# dna testing

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-testing/617257>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 30, 2012, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-testing/617257 "2012-03-30T10:53:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![benbo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@benbo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/benbo1)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2012, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-testing/617257/1 "2012-03-30T10:53:36Z")

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Just saw a fascinating show on NOVA, about genetic testing, for 100s of diseases & afflictions.

> **[Cracking Your Genetic Code](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/cracking-your-genetic-code/)**
>
> We are on the brink of a new era of personalized, gene-based medicine. Are we ready for it?

These companies will decode your genome, and assign probabilities of your getting diseases, i.e. ‘based on your sample compared to baseline, you have a 67% chance of developing diabetes (baseline 23%) - you have a 12% chance of prostate cancer (baseline 19%)’ etc.  
Has anyone done this? The program said some of the findings were actionable, meaning lifestyle changes or medications used before symptoms appeared actually are keeping symptoms at bay, and in some cases cured some people of things like melanoma, by targeting the defective gene on a specific chromosome. Anyone with that kind of experience? What companies are the reliable ones to do this testing?

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**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2012, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dna-testing/617257/2 "2012-03-30T11:15:42Z")

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A family member of mine used [23andme](https://www.23andme.com/) and seemed satisfied with the service. He mentioned some risk factors the service discovered, but I can’t remember they were.

He works for a pharmaceutical company, if that’s worth anything.

On a side note, I didn’t realize the prices had come down so much. That service was like hundreds of dollars when he signed up a few years ago; now it’s only $99 + $9 a month, or $207 for a one-year minimum.