This article came in pipeline email this morning and I've been thinking about it off and on. The factors that i am considering are listed. feel free to add to it - with the right answer an unknown:

I wouldn't be surprised if we never figure it out.

The doctor in this article has a competing business.

He could be right.

He is referring to what seems like exactly the kind if study being conducted by 23andme.

I refer to posts such as hiptothat and tutor50 in the 23andme thread. Who knows what else might turn up?

we've got nothing to lose.

If the medical communities are not going to be accepting of it [no surprise], then the insurance companies can't use it against anyone.

We'll never know anything if we don't try it.

It's just spit. I don't see it as a big deal because it's so cheap.

23andme isn't hiding anything.

i agree that they did appear to be more of a social [recreational i believe he said]gnenomic company. they also do not claim to have done serious illness studies prior to this. we are the first.

they are only testing for two known gene variants.

i have a hard time fathoming that nothing would turn up - nothing at all- if ten thousand people donated spit and....this and is imperative to include...fill out surveys to collect info in a huge database.

it is demeaning for the doctor to assume that people can't understand the risks and averages he spoke of but instead would react with horror to the possibilities. if that is the state of mind one is in , he/she should not get the analysis.

i think people with pd are more savvy than he may think they are.

there are no guarantees. we all know that.

i don't believe what i read by the medical community anymore [sadly], particularly when they own a business or a patent, or are editors of journals. i know there are many good - honest people in the medical community. but how many doctors does one person encounter in a lifetime? not nearly enough to know who is honest and who isn't.

question for rick....what do you mean when you say: they aren't read? i just didn't follow you there...can you explain? thanks.

already thought of two more things:

i wouldn't make this decision or change my mind from yes to no based on this article alone. that isn't suggesting that you shouldn't - i'm saying i wouldn't.

Sergey Brins' mother isn't just the mother with pd. She was a scientist at NASA and is on the new MJFF patient advisory committee.