I think by eating paleo and staying healthy, you're managing these risks as much as you can without adding undue levels of stress to your life.

I don't know how "Paleo" this would be considered by many people here, but I'll answer from the perspective of a hardcore ketogenic ("zero" or extreme low-carb) eater.

I stay zero-or-very-close-to-it carb (<5g/day, more often <2g/day) not just for weight loss maintenance and joint pain remission, although those are very big and immediate "real life" considerations. On a more theoretical level, I'm pretty convinced by what research there is showing the (relative) efficacy of ketogenic diets for cancer treatment. Both of my birth parents died of cancer, one at the age of 49, which I'm quickly approaching, so I take that pretty seriously.

The other bit of ancestral info that convinces me that vegetables and starches, in the long run, are not my friends (they might be yours; I'm mostly agnostic on the issue of what other people ought to eat) is that I have photos of my ancestors going back four generations, all the way to the early 1900s. The women were all fat -- on both the maternal and paternal sides of the tree -- long before the rest of the world was fat. And I don't mean chunky; I mean obese. So it looks very much to me as though the foods that were "healthy" for the rest of the farmers and sailors (I'm thinking bread, potatoes, corn, oats, and maybe even real vegetables) were quite fattening to people in my ancestral line. We're Voegtlin's "Fattens-Easily" models! And it hasn't escaped me that they were fat before the advent of margarine, CAFO meat, and so on.

These two somewhat high-falutin' considerations are always in the back of my mind. However, I must also say that my body gives me feedback pretty quickly after a couple of days of veggie-eating (two experiments, each over the holidays during the last two years), so I don't really have to resort to leaning on them to keep me from slacking.

Re: your specific question about 23andMe. I've got my results from them, but I don't put a huge amount of stock in the odds they supposedly reveal. There are a few diseases that have a strong, identified genetic link, but most supposed links are early-returns prognosticating. The Alzheimer's link may be one of the more reliable ones, unfortunately. From my readings on ketogenic diets, though, it seems that a KD is pretty protective, especially if MC fats like coconut oil are employed. Otherwise, genetic associations with depression and the like seem vague and ill-founded to me, at least at present.

(I don't want to tell you what to do- because I don't know so what you should do! I am going to think about it in terms of my personal situation.) I definitely wouldn't let it creep into my whole life and be constantly trying to protect against it. I am not sure about genetics and I don't know if you can help change something that you have a genetic tendency towards. Also, I don't think that there are currently any proven ways to reduce the chance of getting breast cancer or alzheimers. Because if I knew of them, I'd be doing them no doubt because I have a family history of both as well. What I do know is that my family has a history of alcoholism. Unlike alzheimers or cancer I know that there is something I can do to prevent this from ever happening. not drink alcohol. So yes I do try and limit my alcohol consumption which also fits in with the Paleo prescription in order to prevent myself from becoming an alcoholic.

I don't consider myself a genetics expert, but I am married to one.

Many people ask him if they should get tested for certain things, especially if they are adopted or have family history of cancer, etc. He will always say the same thing:

"If you have family history of Huntington's, severe breast or colon cancer or early onset Alzheimer's, then finding out if you have those genetic variants is a good thing. Huntington's especially. You'll want to financially plan for end of life care, possibly reduce the number of children you were planning on having, and really watch for early symptoms.

BUT for most other conditions, just because you have a genetic variant doesn't mean much of anything. We know very little about how genes are expressed, whether or not genes will be expressed, or what causes certain genes to suddenly turn on or stay dormant their entire life. Eat well, stay active, get sleep, and get your routine checkups. And enjoy your life."

Hope this helps!

I actually think about family history quite a bit in my food choices. The whole reason I went toxin-free with my beauty regimen is because I watched both Grandmothers suffer through dementia and alzheimers. I don't even allow my children to use soap in the bathtub.

My grandmother and her Mom suffered depression. My great grandmother committed suicide and my grandmother had shock treatments. I truly believe that my broth, pastured butter, heavy cream and grass fed beef intake has stabilized my moods. Hopefully my years of menopause will be easy breazy too.

The depression thing makes me wonder if my Mom's GERD/IBS and the gut/brain connection has significance. She is not depressed but maybe she's paying the price of SAD in her gut? (Although she's slowly coming around and listens to all my crazy ideas.) I had the same kind of symptoms as my Mom, although not diagnosed until I went paleo. I ate more tums a day than I ate food. My little Mom's osteoporisis too reminds me to eat tons of K2 rich stuff for myself and my two little girls.

Mine does, though in a different way than most of the above. I'm fortunate that my family seems resistant to modern life- there's not much in the way of a history of disease. I think if there was, I would have gotten stricter with my lifestyle faster.