Producer’s Notebook: Not quite ready to ‘know thyself’

That ancient Greek expression “Know Thyself” has a genetically-modified meaning these days. You can now know what’s at your most basic biological level by having your full genome sequenced. It’s pricey—right now between $3,000 and $5,000. (But in comparison, the first fully sequenced genome cost about $3 billion dollars.)

What you get is a bit of a biological roadmap to what makes you you and me—well, ah, me. Maybe that’s overstating a little. There are other factors—environment, diet, lightning strikes. And also the fact that as much as the scientists know, the most they know is that they need to know tons and tons more.

Perhaps there’s a better analogy. One geneticist told us that if you printed out all of your genome it would be the equivalent of 200 telephone books. That would be before the web turned the White Pages into a leaflet, but going with that analogy—if you got those 200 phone books, what we know may just be all the Smiths and Joneses.

That said, the game changer in all this is the fact that cost of doing any genome sequencing is dropping faster than the Lakers stats without Kobe. In what promised to be a huge innovation, the company 23andMe (a homage to the 23 chromosomes you get from each of your parents) offered a stripped-down genome test for $99. For that price the company mapped your genome and distilled what they found for your ancestry as well as some 250 genetic traits and medical conditions. You’d get a breakdown of  where you came from and a “medical risk assessment.” Among the risks the company would crunch numbers for: Parkinson’s, breast cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer, Alzheimer’s, gallstones, heart disease and diabetes.

Our contributor Rachelle Oldmixon took the test and got her results. Rachelle immediately volunteered to take the test with gusto (and a lot of saliva.) But me? Not so fast. Despite being in the business of wanting to know everything about everything—from how the NSA can hear me now to Lindsay Lohan’s courtroom apparel to how genome sequencing can save lives—I took a pass on knowing more about my biological self. (Yeah, even though I could probably expense it.)

I get the plus-side. It would be great to know if I had an elevated risk of the host of life-threatening conditions 23andMe measures so I could get a jump on preventative treatment. Maybe I’d stop eating so many Rolos and Dove Bars. But do I need a test to tell me to do that?

Mentally, I’m not certain I was ready to know the bad stuff coming down the track. I’m already enough of a hypochondriac/scaredy-cat/drama queen that I succumb to any test the doctor deems necessary. And I spend days sweating over dire outcomes. So even the slightest increased chance of disease would probably send me over the edge. You know that Jack Nicholson line from “A Few Good Men”? I wasn’t sure I could handle the truth.

Plus, you can get lulled into a false sense of security if your risks are low. Some critics fear that a low risk percentage will cause folks to forego tests like mammograms and prostate tests. And critics are certain most of us couldn’t accurately assess the risk percentages anyway. For me, I just figure you never can tell where the threat to your life is going to come from anyway. I have already survived being side-swiped by a bus, staring down an AK-47 pointed at me at a Peace Rally in Somalia and my mother’s salmon croquettes. Even this episode got dicey. We were forced to evacuate one lab when the alarms went off indicating there was a gas leak. We went back in when they re-set the alarm.

Our experts made good cases both for and against. Stanford Professor Mike Snyder—a proponent of genome sequencing even before birth—notes that researchers are still in the early stages of understanding how DNA triggers disease. But he strongly feels that our genomes are the pathway to better and healthier lives. Can’t argue with a man who is living proof. Without sequencing his genome, he wouldn’t have known he already had full blown Type 2 Diabetes. None of his doctors thought it possible with his wiry physique and lack of family history. But he did. Now he’s got it under control.

On the flip side there’s Prof. Hooman Allayee, a geneticist at USC. He envisions a time when more information will be available about how our genetic make-up dooms us to disease. But for now, he says there are only a handful of conditions for which almost certain risk exists. Take for instance Angelina Jolie and her 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer. But, with most diseases, they’re all kind of guessing. That’s even if you factor in family history, environmental factors and getting side-swiped by a bus.

While I mulled over how much I wanted to know about my ultimate demise, the federal government stepped in to make the decision for me. The Food and Drug Administration ordered 23andMe to stop disseminating medical and health risks, as the FDA deemed 23andMe a medical device, one that hadn’t been approved yet. So in dragging my feet I mostly proved that timing is everything.

In the meantime, 23andMe is free to continue to send out DNA-based ancestry information to those who spit in the test tube. But I don’t need a genome test to tell me I come from a long line of Ashkenazi Bubbes (Yiddish for Grandma). Yup, I’m 90 percent sure that my whining and worrying proves that fact for free.

Watch "TechKnow," Sunday 7:30ET/4:30PT to learn more about genome sequencing and 23andme.