
Ask HN: What did you find in your DNA using 23andme? - choot
So what did you find on 23andme dna test which you aren&#x27;t aware of and how did it change your life?<p>Let say if you discovered you&#x27;ve high amount of fast twitch muscle fiber and it motovated you to perform better at sports or smth.
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occamschainsaw
I am a South Asian. It told me I was of South Asian ancestry. Was hoping for
something more specific than that.

I love me some coffee (drink more than 3 cups a day), and it said I am very
likely to consume less caffeine. It also told me I have a high chance of
having smooth hair, but I have extremely curly hair.

And I am extremely skeptical of their traits in general. Some of the traits
include: "cilantro taste aversion", "misophobia" (likely to hate chewing
sounds), "ability to match musical pitch", "fear of heights" etc.

I am guessing they find correlations between survey answers and presence of
genetic markers. A lot of these traits would also be affected by nurture not
nature.

Overall, I am not happy with the experience. I don't know if it is the current
state of technology or regulatory concerns holding them back from releasing
better results. Another reason for their lack of specificity could be the
absence of South Asian data in their datasets. Most of the disease diagnosis
is targeted towards people with Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Probably because
they are much more present in their datasets.

Either way it seems like a lose-lose for me because on one hand I am getting
mediocre results, but on the other I am relinquishing my privacy.

~~~
docbrown
Your comment made me go back to articles on data sharing 23andme does with
companies. At first I read your statement about cilantro but it seems these
are just the type of questions companies are paying big money for.

>For now, though, 23andMe’s biobank is the world’s largest repository of DNA
samples that also contains extensive health information, willingly provided by
customers who answer survey questions like “Do you like cilantro?” and “Have
you ever had cancer?” 23andMe says its customers supply it with as many as two
million new facts each week.

There’s only one problem—depending on your own ethics—and that is your data is
helping pharmaceutical companies develop new drugs.

The continuation from the above quote:

>These surveys are proving valuable to drug investigators. This year the
company found genetic variations strongly linked to whether customers consider
themselves early risers, offering a clue about how to develop drugs that
modulate alertness. [1]

[1] [https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601506/23andme-sells-
data...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601506/23andme-sells-data-for-
drug-search/)

~~~
occamschainsaw
That article was pretty helpful. Now I am entering the rabbit hole of reading
about 23andme data sharing.

What strikes me as interesting is their current business model: customers are
paying them and answering their survey questions. That is quite brilliant,
they get specifics about the people in their existing dataset, and once a
critical statistical mass has been reached, they can find correlations between
traits and genomic data.

I would be happy to voluntarily provide my time, effort and data towards
medical research. While I don't have ethical problems right now (I don't
expect a lot of privacy anyways), there is a small nagging fear that these
things could bite me 20 years down the line when these genomic tests are much
more sophisticated and I have already given them my genome. Small benign
hypothetical example: I start seeing ads about cilantro on Facebook.

That fear was overpowered by my curiosity to learn about my genome. That's on
me.

------
23AndAllOfYou
My spouse did it and the results provided by 23andMe were next to useless. It
told her interesting facts like that she likely has no dimples (she has them),
and other meaningless crap.

However, she downloaded the raw data and ran it through Promethease[0] and it
did supply some useful info about potential drug interactions, which has been
useful.

She supplied a fake name to them, used a gift card to pay for it online, and
told them not to use her data for ancestry and to destroy her samples after
processing. We've since learned here on HackerNews from people who claim to
have worked there that they do not follow-through on their promises to do
those things. I have no idea whether that's true or not, but it certainly
sounds plausible and is infuriating.

[0]
[https://www.snpedia.com/index.php/Promethease](https://www.snpedia.com/index.php/Promethease)

~~~
toomuchtodo
You violate the terms of their service when you use a fake name. If you don't
want to use your real information, pay $1000 for a full sequencing. Their
rates are lower because they're able to subsidize consumers with selling
aggregate information to drug companies for rapid drug prototyping and
development.

EDIT: I am astounded by the entitlement complex exhibited in the replies to
this. You don't have to agree to their terms, but don't use the service if you
don't. Especially don't be infuriated that they're not holding up their end of
the bargain (supposedly not destroying samples) when you flatly decided not to
as well (fake name). I don't understand why that is a difficult concept to
accept.

~~~
vbuwivbiu
nobody cares - they're not entitled to use your data the way they do

------
danielfoster
I highly recommend uploading your 23andme data to Promethease, which
dramatically increases the amount of research matched to your genome and
provides a better interface:

[https://promethease.com/](https://promethease.com/)

I discovered that I have one copy of the Delta 32 mutation. Two copies
provides nearly complete immunity to AIDs, but being lucky enough to have just
one copy means that it will take significantly longer to get AIDS should I
ever get HIV. Knowing that I'm resistant to noroviruses also makes me more
comfortable about traveling.

I discovered I have a 7x risk of going bald, which wasn't exciting.

Beyond this, results have been too contradictory to make use of. Genetics are
interesting, but our behavior has a much greater impact on our lives.

~~~
searine
Word of warning. Take promethease with a grain of salt.

For example, promethease predicted a deletion in my genome (didn't actually
observe a call, just inferred the deletion from linked sites) for a highly
pathogenic disease in my data. However upon further inspection of the loci
(I've done deep deep sequencing of my genome) it was a false positive.

Promethease is very very useful, but it shows you all the data including some
of the more hairy sites. It is a great starting place but if you find a
deleterious variant that may impact your health, follow up with your health
care provider.

~~~
elektor
You mention a "deep sequencing" of your genome,, what does that look like?

~~~
searine
Just stupidly high coverage. Something like 200x coverage over six replicates
from blood and saliva. We needed DNA for QA purposes and I happen to have DNA,
dontchaknow.

------
thamer
My father had Factor V Leiden[1], a mutation that increases blood clotting. He
was hospitalized multiple times in his 30s, and died suddenly at age 50. After
his first blood clot he was put on anti-coagulants and took them every day of
his life.

There is a 50% chance to pass this mutation to your offspring, and I wanted to
know whether I could be affected. I discovered that I did indeed inherit the
same allele, and went to see a hematologist to discuss it. She advised that I
not smoke and keep fit (unlike my father) and that I shouldn't worry about
taking medication unless some evidence of blood clots appears. This was always
a worry for me, not knowing whether I would suffer the same fate. When I sent
my DNA to 23andme, I was 25 years old and wondering if I'd already lived half
of my life. Getting the results and following up with a specialist gave me
great relief and eliminated this worry pretty much entirely.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factor_V_Leiden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factor_V_Leiden)

~~~
ska
Is this not a test you could have got done a more conventional way?

~~~
moonka
Not sure if this is why, but I know some folks who are concerned about getting
such tests done at the doctor's office due to both cost, and the fact that it
will go into their medical records (and thus possibly impact insurance).

------
larrywright
One thing was in there that was unexpected: I’m 3% Ashkenazi Jewish. I’ve
never heard that from any relatives, and some have done extensive genealogy.

Additionally, something was missing that I expected to see: Native American
ancestry. My family on my dad’s side had always talked about our Native
American ancestry - only a few generations back from my grandmother - but the
DNA showed absolutely none. I’ve since learned that this is actually quite
common - many people believe they have it but few actually do.

I’ve read that in certain parts of the country it was standard practice to
claim Native American ancestry to explain non-white features. At that time it
was perfectly fine to be part Native American, but being part African would
have been cause to lose your land, right to vote, etc. Interestingly, while I
have a small amount of African ancestry, it’s not on that side of the family,
so I’m at a loss to explain why so many of my relatives thought they were
descended from a Native American.

~~~
acct1771
I've seen anonymous "confessions" (who knows, take this with a grain of salt,
just messenger, etc) that the employees will sometimes throw in odd results
like that just to throw off/troll otherwise white Europeans.

~~~
Balgair
Holy Hell, if true, that is incredibly unethical. Lying to people about
something as personal as family crosses so _so_ many lines.

------
toomuchtodo
My ideal wake time is 8:04am, I have fast twitch muscle fiber, I have lower
odds of experiencing Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and prostate cancer, and I'm
likely to sneeze when the sun is in my eyes.

Nothing in my health report changed my life, but I have reached out to distant
relatives I would've otherwise never known about.

~~~
danielfoster
How did you find your ideal wake time?

~~~
toomuchtodo
[https://you.23andme.com/reports/trait.wakeup_time/](https://you.23andme.com/reports/trait.wakeup_time/)
(visit when logged in)

~~~
samblr
Mine is 8:32 AM which is roughly about accurate.

I wonder they did it via back connecting my phone's wake up time as the
founder of 23andme and Google were/are connected ;)

------
cure
I have a mutation in the MTHFR gene, which causes my body to be much less
efficient at converting folic acid to folate than most people. It is also the
likely cause for why I have low B12 on blood tests. Solution: eat lots of
leafy greens and take a folate (not folic acid) supplement.

23andme doesn't report directly on this variant, but it is in the raw results.
You can run your 23andme file through promethease.com (for a small fee) to get
a report on variants like these.

------
mdgrech23
I learned I have a little bit of Jewish and Arab ancestry, wouldn't really say
that I was surprising though. I also found out I have something called
Alpha-1, unfortunately there is not much I can do for this condition but it
did provide me with a reason to lay back on the cigars and whiskey.

------
octorian
I'm very curious to do one of these tests myself, but I'm also terrified of
being in some large database that could be abused to my detriment someday.
This fear might be unfounded, but I'm not really sure.

The whole thought of being targeted because someone found my DNA
circumstantially near the scene of a crime, or discriminated against because
I'm predisposed to some sort of medical condition, gives me pause. This might
be senseless paranoia, or there might already be enough data from random
family members taking tests, but you never know.

------
resters
I generally find it interesting to know as much about myself as possible:

\- Found out I'm the most neanderthal of anyone in my family who has been
tested.

\- that I have the "short" genes in spite of being quite tall compared to
average and the tallest in my family in my generation, my siblings have the
"tall" genes in spite of being closer to average or below average
respectively.

\- that I'm related to celebrity chef Mario Batali -- sort of cool before he
turned out to be a rapist.

\- that I have increased warfarin sensitivity... not relevant now but maybe
someday.

~~~
elektor
I'm curious, how did you discover the Batali connection? 23andMe shared that?

~~~
resters
They promote celebrity relatives. He's like an 8th cousin or something.

------
petercooper
I downloaded the "raw" data and by looking up the right genes, discovered I'm
a "supertaster" (they have since added this as a trait in their own regular
results). This confirmed something I've felt for a long time - almost all
green vegetables and things like beer taste absolutely vile to me.. but now I
know it's "real" and not just me being fussy.

------
jahrichie
My mom found out she had a brother she never knew about. Her father had
another family from before her birth. Pretty crazy stuff.

~~~
threeio
This is -exactly- why I will never have my DNA sequenced (I'm the brother no
one knows about)

------
evo_9
Doctor Rhonda Patrick's website allows you to upload your data to and have
additional analysis done:
[https://www.foundmyfitness.com/genetics](https://www.foundmyfitness.com/genetics)

~~~
hnrodey
Has anyone tried this? How were the results?

~~~
WillPostForFood
I did it, and found it really interesting. It adds a couple layers of info on
top of the basic results. Here is an example of the output.

 _PPAR gamma rs1801282(C;G) abnormal fat metabolism Peroxisome proliferator-
activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ or PPARG) is a master regulator of fatty acid
storage and glucose metabolism. The genes activated by PPARG stimulate lipid
uptake and adipogenesis by fat cells. It increases both lipid metabolism and
adipogenesis in fat tissue. It increases insulin sensitivity in muscle tissue
and increases gluconeogenesis in the liver. PPARG is mostly found in adipose
tissue, colon and immune cells called macrophages.

You may have an abnormal fat metabolism. When people with the genotype (C,G)
or (G,G) have a low polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat intake and a high
saturated fat intake then their obesity and type 2 diabetes risks are
dramatically increased. But when there is a higher mono- and poly-unsaturated
intake and a lower saturated fat intake their obesity and type 2 diabetes risk
is normal. Polyunsaturated fatty acids activate the PPAR-gamma gene.

Monounsaturated fat is found in foods such as avocado, olive oil, and nuts.
Polyunsaturated fats are found in foods like fatty fish such as salmon,
herring and polyunsaturated fat is also found in nuts. Saturated fat is found
in fatty beef, pork, butter, cheese, and other dairy products.

Individuals with the genotypes (C,G) or (G,G) may want to make sure their
dietary fat is higher in mono- and poly-unsaturated fat and lower in saturated
fat.

Pterostilbene is a plant compound present in blueberries, cranberries, and
almonds have been shown to activate PPAR-gamma (and PPAR-alpha) and lower
triglycerides, and blood glucose levels.

SNPs Involved rs1801282(C;G)_

------
logiclabs
Found out both my father and I possibly had a tendency to iron overload (or
haemochromatosis). Blood test then found both of us to have very high iron
stored in bodies.

High stored iron is linked with all sorts of bad stuff in the body,
particularly CAD.

------
the_rosentotter
I found the information about haplogroups interesting. It shows the migration
paths out of Africa for both your mother's and father's ancestors (only men
show the father's haplogroup). Not only was the background information about
human migration very interesting, but the results also tallied well with our
own speculations about parents' heritage.

------
RaceWon
Reading this reminds me of why I am so happy to tell doctors of that fact that
I am adopted when they ask about my family medical history. It is truly a
blank slate.

What good can possibly come of waiting to see if you might be developing some
brain malfunction like your ancestors did? But hey.. to each their own!!

------
diebir
e3/e4 APOE. Decided can take more risk backcountry skiing and other outdoor
activities (live fast, die young).

------
AndrewOMartin
Here's a video of a YouTuber (lindybeige) reading through their results, I
found the video interesting but the results are entirely unremarkable and
bland.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X3QVCOZlvU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X3QVCOZlvU)

------
ChristianBundy
It described me as "nondescript Northern European".

It's not wrong, but I was expecting more.

------
LinuxBender
How do you change your DNA if these companies sell or leak data? Is anyone
offering a mass sequencing process that can safely change your DNA identity?
If so, what are the risks associated?

------
russdill
That I have a Native American mtDNA haplogroup which is a bit of a surprise,
but matches vague family legends

------
diimdeep
Vitamin_D_deficiency

Alzheimer Apoe4

------
cdg7777
PPAR alpha/gamma - poor saturated fat metabolism APOE 2/3 - low risk for
Alzheimer heightened risk for deep vein thrombosis (DVT)

