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23andMe free for Parkinson's patients
Started by facetguy
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Interesting idea. Just wonder how 23andMe will protect the patient's data/make it anonymous.
I have a small issue with Muhammad Ali as a Parkinson's sponsor for genetic testing when his etiology probably had more to do with getting punched in the head repeatedly compared to most parkinsonian patients with a genetic etiology...
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Eh, they don't REALLY know the etiology of his parkinsonism, although I agree the association with his career choice does suggest one strong possibility. The bottom line is he reaches a lot of people (and wallets) who couldn't care less about the differentiation between post-TBI parkinsonism and PD.
It's pretty rough to give someone a diagnosis that implicates their own choices and actions as a direct cause of their disease. Sure, plenty of modifiable risk factors contribute to disease, but to tell Muhammad Ali that if he hadn't boxed he'd be a spry older gentleman is not very productive. So you lump him in with PD and leave it at that.
Plenty of boxers don't get parkinsonism, so there probably is a genetic predisposition in play in a gene-environment model, albeit one that we'll probably never have the sample sizes to study in a rigorous way. Then again, maybe he has a LRRK2 mutation and we're all wrong!
It's pretty rough to give someone a diagnosis that implicates their own choices and actions as a direct cause of their disease. Sure, plenty of modifiable risk factors contribute to disease, but to tell Muhammad Ali that if he hadn't boxed he'd be a spry older gentleman is not very productive. So you lump him in with PD and leave it at that.
Plenty of boxers don't get parkinsonism, so there probably is a genetic predisposition in play in a gene-environment model, albeit one that we'll probably never have the sample sizes to study in a rigorous way. Then again, maybe he has a LRRK2 mutation and we're all wrong!
All of this is true. I was falling victim to the old every pathology is distinct and in its own little bubble when really everything is turning up to be multifactorial. I would probably not cop an attitude with Ali regardless of how recently he's had his Sinemet. I just think as a society we should be honest with ourselves about the toll our athletic pursuits take on the bodies of the athletes.
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