[Music] You've heard the phrase an apple
doesn't fall far from the tree, meaning
your reflection of your parents and
your children are a reflection of you
but, it goes much deeper than that to
genetics and the role they play in your
health.
This morning we're examining how simple
lab tests can help improve our health
returning to the show once again is Dr.
Jay Wohlgemuth from Quest Diagnostics
Incorporated!
Good morning, welcome back!
Thanks Olga, so glad to be back!
Alright so the last time we got together
we talked about the importance of
blood work and our health, they both
go hand in hand.
Absolutely, in summary really it's about
proactive health care,knowing what's
going on before it becomes a major
problem so you can intervene and get
better or prevent problems from occurring
in the future.
So today let's take it a
step further Dr. Jay, genetic testing how
important is that?
It has become incredibly
important in today's world.
You may
remember 15 years ago we sequenced the
human genome.
That was fascinating.
fascinating stuff but, it cost us three
billion dollars and several years to do
but these days with the technology we're
now able to generate genetic data on you
and on your cancer,determine your risk
of disease and determine if you have a
genetic disease, and even determine what
therapies may or may not work in you.
So really important information we
can get now from genetic testing!
So how do we
determine if we need a genetic test?
I'm assuming family history is huge.
Family history is a huge driver such as
in Angelina Jolie case.
Perfect example,
right?
Strong family history of breast
cancer in that case she had brachia genes
tested which determine whether you have
a very high risk of breast cancer in
their lifetime.
And with that information
she and others can really prevent breast
cancer from occurring.
So that's one
area, prevention of disease.
The other
would be you have symptoms you have a
problem and maybe you have a genetic
disease and therefore testing would be
indicated to figure it out.
And then
finally like we talked about the use of
genetic testing to determine what
therapies may or may not work in you is
another you know really important area.
And when it comes to quest Diagnostics,
what genetic testings do you have
available?
Well we offer thousands of
tests but increasing a lot of those are genetic
tests.
We do testing for prenatal testing.
I did that.
Okay!
The genetic testing in women to
determine prenatal risk, we do cancer
based testing to determine what therapies will work in a cancer
patient.
We also do genetic testing to determine
risk of breast cancer and other cancers
in the future, and then finally that
genetic testing we talked about around
diagnosing a disease or even a rare
disease to determine what really is
going on in this patient.
And I was
thinking of rare disease now because we
have a series called Behind The Mystery
and we're very proud of it and we
spotlight a lot of rare diseases out
there that people are unaware of.
Assuming with this kind of testing it
could really help so many people that
are misdiagnosed and have no answers.
This is such an important area really
important we call the diagnostic Odyssey.
You have patients and one of them that
I've seen was a girl who went for ten
years to nine or ten different medical
centers.
Misdiagnosed every time?
No diagnosis but major health problems, and her
family spent a million dollars trying
to get to the bottom of it.
And then it turns
out she ended up getting a genetic test
ten years later.
And she finds she found
out that she has a genetic disease the
question was resolved and there was a
treatment for her problem in that case.
So much time, so much money and time, money,
frustration, uncertainty so in that case
it's really valuable to get genetic
testing.
Speaking of money, genetic
testing is becoming more affordable
today?
Absolutely it's not three billion dollars anymore that's
for sure!
That's a big difference!
Right, so over the last
fifteen years the technologies improved
greatly so it's much more affordable
than it was previously and now we're
able to offer genetics to the community
and in an affordable way.
And how is
genetic testing done?
Let's say somebody
says I'm going to do it.
Well usually
what would happen is your your physician
would talk with you about the genetic
testing and often a genetic counselor
would get involved to help you and the
doctor determine what testing is needed
and what you're going to do with the
information, but then once you've
determined that it's as simple as a
blood test or a saliva sample which you
then send into the laboratory and we do
the genetic testing, the results come back and the doctor and
genetic counselor help you understand
you know what to do with the information.
And ultimately maybe save your life
and maybe even your children's in
the future.
Hopefully so, absolutely.
Thank you so much, great stuff
Appreciate your time.
You're coming
back next time to talk about personalized medicine.
I'll be back!
Excellent, thank you Dr. Wohlgemuth and if you'd
like to learn more about this and
genetic testing you can go to the
website its very easy, questdiagnostics.com/patients
again do that /patients.
It'll get you right there or just go to our website
thebalancingact.com [Music]