If you're doing some shopping in Soho boutiques for the next ten days, say shopping for a Helmut Lang suit or a Malandrino dress, perhaps you could pop on over to Navigenics to get your saliva cotton-swabbed. That's right, I said cotton-swabbed. Navigenics, a company that promotes at-home genetic testing by selling kits online, will be setting up shop on Greene Street. They will not only be screening for 17 condition that run the gamut from breast cancer to type 2 diabetes, they will be having panel discussions and the like to get us all excited about finding out our genetic defects. And forget the fact that doctors are concerned at-home tests may not be fully accurate and could prevent medical intervention and counseling—find out how you can buy your own genetic screening kit! A small note of warning, though: If you have diseases such as Sickle Cell anemia or Hungtington's Disease, Navigenics can't help you. They figure since, if you carry those diseases, you probably definitely have them, they want to focus on those that you can develop later down the line, like Alzheimer's—for the sake of "prevention."
Saturday, February 11
Plovgh, the new online farmers market
Who knew that the farming world had a trend? Well, Mallory Sustick, a Brooklyn bartender, works like a dog to maintain, promote and advance the online farmer's market startup Plovgh that began after noticing a need for more local farm market distribution.
Steven Murphy MD
April 9, 2008
2:35am
This is an interesting time to be testing for these diseases. Where will you take your report? Most primary care doctors can't even speak the language of genetics.... -Steve www.helixhealth.org