deCODE You

Knowing your risk for Chronic Kidney Disease through a deCODEme DNA scan can increase your awareness and empower you to take preventive steps to protect your kidneys.

Chronic Kidney Disease has been added to the deCODEme Complete Scan. Chronic Kidney Disease involves the gradual loss of kidney function over time that can ultimately lead to kidney failure. It typically develops as a result of other common diseases, primarily diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity, but not everyone has the same risk of developing Chronic Kidney Disease. Research suggests that this disease has a strong familial component.

In the U.S., an estimated 26 million adults have Chronic Kidney Disease, but most of them do not know it. The kidneys have such a remarkable ability to compensate for problems in their function, that there may be no symptoms of Chronic Kidney Disease until it has progressed considerably.

Recently, scientists identified a common genetic variant (rs4293393-T), associated with increased risk of Chronic Kidney Disease. deCODEme has incorporated these results into the complete genetic scan, which analyzes your DNA and provides you with a personalized risk assessment for Chronic Kidney Disease and about many other diseases, including diabetes, obesity and kidney stones.

Chronic Kidney Disease is a growing problem in the U.S. and in other western parts of the world, Knowing your risk for Chronic Kidney Disease can increase your awareness and empower you to take preventive steps to protect your kidneys.

Amy Doneen, Director of the Heart Attack & Stroke Prevention Center, Spokane, WA.

Amy Doneen at the Heart Attack and Stroke Prevention Clinic in Spokane, Washington, talks about an “exciting new time” for preventive health care. Amy, a nurse practitioner, has been using nutrigenomics (the response of genes to nutrition) as part of the program for more than a decade and with outstanding results. “The goal,” says Amy “is to find out what path a patient is on to developing certain diseases and kick them off that path.” Scanning for risk factor for common conditions (such as diabetes, heart attack, several types of cancer etc.) She emphasizes the importance of gauging lifetime risk as against clinical tests that usually concentrate on immediate high risk. According to Amy, some people walk away from the second kind with a negative result and think things are always going to be fine. Genetic testing is just arriving to the market place, but Americans currently spending nearly $50 billion on stroke care alone, the time is ripe to back all advances in preventive medicine.

To read more and watch parts of the interview with Amy Doneen visit the deCODEme Customer Stories.

NBC’s Robert Bazell looks at genetic research in Iceland and interviews deCODE’s CEO Dr. Kari Stefansson. Of special interest is the work carried out on common diseases that have a genetic component. Stefansson predicts that genetic tests will be widely used within 3-5 years.