Originally Posted by
Hermes
23 and Me is a local startup company. 23 and Me generates or determines ones "complete" gnome
Very popular here as garden ornaments, gnomes...
I would pose the question the other way. Why would one not want to learn more about one of the most important areas of research that may affect our health, quality of life and longevity?
Oh, I'm interested in the research. I'm not interested, particularly, in whatever my own results might be; especially not for health/longevity reasons. In the first place, my family history is well known to me and at my time of life it is unlikely that the analysis would tell me much about my predisposition for various diseases that I don't know already. In the second place, there is limited utility in knowing, anyway. Let's say I have a better than usual chance of suffering from coronary artery disease ( I haven't, as it happens). What am I going to do about that other than eat properly, exercise properly, watch my blood pressure? And given that I know enough to do that anyway, what value would be added? If it showed up an unusual predisposition for, say, prostate cancer (possible, but again marginally unlikely in my case) what am I do do beyond avail myself of the screening that is available anyway, get plenty of zinc, sex and lycopene and watch out for symptoms? Again, I know that.
So I have much more sympathy for Bruce's position, which is curiosity-driven about his origins, than by the idea that we should be seeking a DNA analysis to give us an imperfect idea of what we should worry about.