TalkGene Discovery for Heart Disease Risks
I’m a big fan of Nicholas Wade’s journalism. He’s got a wonderful way of making complicated science easy to understand, explaining both details of a scientific discovery and what they mean in the larger scheme of things. So today, I recommend everyone check out ” Gene Identified as Risk Factor for Heart Ills” to understand the latest fruits of genome mapping and the HapMap. Although focused on a particular genetic discovery for cardiac risk, he captures in a nutshell why we’re in the midst of a “genomic revolution.”
(See the substantial news coverage on the cardiac risk gene discovery - pick your favorite source and see what they say about it.)
Personally, I’m intrigued that this early gene discovery is getting such play, when the actual release of a diagnostic test for a similar risk factor (type 2 diabetes risk) did not receive the same attention (although it’s mentioned in some of this cardiac coverage, since deCODE is involved in both discoveries). Are we as news consumers only interested in the promise and hope of early discovery? Are we jaded when it comes to practical applications? Or, are we unwilling to swallow the medicine of behavioral change, looking instead for a magic pill? Perhaps the threat of a heart attack is somehow, qualitatively different than diabetes, because it’s potentially immediately deadly rather than deadly over time. Are the hazards of diabetes easier to ignore?
Technorati Tags: genes, heart disease, risk factors, myocardial infarction, heart attack, decode genetics, decode diagnostics, nicholas wade, type 2 diabetes
