· Genetic susceptibility to health conditions
Inherited conditions (monogenic diseases)
You receive the notification: "Your results are now ready". With a mix of curiosity and nervousness, you open the report and, suddenly, you see a result in a striking colour: High Risk.
At that moment, it is normal for your heart to race a little. The question arises immediately: “Does this mean I am ill, or that I am inevitably going to be?”.
The answer is no. But for you to truly feel at ease and know how to read your genetic test, we need to explain what lies behind those percentages.
The difference between genetic predisposition and reality
First, we must distinguish between two concepts that we often confuse: deterministic genetics and probabilistic genetics.
- Deterministic genetics: If you have a specific mutation or alteration in a particular gene (as occurs in monogenic inherited diseases), the disease may manifest itself, depending on its mode of inheritance. It is a written destiny.
- Probabilistic genetics: This is applied to the study of diseases of multifactorial origin, whose development is influenced by both a genetic and an environmental component. This genetic component is influenced by many genes and is what tellmeGen analyses in the genetic susceptibility section. Therefore, the result is not a destiny, but a tendency.
Imagine your report says you have a "high risk" of suffering from cardiovascular disease. This means that conditions are favourable for it to happen, but you can take steps to remedy it by modifying environmental factors, for example, by changing your lifestyle.
What is "Average population risk" and why do we compare you to it?
In your report, you will see that your results are compared with the average risk of the population. But what does this mean exactly?
Genetic risk is not an absolute number; it is a comparison. If we say you have an increased risk for a condition, it means that, based solely on your DNA, you are more likely to develop that condition than an average person of your same ethnicity, age, and sex.
How do we calculate your genetic susceptibility?
At tellmeGen, we rely on the use of GWAS studies to obtain your results. These studies compare the genetic information of thousands of individuals with a certain condition against the DNA of thousands who do not have it, identifying those variants that are more frequent in the study group and are considered risk variants. Therefore, we do not look at a single piece of data, but rather consider dozens of variants associated with the pathology. It is like a large jigsaw puzzle: a single piece tells you nothing, but when we fit them all together, we begin to see the picture of your health.
Does having a high risk imply that I will develop the disease?
The answer is: Not necessarily. Most common diseases (type 2 diabetes, hypertension, certain types of cancer) are multifactorial. This means they are the complex result of:
- Your genetics (what you have inherited).
- Your environment (where you live, pollution).
- Your lifestyle (what you eat, if you are a smoker, how much you move).
Knowing your genetic susceptibility with a test like tellmeGen's allows you to make informed decisions and adopt measures, such as lifestyle changes, that can have a preventive effect. Unlike monogenic inherited diseases, multifactorial diseases are not completely determined by genetics. In these cases, factors such as diet, exercise, or the environment also play a role, so your habits can help change the course of your genetic story.
Do not leave your health to chance and transform uncertainty into a real plan of action. Join the era of precision medicine with the tellmeGen DNA test and discover the most complete map of your wellbeing today.
