Hi! My mother is actually both diabetic and hypertensive, and is taking maintenance meds and insulin shots everyday to manage her sugar and blood levels. Although I try to maintain a healthy lifestyle myself, I'm quite interested to know what appropriate tests or labs I can take to see if these conditions can be passed on to me and my children. If not tests, then who are the right people that I can talk to to know more? Will really appreciate a response. thanks in advance! :)
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Thank you for visiting!
It is highly likely that if an individual has diabetes, they may also have high blood pressure. This is because a diagnosis of diabetes can consequently cause blood sugar levels to build up, thereby increasing the risk of heart disease. However, the good news is that by maintaining a healthy lifestyle, the likelihood of contracting these conditions significantly lowers as well. So keep up the good work!
To answer your inquiry, there are a number of genetic tests that you can take if you are interested to know if you are at risk for diabetes and hypertension. These can help you determine if you have a condition that was inherited from your lineage or direct family members and allows you the opportunity to prepare before experiencing any symptoms. A few examples would be single gene testing, which looks for alterations in a single gene; panel testing, which looks at changes in several genes, and genomic testing which can include exome sequencing or genome sequencing. You may also opt for karyotyping which looks at your chromosomes. Know more about these methods through this link:
https://www.cdc.gov/genomics/gtesting/genetic_testing.htm
If you wish to know more, you may also speak to licensed professionals such as a geneticist or a genetic counselor before and after doing labs and tests. We have a directory available on our website so you have an idea about who you can specifically approach as well. Hope this helped!
- Alphagen 3.0