Eurogene

Yet another clinical trial of folic acid and heart disease has been published – an extremely well designed trial where the results suggest true adherence to the vitamins vs. placebo regime. The conclusions are: Taken together with the previous homocysteine-lowering trials, the results of SEARCH indicate that folic acid supplementation has no significant adverse effects on cancer or other major health outcomes, even if it also produces no beneficial effects on cardiovascular disease. In addition, these results highlight the importance of focusing on drug treatments (eg, aspirin, statins, and antihypertensive therapy) and lifestyle changes (in particular, stopping smoking and avoiding excessive weight gain) that are of proven benefit, rather than lowering homocysteine with folic acid–based vitamin supplements, for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. JAMA: Effects of Homocysteine-Lowering With Folic Acid Plus Vitamin B12 vs Placebo on Mortality and Major Morbidity in Myocardial

There is a new “old” kid on the block – announced last week at the Consumer Genetics Conference by Dr Stephen Murphy, aka @genesherpas , http://genetichub.com/ This is just a short note about the site and service because it seems likely that it was finalised in a rush to get it ready for the CGC announcement. It’s too early to judge what it is and what it will become. Steve Murphy is of course very well known as an outspoken critic of most DTC genomics via his blog. I am wondering whether his now official status as a fully commercial genetics service provider, beyond his own medical practice, will affect the tone of his future posts. I doubt it…but it’s a fact that the situation is now different, the opposition is now the competition and a potential conflict of interest has to be acknowledged, at least. One thing is certain though – his blog history means that he has set himself very high standards regarding the delivery of genetic testing So what is the Genetic Hub? At the mome