For every parent who has suffered the anxiety of wondering if their unborn child would be healthy, there are comparatively few who come face to face with the agonizing discovery that their unborn or newborn child will struggle or die because of a genetic disorder.

What is a genetic disorder and what part does genetic screening play in helping families to deal with the risk or reality in their children?

Recessive genetic disorders are when both parents carry a diseased gene but do not suffer from the disease themselves. They are called ‘carriers’. Their children must inherit the diseased gene from BOTH parents to develop the disorder.

If the child inherits only one gene they will also become carriers, but not suffer from the disease. It is also possible that they will not inherit the gene at all. In each case, the likelihood of having a child develop the disorder goes up with each pregnancy. It is simply a matter of chance.

Genetic Screening of Parents

Screening a couple BEFORE pregnancy can identify the risks for potential recessive disease where both parents carry the same recessive gene. Once a gene (such as Tay-Sachs) is found in both individuals, the couple can be informed on the risks of passing the gene on and the likelihood of their children developing the disorder.

Having this knowledge not only prepares couples for the possible outcome in a pregnancy but also permits them to decide whether getting pregnant is worth the risk.

Genetic Screening During Pregnancy

Genetic screening during pregnancy is subject to the most controversy. While the testing is not done entirely for genetic disorders (spina bifida and Downs syndrome being two that are NOT inherited gene disorders) the facts still remain that screening during pregnancy has its pros and cons.

While genetic screening may prepare a family for the risk of disease and provide time for genetic counseling for the parents, usually there is nothing that can be done for the baby during the pregnancy.

The fact that most tests cannot guarantee the health of the child and that false positive tests may lead to undue anxiety and possibly to the termination of a healthy pregnancy are also dangers that must be acknowledged. Some tests, such as the amniocentesis, also carry a risk themselves (although a small one). Parents should discuss this with their health care provider.

More recently it is the possibility that genetic testing may lead to more advanced measures of choosing the ‘right’ baby that has caused a stir. Each parent must weigh the risks and benefits of these tests.

Genetic Screening of Newborns

Genetic screening of newborns has become standard practice in countries like the US and Canada.

By taking a small sample of blood from a pin prick in the newborn’s heel, the sample is then analyzed for genetic disorders. Some of these disorders, when caught early on can be treated (such as sickle cell anemia) and some even eliminated. This precaution has saved many children a lifetime of suffering from a debilitating disease.

The advancement of science continues to amaze and alarm us with what is possible. While many individuals will benefit from the assistance of screening the controversy regarding how far science should intrude is sure to continue.

There’s always going to be something about your body that you don’t like and can’t easily change. For average people, its things like eye color or shoe size, but for bodybuilders, its things like narrow shoulders. Instead of obsessing over these details, learn what you can do to optimize your workout to help fix the problem-and then learn to acceptyour body for what it is.

Of course, most people simply use genetics as an excuse. If your calves are a problem spot, for example, it’s easy to say that this is your parents problem area as well and move on to bench presses or crunches. This is exactly what you should not do! If you calves are the problem, you should begin your workout training these muscles and spend longer and more intense time working to improve this area. Instead, studies show that people are simply giving up and moving on to muscle groups where they can easily get results. Stick it out-by training your problem spots, you will see results in the end, even if the gains are smaller than in other areas. Ask for advice from professionalbodybuilders and trainers to optimize your workout for the muscles that are troubling you, and be sure to know your limits; overtraining will only add to the problem.

Sometimes, no matter how hard you work, you have to live with the way your body was made. Men, for example, want to have broad shoulders, but you can’t physically do a whole lot if your shoulders are narrow. Instead, you can create the illusion that you have broad shoulders. First, tone the area to define your muscles. Then, trick the mind into believing your shoulders are wider by proportioning your body accordingly. For example, lose extra weight in the abdominal area to give yourself the V shape of the traditional Greek modal. Another trait that you cannot change is height. Shorterbodybuilders will always be able to build bigger and better muscles, because their limbs are not as long. Tall guys-you can still build muscle, just remember that you will have to put forth more effort to lift the same amount of weight.

Overall, don’t blame genetics for too much. True, you may have a predisposition, but you can still tone and define muscles in your problem areas with a little extra work. In the end, learn to accept the things you cannot change and focus on keepingyour body healthy overall.

PHILADELPHIA — Social environment can play an important role in the biology of disease, including breast cancer, and lead to significant differences in health outcome, according to results of a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Using mice as a model to study human breast cancer, researchers have demonstrated that a negative social environment (in this case, isolation) causes increased tumor growth. The work shows — for the first time — that social isolation is associated with altered gene expression in mouse mammary glands, and that these changes are accompanied by larger tumors.

In Part 1 of this series, we learned why the current system of psychiatric diagnosis is in trouble. In this post we’ll learn how that trouble arose—and what a clever group of researchers is doing to get around it. * * * In the olden days of the 1970s, diagnosis of personality disorders was in such disarray that the best way to change a diagnosis from bipolar disorder to schizophrenia was simply to fly from L

Article: Wikinomics and its discontents : a critical analysis of Web 2.0 business manifestos. By José Van Dijck and David Nieborg. We mentioned this essay before, which is a critique of a number of business authors, such as Don Tapscott’s Wikinomics, Charles Leadbeater and others, for failing to see the cooptation strategies of business and the antagonistic interests between proprietary platforms and user communities. Here are some excerpted paragraphs outlining some of the arguments of th

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), both part of the National Institutes of Health, today announced grants expected to total approximately $45 million to establish new Centers of Excellence in Genomic Science at the Medical College of Wisconsin and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill as well as to continue support of existing centers at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Southern California.

Ken Burns – The National Parks America’s Best Idea Is Ken Burns a secret propagandist for socialism? Thanks Shelley Taxman (video) The Weekly Ezine for Democrats Is Francis Collins Bringing Sexy Back to Science? I know. I was just as surprised as you are. Dr. Francis Collins, former director of the Human Genome Project, author of The Language Of God, and new director of the National Institutes of Health performed live in front of a group of Washington locals a

For as long as humans have lived in complex communities, cities and civilizations, they have divided and classified their societies. Those divisions have been based on age, gender, appearance or – in many cases – occupation. In many traditional societies artisans would share the same social status; as would soldiers, priests and workers in any number of other occupations. In antiquity, the status of a family rarely changed. If you were a farmer, your sons would be farmers, and so on. While tod

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