I recently had the opportunity to hear the CEO of the American Cancer Society, John Seffrin, Ph.D, speak at the Aspen Ideas Festival. In listening to Dr. Seffrin, I heard him convey many of the same beliefs that we have here at Navigenics – primarily the benefits of early diagnosis and prevention.
There were two key data points which Dr. Seffrin mentioned: (1) many cancers are “curable” if found in Stage 1, and (2) that nearly 60-70% of all cancers are preventable. He also noted that prevention, through behavior change and early detection, is our best known “cure” today.
This is exactly the idea behind what we are doing at Navigenics – by helping you identify your genetic risk for a disease, before you start showing symptoms, you can catch it early, treat it early, or perhaps prevent the disease from occurring altogether.
Another speaker offered an analogy to corrections the astronauts had to make on their missions to the moon – they needed to make course corrections early in the flight, when they were only small adjustments, because the longer they waited the bigger, more difficult and more costly the changes became.
Prevention doesn’t get the attention it deserves. As Dr. Seffrin commented, “The old adage ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’, is more accurately stated as ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.’” And yet, only one-tenth
of one percent of the nation’s research dollars go to prevention research.
According to Robin Portman, a moderator at the conference, 70% of all deaths in the United States are from chronic disease and it is estimated that 40-60% of these can be prevented through behavior change. These changes center on eating at least five servings of fruit and vegetables daily, exercise, managing your weight and not smoking.
If you are already engaged in these beneficial behaviors, then our service can help you understand what’s in your genes that you don’t yet know. Those insights can then help you,in consultation with your doctor, take the next steps to delay, prevent, or diagnose disease early. Some of those steps may be behavior changes, in which case we hope the personalized information Navigenics provides can be a motivating factor to make those changes right way. Some of the steps may be early or more frequent screening, or new medications, which your doctor can discuss with you.
We recognize that it’s hard to make changes in life. But when you can make those changes early, it’s easier to course-correct and reach the target of living a healthy life.
Here’s to your good health.
Mari
marilyn Jul 20, 2008
I will be taking some of your genetic tests through Wellmax in about 2 weeks.
I am very happy with what you are doing because everyone in my family who died, died of cancer or heart problems; a few had diabetes and some had other endocrine abnormalities.They also did not exercise enough or at all, and did not take supplements, or eat very healthy diets. Most smoked and drank.
At some point I developed symptoms of insulin resistance, then pre-diabetes (if you care to acknowledge such sub-categories), and totally reversed the problem with diet, exercise and other lifestyle changes. So, I know this can work for me. Upon further investigation into the complicated genetics involved, I realized I needed detailed genetic testing to seee my specific tendencies, and some other tests to see the expression of these tendencies (all before I actually have symptoms). I am 60 but currently in much better health and physical fitness than others much younger than I am. I go horseback riding and trekking over rough terrain and at altitude in other countries. I think the genetic and biomarker testing I will be doing in August will be a great help to me and my husband by giving us the proper directions to take in our health care, through diet, supplements, exercise etc., before we ever have any symptoms.
Your company comes highly recommended by Dean Ornish, MD, in his book Spectrum, along with only 3 other companies. The book is basically telling people that they can turn parts of genes on and off to offset an unfavorable genetic tendency, and this change is again arrived at by diet and lifestyle changes (how much more fun than surgery and drugs.) Due to inverted t-waves and plaque on one leaf of a mitral valve, a doctor wanted to rush me to a hospital. Fortunately for me (I was just seeing him for a bronchial infection), I knew about these things. I had already had a whole body scan showing my calcium score for the heart is zero, and had had a nuclear stress test showing everything normal, an ejection fraction of 72 percent, and all normal wall actions. Basically, the cardiologist running the test told me my heart performed like that of a 35 year old endurance athlete. This means that one marker does not mean you are deathly ill. On the stress test all my t-waves became normal under exercise--which, the doctor said, in view of everything else means my body craves exercise---which I have done at a high level all my life. So, even before genetic and biophysical marker testing existed--- the diet and lifestyle were hedging against the genetic tendencies I did not know I had.
I guess it works—I am still here.
Regards,
Soon to be satisfied customer.