"You've Had a Genetic Test. Now What?"

I am a big fan of Ray Kurzweil. I am on the email list at KurzweilAI.net which sends out weekly emails about significant happenings in the world of technological evolution. Today's email had this item: You've Had a Genetic Test. Now What?

This is an issue that is going to get more and more prominent in our lives as this technology matures and the costs of genetic testing drop. This paragraph highlights a big issue:

Preliminary surveys that Coriell has conducted suggest that patients are also confused by genetics. "I'm alarmed by the lack of understanding," says Christman. "People don't understand the difference between Mendelian and complex genetic diseases." In a Mendelian disease--named for the 19th-century priest Gregor Mendel, who did pioneering genetic research on fruit flies--the disease is linked to a single gene. Carrying certain variants of that gene virtually guarantees the eventual onset of the disease. With complex diseases, however, multiple genes interact with the environment to increase risk. Carrying any particular gene does not guarantee disease onset. "I don't want people going home and saying, 'I have the heart-attack gene,'" says Christman.

As for me, I can't wait to get my DNA analyzed. When you want to live forever, you need to know all your risks!