At-home DNA tests are a popular gift, especially during the holidays. Did you receive one - by surprise or because it was on your wish list - and now you are wondering how to take advantage of it? This episode discusses how to make the most of your DNA test holiday gift.
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This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, NSGC and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) want to help individuals learn the steps they can take to understand their risk for health conditions, including breast and ovarian cancer. In a new episode of NSGC’s Genetic Counselors and You consumer podcast series, NSGC Cancer Expert Joy Larsen Haidle and family physician, Sarah Coles, MD, discuss how genetic testing and counseling is part of understanding genetic risk. Larsen Haidle is a genetic counselor at North Memorial Health Cancer Center in Robbinsdale, Minn. and Coles is a family physician from Phoenix, Ariz.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the National Society of Genetic Counselors and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention want to help women learn the steps they can take – like genetic testing and genetic counseling – to understand their risk for breast and ovarian cancer.
February is American Heart Month, so it's a great time to take heredity to heart and learn why genetics is important in heart disease. Cardiovascular genetic counselors specialize in providing risk assessment and, when heredity is indicated, genetic testing for heart disease. Since cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, is the leading killer of American men and women, knowing whether you may have an increased genetic risk is very important.
Every day it seems there’s a new at-home DNA test on the market, and two of the biggest testing companies – Ancestry.com and 23andMe – have sold over 30 million tests combined. If you’re considering an at-home DNA test, you may have questions. Can you rely on these tests to give you accurate medical information? Are they something you can use in place of a test ordered at your doctor’s office? If so, what do the results mean?
Like many people, you may worry about developing Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, a decline in mental ability over time that can interfere with quality of life. A combination of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors play a role in a person’s risk to develop Alzheimer’s disease. There is a strong genetic link for Alzheimer’s disease, for example, in people who have features of the conditions earlier in life (before age 65), as well as later in life.
As a genetic counselor who specializes in psychiatric illnesses and addictions, I frequently hear this question from the individuals and families I meet with: Is there a gene that's responsible for my condition? It's also a common question in online searches; depression, alcoholism and schizophrenia are among the top 10 topics that come up in Google searches that ask: “Is there a gene for. . .”
Huntington's disease is an inherited brain disorder that is caused when specific cells in the brain die. Symptoms include mood and behavior disturbances , including depression, apathy, irritability, anxiety, and obsessions; cognitive decline , such as loss of memory and inability to focus, plan, recall or make decisions; and physical deterioration due to large involuntary movements, which cause loss of coordination and difficulty walking, talking, and swallowing.
As a genetic counselor specializing in ovarian cancer, I was heartened to learn about a recently approved chemotherapy treatment for women with a type of inherited ovarian cancer. In December, the US. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval of Lynparza (also known as olaparib) for women whose ovarian cancer is caused by an inherited mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. Currently, this treatment is only for women whose cancer has failed to respond to three other types of chemotherapy.