Is It in Your Genes? The Influence of Genes on Common Disorders and Diseases that Affect You and Your Family

by Philip R. Reilly

It is now clear that our risk of developing almost any disease is influenced by the genes with which we are born. One of the most important dividends of the Human Genome Project will be a much greater understanding of the influence of genes on disease and disorders in children (from asthma to autism) and adults (including heart disease, virtually all cancers, and Alzheimer's disease). The nature of genetic risks in families is becoming clearer and this book is written to help people understand them. Philip Reilly, a physician-geneticist, who has given hundreds of lectures on this subject, takes a user-friendly approach. Drawing on the many questions he has been asked (for example, "My sister has multiple sclerosis. Am I at an increased risk?"), Reilly discusses over 90 common conditions, diseases, and disorders, arranged from conception to old age. In frank, non-technical terms, he makes clear what is known and not known about the genetic factors and, if your risk is elevated,
what you might be able to do about it. This book is a uniquely valuable resource for anyone seeking more information about a family's disease heritage.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 2004

Reviews

[Claudia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book targeted at interested non-scientists, and the author attempts to make various concepts from genetics understandable to this audience. I think he is mostly successful, however, some of the mathematical concepts could be better explained.

I like the structure of the book, by dividing the illness into stages of life, Reilly is able to cover a breadth of disease and disorders, which follow on logically from each other.

This is an old edition of the book, so the knowledge in some areas has moved on, but that's not the fault of the author, who acknowledges the speed of development to be one of the best things about this area in the conclusion (which contains are really unfortunate typo that confused me for some time until I worked out what had to be meant). I think setting up a companion website was a really good idea.

The writing is quite dry and I found it a hard book to read, only completing it on my second attempt, despite genetics being part of the field I work in.

My major objection to the book comes, rather sadly, in the last entry. While I do not blame Reilly for including the question, and indeed, I can believe that someone wrote to him to ask this very question, the idea that homosexuality is a disorder is somewhat ... old-fashioned, I think is the politest way to put it. I am used to books which wish to not offend either side of their audience putting disorder in speech marks when discussing homosexuality, but this book does not even use that fig-leaf. I fear I will never be able to entirely recommend a book which discusses the genetic risk of being gay and includes it in the same section as alcoholism and drug addiction.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book, very interesting for sure, but it needs to be updated (even though it's not exactly old).