Would you want a home DNA test to reveal your risk of illness?

Home DNA tests are becoming more and more popular – you can use them to find out everything from your ancestry to how likely you are to inherit a genetic disease. 

Fans of these services say it helps put you in the driver’s seat when it comes to your health and can reveal some fun and fascinating insights in the process.

But critics of the service say the value of the test is dubious and can end up placing additional strain on the NHS.

While there are obvious reasons for wanting to know if you’re at risk of diseases like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s or BRCA1/BRCA2, it can also open the door to unhelpful worrying.

After all, a home DNA test can’t prevent the outcome, only reveal potential risk – and we already know when it comes to cancers and other diseases the best thing we can do to reduce the risk we can control is pursue a healthy lifestyle.

What do you think? Are home DNA kits a harmless bit of fun or something best avoided? If you could find out you’re at risk of a serious disease, would you want to know?