It makes no sense. It's entirely irrational. I love information. Knowledge. Informed decision making. And yet . . .
It makes no sense. It's entirely irrational. I love information. Knowledge. Informed decision making. And yet . . .
Obviously, it's possible that a person could be given a more significant percentage of a serious condition which raises additional questions. If you are both A) objective enough to firmly grasp that a chance is simply a chance, not a sure outcome and B) not someone who worries a great deal about possible future situations, you might benefit from using 23andme. Otherwise, it may be wise not to purchase the program.
For me, I've had an interesting effect of using some of the increased negative risks to help me stop bad habits while at the same time, not using any of the decreased risks as a license to go ahead and live more recklessly in those areas. Hopefully this give you some additional perspective on whether something like this would be right for you.
If I knew I had a high-risk of Macular Degeneration, I might take some time now to learn Emacspeak or any of the other screen-reader technologies so that I could still do software development in the event that my vision left me.
( the average risk - is mostly unique value )
( for example: Restless Legs Syndrome [ avg risk: 2.0% ])
:-)
You can select which tests to make available to yourself, though, and avoid finding out about things like Parkinson's.
Not knowing if you'll get an untreatable disease doesn't stop you from getting an untreatable disease! It just means it'll sneak up on you and force you to make tough decisions with less preparation.
What would you be doing so differently? I'm really just curious.
Think about it from the flip side: If you knew you were going to live to age 200 in good health, wouldn't you retire later? Maybe you'd spend more time gallivanting around the world like a recent college grad. Maybe you would wait longer to settle down and have children. Any deviation from the current typical life-span should definitely change your behavior.
Not to get all Carpe Diem on you, but I'd suggest if this is true, you should probably re-evaluate your life. Whether your brain starts to rot at age 50, or you get hit by a bus in two weeks, you don't get to control how much time you have. You can only control what you do with that time.
I don't even like going to Web MD, in fear of exaggerating a condition or, even worse, synthesizing symptoms. I can't imagine knowing several years ahead of time that I have a high chance of developing this or that unpreventable disease. I'd probably end up seeing "signs" long before they ever presented themselves or perhaps even worsen my condition through the anxiety.
If you are already worrying about "obvious" things, wouldn't it be better to know whether or not you have anything to worry about? For instance, if it turns out you have a below-average chance of heart disease, it might make you worry less about your weight. On the other hand, if you discovered that you were (like me) at elevated risk of developing diabetes, wouldn't that provide the extra motivation you need to limit your suger intake and further control your weight?
I can't see any situation where having less data would make things demonstrably better -- just more uncertain.
However, if I go to the doctor and he says I'm at risk for environment factors for that, I'll know there's some serious shit to think about.
And it could save my life!
If you understand probability, then the data on 23andme will not destroy your life. It'll merely give you an additional warning sign of things to really pay attention to.
And if you choose, you can ignore it altogether.
This question of knowing your fate was well presented in Heinlen's short story Life-line: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life-Line
While I like the idea and being trailblazers must be done by someone you have to keep in mind that 23andMe only do genotyping not full sequencing.
In my mind the difference between genotyping and full sequencing is between building a partial array from bunch of if statements and actually copying the array.
And you can do things known to lower your risk, like start drinking caffeine every day.