the global corona crisis you can find more information online. and on social media channels. welcome to shape coming up on the show. better sleep tricks to help combat insomnia. abnormal fat deposits the suffering caused by. and genetic testing how well can a d.n.a. analysis predict your disease risk. and future host. you know body consists of 37.2 trillion cells and

each cell contains our genetic information and if just one single gene is not working right it can have men discipline on our health how genes control all life this is what i'm going to talk about with professor. who is the director of the institute of human and medical genetics of the bird and who's a researcher here at the mechanics institute for molecular genetics welcome to. a far reaching consequences so before you do a genetic test get informed what it really means and talk to your day. some

diseases can actually be caused by genes take colon cancer or breast cancer for example some special forms can be inherited it's simple blood test can tell you if you're affected. and i quite a is a retired physician for a long time he didn't know that he has an unusually high risk of getting a certain kind of cancer. it's a genetic risk he was born way of. the 21st moment or when i was 20 my mother died of metal started colon cancer. while she was in hospital she warned my sister and me that we might get it too. and that it might be genetic and didn't gain an illegal. like his mother a white or studied medicine but he didn't remember her warning until some of his own patients who had the disease reminded him. quite

a began to go for regular checkups and for many years everything was fine when examining doctors found no sign of a disease he felt relieved and assumed he didn't have any unusual genetic risk but then he was diagnosed with colon cancer. when i was 43 i had a colonoscopy and they found i had cancer of the cold on them. they were able to remove it surgically so i didn't need came a therapy humor to. at that point the whiter decided he wanted to know whether his disease had a genetic component. he wondered if he might have passed the risk on to his own 4 children. doctor turned patient went to munich center of medical genetics he wanted to know if he carried a genetic variation associated with increased risk of colon cancer. many experts

say that it's a wise choice to make in situations like his. there are a whole range of genetic diseases where it makes sense to identify the risks for example hereditary cancer syndrome so familiar with these that can manifest in adults especially with regards to cancers genetic testing allows you to estimate the risk of developing a disease and in which quite accurately then a screening plan can be developed for the family. tests look for mutations in specific genes in cells taken from a sample of blood. from mutations are ones that are known to be associated with specific diseases. another kind of genetic testing is gaining in popularity you just send in a saliva sample to a commercial provider many companies advertise the service online they claim to be able to detect increased risk for over $200.00 diseases all for a low price but unlike in targeted genetic testing most of these commercial

providers don't search for highly specific inherited mutations instead they look for d.n.a. variations but are statistically associated with risk for diseases like alzheimer's and diabetes. these diseases is certainly caused by a number of genetic defects where we haven't identified them all yet and we don't have any idea which specific combinations of defects lead to which risks given the current state of knowledge these tests can't offer valid results but they can scare patients and they can also give them a false sense of security. whitest test revealed that he carries genetic mutations linked to colon cancer and that he has an 80 percent likelihood of getting it he inherited the genes from his mother. when they heard about the results his 4 children also chose to take the test.

later fortunately it turns out that 2 of my sons are also at risk of getting colon cancer but they go regularly to get screened the others don't have the mutation thank god. knowing you have an elevated risk of disease influences the way you live regardless of whether the disease ever manifests so it's wise to think carefully before deciding to go through with genetic testing. i think the test of time one sees the head of the department of medical genetics of the brain injury thanks for having me today we just saw in the report a patient who suffered from colon cancer and he wanted to find out if there's some genetic causes for that so so it's very frequent that people suffer from colon cancer or breast cancer with a genetic cause we think it's about 4 to 6 percent of all individuals that

have. breast cancer that suffer from more not genetic diseases so they have a specific defect that increases their risk to get this type of cancer and can the patient himself tell that this is kind of a genetic disease of any signs or symptoms for that now that can't really tell of themselves i mean the only thing that we can say there are certain criteria that make it suspicious for example early age the order that you get in or you the greater your chances are that you get cancer at some stage but if you get cancer at 30 or 40 or 50 years of age then you know this is more suspicious that of me however a genetic cause. and genetic cause means that inherited so what about the v.m. the father for instance of the uncle of the mother is it a sign as well if there are a lot of family members who are affected that certainly is a sign of inheritance if they're more than 2 affected and if one of the affected dizzee younger than 50 dad for example would be something suspicious so if there

are several of family members who have checked it by say colon cancer up breast cancer which you advise to get tested i would advise that you get a genetic counseling so that someone can explain to you what these tests mean and also you know you can one can discuss the pedigree and can see if this is really. falls into the same category of the type of cancer that you think is suspicious for genetic cause or not and other tests very accurate the tests themselves are very accurate if you i test you i can tell you whether you have a mutation or not what we cannot tell exactly is when and 2 and you know really if you will get the disease or not we can only give you a certain percentage there are some internet services especially in the united states of america where you can as a patient just buy those tests over the internet with no consultation at all so how do you judge those kinds of tests well the problem i think with many of these tests

are is that do you think it's good test that you know the individual who sends off the test doesn't even know that they get tested because they've never heard of these diseases and they have no idea so they might get a result back for something that they certainly didn't want to know and that is what we do with the genetic counseling is that you tell people what does it means and what the consequences of this test and you don't get that of course if you just send away your sample via the internet and the consequence is i think it's a good point because if you test for the genetic risk for say cancer you can apply other tests like a colonoscopy for instance to see if the patients getting cancer and you can even change your life with some lifestyle changes like like be. becoming a vegetarian also to prevent colon cancer but what about diseases like alzheimer's disease which cannot be preventable. there also are certain genetic risks but they are not they don't increase your risk as much as for example for better or for the call long or breast cancer genes and this kind of risk or increase in risk

is rather moderate and i would not advise. to get those tested at the moment so what about prenatal testing say testing embryos inside the blue well that's of course possible and we also do this. in germany there is a special law and i think we are pretty much the only country in the world that has this where we are not allowed to test a disease that only breaks out after the age of 18 and the idea behind this is that every person should decide for him or herself with they want to know this kind of information when they want to have this information on the heart so if there are diseases in adult which occur after the age of 18 and they run in the family you should consider yourself getting tested. the shoes the family have grown

especially close in recent years that's because the mother martina has been battling cancer for over a decade begun with breast cancer. sort of. always talked to us very openly about it letting us know how the current state of health she didn't keep anything a secret for i missed this well that was very important to me. 'd eventually recovered from the breast cancer but then 7 years later she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. was it all just a coincidence or a fate determined by her genes martina remembered that her grandmother had died very young probably as a result of breast cancer. doesn't have mathematics and my dad was only 7 years old at the time that he thought there was also talk that she might have had ovarian cancer too to disclose she'll be stunned. such experiences are typical in families with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. dr has pursued extensive research into

this gene linked cancer and says it strikes women in those families especially often and often especially young age. as images. fall in the average age of women with this type of breast cancer is 4445 depending on what gene mutation they have that's very young the average age for breast cancer otherwise is around 65 so 20 years later. from. natasha aigle meyer has known for the past 2 years that she has the bruck a one gene mutation making her more likely to develop breast cancer. she had to fight for a long time to get the d.n.a. test done. for years i was told you have a large family so it's normal to have a lot of them die. mother died of ovarian cancer and 7 of her mother's 9 siblings likewise lost their lives the concept. of the woman

fell victim to brush store varian concert. in the end i only managed to get the test because so many people in my family had died as dysfunctions it was a really strange feeling that it was basically their deaths that paved the way for me to live on even taught. her that hopefully i'll now be saved from getting cancer vita king khan and deceitful life and trips which won't light. after testing positive. immediately had her ovaries on both of her breasts removed a family understood her decision and supported her but many friends were shocked. mentioned some people burst into tears when i told them they said it was so terrible. that i said it would be terrible if i developed cancer.

when on his own if i don't have cancer it's well not exactly brilliant sure but at least i have a chance now. i have insurance. other members of natasha's family could now also be tested if they chose to they have a 5050 chance of having the mutated gene as well but some people prefer not to know . in addition to prophylactic surgery those who test positive can also opt for more regular cancer screening that won't stop the almost developing of course but an early diagnosis could at least improve the chances of survival. this is let's turn to finding out you have this gene mutation isn't easy to deal with so that needs to be giving careful thought before you go for the test what will you do if the result is positive how will you tell your children or siblings sorry lots of people decide they'd rather not know and you have to respect that. just most want

to also speak to young. martina schuster's daughter very you know got herself tested under scuppered she does not have the gene mutation martina son kabini and on the other hand decided not to have to test this currently no effective breast cancer screening for men of his age so he decided he was better off not knowing. the patient we just saw in our report and that was getting genetically tested because there were a lot of family members who had ovarian cancer and breast cancer in my office i sometimes see patients with different kinds of cancer in the family can this also be inherited well what we generally i think have to consider is that cancer is a common disease a relatively common disease so everyone will have someone or know someone who within the wider family will have suffered from from cancer i guess but nevertheless they are indeed families that have a relatively high occurrence of different types of cancers so for those families we

think it has a genetic origin but because they are due to many different types of genes it is very difficult at the moment to test. and we cannot really do reliable testing to give you a risk for these kinds of families ok so we just talked about middle of the testing and there's something like gina fair of p s well so what's there in the pipeline in gene therapy we are it's really a new type of therapy that is coming up now because now we can actually edit genomes and means we can change them we can cut things out we can put new sequences in and the idea is. we can actually change you take shins and sort of put the normal sequence back in and by that. heal the patient or at least support. these patients in their recovery but you do this in adult patients and

you're taking out stem cells yeah that is the idea for example one can take our blood cells and use the stem cells genetically modify them and give them back to the to the patient in november there was a worldwide outcry because some chinese scientists claimed that their genes edited babies so so what was that about this was about gene editing actually in the very early stage of the embryo when there are only a few cells and what you can do that. more or less complete to come completely change genome and the major difference of course that is that that this person will pass this on to the next generation but if we put the ethics aside and if you just focus on the scientific things and the genetic editing of babies and the genetic editing of stem cells is it more or less the same i mean technically i think it's more or less the same because it didn't use the same type of technology you can cut

the nail you can put new pieces in and take others out so technically that was i think no difference and in the quarter you think do you think that an editing i would genes and stem cells could be some kind of weapon against say cancer in the future i think it can because it's a really fascinating technology where we can change genomes in a way that we could have not you know even thought about a few years ago so the technology is a real advance and i think it will certainly help to treat some diseases cancer but also inherited diseases thanks so much for this very interesting talk welcome and if you've got any questions you like me to ask our experts be sure to write to me in the me. in good shape you know weekly health show on d w that covers many aspects of health can we look at what's new in medical treatment . nutrition fitness and beauty we just does these topics in depth with specialists

and offer you opportunities to pose your own questions so get in touch. do you know the situation you're lying in bed if you're counting 1000 sheep and sleep simply won't come it happens a lot of people sleeplessness but there are plenty of tricks and tips and they don't even involve sheep. detrained knol has just had a really good night's sleep a room was completely darkened and very quiet. now she's ready to go out and enjoy nature. but the main reason she's here is to attend a seminar about sleep and relaxation. i had the feeling i wasn't sleeping very well we were given testing devices here to

use for 2 nights and i discovered that i slept better than i expected but it was a big relief to learn that. sleep tight the last thing many people say to each other before bed and it's also the name of the seminar designed to teach stressed city dwellers how to get some healthy shuteye but disciplines come for different reasons mentioned above ofsted if the people who work are often under pressure to perform the people who do shift work often have particular problems with that but so do people who have a normal work life. and we also get retired people who finally have the time to deal with their sleeping problems hi tom. everyone tends to put off the issue and they just hope that tonight they'll be able to get some decent sleep. but some participants here have trouble getting used to the quiet in the old country house the rooms have been completely refurbished to offer ideal sleeping conditions. she

often had more sleep has a lot to do with the feeling of comfort a sense of being secure beds and box spring back this wonderful bed is a box spring and the mattress adjusts perfectly to the body that is to your body weight. mentioned if we turn the mattress over we can even make a very comfortable bed for someone who's very heavy on top are and we have a topper that lets you sink into the bed and find your ideal sleeping position. it's all infinite but in the seminar sleep isn't everything it's also about relaxation and that requires movement to. some of the guests don't take part in the exercise they choose their mattresses and pillows and they can go cycling make pottery or even chop wood before going to bed declared knol has taken some of the ideas back to her own bedroom. to see oh it's

a target on so i now adays in our fast moving world lots of people use their cell phones as an alarm clock. on them and us hindi done but if you turn it to flight mode you use a lot less energy. i've learnt to ban certain things from the bedroom such as the t.v. . so many men pizza but in fans yeah it's important to find out what's causing the insomnia. for certain sleep disorders you have to consult a doctor if they don't fall into our purview we see ourselves as a preventative measure we want to mention time to show people how they can sleep well and if it turns out that a participant has been suffering for a long time from a serious sleep disorder then of course we advise them to see a doctor. but the other participants usually find precisely the comment relaxation they need to get a better night's sleep. people who suffer from. this

sick. the accumulation of deposits on. your metabolic disorder and it's not only in a static problem it's painful to. stick or. gets measured for compression stockings and sleeves twice a year she wears the undergarments on our arms and legs she suffers from lip i could hardly manage without them. when you have lip edema compression undergarments help make the pain at least halfway manageable during the day the stockings also keep your legs from feeling quite so heavy it feels like my legs way as much as my entire body so these undergarments make it a bit more bearable hypothesis. as many people simply assume that nina is overweight but that's not quite true little demon is a metabolic disorder in which fat accumulates under the skin that can make daily

life quite difficult lymphatic fluid sometimes fails to drain properly which causes swelling in the legs and sometimes the hands and fingers to just look at them but the fact accumulation in lip edema is abnormal fat it's harder and lumpy of the normal fat that's part of what makes it really hurt like when someone touches you or you bump your leg for example it's hard for others to imagine how painful it is common enough wash their hands. because eavis who also has found a self-help group it already has 20 members one goal for many of them is to feel less self-conscious and resume or to vertues they enjoy like swimming. coming to the notice of some summer so i didn't even go to the pool i just stayed home everyone went to the pool except me today that's changed i go out and i don't hide anymore. we founded the group because we don't want women with this condition

to feel ashamed or to hide even with the stockings the pain the impulse to stay home we hope they'll go out and have fun again with women who know what they're going through. manual lymphatic drainage also helps me make it this type of massage twice a week for. their mood troubles i usually have a lymphatic drainage mass on mondays or thursdays after that i feel quite a lot better. hawk has been living with for 5 years but she's determined not to let the disorder rule her life. that's it for today see you next week and i'm so then let's all try to stay in good shape.

to.

go to. keep learning. wait a 2nd. we want the whole picture factors that will make i.d.'s shift deliver us. from a mansion reality to cryptocurrency to your top picks for live in an ever changing digital world. let's start with the devise a sense shift. from 15 minutes to w. . it's like a creature from another planet and it's revolutionary not by appearance it's also a technological. the citoyenne devious and under god goddess it's still reviewed by killers fans from all over the world to. the lobby and float away

. read. it in 30 minutes on. why subscribe to v.w. books you mean your favorite writer to finish i like to see myself as the kid sky in the strange grown up world and do you know where your books are new. how does a virus spread. why do we panic and when we'll all be. introduced through the topics covered and the weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the crown of virus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcasts you can also find us and dot com and slash science.

we know that this is a scary time for the coronavirus is changing the world changing. so queenie's take care of yourself a good distance wash your hands if you can stay at how we do w. for here for you we are working tirelessly to keep you informed on over platforms we're all in this to get on together and when they can. stay safe everybody stay safe. stay safe the printers industry say.

this is d.w. news line from berlin and the united states now has more than 104000000 confirmed cases of covert 9 taint a 3rd of all global infections are in america the number in new york state alone is higher than in any single country also on the program how poverty is pushing millions in india to defy the national locked down it's a question of the survival as the poorest faced 2 forced to scavenge for food. and drive in prayers hundreds.