DNA Quote of the Day – Ryan Phelan

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted May 18, 2007 in DNA Quotes and Excerpts

Genes Are Only Part of The Story, Dr. Dean Ornish wrote in the May 8th issue of Newsweek and I was pleased to see DNA Direct’s Founder and CEO Ryan Phelan quoted. This is the reason I’m proud to be part of the DNA Direct team.

It’s about putting your genes in context, in perspective—your overall health with the conditions within which you live, including stress, the environment, all of the other lifestyle factors. It’s important not to overstate the role of genetics. My hope is that this is really the beginning of personalized medicine for the masses. It’s crazy the way our health-care system has had to treat us all like we’re one and the same person. We’re all completely unique. We respond differently to diet, we respond differently to medications—and some small part of that, some people say as much as 20 percent—can be linked to our genetic differences. So to me the challenge is to find where that genetic variance is—to help people use it as a motivational factor—not as a deterrent.

Lest you think I’ve become a corporate shill, I’ll be back to my regular nonsense as soon as I can clear my sinuses.

Tags: genetics, genes, genomics, genome, dna, ryan phelan, dna direct, health, dean ornish

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Comment by Brian

2007-05-18 18:47:15

I’m very fond of saying:
Phenotype = Genotype + Environment

so I guess I’d only give genes 50% of the credit.

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Comment by Hsien

2007-05-18 20:03:48

C’mon, Brian. You know it’s not as simple as that!

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