Wednesday, March 06, 2013

23 and Me


How does it work?





What do you get?








Again, it looks more nordic than I'd have expected.


The website






  1. It should be noted that in some countries (for example Germany) you might be obliged to declare health risks you learn about through genetic testing to insurances (in Germany it is insurance against working inability and life insurances above a certain value).

    I wanted to get tested recently but refrained from doing so because I want to keep open the possibility to get insurance. The cutoff amount for working inability insurance where you have to declare in Germany is not very high when you compare it to normal salaries of academics.

  2. But are you Neandertal? My friend was very proud of his Neandertal percentage.

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  5. Hi Bee,

    Obviously better then tea leave, palm, head lump and tarot card reading. Looks like something that has some value. What CapitalistImperialistPig said about the Neandertal content would also be interesting to know, but as I've learned they’re not looking for that. With the relative minimal cost I’m surprised family doctors don’t make such a thing part of a standard work up so at least they know what they should perhaps be looking for. It might make things not only more efficient and also perhaps at less cost if some of their patients are at less risk in respect to some things.



  6. Southern, Eastern, Northern Europeans or Balkan, French, German. Genetically it doesn't make sense. A tribe based categorization I would understand:

    i.e. Slavic, Germanic, Anglo Saxons, Nordic, Celtic etc.

  7. @Giotis: I have read that when the Anglo-Saxons came in and took over England, they didn't exterminate the current inhabitants, but just ruled them and, to some degree, enslaved them. So most English people have a large fraction of Celtic (and pre-Celtic) genes. I assume this is why there is one category for "British and Irish" rather than two for Anglo-Saxon and Celtic, as you expect. My guess is that the same kind of thing happened in the other areas of Europe, and these are the best actual fits for genetic categories.

    C&EN 91(8) 48 2013 [25 February]. Recessive gene for lacking a transporter protein. ~98% of non-Asians are armpit-challenged. Asians are mostly double-recessive (broadcasting trimethylamine rather than trans-3-methyl-2-hexenoic acid and butyric acid).

    "They ask for quite some amount of saliva," Think of pickled herring or jalapeños. GeneTree contrasts with much more powerful 23andMe. The Mormons say I am 11% East Asian: (40 yr)(365.2422 d/yr)(3/7 d walking)(5 hr/d)(1 mph) = 31,000 miles or 50,000 km. Moses went out for Chinese? 23andMe says "94% Ashkenazic Jew." The Huns came to us, and shared.


    Right. This is obvious: Most English people look English and not like the current inhabitants of Angeln (in the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, just below Denmark but on the Baltic coast) and the various Saxonies in Germany (who are largely descended from the people who lived there when the Anglo-Saxons invaded England). This is especially true of English children. England has been invaded many times, and no-one thinks that the Romans, or the Vikings, or the Normans substantially displaced the native population, rather than just gaining control of the government.

  10. Hi Phil,

    There's some interesting info about how many docs use genetic tests and why here. The prime reason, it seems, not to use it is that they don't feel competent. My doc here would probably think I'm totally nuts. Actually, she probably already thinks I'm nuts ;o) Best,


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  12. Hi Bee,

    So why it’s not being used is instead of having hammers looking for nails, we could have plenty of nails and yet a shortage of hammers :-) Still seems to me if a genetic predisposition or the opposite is so easily identifiable it’s something our primary diagnosticians need to know about and utilize.



  13. You post may answer a question I've had about deodorants. I react badly to anti-perspirant, so I can only use deodorants which don't contain it. Many of these smell good, but don't seem to stop me from smelling bad, and I was wondering who bought these products. Now maybe I know.

  14. Good stuff...I'm curious, did you find any actionable advice that changed your behavior? For example, diseases you didn't know you were predisposed to? The snippets you show are interesting, but I feel that it's nothing I wouldn't know about myself already, right?

  15. What diseases does the report show you whether you have a predisposition or not? I can't find this on! I am toying with the idea of ordering a spit kit, but I'd rather not pay 100 dollars to find out "you have slightly curly hair/ blue eyes" - ya know? Good article.

  16. Peteratsal,

    You can find a list of diseases for which you get a risk assessment here

    As to me, some of them come out higher than average, some lower, but by and large nothing very far off the average. The ones that came out with a higher than average risk are diseases that for all I know nobody in my family ever developed, so I don't really see the need to do anything about it. Best,


  17. Oh, and regarding your other question, yes, I did learn some things that I found very interesting. Besides the anchestry which, as I mentioned looks more North European than I expected, I had never heard of the ABCC11 gene variant before. I had heard of the ACTN3, and I always assumed I probably don't have any working copy. Turns out I have one though.

    Besides this, I didn't know there's a genetic predisposition for pain tolerance. This gave me something to think about because one of my daughters has a noticeably smaller response to pain than the other, so I am guessing it's not that one of them seeks more attention, but that I passed my "higher than average pain tolerance" on to the other.

    There's some other things that I found interesting, but I'll stop here. I think it gives you an impression. Best,


  18. Inspired by your example, I sent my sample in weeks ago. Not having heard from 23andme, I checked by logging in there, this is what they said: :(

    Arun, our laboratory attempted to isolate DNA from your saliva sample. Unfortunately, the sample did not yield sufficient quantities of DNA.

    Your sample is going through a second round of DNA isolation.

  19. Got my results!
    I'm more Neanderthal than most :)

  20. I'm mixed race Latino, so I'm very curious to find out my heritage. Thanks for great artocle, maybe I'll do this for my birthday!

  21. I'm thinking of getting this done but I am curious about the insurance question that Paul Andreas posted. Does anyone know if you have to disclose such a thing in the US?

  22. I'm half English (Yorkshire, Durham, and Lancashire backgrounds) and in my 23andMe results, I have a small amount of "British/Irish", a bigger amount of "French/German", and a bigger amount of "Unidentified Northern European". I believe, that the "British/Irish" reading is indicative of Celtic Britonic origins, given that to be scored as such, they must be specific to the British Isles, and that the "French/German", and perhaps "Unidentified Northern European" also, is picking up on Germanic Anglo-Saxon origins. My Y Chromosome Haplogroup, from my Yorkshire Patrilineal lineage, is I2a, which is very rare there, and is believed to be a residual of the Pre-Celtic times in Britain, i.e., the Doggerland era.



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