Genome Results

Results of my genetic testing from the 23andMe:

Ta da! I’m average! Warning: The following blog entry will most likely be boring. Nothing fantastic, for better or worse, was found. Except ancestry is a bit interesting. But that’s later on. This entry is composed of ramblings and not my best writing. Mostly a dump of information.

No major negative traits nor conditions were discovered. No breast cancer, Alzheimer’s, none of the biggies. I’m mostly average in all ways. I’ll take it.

Average predisposition for sweets (have a sweet tooth, actually), can taste bitter (agreed), average non-verbal IQ (I beg to differ), hair slightly curlier than average (yep), earwax type is wet (ewww), birthweight lighter than typical (I was over 8 pounds), iris patterns (um, ok), higher odds of photic sneeze reflex (nope), higher pain sensitivity (another one I beg to differ on). Just a few things they test for.

Various genes can play a role in aging and longevity. One report said I inherited the gene for being about 4 years younger. Not sure what that means. I tend to look younger than my age. Is that it? But for all the ones for longevity, I have the average odds, nothing interesting, on living to my 90’s or to 100. There are a few genes that play a role. Though my parents didn’t, most of my grandparents lived to their 80’s. One grandmother lived to 96. She was driving and active until 94, when things went downhill. So there’s family history showing I could have a long, full life.

One report where it stated I did inherit a gene where genetics play a strong role? Restless Leg Syndrome. I may have inherited the gene but don’t have it. I had a sleep study done less than 10 years ago. This is what they try to tell you when you get tested: You may have inherited a gene but it doesn’t set your fate.

23andMe tells you how certain researchers are that the gene plays a role on each thing you inherited. Some research strongly proves out how certain they are that the gene can be a cause of a condition or a trait. Some research shows that that they ‘think’ it plays a role but need more research to be certain.

Then they tell you what research has found how much genetics plays into getting the condition such as diabetes. Genetics may only play a 20% role in developing a condition. Or 80%. So they tell you the odds and how certain they are about what they’ve found. They provide citations for the research used for each gene interpretation.

It’s $99 to get a wealth of information. It did exactly what I hoped it would do: Verified I most likely won’t get Alzheimer’s or the other biggies. Both parents died of cancer. But I don’t think genetics played a part for my mother. She was a heavy smoker and stopped getting pap smears 15 years before she passed. She died of cancer of the uterus. Genetics most likely did play into why my dad developed cancer. But if he hadn’t quietly suffered the severe acid reflux for years, and hadn’t waited so long to get medical attention, he may have been alive today. I had acid reflux though not severe. Took the antibiotics that kill the bacteria which cause ulcers (though I never developed ulcers) and haven’t had many problems since. Plus my diet, other than coffee, is mostly conducive to avoiding tummy troubles. I did inherit a slightly higher chance than average for stomach cancer (what my father’s sister died of) and cancer of the esophagus (what my dad died of). But my dad and siblings were a much older generation (my dad was 40 when he had me and his sister was much older than him). There are so many more ways to take care of your tummy today than they had available back then. We have scope tests to check out your stomach and esophagus. Strong meds to reduce the acid. Antibiotics to prevent ulcers. My inherited numbers weren’t much higher than average. My lifestyle and being aggressive about my health gives me confidence I won’t get the cancers my mom, dad, and aunt developed.

If I had inherited the biggies? I would have started to become aggressive in learning everything I could about the disease and how to prevent it.

The testing gave me so much interesting data. 

The results of the ‘biggie’ reports don’t pop up on your screen when you log in. You can know about tons of other stuff and choose to never learn about the biggies. They force you to individually unlock those reports, giving you all kinds of warnings to not freak out. But I’d strongly recommend you do else you’ll always wonder. Not knowing and living in fear is worse than knowing and making a plan of action. But then this is from someone who didn’t inherit the biggies.

However I’m not immune to freaking out. My heart was pounding when I opened up the report on breast cancer despite no one in my family having it. I was so wired that I initially read the report wrong and thought I had inherited the genes. Thoughts started zooming through my head, what it meant to me, would I have to have a mastectomy as a precaution, would I die early. Then I took a breath, re-read the report to be sure, and I realized I didn’t develop any of the genes tied to breast cancer. It was an eye-opener how much I had emotionally invested in knowing the results of those reports. I wasn’t as big and strong, immune to freaking out, as I had I thought.

Now for where are my ancestors from. Some of my family has been here since the American Revolution. Even fought in the war. America is a stew of many migrants. The longer your family has been in America, the higher odds of various seasonings. My mom’s side of the family is from the south, Louisiana. However, I’m purely European. No strand of Asian or African. Due to family from the south, I was always positive I had a smidge of African even though I had no physical characteristics. No seasoning of anything else. 

The biggest parts of my stew are Irish/British and French/German. 

But no Jewish. Not that I have a specific reason for thinking I would. But being German, I thought I’d have a smidge. The odds of being purely European from a line of family that has been in America for a few hundred years is outstanding. My fiancé didn’t think it was possible due to the odds when your family has been in America for such a long time.

They tell you what they know for absolute certain, then accepted standard evaluation, then the speculative odds (they think you are but can’t say 100% sure). Now that you know my ‘certain’ (Irish, etc.), below is my ‘speculative’. The Scandinavian and French are from my father’s side. The Irish, definitely from my mother’s side (though my dad could have had some as well). The Iberian is most likely from my mother’s side (going off the tales of our family history).

100% European

            Northern European

58.3% - Irish & British

14.6% - French & German

   1.1% - Scandinavian

22.8% - Nonspecific Northern European

            Southern European

  0.5% - Iberian

  0.7% - Nonspecific Southern European                    

2.1% - Nonspecific European

< 0.1% - Unassigned (Everyone has some ‘Unassigned’.)

What 23andMe provides:

Health Risks (Restless Leg Syndrome – Inherited the gene but don’t have it)

Drug Responses (Metabolize PPI rapidly – good to know if ever needed)

Inherited Conditions (Variant absent, for me, for all inherited conditions they check for)

Traits (Caffeine Consumption – Higher than average. That’s a shocker.)

Ancestry Composition (100% European)

Maternal Line (Mine is H3a which is a subgroup of H3. Haplogroup H, the parent of H3, originated in the Near East and then expanded throughout Europe toward the end of the Ice Age. H3 likely branched off the rest of H in Iberia and expanded across most of western Europe after the glaciers receded. Today, H3 is distributed across much of Europe and is rare elsewhere.)

Paternal Line (paternal line of all women traces back to one man, but you knew that)

Neanderthal Ancestry (I’m 0.2% more Neanderthal than the average person of 2.7%)

That’s it. I’m very average. Most likely will live a full but average life span. I inherited various genes on eye color. One for brown and another for blue. I have green eyes. I inherited a slightly higher chance to be blonde but just have average chances of having red hair. I was blonde as a little child but now have brown, slightly reddish hair. It’s all very fascinating but is not your finalized blueprint. It is just odds, chances, where you ‘might’ have gotten your green eyes (maybe from my Irish side?), what you might want to consider when managing your health. Environment plays such as huge role. Live your life fully, walk often for not only physical but mental health, eat a veggie once in a while, laugh and smile often, and, most importantly, get your checkups as recommended, not just when things go wrong. I strongly believe that my mother would be alive today had she continued to get annual pap smears. There’s a reason why preventive care is often free by health insurance companies. Staying ahead of it all has huge paybacks. Don’t you want to enjoy life when you’re 70 and not be in the process of falling apart, a burden on your family, them watching you decay and no longer can enjoy your life? Then take care of yourself. Glance at the report, use it as a guide, and then take responsibility for your health and your life. And move on.