My Experience with 23andme and Promethease

I think 23andme seems to be the best of similar personalized genetics services because the results they send are very detailed and interesting. It has been really fun to read all the information that they send, learn more about my own genome, and contrast my results with my Grandfather’s, my Mom’s, my Dad’s and my brother’s. It’s kind of interesting that even though my brother and I share 50% of our genes, I am 5 times more Scandinavian than he is, and he is 3 times more Italian than I am. There is a lot to analyze and figure out, and I have learned more about biology in the process. Three pictures are attached below with some of my test results. The testing cost is reasonable and all you have to do is spit in a test tube and mail it back. This is the website:


www.23andme.com

My brother and I have a genetic condition called hemochromatosis. Our original testing determined that we both inherited one bad gene from each of our parents, but we didn’t know until recent further testing that I actually received four bad genes (I am homozygous for both major hemochromatosis alleles). My parents were both carriers for hemochromatosis at two separate genes and I got both of the bad genes (it’s a 1 in 16 chance) from each of my parents. It was through “23andme” that I was able to obtain this information, and I want to recommend it to you.

The FDA recently took away the ability of 23andme and all other genetic sequencing companies to send health reports to their clients. However, we can still use the “raw data” available on the 23andme website to do our own investigating. Clicking on “browse raw data” you can see which version (allele or SNP) of each gene you have. You can then look up your version on snpedia.com to find out more about the health and trait characteristics of your version of the gene. This process is time consuming because you must do it one gene at a time, but I found another reputable company that will do this rapidly and automatically using the 23andme data.

http://www.promethease.com

Promethease Inc. is a popular service that will create a report for 17,000 of our 23,000 genes for only $5. You can obtain this additional service from promethease.com. You actually allow promethease.com to access the 23andme data by signing in to both at the same time. The whole process and the reports are pretty straightforward, but you definitely want to download the data to your computer because Promethease wipes their servers every month. Promethease is reputed to be a very legitimate company and the reports that it provides seem to be more detailed than the other companies that do the same thing. Check out this article on Promethease from MIT’s technology review:

http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/531461/how-a-wiki-is-keeping-direct-to-consumer-genetics-alive

I think it is worth the time and the $5 to use this additional service. The health report that they send gives you all of your genetic risk factors ranked from a magnitude of 1 to 4. I think it is important for everyone to see if they have any 4s, and to inform their health care providers about what they have learned. Again, I found out that I have more than one gene that predisposes me to hemochromatosis (both have a ranking of 4), and this has definitely changed my treatment plan. We also found out that we have genetic propensity for rheumatoid arthritis, and that my mother and brother have a problem metabolizing anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Again knowing this is important because now they know to take Tylenol rather than aspirin or Advil.

So far, a number of my friends and family members have done both 23andme and promethease. It is really fun to compare and contrast profiles because it gives you a much better understanding of your own data.