I’m not qualified either,  but judging from personal experience, I doubt genetics is a major influence on pensioners.  Before I got to 40-ish, good health was taken pretty much taken for granted.  Bounced back quickly from illness, injury and exhaustion, my digestive system coped with grievous over-indulgence, and I never noticed a drug contraindication. Not now – they all do me in!

Old age takes our biology into decline, weakening us in many ways.  Many problems can be alleviated by drugs, but, because it’s a losing battle we end up taking loads of different medications.  The mix is more likely to interact and if they do old flesh is less able to cope.  Although my core meds haven’t changed for years, I’m noticing the side-effects, exactly as advertised in the leaflets.  Younger me was fit enough to not notice, older me reacts badly.   Age, not genetics.

Pharmaceutical testing is flawed too.   New drugs are tested carefully before release, but not in combination with other drugs.  So there’s always a risk a patient might end up taking an unhealthy combination.  Not genetics.   See doctor!

Mother is an example of the system struggling, again not genetics.  Her GP prescribed for Heart Failure and legs swollen by fluid due to weak heart.  The oedema didn’t improve.   Then mum broke her hip. In hospital she was seen daily, and they tackled the oedema by experimenting with different drugs and doses.  Took them over a month to fix it.   Turned out the GP had prescribed the right drugs but the clinically recommended balance wasn’t right for mum.   They had to find her balance by experiment.   The GP didn’t have the necessary contact time, and I suspect neither would a private doctor.  (Unless patient pays big money!)

That said, genetics do play a part, so the test might be worth trying if all else fails.  I don’t know how well the subject has been researched, and doubt anyone has systematically collated the data, or even that all the necessary data exists.  Which genes interact with which drugs?    Unlikely that historic drug trials took note of genes, though modern trials might well.  At this stage, the test feels more promising than well established.

Dave

DNA testing to decide on medication is by no means new.  My daughter, a PhD working at the Sanger Centre, tells me it has been around for a few years now.  She has personal experience of it.  Having had a mastectomy for breast cancer, a sample of her tumor was sent for genomic testing to see if chemo-therapy would be effective.  The result showed that the benefits would not outweigh the risks so she was put on a ten year programme of hormone therapy instead.  That has unpleasant side effects but not as bad as chemo.

Russell