Got 23andme for holidays
 

One for me, one for DH. When one opens the box, downloads the app -- and stops there because I've been exhausted for six weeks.

But I will keep all ya'll posted. The method is spit into a tube. We went with this one, which is pricier, because it also has the biggest health database to explore.

Both of us need some new paths to explore. It was this board that let me know about the MTFHR gene, which DH had. Made a big difference to him.

Myself, I started feeling better and wore myself out. I have to learn how to pace myself. It was because of some crucial additions to my supplement lineup this fall that I got good results. And the adaptogen herb Ashwaganda might be playing a crucial role, though I am only a week or so into that one.

so of course I went too far 😳

Also, they seem to have good privacy controls. That's important to us.

And, finally, it's ready to be mailed. It was fairly simple, except for remembering to not swallow and spit into a tube instead. Everything else was easy.

UNBOXING PART (it's a Youtube thing. From the youth.)

It comes in a shrink-wrapped box about the size of a trade paperback. There's a tube with a cap that you only close when you are doing spitting in it. Hey, better than a blood draw. Ya'll been warned.

But once this is completed, we swing-cap it to release a fixing solution, swap caps, and seal the tube back in the packaging. Ready to mail!

I had to wait 30 minutes before eating or drinking anything, then wait while I hit the right level. If I forgot and swallowed, it took longer, of course. I used this time to log into the website with the special number on my testing vial. Then we create an account and make all kinds of decisions, but most of them can be changed as we go along.

The kit came with ancestry and some basic health DNA considerations. I took the deal of $100 for the full health report based on me, then $29 for a year of access to their health library. Clues to Mr WereBear and I's recovery was a major impetus to investing in this option, when the starter kit was already more expensive than competitors. But 23andme's health connections was worth it.

So is their privacy rating, which is also better than their competitors. Now, it is up to you in your turn, but I agreed to anonymizing my DNA profile for research. There's different ways this works but you have time to look things up before you commit.

And if the reason you are trying this does not include these deeper dives at additional expense, another company might have more of what you would like to know.

It takes 4-6 weeks and now add in the US Mail being very slow at the moment... it will be flat out suspense for all of us :lol:

I got mine back a while ago, but I've been on bed rest for 5 months :) I was that tired, no question. Did me an entire world of good.

It seems like I heard back at every step, and it popped up completed early March, which is right in line with what the package said would be a normal timeline. And oh, the stuff I got back!

The geographic info was fascinating; not just where I came from, but also the health stuff I also inherited. Nothing ground-breaking -- and some reassurance about how I only have "typical risk" for all kinds of things I don't want. But it doesn't stop there. I can research with actual genetic markers, and I've gotten a couple of health updates as they continue to learn more. So I'll probably continue my membership as an ongoing resource.

It's a lot of fun to discover my eye color is a matter of beating certain odds, that the fact my hair bleaches in the sun is actually inherited, and I have a certain muscle structure found in elite athletes! Which I never would have known, since I am the antonym of athlete. Half the time, I can't even SPELL it.

What fun!!

Keep us posted with the revelations!

Just to let you know, you can download your raw data from the 23andme web site and then run it through other services. Here's a whole list of sites. GEDMatch used to allow law enforcement to access your data -- with your consent -- to try to solve cold cases. It really worked too! They solved a bunch of old murders. I don't think they do any longer, which is a shame.

https://medium.com/genome-link/prod...es-bd330e1f2af7

great, thanks, I've heard of such.

Been too busy to explore other sites, but 23andme sends periodic updates. Like Neanderthal content, which is typically European, as in more than other continents, which makes sense.

Also this stairstep generations chart, which shows which ancester, how far back. Like I have 2nd/3rd generation of my first “area of origin”, which is 65% of my genome, and 4th/5th are the 25%, and the next one is 7/8, with my fractional ancestors that are single percentages.

I can see how people are fascinated. And yes, I think finding criminals with relatives’ DNA is okay. It might be embarassing, but this exploration has illuminated how diverse our human inheritance.

It doesn’t make us who we are, but it does give us different kinds of starts.

I have been researching all the explosion of science when it comes to the subject of neuro-diversity. Even DH, who is left-handed, can fit the definition. So many exceptions to the standardized criteria we call Normal. But now we know each person has some version of their own, and it can vary widely and still work well.

Which is why I worry about DNA being used for wrongful purposes. That’s my only ethical qualm about it, and I am keeping it out of “the pool” though my curiosity is as strong as anyone.

If I need to release it to bring a criminal to justice, I’d be happy to do so. Then I’d write a book about it :)

While knowing I don’t have some kind of “time bomb” genetic risk is reassuring, I think it has an overlooked feature when it comes to the right diet plan for us.

That geographical breakdown told me what my enzymes are. What I can digest.

I’m 99% people who didn’t FARM. They’re in the North Atlantic and eating oily fish or they are taking their cows to the summer meadows and making cheese.

I never liked vegetables as a child. Maybe I should have listened :)

But in the confusion of what the heck to eat these days, I think checking out our geographic origins, AND what we inherited from those ancestors, determine what we CAN digest.

Not what we “should.”

This reminds me of a book Eating for your Blood Type.

It discusses how blood types are originally geographically specific. I have a rare blood type, one that reflects the examples very well. Sicilian and Scananavian. And to connect these geographical dots, the Swedish vikings traveled by boat down the main river into Ukraine , into the Mediterranean, to presumably Sicily. Which might explains my fathers hair color. Might. His mother was of English decent, but I dont think she was blonde.

Yes, the book delves into our natural diets. Diets we lived off for generations and adapted to.

All cool stuff.

I looked into that, but blood type wasn’t working for me, at least in the information I could find.



I helpfully bolded all the things I can’t eat. Maybe a good idea, but perhaps understudied and overly compliant with the SAD?

I emphasize personal results because I’m from farm country, multiple generations in the Midwest, but when I was a child it was farm animals, too. Now it’s all soybeans and corn. That alone is going to distort everything.

One aunt had already done it, and while we had parallels, her lineage leaned heavily towards one region, while mine had its emphasis distributed in places geographically different, but similar in the environment.

But one set of grandparents of hers emigrated from Germany in the 1920s, while that’s my great-grandparents. (And I have lovely memories of them from when I was small.) But that generational difference would be all over Northen Europe if it were not for the regional distinctions the test can make, now.

Like I don’t make the mistake of thinking all of Italy is like Sicily, which is an impression from the areas where the US drew the most Italian immigrants.

But the further North we go, the more the environment, cooking, and culture changes into something else. Until we reach the Swiss border.

It’s more precise. Though my aunt and I both love dairy and get along with it :) That matches both our main regions.