Genetic diseases. Can they be avoided?

Preventing genetic disease is possible.

There are certain diseases to which we are genetically susceptible. Thanks to advances in genetic medicine, new mutations are being located every day that indicate the level of risk of suffering certain diseases over time.

In genetics, as in general medicine, risk levels are measured through statistical data using available information. It is sporadic that something indicates a 100% or 0% chance. Almost everything falls in between these values.

There are mutations that only slightly increase our risk of having a disease concerning the population average; on many occasions, it is not even worth taking it into account. At other times, some mutations indicate a considerable level of risk that does require us to take action.

There are certain genetic diseases that we can only partially prevent, in some cases, it is only possible to delay their appearance for some time, but little more. Some clients ask us to give them only information about diseases that can be prevented effectively in our genetic map reports. Although the border is not always precise, we think it is a very reasonable option that we have extended.

However, there are certain diseases that genetics gives us a very high probability of suffering from and, at the same time, a very high possibility of effectively preventing them.

An obvious example is the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in Breast Cancer, where these genes will give us a very high probability of having this disease and where medicine gives us solutions to avoid it by more than 90%.

To avoid diseases, it is clear that living a healthy life is the first thing we must do. Any genetic or environmental predisposition will be accelerated or delayed depending on the lifestyle we lead. An early diagnosis will increase our chances of staying as healthy as possible before any disease that may come.

A genetic analysis, like our genetic maps, will give us a vision that will undoubtedly be of great help:

•  See what pathologies we will have to be more aware of, being able to prevent them by reacting in time
•  Identify which elements of our healthy lifestyle are most critical because they affect where we are most vulnerable
•  Take immediate action on specific diseases and in some cases dramatically reduce the chances of contracting them

Our genetic maps, apart from the genetic predisposition to suffer certain conditions, will provide us with useful information that will help us improve our quality of life:

•  Identifying which drugs we are genetically predisposed to feel better or worse
•  Identifying which monogenic diseases we can prevent from inheriting our offspring
•  Teaching us our predisposition to things as diverse as the predisposition to specific addictions, nutrients, etc