Are you also curious whether you might run a higher risk of certain disorders? Do you prefer to be there early? We provide a glimpse into your genetic predisposition.
meamedica.com personal health test
The meamedica.com personal health test, a risk analysis response test, determines how likely you can have an increased predisposition to suffer from rare or very rare diseases based on your DNA. With these results, your healthcare provider can, at an earlier stage, make better informed decisions about medicines and/or treatments that suit you best to help prevention or agravation of such diseases.
Find out which diseases you are most sensitive to, so that you can act in time against their development or worsening.
Analysis of 10.000 usable variants of 59 genes linked to potentially serious health problems.
According to the guidelines of the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG).
Examples are:
heart and vascular diseases;
familial hypercholesterolaemia;
various types of colon cancer.
disease risks
There are many conditions for which a genetic predisposition is known. This link is not equally strong for every condition, but the American College of Medical Genetics has compiled a list of 59 genes in which a variation gives a very high chance of a disorder. These are conditions in which early intervention can contribute to a positive outcome. They call these 'actionable genes', genes for which action is possible. You can read some examples of this below.
Influence of genes on disease risk
Cancer
Your body is made up of trillions of cells that are all tightly regulated. To stay healthy, it is important that cells divide at the right speed and that no mistakes are made. This process is closely monitored by a whole network of proteins. For example, there are proteins that ensure that the cell does not divide too quickly, proteins that proofread or do not make mistakes when copying the DNA and proteins that glue the DNA back together when it breaks. If this is not done properly, more errors can happen and a proliferation of cells, better known as cancer, can occur.
A variation in one of the genes that code for these proteins can increase the risk of, for example, breast cancer or cancer of the ovaries, thyroid gland or retinoblastoma.
Cardiac Arrhythmias
Cardiac arrhythmias, if left untreated, can be life-threatening. Fortunately, they can often be treated well.
Cardiac arrhythmias can arise in different ways. With each heartbeat, your heart pumps blood throughout your body. Your ventricles contract and relax to pump blood. This is all caused by electrical impulses passing through your heart.
In long-QT syndrome, for example, there is an error in the regulation of the electrical impulses, which means that the regulation of the heartbeat is no longer good. In a condition called ARVC there is no problem with the electrical impulses but there is a problem with the heart muscle itself.
In a healthy heart, all heart muscle cells are glued together with proteins. In patients with ARVC, this adhesive layer becomes detached, causing muscle cells to loosen and die. As a result, the heart muscle can no longer work properly and a malfunctioning heart muscle leads to heart rhythm disorders or even heart failure.
High Cholesterol
Cholesterol is an important building material that you need for the production of hormones and the construction of your cells. It is a fatty substance and is packed in proteins to be moved through the arteries. There is a good kind, HDL, and a bad kind, LDL. Normally, the liver filters excess bad cholesterol from the blood. But in hypercholesterolemia this does not happen enough and too much LDL remains floating around in the blood. This can build up causing blockages.
High cholesterol is caused by a combination of factors. It is usually a combination of lifestyle choices such as diet, exercise and smoking. But for some people there is also a genetic cause. About 1 in 200 people is genetically predisposed to high cholesterol. We check the genes LDLR, APOB or PCSK9.
Anesthesia
Malignant hyperthermia is a muscle disease. In this condition, the muscles respond differently to anesthetic gases and muscle relaxants.
Anesthetic gases and muscle relaxants are used in surgery to ensure that the patient does not feel pain during treatment and is temporarily paralyzed.
When people who have malignant hyperthermia are given these drugs, several complications can arise. For example, they can suffer from muscle stiffness, but the muscle fibers can also be broken down. The metabolism in the muscles increases, causing the acid levels in the blood to become too high. These patients develop a high fever and a rapid heartbeat. Without prompt treatment, the complications of malignant hyperthermia can be life-threatening. So this is something you would want to know before having surgery.
This DNA test is available in collaboration with a medical doctor. Contact us for more information.
Your DNA determines the predisposition to diseases
Your DNA is the blueprint of how your body is constructed and functions. For the most part, everyone's DNA is the same, yet we are all different due to small variations.
Some of these variations mean that you have a greater chance of, for example, contracting a specific type of cancer or developing cardiovascular disease. This may be because your cells have less control over their division or because, for example, something goes wrong with the construction of the heart.
In this test we give the results for 59 genes that together are responsible for more than 30 hereditary disorders. For each condition there is a clear page explaining the condition, why it can arise, and what your risk is.
