can genetics and dna tell weather someone will have cancer or heart disease?

Answer 1

Yes it tells you if somebody in the family has it and if someone did you have a 75% chance that you will get it.

Answer 2

People already have mentioned that our genes (DNA is what compromises our genes) can influence the risk of getting cancer or heart disease. However, we have some control over our cancer and heart disease risk thru our lifestyles and diet.

In the case of cancer, cancer is caused by mutations that occur during the course of life. Because cancer is a multi-step process involving many genes, some genes may already be mutated at birth (tumor suppressor genes). This basically gives cancer a head start and the individual a higher risk of cancer.

In summary, the answer is "no". Genes may offer some predictive knowledge but, it does not gurantee cancer (or heart disease).

Answer 3

No, Genetics can only help determine if you are at a higher risk than someone else.
When thinking of enviroment and genetics do not think of them as diffinitive. Instead think of it as odds. If we were to say all people have a base 20% chance of contracting cancer in there lifetime. Now say you gain a 5% risk per direct relative and you had 1 parent and 1 grand parent with cancer. Now your risk if 30% and you smoke which adds say 20%. Now you are at 50% risk per year of contracting cancer. So you stop smoking which reduces your risk by 15% but 5% remains because of the damage you have already done but you start exercising and eating right so you reduce your risk by another 10%. So now you are back down to 25% chance per year of developing cancer. These numbers are arbitraty but illustrate how you do have some control over you chances of developing cancer.

Answer 4

Genetics and DNA can indicate the potential of someone having cancer or heart disease basing the facts on hereditary traits. However, there is no solid guarantee that someone will have cancer or heart disease because of this. It depends on what the individual does to help safeguard him/herself from this. (Like eating the right diet, exercising, etc.)

Answer 5

Sort of. You can have a gene for a certain susceptibility to a certain disease, but environmental factors determine whether you actually get the disease. This is why knowing your family history is important--you don't need a DNA sample to know whether you're at higher risk.

If it only came down to genetics, identical twins would die of similar circumstances around the same age.

Answer 6

Genetics can tell you if you have a greater tendency to have a disease like cancer or heart disease, but it can't guarantee you will have it.

There are too many other factors that can come into play like diet, exercise/ Things you can control

Answer 7

There are some possibilities:

- Cancer genetically determinated: if you inherited a gene from your parents you will have a cancer certainly. There are about 8-10 kind of cancer genetically determinated as retino-blastome that usually hit children

- Cancer with a genetic predisposition: e.g. if you inherit gene BCRA you have about 70% possibility to have a breast or ovarian cancer

- Genetic diseases (not carcer) that make you more sensitive to cancer: e.g. xeroderma pigmentosum that increases the possibility of having melanoma

- Cancer due to external cancerogenous factors (radiations, chemical cancerogenous factors, diet...)

In positive we also can have genetic predisposition to not having cancer, because our mechanisms of control cell mutation work better!

Answer 8

A person can be at a high risk for both diseases for many different reasons. Reason is environmental factors and other things often are the sole components to how one takes control of how they function on a daily basis. I only say this because we all expiriment at one point with something that messes with our metabolic components. Someone can be A. An ex-smoker. B. An ex drinker and C. an ex-drug addict to feel the good, but they don't realize that somewhere along their road of inconsistent mishaps, the unnecessary side effects from their out of control choices pay tribute sometime without warrant.

Take me for example:
I used to be all the above problematic people. I used to get into trouble quite a bit. I changed my habits dramatically when I got married though. I recently found out that I am at a severe risk for both diseases you stated because with me about 5 members of my family either have the disease now or are to die or it sometime soon.
Here too is another way to put it...Within the last few years, just to be sure I was OK, I just recently checked for heart disease and thankfully that came back negitive. I taken tests that determined no matter what I done, I still gained a few aspects that can endanger my chances for a long life from my past. Unfortunatey for me, I have benign tumors filled with fluid in my right breast at current. I am to have them constantly monitored to determine that the size doesn't fluctuate. The cysts are still growing in size regardless of taking suplimental drug therapy. Now to know if the it will totally stop the progression from cancer all together, we can only hope and pray.

To get back to the subject you asked: Watching the foods you eat and how much you consume decreases the amount of fatty acids that produce bad cholesterol in the blood stream. A good exercise regimen for someone also resolves that issue. So generally speaking, if you were say overweight, not dieting, not caring about yourself like not seeing a doctor regularly, sure your chances sit highest. As we all know obesity is the highest cause of death in America today. But in the same aspect, that person can be in care of themselves, be as healthy as a horse, and have still a ratio factor for the disease at that same level as the obese person. Because one followed the American Cancer Society/Heart Association's guidelines of managing their lifestyle,it just depends on what you consider unhealthy and that person's family history. Anyone who has had some form of the progression can give off the components to their offspring from birth as well. Many children can be born with a genetic component missing that can create the factors that makes the immune system prone to infectious toxins. Do you know that cancer is caused by pollutants in the air, environmental compounds found in your drinking water to other incriminating nutrients in your food?
Learning to exclude these from your diet often stops their intake amount and what percentage they were consumed. Check out the urls I provided below for further information on detoxification.

An extra note to summarize: We all manage our own destinies and they are not always controlled by how we do things, they can come without notice. If we learn how to manage the lifestyle we live now, we have a greater chance to survive down the road. It takes one step in learning how to look for the main causes. Really, a person can eat healthy, have a strong heart, a good posture, but no matter what you do, we all live a life that has to come to an end somehow regardless of what it is. Just so you know, I hope you live long and prosper but never forget, you only live life once, so enjoy it now.

Answer 9

depends upon the type of cancer and the type of heart disease.

Answer 10

Yes, but they will only test like that if your family has a high history of it. Example- If your Mother, Grandmother, Great Grandmother had breast cancer, they will then test you and your children.