With the recent death of Sylvia Plath’s son, the question of inherited suicide has been once again raised in the news. A recent article at CNN says that a “first-degree relative — a parent, sibling or child — of a person who has committed suicide is four to six times more likely to attempt or complete a suicide” themselves.
One reason for this could have to do with thinning of the right cortex of the brain. This thinning could be one reason why certain people are able to adapt more easily to emotional events than others. It’s also …read more

It sounds crazy: removing both of your breasts when you don’t even have cancer? Who would do that? Well, lots of women, actually. The availability of genetic testing to evaluate breast cancer risk is giving many women a preview of things to come by letting them know exactly what their chances are of developing hereditary breast cancer.
Only 30,000 of more than 250,000 American women estimated to carry a mutation in BRCA1 or a related gene, BRCA2, have so far been tested. But their numbers have doubled in the last two years, and with a sharp increase in genetic testing, are …read more