My genetics

[Y]esterday evening I ran up to my computer and started clicking madly in every direction after I saw an email from 23andme.com alerting me that my genetic profile was ready. No methylation or detox information in sight but lots of other interesting things (see image on right). My risk of developing Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s is below average – awesome! Maybe I will thrive into old age after chelating out the heavy metals.

It took me about 15 minutes just to dig up the website where people get their raw 23andme.com data interpreted automatically for methylation info. That is something called Sterling’s app and it cost $20. Here’s a list of analyzers:

• Genetic Genie
• Livewello (highly recommend the SNP sandbox and variance reports)
• Promethease
• Sterling’s app

My results from Sterling’s app below. Guessing it will take weeks or months or longer for me to understand the key sections – detox, methylation and mitochondrial. Right now, I’m clueless.

Update: I’ve learned a lot since receiving my results and have posted the research below underneath the various results it applies to – hope this may help you evaluate your own genetics. Amazingly, 23andme identified my mother’s maiden name in the ancestry results. Actually, they show the top five relative surnames and the number one surname happens to be my mom’s maiden name! The other four names are also quite illustrious.

If you’re unfamiliar with basic genetics, there’s a primer below.

Some background information from Genetic Genie:

We have two copies of most of the genes we are born with – one from our mother and one from our father. Genetic Genie uses the SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) generated from your unique DNA sequence to determine if one or both copies of your genes have a mutation at a specific location in a specific gene. If there are no mutations present, your result will be displayed as (-/-). If one gene is mutated, the result will read (+/-). If both copies have a mutation, the result is (+/+). Along with the (+/-) symbols, the colors on the table also denote the type of mutation for visual comprehension. The color red indicates a homozygous (+/+) mutation, the color yellow indicates a (+/-) heterozygous mutation and the color green (-/-) indicates that you don’t carry the specific mutation.

The terms heterozygous and homozygous are used by geneticists to denote whether one or both copies of a gene are mutated. Heterozygous mutations (+/-) may differ from homozygous mutations (+/+) in associated disease risk since a person with a heterozygous mutation will often still have one fully functioning copy of the gene. It is also important to understand that having a gene with a SNP mutation does not mean that the gene is defective or nonfunctioning, only that it is working with an altered efficiency. Sometimes this means that it is working at a decreased level, but it could also mean that it is functioning at a higher than normal efficiency, or that the gene is lacking regulatory mechanisms normally involved in its expression.

Although mutations can occur at any time during our lifetime, it is most likely that we are born with these mutations and will have them throughout our life. These inherited mutations have been passed down to us from previous generations (our parents and grandparents) and may be passed to future generations (our children). This may provide an explanation as to why certain traits or diseases “run in the family”.

Although we cannot change our genetic code, we can change how our genes are expressed. Research has revealed that our gene expression is not determined solely by hereditary factors, but it is also influenced by our diet, nutritional status, toxic load and environmental influences or stressors.