What You Didn't Want to Find Out?

Some geneticists are reportedly becoming concerned that some people who pay commercial organisations for supposedly ancestry-determining tests on the DNA in cheek scrape samples are learning that they have an increased risk of developing life-changing medical conditions such as Alzheimer's (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/aug/26/alzheimers-disease-shock-for-genetic-ancestry-hunters). As the commercial focus is on the customer's heritage (e.g. whether they show any evidence of Scandinavian origins), they receive no counselling about their genetic risks (such as having genes linked to the production of the amyloid associated with Alzheimer's). They warn, that for some people, stress and depression are inadvertent consequences of what is sold as a 'fun' test. Perhaps people should be warned in advance?