My Search for the Timebomb in Our Family ; Genetic Testing for Hereditary Conditions Is a Booming Business - but How Reliable Is It? We Asked a Father and Son to Take a [Pounds]500 Dna Test to Find Out ...

Summary

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Give or take the odd cold, Im never ill certainly nothing serious. Good genes, my father has always said. Hes the same, and terrifically proud that hes never missed a day of work through illness in his 35-year career as a GP. But just how much is our health really down to genetics?

The first full genome sequencing the process of determining the exact order of the three billion chemical building blocks that make up our DNA completed in 2003, took 13 years and cost [pounds]220million.

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Extract

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My Search for the Timebomb in Our Family ; Genetic Testing for Hereditary Conditions Is a Booming Business - but How Reliable Is It? We Asked a Father and Son to Take a [Pounds]500 Dna Test to Find Out ...

Today, samples of DNA can be read in days a process costing as little as [pounds]500.

Dozens of private laboratories have sprung up, trading via the internet and claiming to predict our chances of developing life- threatening conditions, from cancers and heart attacks to diabetes and multiple sclerosis (MS). Sample kits are sent and returned by post, the results analysed and posted online.

Sales of home health tests have risen by 55 per cent since 2003, and the UK market is worth [pounds]100million a...

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