Archive for the ‘heart attack’ tag
deCODE and Celera Partner to Expand Use of deCODE Risk Markers for Heart Attack, Stroke and Diabetes
deCODE genetics and Celera Corporation have announced the signing of agreements under which deCODE has granted Celera non-exclusive worldwide licenses to deCODE’s genetic markers for increased risk of major cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, including heart attack, stroke, atrial fibrillation (AF) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). These markers can be incorporated into laboratory tests for assessing and managing individual risk of these diseases.
“This is an excellent opportunity to broaden the clinical application and commercialization of our discoveries of high-impact genetic risk factors for major diseases. The markers included in these agreements are among the most widely replicated genetic risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic disease, and they provide a natural complement to the biomarker services already offered by Berkeley HeartLab, Celera’s subsidiary. In Celera we have a partner with a global reputation in human genetics and a large and effective outreach and sales force. We are pleased to have the chance to work with them to build upon our discovery and testing platforms and to accelerate the adoption of personalized medicine,” said Kari Stefansson CEO of deCODE.
Who’s afraid of genetic testing?
As a deCODEyou reader, you have an active interest in how genetics can help to improve personal health and healthcare. If you are a deCODEme subscriber or have taken one of our DNA-based diagnostic tests, you have already followed up on that interest.
Then again, you may not have had your genome analyzed yet. You may simply be interested in taking part in research, having a scan, or simply in keeping up with the latest discoveries.
But whoever you are, your genome is information about you. And at deCODE, we believe that your genome belongs to you. Over the past decade we have worked with hundreds of thousands individuals who have decided to use their genome to advance our gene discovery work, to understand their risk of a certain disease, or who want to have a broad and constantly updated look at their genome through deCODEme. In every case, we think it is the individual who has the right to decide to use their genome and learn about it as they wish.
Heart attack and stroke prevention: measuring lifetime risk
Amy Doneen, Director of the Heart Attack & Stroke Prevention Center, Spokane, WA.
Amy Doneen at the Heart Attack and Stroke Prevention Clinic in Spokane, Washington, talks about an “exciting new time” for preventive health care. Amy, a nurse practitioner, has been using nutrigenomics (the response of genes to nutrition) as part of the program for more than a decade and with outstanding results. “The goal,” says Amy “is to find out what path a patient is on to developing certain diseases and kick them off that path.” Scanning for risk factor for common conditions (such as diabetes, heart attack, several types of cancer etc.) She emphasizes the importance of gauging lifetime risk as against clinical tests that usually concentrate on immediate high risk. According to Amy, some people walk away from the second kind with a negative result and think things are always going to be fine. Genetic testing is just arriving to the market place, but Americans currently spending nearly $50 billion on stroke care alone, the time is ripe to back all advances in preventive medicine.
To read more and watch parts of the interview with Amy Doneen visit the deCODEme Customer Stories.
Genetic test was an investment in myself
Jack Doughery says deCODEme genetic test was an investment
Jack Doughery feels great and wants everyone to know it.
“I almost feel evangelical about my health,” says the 62-year-old businessman from Spokane, Washington. “I’m so excited about what can happen if you do the right things and have the right tools.”
Jack started doing the right things once he began what he calls his journey, which kicked off one day after waking up at three in the morning craving a cigarette.
“When you’re waking up at three in the morning, coughing and spluttering, and the only way to calm down is by smoking a cigarette, you don’t have to be too smart to know this might not be the way to go. It got my attention,” he remembers.
One of Jack’s first stops along his grand trip was at Spokane’s Heart Attack and Stroke Prevention Clinic, run by nurse practitioner Amy Doneen. It was Doneen and Dr. Bradley Bale who put Jack on the path to prevention, helping Jack to reshape his life using diagnostic testing, nutrition and exercise.
Recently, Amy Doneen began using a new test to help alter Jack’s journey—deCODEme, a genetic test that scans a patient’s genome for markers relating to 30 various diseases. The deCODEme genetic test gauges a patient’s average and lifetime risk of developing diseases such as Alzheimer’s, heart attack, prostate cancer, and most recently bladder cancer.
Early warning was a blessing
Lauralee Nygaard, a periodontist from Spokane, WA, says the deCODE tests are easy to take and highly cost effective but that we have to pay close attention to the results and be prepared to make some serious lifestyle changes.
Lauralee Nygaard is a dentist from Spokane, Washington. She is in her early forties and has two young children. Three years ago Lauralee had a stroke while she was performing surgery on a patient. It confirmed her suspicions about a predisposition to heart disease that she had nurtured since she was 18.
“When I was 18, I went to the doctor and said, ‘I know I’m at risk for a heart attack, my dad has hypercholesterolemia.’ The doctor laughed at me. He said, ‘you’re a skinny girl, you’re never going to have heart disease.”
A stroke at forty confirmed her worst fears: “It corroborated the fact that I knew I was at risk. I had pushed my family physician for years to be aggressively preventative with making sure I didn’t have heart disease. He always told me there was nothing they could do.”
As a dentist who had stressed the importance of preventative care for years, Lauralee was ready to practice what she had preached
