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23andMe Plans New Genetic Test on Risk of Getting Diabetes (fortune.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

In an update to its genetic test, 23andMe is trying to make it easier for people to combat type 2 diabetes. From a report: When customers now purchase the company's $199 Health & Ancestry Service test, they'll get their saliva screened for type 2 diabetes, among a variety of other health conditions, the company said in a statement on Sunday. The test won't say for sure whether a person has diabetes or will definitely get it, but the results will provide insight into whether someone is at risk of becoming diabetic. According to 23andMe, its test to determine diabetes risk comes from an analysis of data the company collected from more than 2.5 million customers who opted in to its research. Scientists evaluated the user data and created a system of scoring a person's likelihood of getting type 2 diabetes based on more than 1,000 genetic factors.

61 comments

  1. As accurate as their ancestry results by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Probably the same results as a doctor asking if you have any history of diabetes in your family

  2. Would like to see the peer reviewed publication by XXongo · · Score: 1

    This is a fascinating use of big data, but I'd really like to see this work peer-reviewed for publication

    1. Re:Would like to see the peer reviewed publication by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      Doesn't look like it's published yet, but here is the paper. https://permalinks.23andme.com/pdf/23_19-Type2Diabetes_March2019.pdf.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    2. Re:Would like to see the peer reviewed publication by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I am going to go to jail. It might as well be for late term abortion. Let's meet bitch, and I will go to jail just for you. And you will be in hell, just for me.

    3. Re:Would like to see the peer reviewed publication by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You've already been aborted, traitor.

    4. Re:Would like to see the peer reviewed publication by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't need to see the peer-reviewed paper, they've undoubtedly found some hacks that will approve their shady claims intended to boost business.

      Take this, for example, from the National Institutes of Health, citing two separate studies:
      "The concordance rates of type 2 diabetes are about 34%-58% in monozygotic twins and about 12%-20% in dizygotic twins."
      If identical genes lead to the same outcome less than half the time, and very strongly similar genetics lead to the same outcome less than a fifth of the time, whatever test 23andMe is doing is a shitload less relevant than environmental factors. Unless, I guess, you think some consumer genetic testing company stumbled on some particular marker that real academic scientists have been failing to find for at least 30 years.

      Yes, there is a known heritable risk... it's just that your diet, exercise, body mass, age, etc. are far more relevant.

    5. Re:Would like to see the peer reviewed publication by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's got some real dingers in it, thanks. Like:

      "(T)here do not appear to be any widely accepted lifetime risk thresholds that inform T2D clinical screening or treatment recommendations"

      But we're gonna do one anyway, even though we're not endocrinologists or public health researchers or anybody that has been studying this issue for their entire careers.

  3. Diabetes is scary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I used to think that it was a disease that came in 2 forms:

    * Those born with a known genetic anomaly. (Type I)
    * Dumbfucks who can't stop stuffing their mouths with food. (Type II)

    It turns out, though, that I was wrong; while it's true that there are a lot of dumbfucks out there, people don't really know what causes Type I diabetes—it just appears to have some kind of heritable quality to it. Yikes!

    1. Re:Diabetes is scary by magarity · · Score: 1

      * Dumbfucks who can't stop stuffing their mouths with food. (Type II)

      Sorry, no, while type 2 is brought on by poor eating habits, it is not from inability to stop stuffing one's mouth. Yes, fat people have it but they would probably even if they just less of the crappy food they prefer. It is high carb and/or high sugar ratio food with lack of exercise. Alcohol in particular has a lot of the kind of sugar bad for people at risk. It's not the being fat that does it, it's the kind of food that people who end up fat tend to eat.

    2. Re:Diabetes is scary by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      I used to think that it was a disease that came in 2 forms:

      * Those born with a known genetic anomaly. (Type I)
      * Dumbfucks who can't stop stuffing their mouths with food. (Type II)

      It turns out, though, that I was wrong; while it's true that there are a lot of dumbfucks out there, people don't really know what causes Type I diabetes—it just appears to have some kind of heritable quality to it. Yikes!

      Regarding type II though- it's not just what food they eat.
      You can have two obese men of the same height and weight that eat a similar diet.

      Man 1 has diabetes. Man 2 does not.

      Both of them could probably lose the diabetes by losing weight so it's not Type I, but it isn't just from being obese either. Some people are more genetically predisposed to getting diabetes even if they are not necessarily of Type I.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    3. Re:Diabetes is scary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, no. NIH: "... and moderate intake of alcohol have been linked with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes."

    4. Re:Diabetes is scary by _merlin · · Score: 1

      There's also gestational diabetes, which is a temporary thing that happens to pregnant women. My wife got this the first time, and it really scared her. Before that she used to give me shit and tell me I'd get diabetes from my eating habits. She got really strict with her eating and exercise the whole time she was pregnant. The second time she responded better to the glucose metabolism test, but they'd changed the threshold, so they still told her she had borderline gestational diabetes, and she had to do the whole testing regime again.

    5. Re:Diabetes is scary by havana9 · · Score: 1

      The fact is that all types of diabetes have a genetic root. Some studies found that in families with people with Type 1 (or LADA) there were also people with Type 2. By the way eating too much of carbohydrates doesn't cause diabetes because there are a lot of fat people without diabetes. The problem with Type 2 is that is a slowly evolving condition and could pass undetected for years, add to this that having an healthy food habit will reduce the effects of diabetes, T2 could pass undetected. T1 on the other hand has a clear and fast onset. Sometime even a LADA, because it's slower to evolve could be misdiagnosed for T2.
      And some people by the way could get MODY type diabetes that are also different.
      I have also to add that the dietary information one could gather from media and even doctors and nurses is misleading or plain wrong. Like the story that eggs are a bad food, it's false because the test were made on rabbits, or the lactose free and gluten free sold for healthier alternatives, or low fat version of put that are loaded with sugars and flavours because otherwise they are tasting like crap.
      Another this to note is that modern heavily processed foods using highly refined sugars and grain are less healthier than the same food made at home or made like 40 years ago.

  4. and face scanning in airports is evil? by the_skywise · · Score: 1

    I realize this is voluntary but this kind of genetic record keeping and analysis will not be kept private. There's already several stories out there of crimes being solved because of genetic matching in Ancestry.com. It wasn't even the person that did the crime but their close relative!

    1. Re:and face scanning in airports is evil? by weeboo0104 · · Score: 1

      Bingo. The data will either be sold or "leaked" to the health insurance community. If you want to manage your health, do so under the guidance of a physician or nurse practitioner. Ancestry companies have no business keeping health data.

      --
      It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass
  5. Their offer is fraudulent! Beware! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Testing works by reproducing your DNA a millionfold, chopping it all up into short segments, seqencing those segments, and *guessing* which bits belong where, based on overlaps.

    The problem is, that DNA has many repetitive sections, transcription errors happen in the lab, and sequencing even such shorter segments is far from perfect.

    In tests, companies like 23andMe were found to be not only very very wrong, but reliably *more* wrong than right!

    So beware of all such companies. They are selling snake oil, and technology simply isn't that far nor that consumer-ready yer.aaa

  6. Buyer beware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, when you go to get life insurance in the future they are going to require you to release this data to them. Then they are going to charge you more money as a result...

    1. Re:Buyer beware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course! You would not be so amoral to want other insured people to sponsor your diabetes condition.

  7. Great for roughly zero percent of type 2 cases by Drunkulus · · Score: 1

    A thousand genetic markers doesn't mean f*ckall when excess BMI and physical inactivity are the known causes.

    1. Re:Great for roughly zero percent of type 2 cases by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      PCB exposure can do it to you, too. Nasty stuff.

      As can over-reliance on artificial sweeteners (making the body insulin resistant over time by continually producing it but without sugars to remove it from the blood). If you want something sweet, eat a real sugar, and don't overdo it.

    2. Re:Great for roughly zero percent of type 2 cases by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "when excess BMI and physical inactivity" - False.

    3. Re:Great for roughly zero percent of type 2 cases by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      Eat fructose, not glucose.

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    4. Re:Great for roughly zero percent of type 2 cases by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Exactly ...

      Basically all cases of diabetes I'm aware off are caused by wrong diet.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    5. Re:Great for roughly zero percent of type 2 cases by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

      You probably want to use the waist-to-height ratio instead.

    6. Re:Great for roughly zero percent of type 2 cases by havana9 · · Score: 1

      This is simply not true. It's a genetic predisposition, that is easily triggered by an high carbohydrate diet. The fact there are morbidly obese people without diabetes is sign that isn't the cause. On the contrary people with pre-diabetes and reactive hypoglycaemia couls suffer for increased hunger and overeat.

    7. Re:Great for roughly zero percent of type 2 cases by Drunkulus · · Score: 1

      Interesting argument. By that logic, we can also conclude that smoking does not cause lung cancer, because there are people who have chain smoked for decades but do not have lung cancer. I will agree, however, that diabetes is triggered by a genetic disposition: evolving in a world of scarcity gave us a survival instinct to stuff ourselves full of anything edible, especially meats, fat, carbs, salt, and sugar. Of course, everyone on the planet shares this genetic disposition. There, I just saved you $199.

    8. Re:Great for roughly zero percent of type 2 cases by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed? Please elaborate on this, Mr. Coward.

  8. but under gop health care can be used to blacklist by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1, Troll

    but under gop health care can be used to blacklist people.

  9. Kinda not the issue by nanospook · · Score: 1

    For most, its not really genetic, it's dietary. It's like being a heavy smoker and not being able to run up the stairs anymore. it's dietary.. now people will be told they are low risk while their doctor's will tell them their sugar is now high..

    --
    Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
  10. Re:but under gop health care can be used to blackl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Kicking people off healthcare is like... the #1 Republican priority for 30 years. Who's surprised? Check out Trump's latest "give it all to to corporations" budget. "Cuts for thee, but not for traitor-me..."

    I wonder what level of health care Trump will get in Federal prison?

  11. Alcohol has almost no sugar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's what happens when alcohol is created: Yeast eats the sugar, so that you don't have to.

    1. Re:Alcohol has almost no sugar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Alcohol is basically a type of sugar.

  12. Both are evil, bad, and wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The government forcing everybody through the rigmarole is a tad more invasive than having to fork out before this company will fuck you over. In the latter case it's easy: Just don't give them my money. In the former case, I don't have that choice.

    I wouldn't give my money to these guys, nor my data to either if I can help it. Problem is, to retain my privacy I not only have to keep my money, I also have to make sure every relative keeps theirs away from these companies. That does make DNA-testing companies and their habit of sharing your data with the government without your consent even more problematic.

  13. not long ago insulin was like 3$ a vial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    more like 300$ for the same amount now? no wonder screening is ramped up?

    1. Re:not long ago insulin was like 3$ a vial by the_skywise · · Score: 1

      That's because the demand has skyrocketed.

  14. Easy to by houghi · · Score: 1

    They just need to look at where you live. When they the just add a disclaimer on their website, they should be able to get the 50% accyracy they get now.

    Yeah. Look up the YouTube video where identical rwins did the test and looked deeper into these websites and what real DNA researchers think of it.

    In short, if you look at the highest reliability, then suddenly you are not "Irish, Scottish and Spanish" but European.

    I will just listen to my real doctor. (Listen, not follow his advice)

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  15. They should call it... by autlycus · · Score: 0

    ..the Wilford Brimley special!

  16. Re:but under gop health care can be used to blackl by autlycus · · Score: 0

    I don't think it matters which party has control. The GOP would let private insurers raise your rates or deny you coverage. Under Medicare for All it would be seen as something to deny care for someone because the total cost of their care would outweigh their benefit to society.

  17. Promethease by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cheaper and better results with Promethease. $12 to import any 23andMe, AncestryDNA.com, FamilyTreeDNA, or Genos raw data into them. With AncestryDNA having a sale for $60 (free shipping from Amazon), that's only $72 total. 23andMe, AncestryDNA, and FamilyTreeDNA are constantly having sales. If there isn't a sale, just wait 1-2 months. Since I've been paying attention around Thanksgiving, I've seen sales for Black Friday, Christmas, New Years, Valentine's Day, and now St. Patrick's Day.

    https://promethease.com/

    Afraid of data collection by Big Brother, insurance, etc? Just pay for a gift credit card with cash for $80, then when you create your account use all bogus info. Ship the test to a friend's address under the pseudonym.

  18. Hilarious, since diabetes is not hereditary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Type 1 diabetes is believed to be caused by viral infections that over many years cause an auto-immune condition that slowly destroyes the beta cells in the pancreas, and type 2 diabetes is entirely acute and self-inflicted. If anything, you could possibly argue that type 2 diabetes can be inherited from the parents by ___adopting their poor dietary choices___, not their genetics.

    You should read the recent news on how all these American scammers give different results for one and the same person. And, just like the rest of these DNA test scams, stay away from this one as well.

    1. Re:Hilarious, since diabetes is not hereditary by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      No, Type 2 is NOT self-inflicted, many people have a genetic predisposition to diabetes. I suffered from hypoglycemia for 30 years before it became hyperglycemia... so how is my diabetes self-inflicted when I never ate sugar because it would cause my blood sugar to plummet to the point I passed out within an hour of eating it?

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    2. Re: Hilarious, since diabetes is not hereditary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "over many years" "slowly destroys"

      You realize type I was once known as juvenile diabetes, right? And that there are many, many infants with type I.

    3. Re:Hilarious, since diabetes is not hereditary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sugar isn't the only thing containing carbohydrates. White rice, white refined flour, lots of potatoes, lots of sweet fruit juice, and more. All these things produce a sharp rise in glucose levels, and this is what slowly lowers your insulin sensitivity and eventually T2 diabetes. Sugar is just _one_ of many culprits. T2 diabetes is acute and self inflicted, period.

  19. Re:but under gop health care can be used to blackl by lgw · · Score: 2

    I don't think it matters which party has control. The GOP would let private insurers raise your rates or deny you coverage. Under Medicare for All it would be seen as something to deny care for someone because the total cost of their care would outweigh their benefit to society.

    I don't think people talking about "Medicare for All" understand how Medicare works: most people also have private insurance. Medicare is not an alternative to medical insurance.

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  20. The jokes on them! by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    I already have diabetes!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  21. Overkill, test not needed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stop with the expensive tests, do a family history, if your over weight, eat lot's of carbs or sugars, take naps after a meal, have hypertension your most likely in pre diabetic stage on the way to full blow type 2. By the time a test determines this, its already too late because you have probably spent years eating too many carbs and sugars and already have worn out your pancreas.

  22. Re:but under gop health care can be used to blackl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Medicare is not an alternative to medical insurance.

    Huh? So, you get no coverage with Medicare unless you have private insurance? Medicare isn't the primary payor? Can I then say that United Health isn't an alternative to Humana because I have secondary coverage through my spouse?

  23. Just think of the profits! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Then they can turn around and sell it to insurance companies who will in turn give you higher rates! Itâ(TM)s perfect!

  24. No, it is not. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't know what else say.

  25. just wait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Insurance companies will pay big money to access that type of info that people are giving away to 23andMe.
    They would love to charge more for a greater risk of a disease like this.

  26. Re:but under gop health care can be used to blackl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
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  27. Re:but under gop health care can be used to blackl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hate speech much be banned. stop anonymous, stop usenet, stop vpns and erase hate from the earth!

  28. Re:but under gop health care can be used to blackl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why is it "hate speech" and not merely an opinion you don't agree with? Lighten up, Francis.

  29. Re:but under gop health care can be used to blackl by lgw · · Score: 1

    Huh? So, you get no coverage with Medicare unless you have private insurance? Medicare isn't the primary payor? Can I then say that United Health isn't an alternative to Humana because I have secondary coverage through my spouse?

    The billing is ... complicated. Really, it's a mess sometimes, depending on the care provider. The patient might have just Medicare, or Medicare+Medigap, or Medicare Advantage (which is private insurance that uses Medicare as the re-insurer). Providers don't always sort that out correctly, especially if they don't primarily deal with the elderly.

    But very few people only have Medicare. The normal thing unless you're very poor (or very rich, I guess) is either Medigap or Medicare Advantage. Most people who are "on Medicare" also have to deal with a private insurance company, in practice.

    So, for most people in practice, it's not "Medicare instead of private insurance", it's "Medicare and private insurance". Instead of the paperwork advantage of single payer, it's the worst of both worlds.

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  30. Genetics vs environment by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    Genetics does not tell all, for many diseases, environment is even more important. Eat too much carbs, exercise too little, and you will get type 2 diabetes, no genetic test needed for that forecast.

    1. Re:Genetics vs environment by havana9 · · Score: 1

      Wrong... a genetic predisposition has a role on diabetes development. There are fat people without diabetes and slim people that got type 2 diabetes. Eating too much refined carbohydrates could cause reactive hypoglycaemia that in turn cause more hunger.

    2. Re:Genetics vs environment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More than 80% (some says more than 90% worldwide) of adults with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese.

  31. SUCKERS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's one born every minute.

    You pay them $200 so you can give them your DNA which is worth probably $10,000 to them, and for the rest of your life you will find your insurance rates adjusted based on your DNA profile, or restrictions on you and job optoions based on it, but you will never know that is what it's based on, all because you were stupid enough to give your DNA.

    Get your life under YOUR control. Don't ever give up control of your information especialy your biometrics. Anytime you see a agreement with your doctor or insurance company that enables them to share your data, deny it; reject the service. Prepare to do that now so you aren't surprised by it.

    Anytime some store wants your personal information like a phone number or email. Tell them no. Tell them the service and/or product they offer is less valuable than the information than they are wanting.

  32. Re:but under gop health care can be used to blackl by BytePusher · · Score: 1

    Or since society as a whole carries the burden of treating diabetes, we’d renegotiate insulin prices to match the cost of production plus some premium. As it is, as the medical industrial complex has merged with debt markets and bankruptcy is no longer accessible due to BPACPA, the supply demand curve is in a divide by zero situation. Pharma literally charges as much as they can get away with while avoiding triggering a public revolution against them. Likewise, if access to life saving medicine was a human right in America, and the profit motive for life-by-subscription removed, we would pour tons of money into curing any disease that was relatively expensive to treat. As is, pharma has zero motivation to cure anything and it’s not going to change until we collectively decide all Americans deserve better.

  33. Diet by logangrog130 · · Score: 1

    If you sustain a healthy diet right from the start, you will never have diabetes. It's not an inhabited disease and limiting yourself on sweets and junk food is already half of the success. If you still looking into diet, try for lch tp gym cho nam and see how this will improve your health in nearest future.