Amway sells genetic tests?

ok, genetic testing has now jumped the shark....

Daniel,
Companies have been doing this for a decade. Sciona, Market America, Genovations, suracell.
This lack of enforcement of these compnies is why we have the aggressive response from the Fed now. I am surprised they are only hitting the radar screen of emily now.

Steve

The Gensona test is produced by Interleukin Genetics, and has been sold through Amway for several years. It will be interesting to see how the older, smaller companies like Interleukin Genetics survive competiton from the newer players in this space. I understand that Sciona have very recently closed down.

Interleukin Genetics welcomes an honest dialog on our genetic tests and values consumer feedback. With that said, I would like to address a few points from this post as itâs valuable to provide some facts and detail to avoid generalizations based on the limited information presented in the post. Interleukin Genetics is a company that has been involved in research and development of genetic tests for complex diseases of aging for over 15 years. We have a superb scientific advisory board and have conducted research studies at major academic centers throughout the world, including the Mayo Clinic, Brigham & Womenâs Hospital at Harvard, and the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases.

Our IL-1 Heart Health genetic test which Mr. MacArthur refers to has been validated in multiple studies (Iacoviello et al. 2005; Latella et al. 2009; Rogus et al, 2008; and others) to identify overtly healthy individuals who overproduce inflammatory chemicals and have a substantial and significant increased risk for an early heart attack â beyond the risk due to other risk factors. Our test is a pattern of markers within two genes that regulate inflammation and, as such, we are in complete agreement that no single risk factor accounts for the total risk of any complex disease. For example, a significant portion of first heart attacks occur in people without high cholesterol. That is why all of our information emphasizes that this test is focused on one of the risk factors and everyone should evaluate the full-range of risk factors, including LDL cholesterol, smoking, etc. The test is conducted in our CLIA certified lab and is approved in NY state, currently the highest standard for laboratory developed genetic tests. This month, Interleukin Genetics co-published a study in the journal Immunological Investigations supporting our findings that risk for early heart attack is associated with excess inflammation.

With respect to Mr. MacArthurâs comment that our General Nutrition genetic test speaks vaguely about identifying differences, this is not true. The test describes the specific gene variations that are measured and provides the data supporting that they functionally change the bodyâs biology such that B-vitamins and anti-oxidants are not as efficiently handled. In fact, recent studies highlight the important role one of the key mutations (SOD2) for oxidative stress in our nutritional needs panel plays in influencing certain diseases and responsiveness to therapies. Most importantly, all of the B-vitamin and anti-oxidant changes due to the gene variations we measure in this test can be overcome by additional B-vitamin and anti-oxidant consumption.

Finally, in response to concern about language related to the availability through other distributors of nutritional supplements that may be of value based on certain tests, we do not endorse nor recommend particular brands of supplements in our genetic test materials. It is important to provide individuals who purchase our tests with guidance on lifestyle and nutritional choices they can make that will help them lower their risk. Interleukin Genetics did collaborate on the development of one supplement to lower inflammation in people with a genetic tendency to over-produce inflammation. The results of that randomized controlled clinical study (Kornman et al. 2007) was published in a peer-reviewed journal and actually won an award from the European Society of Enteral and Parenteral Nutrition for the best paper in that journal in 2007. That paper is one of three prospective studies proving the value of genetic-nutritional interactions (nutrigenetics).

We encourage anyone with questions to review our science that is documented on our Website (www.ilgenetics.com), look at our collaborations and publications, including papers in the New England Journal of Medicine, Human Molecular Genetics, and Human Genetics, and carefully read our test information. If you are interested in learning more about our Heart Health and other genetic tests, please feel free to contact me at ewalsh@ilgenetics.com.

Thank you.

Erin Walsh, Senior Manager of Public Relations for Interleukin Genetics

Non-FDA tested supplements designed to combat a highly polygenic disease phenotype that are sold by a multi-level marketing company?! How can I lose?!?! *facepalm*

FDA oversight of these modern day mountebanks would put them out of business in a (non-inflamed) heartbeat. Fortunately for them, Orrin Hatch rammed the DSHEA through Congress back in 1994, which deregulated this multi-billion dollar industry.

It doesn't matter how many articles you can cite showing that genetic variants are linked to disease phenotypes. You have not demonstrated that your product actually does anything other than make your company money at the expense of undereducated consumers who can't think critically.

Seriously, how can you parrot winning an award from the European Society of Enteral & Parenteral Nutrition (which boasts of its connections to Abbott, Nestle, Baxter, Danone, etc. on its website), knowing full well that the American College of Medical Genetics stated in 2004 "Due to the complexities of genetic testing and counseling, the self-ordering of genetic tests by patients over the telephone or the Internet, and their use of genetic âhome testingâ kits, is potentially harmful."

How do you sleep at night?

I invite all who have an interest in the subject of DNA testing and how it can be used to promote healthy aging and customized wellness to visit this site.

A legitimate realization of the promise of DNA for the masses...

http://LifeMapNutrition.com/BeGreat

Jim Smith
714-797-6382

Hi Jim,

That's pretty funny - I guess you didn't actually read the post before deciding to advertise your company here? The last two paragraphs should give even casual readers a fair idea that I'm not exactly enthusiastic about the scientific basis of your business strategy.

Hi Erin,

Thanks for your lengthy comment. I appreciate you outlining the scientific basis underlying your company's products, but I'm still rather uncertain about the strength of the evidence supporting your tests. For instance:

1. It's widely acknowledged that the widespread failure to replicate both candidate gene association studies and linkage studies means that results from such analyses need to be treated with extreme caution; however, genuine signals from common SNP markers should in most cases be picked up by modern genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Have any of the recent GWAS for heart disease phenotypes identified a significant association with any SNP in strong linkage disequilibrium with any of the markers in your tests?

2. The results of GWAS analyses have thus far suggested that common SNP markers typically explain only a very small fraction of the variance in heart disease risk. Do you have an estimate of the total variance in risk explained by the markers used in your tests?

3. While there is a "scientific summary" linked to the "Heart Health" test on your website including a list of related publications, no such summary or publication list is provided for your "General Nutrition" test. Why is that?

4. More a comment than a question: in the "award-winning" article you cite, the authors looked at three separate nutritional supplements vs a placebo group, but only present data from one of the supplements (noting in passing that the other two supplements were not significantly different from placebo). A large number of statistical comparisons of outcome measures between the remaining supplement and placebo group were then performed. However, nowhere in the text is it stated that P values were corrected for multiple testing for both the multiple unreported study groups or the multiple comparisons. Performing an appropriate (Bonferroni) correction to the stated P values results in non-significant findings. In other words, the published data do not provide statistical support for a genotype effect that is larger than expected by chance. It is extremely surprising to me that this article survived peer review; the fact that it won a prize is downright appalling.

Oh, and one final point: it's "Dr MacArthur", although I prefer simply "Daniel". Thanks. :-)

Heh, you beat me to it, Daniel &mdash I was going to point out that it was "Dr" as well. :)

While I think you pretty much hit all the key points in responding to Erin's comment, I'd just like to point out that a quick skim of the cited literature is pretty unimpressive (e.g. the 2005 study involved only 134 samples). While there may very well be some link between the variants in question and "overproduction of inflammatory chemicals", and thus heart disease, the effect size is going to be smaller than most of the various associations reported in the GWAS literature, of which there is a resounding agreement in the field that meaningful predictive value closely approximates nought. (preaching to the choir, I know!)

Hey Jeff,

Good points, and an opportunity for me to re-emphasise - I'm not arguing that the variants tested by Interleukin Genetics are not associated at all with heart disease, although this may be the case (the evidence is fairly unimpressive). Nor am I arguing that DTC genetic testing is inherently wrong; in fact, I'm a consistent advocate of free access to genetic testing.

My position is basically that any tests that are offered directly to consumers need to have their evidence base and explanatory power clearly labelled. While I don't support an outright ban on poorly supported genetic tests, I'd like to see independent bodies established to provide certification of such tests as scientifically sound, and to advertise to consumers that only tests with this certification should be regarded as valid.

Essentially I think the answer here is accurate information; and I suspect if such information was freely available there wouldn't be many customers left for Interleukin.

Daniel, (I am not impressed that you are a doctor)
You fault-finder types all make me ill. I bet you also believe in global warming, the tooth-fairy, and socialized medicine. I don't know how I ended up on this site. Must be a computer malfunction.

How many of the posters against the genetic tests are medical doctors? Could it be you are afraid of losing business because more people would become healthier in the process?

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