Research shows that of all the factors, such as age, sex, weight, general health and liver function that alter a patient's response to drugs, genetic factors are the most important. This information becomes even more critical when you consider that adverse reactions to prescription drugs are killing about 106,000 Americans each year -- roughly three times as many as are killed by automobiles. This makes prescription drugs the fourth leading killer in the U.S., after heart disease, cancer, and stroke.

Many Drugs Affected
Approximately one-third of the 200 most commonly prescribed heart medicines, pain killers, anti-depressant and anti-psychotic drugs are affected. These include such important medications as Coumadin (warfarin), Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Effexor, Hydrocodone, Amitriptyline, Claritin, Cyclobenzaprine, Haldol, Metoprolol, Rythmol, Tagamet, Tamoxifen, Valium, Carisoprodol, Diazepam, Dilantin, Premarin, and Prevacid (and the over-the-counter drugs, Allegra, Dytuss and Tusstat).

Genetic Glitches Common
More than half of all Americans have genetic defects that affect how they process these commonly used prescription drugs. These DNA glitches can reduce the efficacy of drugs and lead to an increased incidence of undesirable drug interactions. The most dangerous outcome is the build up of toxicity that can occur because of the body's inability to eliminate the drug from the system.

Coumadin (warfarin) patients at especially high risk from dangerous DNA
One-third of patients taking Coumadin (warfarin) lack the DNA coding necessary to detoxify this dangerous drug and fall into an especially high risk group. Clinical research has shown that one in eight will have a serious or life-threatening adverse drug reaction to warfarin. They will also take more than 90 days longer to reach a stable dosage. Genetic testing can readily identify patients who fall in this group.

Test Results
There are four main groups of classification:

·         Extensive Metabolizer. This is the norm, medications prescribed in normal doses will be metabolized by your body.

·         Intermediate Metabolizer. This means that you have only one of two operating pathways, and will need a lower than normal dosage and need to carefully monitor medication.

·         Poor Metabolizer. This means you have no active pathways. There is a possibility that alternate routes can be found, but this type of metabolizer is potentially very dangerous, as there is a great chance for the medication to build up in your system making you very sick, or even killing you.