Are DIY gene-testing kits a good idea?​

Over-the-counter tests have made it easy to screen yourself for serious illnesses such as cancer and diabetes. But there are no cures for most hereditary conditions

^“‘It’s like being told you’re going to be involved in a car crash, but you don’t know when it will hit. You know it is going to happen but you can’t do anything about it,” says Amy Burton. The 24-year-old from Kent was diagnosed with pre-type 1 diabetes in 2014 after she tested positive for auto-immune antibodies associated with the condition in a medical trial.

Burton had initially signed up as her younger sister has lived with type 1 diabetes for the past six years and she thought the experience would make an interesting blog post. She wasn’t expecting to find out that, within the next five to 15 years she, too, would have the condition: “I did sob when I heard,” she says.

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from Health & wellbeing | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1rkRqgz
via health