raising the question of just how many errors there are.



 It’s also unclear to what extent genetics cause some of the conditions covered in a 23andMe test. Mutations of a single gene virtually guarantee contracting or passing on some diseases, including Bloom syndrome, cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease. But others, like Type 2 diabetes, most heart diseases and asthma, are influenced by lifestyle as well as genetics.



 Customers discover their risks by logging onto 23andMe’s website, without a medical professional at the ready to offer comfort or context. The company encourages users to seek additional counsel, but doctors and genetic professionals are intentionally left out of the process. Wojcicki is sometimes accused of overestimating the ability of patients to make good decisions.



 “For a lot of people, genetic information is just very difficult to grasp, and life already has enough major issues to care and really worry about,” said Dr. Cecile Janssens, an epidemiologist at Emory University. “Think of relationships, jobs, kids, school, finances, all sorts of things. Complex health information comes on top of that. And even if they want it, I am not sure they really do understand it. They often think they do, but they don’t.”



 Many people don’t even follow basic health advice, like exercising or eating well, but Wojcicki believes that’s because the health care system often fails to clearly explain information. “There’s a lot of aspects of health care where people don’t understand why they’re doing it, and they don’t understand the science behind everything,” she said."



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