Caregiver Tech: DNA OK?

Is at-home DNA testing a good idea?

BY:ERIC FEIL

Everyone has inherited predispositions to any number of health matters—heart disease, cancer, diabetes and more. But what are your particular risks and can you fight them? The genetic-testing company Sciona thinks it has an answer in its Cellf™ Genetic Assessment home DNA test.

“You may eat well, exercise and take nutritional supplements,” says Yael Joffe, a registered dietician and Sciona's director of nutrition, who helped develop the test, “but minor variations in your genes can put you at risk.” With individual tests available for heart health, bone health, insulin resistance, inflammation and antioxidant/detoxification—as well as the new Cellf™ Comprehensive Test, which combines them all—Sciona requires you send in only a cheek swab and a diet/lifestyle questionnaire for a report analyzing your genetics along with nutritional guidelines they believe can help prevent myriad problems before they arise.

"We cannot say, since you got this variation, your risk for heart disease is eighty percent; it’s also about your lifestyle choice,” notes Joffe. “We can look at your risk ten to twenty years before the symptoms manifest, and if we can change your diet and lifestyle before, hopefully you never go on to develop symptoms and never go on to develop a disease.”

But anyone considering a home DNA test should “consult doctors and other experts,” says Gregory Fowler, PhD, executive director and co-founder of Geneforum, a nonprofit research group dedicated to educating the public on genetic matters. “Most genetic counselors feel the relationship between genes and environment is not fully understood in the scientific community. So when uninformed consumers are navigating these waters, there are questions: What do you really do with this information? What’s the company’s accountability? What’s the test’s accuracy?”

To that end, Sciona recommends everyone discuss the reports with your lead practitioner or other qualified healthcare professional. Fowler agrees. “That’s the place to start with any health-related issue,” he says. “You should never go it alone.”