When people look at someone who seems to be able to run faster, work harder or stay slim even during the biggest holidays there's often murmuring about them having good genes. It's become a shorthand way of saying that they seem to be unusually lucky or blessed in life. The saying has become so common, in fact, that people tend to forget what the phrase actually means. Good genetics means just that, a person has genes which offer up some unusual benefits. It's something that's surprisingly common in the world.

The same goes for the reverse. Sometimes people are born with genetic traits which place them at an unusually high risk for many types of diseases and disorders. It can be a rather worrisome concept in some ways. The main reason is that genetics are a physical trait which isn't very easy to see by oneself. If disease were linked to a hair color or eye color it'd be a rather simple matter to know if someone was at risk. With genetics, the information is set down at such a small level that nobody can be expected to take a look. Or, rather, that was the case until fairly recently. 

 

 

It's a fairly recent advance, but it's now possible to find out all of the medical information hidden within one's genetic code through pharmacogenetics. One can simply send out a small sample and the information can be taken directly from it. At that point someone will have access to some of the most important medical information they could ever hope for. In practical terms this means that there's now a chance for people to actually modify their lifestyle to take advantage of their genetic traits or to mitigate risk factors.