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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor

 

So I’ve decided to take the leap and get SNP analysis done by 23 and Me.  The little kit on my desk will eventually be sent back to them.  Once they receive it they’ll probably send it out somewhere else to have my DNA extracted and then SNP analysis on my DNA will occur.  Eventually my data will be available to me and I’ll find out such interesting things like my disease risk, my status as a carrier, and other genetic traits… I know there are some people out there who freak out at the idea of any type of genetic testing.  To those people…put your tin-foil caps back on and keep watching faux news.  To the rest of you, remember…knowledge is not the enemy.  Don’t be afraid of your own genetic make-up.  Besides, it’s who you are and knowing more about you is a good thing. (I’m not talking about being introspective and finding out “who you are”, that shit is too deep…I prefer real science, you know the one with 4 bases and shit…the one you can actually measure and get tangible data with.) 23 and Me have recently published a paper where they reported two novel associations with Parkinson’s disease.  This is interesting stuff.  As their database grows I’m sure they’ll report more discoveries. Quite a few people I know want to know my experience with this and I figure I might as well share it with everyone. The first question people ask is “Why do you want to do this?”  Followed by “how much does it cost?” The cost is relatively cheap.  It was $63.95 for the initial screen plus $9 a month after that for a year (a required one-year “subscription”).  I figure this is less than the price of a bottle of wine a month.  No big deal.  Funny, everything in my life that costs under a certain amount I can justify with “it’s cheaper than a bottle of wine”.  Wine is obviously my currency. So why am I doing it?  I’ll give you a list of reasons simply because I love lists.  They are great.  I could give you a list of why I like lists so much. 1) I’m a scientist and I find this stuff amazing (My Ph.D was in Genetics & Cell Biology). 2) I teach first year medical students biochemistry and in that class I discuss how in the not so distant future patients will walk into their office knowing their whole genome.  I want these future doctors do start thinking about this.  If I can discuss my SNP analysis a bit with them maybe that will help. (A general note, SNP analysis is not genome sequencing.  I think the price of getting your genome sequenced now is around $2K or so…pretty cheap considering it was hundreds of millions a few years ago). 3) I’m a believer in P4 medicine and this dovetails perfetly  into the “participatory” part of P4 medicine.  Too bad America will never go for it.  4) I’d like to know what, if any, genetic diseases I’m predisposed too.  That seems important to me and not “scary” as others think. 5) The idea of potentially helping genetic studies with my data seems like a very good idea.  I’m not being altruistic, it just makes sense as a human being.  Just like affordable health care for all does…but that’s a different subject for another day… So there are a few reasons…I have some others but I don’t need to share everything.  When I get my results back I’ll give you an update as to whether I thought it was worth it or not.

So I’ve decided to take the leap and get SNP analysis done by 23 and Me.  The little kit on my desk will eventually be sent back to them.  Once they receive it they’ll probably send it out somewhere else to have my DNA extracted and then SNP analysis on my DNA will occur.  Eventually my data will be available to me and I’ll find out such interesting things like my disease risk, my status as a carrier, and other genetic traits…

I know there are some people out there who freak out at the idea of any type of genetic testing.  To those people…put your tin-foil caps back on and keep watching faux news.  To the rest of you, remember…knowledge is not the enemy.  Don’t be afraid of your own genetic make-up.  Besides, it’s who you are and knowing more about you is a good thing. (I’m not talking about being introspective and finding out “who you are”, that shit is too deep…I prefer real science, you know the one with 4 bases and shit…the one you can actually measure and get tangible data with.)

23 and Me have recently published a paper where they reported two novel associations with Parkinson’s disease.  This is interesting stuff.  As their database grows I’m sure they’ll report more discoveries.

Quite a few people I know want to know my experience with this and I figure I might as well share it with everyone. The first question people ask is “Why do you want to do this?”  Followed by “how much does it cost?”

The cost is relatively cheap.  It was $63.95 for the initial screen plus $9 a month after that for a year (a required one-year “subscription”).  I figure this is less than the price of a bottle of wine a month.  No big deal.  Funny, everything in my life that costs under a certain amount I can justify with “it’s cheaper than a bottle of wine”.  Wine is obviously my currency.

So why am I doing it?  I’ll give you a list of reasons simply because I love lists.  They are great.  I could give you a list of why I like lists so much.

1) I’m a scientist and I find this stuff amazing (My Ph.D was in Genetics & Cell Biology).

2) I teach first year medical students biochemistry and in that class I discuss how in the not so distant future patients will walk into their office knowing their whole genome.  I want these future doctors do start thinking about this.  If I can discuss my SNP analysis a bit with them maybe that will help. (A general note, SNP analysis is not genome sequencing.  I think the price of getting your genome sequenced now is around $2K or so…pretty cheap considering it was hundreds of millions a few years ago).

3) I’m a believer in P4 medicine and this dovetails perfetly  into the “participatory” part of P4 medicine.  Too bad America will never go for it. 

4) I’d like to know what, if any, genetic diseases I’m predisposed too.  That seems important to me and not “scary” as others think.

5) The idea of potentially helping genetic studies with my data seems like a very good idea.  I’m not being altruistic, it just makes sense as a human being.  Just like affordable health care for all does…but that’s a different subject for another day…

So there are a few reasons…I have some others but I don’t need to share everything.  When I get my results back I’ll give you an update as to whether I thought it was worth it or not.

  1. tedchauvin posted this