The Results Are In!

Today was the day I’ve been waiting for – the results of my 23andMe genetic testing.

Since I had been given both the Health and Ancestry testing kit, my results are broken down into five categories. If you only purchase the Ancestry kit, I assume you only get the Ancestry set of reports.

I am sharing the details of these reports primarily to show people what type of info is generated in these 23andMe tests, and then you can decide whether or not it seems as if that info is something that would be of interest to you.

Ancestry

The first part of the test was the ancestry, and no surprises there.

The results indicate that I am 100% northwestern European, split between 97.7 percent British/Irish and 2.3 percent broadly Northwestern Europeans. The results further suggested that I most likely had a parent, or grandparent who was 100% British & Irish. This person was likely born between 1900 and 1930. Wow. My mom was born in Ireland in 1926…

Another ancestry report shows that my maternal haplogroup is J2b1, which traces back to a woman who lived approximately 9,500 years ago. Apparently J2b1 is relatively uncommon among 23andMe customers, with only 1 in 780 23andme customers having this haplogroup.

My paternal haplogroup, R-L21, which traces back to a man who lived less than 10,000 years ago. This is fairly common among 23andMe customers, with 1 in 8 customers having this haplogroup.

I also have 285 Neanderthal variants, which is more than 62% of 23andMe participants, but I have no idea what this means.

Carrier Status

For the 42 tests completed, no variants were detected, which means I am not a carrier of the tested variants (such as Canavan Diease or Familial Dysantonomia, whatever they are…)

Genetic Health Risk

For the five health conditions tested, no variants were detected. One item of note – I opted out of getting info about my genetic risk for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, but I can always request those results at a later time.

Traits

22 traits were looked at; here were some of the more interesting findings:

• 75% of customers who are genetically similar to me can smell the asparagus metabolite in our pee, which I can.
• my genetics indicate that I most likely have hazel or brown eyes; I do have hazel eyes.
• the combination of my genetics and other factors makes me likely to prefer salty or savory snacks versus sweet snacks. Well I like all kinds of snacks, sweet and salty, but if I had to pick, I would go with the sweet snack almost every time.
• my genetics makes it unlikely that I have a unibrow, which I do not.
• 80% of 23andMe participants with my genetic results similar to mine do not have the photic sneeze reflex. I do not sneeze when exposed to bright sunlight.

Wellness

The final category of reports looked at wellness, which focused on areas such as lactose tolerance (yes), alcohol flush (does you face turn red after one alcoholic drink – no), sleep (less likely to be a deep sleeper, true), and muscle composition (I have the CT genetic type, a combination of fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle, which basically seems to imply that I don’t have the genes to be “naturally gifted” for either type of athletic pursuit, power/speed versus endurance. Thanks, Obama 🙂

Fortunately, there do not seem to be any surprises in any of the results, which I take as a good outcome. You can also dig deeper into the results by opting to use the following tools:

• the DNA relatives tool, which allows the user to find and connect with genetic relatives to learn about relationships, shared countries, and more recent family history.
• share your results with selected individuals, such as family members, as well as offering you the ability to compare your DNA with relatives
• GrandTree is a tool that helps you see the DNA shared between grandparents and their grandchildren.

I’m glad I did the test, and I thank my three sons for giving it to me as a gift for my 60th birthday. It makes a great gift, either to someone you love, or for yourself.

So there you have it; if you have any questions, feel free to ask.