Your Genes, Your Health
A Critical Family Guide That Could Save Your Life
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- $36.99
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- $36.99
Publisher Description
New advances in genetics have dramatically expanded our ability to avoid, prevent, diagnose, and treat a wide range of disorders. Now, more than ever, families need to know about these new discoveries, especially as there are some 7,000 rare genetic diseases that afflict about 1 in 12 of us. In Your Genes, Your Health, Aubrey Milunsky provides an invaluable and authoritative guide to what you should know about your genes. Illustrated with poignant family histories that underscore the lifesaving importance of knowing one's family medical history and ethnic origin, the book highlights the importance of recognizing seemingly unrelated disorders in a family as due to the same gene mutation and it outlines the key genetic tests needed for diagnosis, detection of carriers, and prenatal diagnosis. Many genetic disorders are discussed including cancer, heart disease, autism, mental illness, birth defects, neurologic disorders, diabetes, obesity and much more. The message of this book is clear--know your family history, be cognizant of your ethnic origins, seek appropriate consultations, and opt for meaningful genetic tests. Recognition of your risk(s) enables prompt preemptive action. By knowing your genes, you may save your life and the lives of those you love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
From Tay-Sachs to hypertension, "very aspect of health and all disease is controlled, regulated, modulated, or influenced by your genes, .... the results of their dysfunction can frequently be remedied." A professor and doctor of pediatrics, genetics, and internal medicine, Milunsky (Genetic Disorders and the Fetus: Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment) provides a thorough manual invaluable to the layperson trying to determine if a condition is inheritable and how to prevent its passing to future generations. In language that clearly and concisely communicates details of medical treatments and genetics, the reader is instructed in the biology of genetic traits, how mutations are diagnosed, and how to assemble a family health history. From there, Milunsky moves on to a complete catalog of genetic disorders, including those caused by missing chromosomes, mutations of a particular gene, and those that increase cancer risk. Readers will appreciate anecdotes from his years of clinical practice that illustrate the impact of genetic diseases on individuals, families, and society.
