Fielding Questions on 23andMe and Lifestyle, GINA, Snickering, and More

Readers at the New York Times' Freakonomics blog have grilled 23andMe's Anne Wojcicki. There, she discusses the impact of genetic testing on people's lifestyle, GINA, epigenetics, and why genetic counselors "snicker" at 23andMe. For the last, Wojcicki says that the medical community in the past has been reluctant to shift to "individual empowerment" (she cites over-the-counter pregnancy tests and anonymous HIV tests) and that people can handle knowing their genetic information. "Individuals with access to their APOE allele (which is strongly correlated with age of onset of Alzheimer's) are quite capable of handling that information in a healthy way," she says.