February 2, 2012
LDL is the “bad” cholesterol that clogs arteries and is linked to coronary heart disease. Although people can do a lot to lower LDL levels and prevent heart disease — eating healthy, exercising, and taking certain medications — it’s also likely that genetics influences the relationship between LDL [...]
July 27, 2009
Mutations are bad, right? Not always. Some DNA changes are completely neutral. That's how the human genome came to have so many variations. And some mutations are actually advantageous. A case in point is the PCSK9 gene. So-called "loss-of-function" mutations that prevent the protein encoded by this [...]
December 15, 2008
Genome-wide association studies, the research projects that connect SNPs to different traits and conditions (and fuel much of the 23andMe Health and Traits feature), focus on fairly common genetic variations that generally have small effects on risk. But critics of this type of research charge that [...]
December 8, 2008
SNPwatch gives you the latest news about research linking various traits and conditions to individual genetic variations. These studies are exciting because they offer a glimpse into how genetics may affect our bodies and health; but in most cases, more work is needed before this research can provide [...]
