Charity Marie Blogs!

MHWA Task 8 - Genetic Testing

Research genetic testing as it relates to the mental illness of your choice and share information you find helpful/interesting. Tell us your thoughts about mental illness and genetic testing.

Genetic testing is a pretty exciting part of medical science right now. I remember when scientists mastered DNA sequencing and how exciting it was. It seemed like humanity now held the keys to so many puzzles and the future would be brighter because of it. DNA sequencing definitely changed the criminal system in ways no one could have realized, preventing more criminals from escaping consequences than ever before. Now, genetic testing holds the keys to understanding so much of our bodies, our history, disease, and mental illness. I, for one, am desperate for some answers and solutions to where I came from, and how that's impacted my daughter. When I was younger, that didn't really matter to me, but as I get older, I find myself wondering: where did I really come from?

Ancestry.com
Genetic testing holds important answers for genealogy and understanding our history, which connects us all. Many people have started doing genetic testing on themselves to find out about their ancestry. For this, Ancestry.com is one of the most popular sites for this and only charges $99. You can then use this information to help you track down relatives. The report includes ethnicity details, including regions, and even migration information for ancestors. Ancestry.com has one of the largest databases in the world to match you to living relatives and others like you. Of course, that only works if they've done a DNA test too.

MyHeritage.com
One of the amazing things about genetic testing, per MyHeritage.com is where our ancestors called home is actually coded into our DNA. So by examining DNA, you can trace backward through 42 different ethnicities for both sides of your family. They have an initiative to trace back to the founders, what they call The Founder Populations Project. The people in the project were selected because of their ancestry which allows them to establish profiles for each region and its unique DNA sequences. This can be a very useful tool for those who want to really drill deep into their origin.

23andMe.com
This site uses genetic testing to help people understand their genes and what that means for their health as well as ancestry. It is the only testing service which meets FDA requirements and is approved. For $200 you can get a detailed ancestry report with 35 components and a health report with over 10 reports plus a trait report identifying 25 traits unique to your DNA. Are you likely to have a bald spot? Motion sickness? Are you likely to be a carrier for things like BRCA1 (breast cancer), Cystic Fibrosis, Anemia, Muscular Dystrophy, or Sickle Cell Anemia? This test could hold the answers for you and much more.

Nutrisystem.com
Even Nutrisystem is tapping into the genetic testing as a way to help with weight loss. Using DNA they create a custom nutritional approach. No more yo-yo diets! I for one, am all in on that one, as I've gained 50 lbs in the last two years due to unhealthy habits and am going to need to know a lot more to lose the weight now that I'm nearing 40.

What answers will our DNA continue to provide us? That remains to be seen, but already there's a growing knowledge base of information. Could we one day cure cancer? Mental illness? The flu? Alzheimers? The possibilities are wide open!

Can we unlock the keys to depression, PTSD, autism, and schizophrenia? These are all issues in our family and while they are understood better than they've ever been now, there's so much work to do. What causes a person to hallucinate? What makes sadness develop into depression? How can we help people with autism function better? What are the keys to these issues and solving them? Could we one day talk about them the way we do measles and the chicken pox, as something people used to get but no longer do thanks to medicine? Can we eliminate these these for future generations? Can humanity be propelled forward instead of diminished by these disabling mental illnesses? I believe genetic testing will help us find answers to these questions.

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