Genetic Testing for Kids: Is It a Good Idea?

With the advent of new genetic tests, it's increasingly easy to gauge whether you're predisposed to developing certain conditions — diabetes, say, or breast cancer. For adults, that knowledge can be simultaneously overwhelming and empowering. For children, the ramifications of such predictions are especially controversial, which is why professional groups — the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), in particular — have come out against genetic testing of children for adult-onset diseases.

Yet a new study published today in the AAP-affiliated journal Pediatrics finds that parents who were offered the option of genetic testing for themselves said they would also like to test their children. The 219 parents surveyed indicated they believe that the risks of testing their children for eight adult-onset conditions — colon, skin and lung cancer; heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis — outweigh the benefits.

Read More..

Mothers Can Be the Cause of High Blood Pressure in Children

According to a recently conducted study, children of mothers with a certain genetic mutation are more prone of developing high blood pressure.

A group of researchers from China, U. S. and Austria analyzed a five-generation Chinese family and revealed that a number of its members who come down from the same female ancestor had high blood pressure. The main cause that was found out by the researchers was a genetic mutation that has a big impact on the mitochondria, which are the ''powerhouses'' of the cells that alter energy into useable forms. As suggested by the discovery, a mitochondrial DNA mutation could be highly responsible for high blood pressure in some people.

In this regard, researcher Min-Xin Guan, Ph. D., a Professor of Genetics at Zhejiang University in China said that

Read More..