How will you be able to tailor your nutrition to your DNA when and if the government regulates who can do direct to consumer DNA testing? Will you be able to send in DNA samples in Sacramento or nationally in the future after government-regulated consumer DNA testing regulation kicks in?
Today is the last day for public comment on direct to consumer DNA testing regulation. Please take the time to add your feelings (good or bad) about the industry to this Government Regulations public comment page.The government seeks to ban online genetic testing for any reason--ancestry or health. What can you say about it? Consumers of holistic family health are particularly interested in direct to consumer DNA testing. See, Medical Devices Advisory Committee Molecular and Clinical Genetics Panel; Notice of Meeting; Reopening of the Comment Period (Document ID FDA-2011-N-0066-0017).
Also, it's a good idea to start your own blog on this subject after today, a blog that can collect many more comments for people to research in the future. Do you want to see direct to consumer genetic testing online--where you swab the inside of your mouth with a cotton tip and mail it into a DNA-testing company? That's easy to do without going to a healthcare facility for testing. Or do you want the government to require you go to a doctor or other health care brick and mortar building and pay for someone to swab your mouth with a cotton-topped stick and place it in a plastic baggie for you? Comment on this issue online at the Government Regulations website for public comments.
Sacramento consumers of holistic and conventional health care frequently opt for DNA tests to see whether they have a genetic predisposition for any particular issue. One example is genetic testing to see whether your blood has a tendency to clot, in which case you wouldn't be prescribed certain hormone therapies. For example, some types of blood clotting disorders are being associated with an adaptation long ago to cereal grains.
Other types of genetic testing are for certain dementia-related risk factors. And still more genetic testing is direct to consumer online to test for nutritional factors such as tailoring your diet to your DNA. Another type of direct to consumer online testing of interest to genealogists and anthropologists is DNA testing for recent or deep ancestry. Regarding genetic testing for health, in Sacramento, several Sacramento HMOs offer genetic testing for several types of blood disorder risks.
Also, in Sacramento you also can order genetic testing online from any number of companies for various testing, not only for predisposition risk but also for deep or recent ancestry. For example, you might check out the website of the Family Finder Test offered by Family Tree DNA, and several other DNA companies online. Many of these direct to consumer companies give you an actual list of geographic areas and ethnic origins to which your DNA may match.
In that case, online genetic testing would be about ancestry and ethnic geographic origins not health. Just search your favorite online search engine with the key words "DNA testing for ancestry," to find lists of all these companies online, where you send in a cotton-tipped swab after rubbing the inside of your cheek and mailing it in with some information filled out about your ancestral origins, if you know it.
If you know nothing about your ancestral origins, often the DNA test results would give you a geographic or ethnic-related clue such as what percentage of DNA you have that's East Asian, European, Middle Eastern, African, Pacific Islander, Native American, or any other geographic location. Our family's ethnic percentage test from the Family Finder Illlumina Test at Family Tree DNA came back with this ethnic percentage for one family member as: 90.7% Middle Eastern, and 9.2% European, with the European DNA divided into Basque, Finnish, Tuscan, Spanish, French, Orcadian (Orkney Islands/Scotland and N.W. European) Romanian (representing all of S.E. Europe), and Russian.
That supposedly represents all of the geographic areas to which the DNA matched the present populations, and represents family ancestry in the past 100 to 2,000 years. (The family's Middle Eastern portion) also was matched with wider groups of Cypriots and Lebanese Druze, for example as well as various other groups of that region. The European portion was matched with current populations in N.W., S.W., N.E., and S.E. Europe.
The mtDNA test goes back further, and for men, the Y chromosome test goes back around 600 years. But the Family Finder autosomal DNA test eliminates the need to test male and female, unless you want separate tests just for Y chromosome or mtDNA to establish a particular paternal or maternal line of ancestry--for example who's your father's father or mother's mother going back many generations.
As many of you know, 'ethics' scholars have repeatedly attacked direct to consumer DNA testing. Legislators in the US and elsewhere have questioned the right of consumers to choose their own test. Their grounds? They do not feel that the average person will understand or have the capacity to understand results without the aid of a genetics counselor or a trained historian. For Sacramento consumers of holistic family health, how would you comment on this situation? The companies should be regulated, for example, not the consumers. And people should be free to get their DNA for ancestry, for example tested online if they want, since DNA testing direct to consumer is now affordable to middle-class families interested in ancestry and genealogy.
As for health-related DNA testing, that should be regulated at the level of the company, not restricted to the consumer who wants to tailor his or her foods to genes, when that end of the industry comes out of its present stage of infancy. That type of DNA testing is more in lines with the science of nutrigenomics, designer foods, and smart foods based on ancestral diets. In other words, why not offer classes to consumers on how to match your diet to your metabolic and genetic needs? But don't take away an individual's right to have his or her DNA tested by direct to consumer service instead of direct to doctor service. It's all about who is available to interpret the tests to the consumer.
Does the government think most people are too dull to learn how to apply the DNA test to healthy living holistically? According to those who want to test their DNA through direct to consumer sales, the government wants your comment today on whether or not it thinks that the various testing companies are self regulating to provide clear descriptions of their tests and testing methodologies.
Are some of these companies self-regulating enough? And how does a consumer weed out the companies that aren't self-regulating enough to please the consumer and the government?
So Sacramento readers, do you personally see both sides? Do you see an industry that can and should do much more to protect privacy and to clearly describe the methods and utility of their products. What do you think? Do you believe that every person has the right to decide whether a product is right for each individual?
Please take the time to comment. It is essential that US legislators know that the world is watching. This applies especially to people who enjoy holistic family health. And Sacramento consumers of holistic health also are interested in the limits and future of DNA testing for many different reasons, from health and nutrition to ancestry. Are you for or against direct to consumer DNA testing? Share your comment today at the Government Regulations website for public comments.
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