Is There a Heart Attack In Your Future?

What are the chances that you will get heart disease, or Alzheimer's? Or that you'll get fat? New genetic tests will soon be available to offer people answers to these questions and more, assessing their risk for a range of conditions based on a sample of saliva.

It's one of the promises of the genetics revolution: Putting personalized medical information directly into the hands of individuals so they can make informed choices about their health. Yet despite the potential, there are several reasons people might not yet embrace such tests -- including skepticism about their scientific soundness, steep prices and insurance and privacy issues.

Indeed, many genetic experts believe predictive gene-based tests aren't ready for wide use. Besides questions about accuracy, there is also the issue of how useful the answers will be. There's no evidence, many physicians say, that people will act on such information to lead healthier lives. Little is known about the interplay of genetic and nongenetic factors such as diet, exercise, smoking and pollution that also affect a person's risk for disease. And few doctors are...