A few weeks ago I went to Atlanta for Blogalicious 5. I know you thought I was done blogging about the conference. I am done with my recap of all of the conference content, but I am not done talking about my trip! I did a couple of really cool things while I was in Atlanta.
One of the conference sponsors was 23 and Me. Prior to the conference contacts from 23 and Me reached out to me inviting me to stop by their conference suite and learn all about their services. 23 and Me does DNA analysis reporting on over 240 health conditions and ancestral lineage. They can look at your DNA and tell you what diseases, traits that you are more susceptible to and they can tell you where in the world your ancestors are from.
To be perfectly honest, before I spoke to the 23 and Me representative at the conference I was not planning to do it. My thoughts were what the test comes back saying I have high odds of getting some sort of cancer. But maybe I would not develop the cancer until I was like 70. Then I would have been worrying about it for 40 years too early. But the 23 and Me contacts continued to reach out to me and were willing to meet with me at whatever time was convenient for me during the conference. So I went ahead and meet with them.
I ended up doing the test. What changed my mind? Well for starters when I’d discussed it with my mom she’d said well more information is usually better. This had me thinking maybe the head in the sand strategy was not the best. What truly won me over was talking with the representative Catherine about her experience.
Catherine told me about went over her profile both health and ancestry in detail. She was really open about her experience. She explained how she used the health info to communicate better with her doctor regarding different screenings that she might want to do earlier than the average person. She also told me about the surprises she found in her ancestry results. Turns out her background was a little more diverse that she thought. I was open with Catherine about my slightly hypochondriac tendencies and how I did not want to start worrying about things that were not guaranteed to happen or would not happen until later in life. She was understanding and challenged me to look at it differently, explaining that the test would also show the health diseases and risks that I would have a decreased fisk for. But the overall main thing that won me over was the ancestral genealogy. Being African American I can only go back a couple of generations on my family tree. It would be awesome to have 23 and Me tell me all about my roots.
So a few days after I got home I collected my DNA sample, placed the addressee box in the mail and sent off my sample. Over the last couple of weeks I watched the 23 and Me site for the status of my sample/ results. Well the results are in!!! Well, half of them. My heath results are done but the Ancestry section is still not complete.
Well I am happy to report that I am no more freaked out or preoccupied with my health than before I did the test. For the most part there were no real surprises. Everything was pretty much inline with what I knew about my family history.
My results showed I have increased risk of Alzheimer’s Disease, Venus Thromboembolisim (fancy for blood clots) restless leg syndrome, Ptimary Biliary Cirrhosis, Esophageal Cancer, and Stomach Cancer. Looking at my results mathematically also helped me to keep things in perspective. For example Alzheimer’s Disease was the disease I had the highest elevated risk. The average risk is 24.5% chance of developing Alzheimer’s between 6 and 79. A person with my genotype has a 34.1% chance of developing it. Now I can be really freaked out about having increased risk. I won’t because I am choosing to look at it the other way around. There is a 65.9% chance that I will not develop Alzheimer’s.
Other health facts the DNA showed that I found interesting include the following: I am a carrier of the sickle cell trait. I was already aware of this but the test confirmed. This simply means that If I have a child with a man who also carries the trait there is a chance that the child will have sickle cell. The test showed that people with my genes are likely to gain weight if they eat a high fat diet. I’m thinking low fat is the way ahead. On the flip side, the test showed that people with my genes did not lose weight when they decreased calories and increased walking. This confirmed that I was not imagining things when I felt like losing weight was way hard for me and took longer for me to see results.
I could go on and on about my health results. It is so interesting to learn about your genetics and how they play out in our real life. So I sort of lied when I said the main thing that won me over was the genealogy. There was one more major factor that came into play. The lovely people at 23 and Me are giving one of you lucky readers the opportunity to have your DNA analyzed for free. That’s right for free. The test normally cost $99 so this is an awesome giveaway. I can’t wait to compare health notes with one of you guys. If you want to learn more about your health risks and traits and your genealogy follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter form below.
Have you had your DNA analyzed before? If so were there any surprises? Are you nervous about seeing your risk factors in print like I was? Would you like to do a 23 and Me DNA Analysis?
Oh and I will be updating you all on the other half of my test results, the genealogy, as soon as it is ready.
I am excited at the possibility of winning this! I was raised without ever knowing my biological father, or any of the health-related information that goes with that. While I am a very healthy person, it's always bothered me a bit to not be able to include "health history" for one half of my genes. I'm excited for the possibility – keep up the fun blog posts!
What a unique giveaway! I have a strong interest in learning about y family geneology/ancestry, though if there's anything besides Celtic & Germanic ancestry I'd be very surprised! It does make me wonder what health concerns might crop up though.
This is awesome. I Just signed up for ancestry.com and hit some road blocks.
I love the idea of not only learning about your genealogy but about your genetics in terms of your health. Thank you for bringing 23 and Me to my attention. I hope I win but even if I don't I'm definitely going to check them out.
I would really like to take one–there are many things I don't know about my health risks because my birth father is estranged.
Super interested in this! I have also felt nervous about the idea of knowing my risk factors so I really appreciate your take on it. I think on the whole it is better to have the information than not so thanks for the encouragement!
I would love to find out all this info about my heritage
I'm so interested in trying this! I'm more interested in the health stuff than the ancestry stuff, but both would be great to learn about.
This is so cool that you were able to do this! I have to tell you that doing genetic testing, especially to find out my ancestry is something that has been heavy on my heart for years now. My family has worked hard to try to trace our roots for years and hasn't had much success – it's hard for a lot of African-Americans to trace records during slavery periods so my family has hit many walls trying to uncover info. I know it is something I will plan to do eventually so if I can win this contest I would feel especially grateful – thanks for setting this up with 23 and Me! 🙂
Good Luck Cherise. All the thanks goes to 23 and Me.
I would love to win because I really want to know what my biggest health concerns will be in the future, so that I will have time to prepare and prevent what I can.
Thanks for the chance to win!
wildorchid985 at gmail dot com
Good luck! More information is a good thing.