Death is our destiny.
None of us with any preciseness can declare when our where that time
will come, but it is the byproduct of life as we know it and it is
inevitable. We can do nothing to alter
this fate. Cryogenics can put it on ice
and delay it, but eventually we will succumb to it in the end.
As we live, we see others leave us long before they have
lived a full life. I ask, “why them”? There are multiple elements and circumstances
to be analyzed, and even then, it is hard to arrive at a definitive reason. As I mentioned in a previous post, timing is
everything. Being at the wrong place at
the wrong time is fraught with hazards. Risk
is everywhere all the time. When adding
human behaviour in its various forms to the mix it makes the time of our final
destination much more variable.
As I move into the early autumn of my life, I wonder, “what’s
ahead for me?” It’s not that I am macabre
in nature or narcissistic, but whatever happens to me also happens to other
people whose life story I am a part of.
So I have made a potential life changing decision…I decided to take a
glimpse in the crystal ball of my being.
I am curious to learn the most likely disease or natural
cause of death I will meet up with down the road. Based on family history, I can guess what’s
in store for me, but I want more surety.
I know that the final day in inevitable, but if I am aware of what to
expect, then I can come up with a game plan to prepare for and slow the speed of my
demise. I guess it’s about trying to
control a piece of something that overall is uncontrollable. So today, I am ordering a genetic marker test
that will suggest my genetic predisposition for 200 common diseases /
conditions that I might encounter.
For the last few years I wanted to do this, but the cost was
a prohibitive. My wife Mary and I did a
DNA test to join the National Geographic genome database to find out that our
ancestral origins were in Africa and our great, great….great grandfathers migrated
to Europe. No big surprise there.
As a natural course of studying diversity, I discovered how similar
we are in regard to our genetic makeup.
Humans share 99.9% of the same 3 billion base gene pairs. The common variances (0.1%) we see account for
differences in eye colour, hair colour, skin colour, congenital conditions,
etc. Our DNA over time has altered it
mutations for some people to better allow them to adapt to their environment, hence dark skin
colour gives added protection to people in locales where the sun and heat are
plentiful. Interesting enough is that
chimpanzees share 97% of the human genome.
Is that scary, or what?
I am amazed at just how complex the human body is. I am also awed by the science of it all,
especially since my brain is not wired to fully understand it all. While the science of genetics is still
evolving, I believe the researchers have come far enough to where they can now make
confident assertions based on DNA tests and analysis.
DNA testing is still controversial. It is not for everyone. Some people do not want to know what they are
most likely to see in the future. Some
people may want to know, but will constantly worry about the results from the
test. While the argument rages on about
medical ethics, discrimination and privacy related to DNA testing, I am discounting
that noise and taking the chance to know more about me.
I am smart enough to know that the results will not provide
me an absolute measure of what to expect.
The environment will certainly have it’s say in how long I or any of us
survive. But it does give me a glimpse
of hopefully the long-term future.
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