My brother-in-law's brother learned of a 28year old daughter he never knew he had because of 23andMe and met her last year.
23andMe Wins a Second Life, Raises $115M
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Re: 23andMe Wins a Second Life, Raises $115M
#32This would make me anxious. I remember reading about someone who learned from 23andMe that they had a terminal disease or something like that, and it drastically altered their life. I'd rather just live in ignorance.
23andme user here (one of the first). If the disease in question could be hard to handle mentally/emotionally, they specifically include a warning that is very direct and says "Are you sure you want to know this?".
Once you are asked "Are you sure you want to know this?" you are already making the person very anxious.
Now they would certainly want to what their problem is. Who would be comfortable when they are told, they have a terminal disease and are they happy not knowing what that is?
Re: 23andMe Wins a Second Life, Raises $115M
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can always export your raw data from 23andMe and plug it into third party (and I guess foreign) services that will give you some health info. Of course you should probably approach the results with some skepticism. I know someone who found out she had a gene that causes an early and very aggressive cancer and now can take pre-emptive measures that quite likely will save her life.
> I know someone who found out she had a gene that causes an early and very aggressive cancer and now can take pre-emptive measures that quite likely will save her life. Do you mind if I ask what service she used for this?
I believe she used promethease.com as the other commenter mentioned (which is what I used too). She took the result to the doctor and they did a more thorough test for that specific gene to confirm (which is probably advisable with any serious/negative result before panic).
Re: 23andMe Wins a Second Life, Raises $115M
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Other than that, all the things I've seen are marginally useful at best. Part of it is that the FDA successfully sued 23AM from showing things like health risks.
That's not correct. The FDA made them stop doing something they were doing illegally. Their genetic test is a medical device and they didn't have federal approval. Further, when the FDA informed them they needed approval, they didn't respond. The FDA finally had to invoke the law. Also, I don't think 23&Me's test results have enough medical value to be used for evaluating health risks. Further, 23&me's database has s…
Also, I don't think 23&Me's test results have enough medical value to be used for evaluating health risks.
For some things they do, like they test for mutations related to Alzheimer's that can drastically alter risk, ranging from "you're probably never going to get it" to "you're probably going to get it, and there's a good chance it'll be much earlier than you would have imagined".
But their marketing material was vastly overstating the value of their results, which is near 0 for most diseases. And it was misleading people into thinking it was more comprehensive than it really was (like, it's not a full genome, and it doesn't include every SNP that we know matters like most BRCA mutations).
Re: 23andMe Wins a Second Life, Raises $115M
#35I was so excited when 23andMe dropped their prices to $99 a few years ago and immediately gave myself a 'Christmas Present' and bought a 23andMe kit. I seriously thought this was the future. I was so excited to see my health information. It was really cool to see that my spit could confirm that I'm 1/2 asian and 1/2 european. Also, I found it interesting that I have more neanderthal DNA than 99% of people who took th…
Same here, we were super enthusiastic over their service. On top of it, some of the 'signals' they gave us are clearly wrong information. So, nothing.
We did pay a little more for our tests, but I am not sorry for it, I just wished it worked better.
Re: 23andMe Wins a Second Life, Raises $115M
#36This would make me anxious. I remember reading about someone who learned from 23andMe that they had a terminal disease or something like that, and it drastically altered their life. I'd rather just live in ignorance.
I ended up learning I supposedly have a 40.1% chance of getting Alzheimer's Disease. It hid the result and asked me if I really wanted to know. I am not sure who in their right mind would not want to know (though maybe that is my Alzheimer's talking). Such a thing would drive someone crazy.
I have just kept living my life the way I have been. It was scary at first. At least I know I ought to eat right etc...
I think if you are too afraid to know what your genes might say about your future then yes 23andme might not be a good fit.
Now if they would just add an edit mode...
Re: 23andMe Wins a Second Life, Raises $115M
#37What happens if they go bankrupt? Will they sell off everyone's DNA and personal info like any other company?
Re: 23andMe Wins a Second Life, Raises $115M
#38My brother-in-law's brother learned of a 28year old daughter he never knew he had because of 23andMe and met her last year.
How did that happen?
Re: 23andMe Wins a Second Life, Raises $115M
#39I was so excited when 23andMe dropped their prices to $99 a few years ago and immediately gave myself a 'Christmas Present' and bought a 23andMe kit. I seriously thought this was the future. I was so excited to see my health information. It was really cool to see that my spit could confirm that I'm 1/2 asian and 1/2 european. Also, I found it interesting that I have more neanderthal DNA than 99% of people who took th…
Other than that, all the things I've seen are marginally useful at best. Part of it is that the FDA successfully sued 23AM from showing things like health risks.
For those of us who got on board before the fda acted, we still get access to all that information.
And op is right, it isn't overly useful.
I know for example that I am not a carrier of cystic fibrosis, and that I have one copy of ApoE4.
But I could have worked that out with a high degree of certainty anyway - I have a first degree relative that died of Alzheimer's and no family history of CF.
It remains to be seen that the information they provide is anything more than a curiosity. In fact, it could be dangerous for the uninformed to receive this information: prominent on my 'health risks' page is that I have a 57% risk of cardiac disease, with a big red bar next to it representing that it will likely claim me one day.
What it fails to mention is that a white male has a high risk of cardiac disease anyway, and putting a giant red bar next to the words cardiac disease without this context is not likely to be confidence inspiring
Re: 23andMe Wins a Second Life, Raises $115M
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
23andme user here (one of the first). If the disease in question could be hard to handle mentally/emotionally, they specifically include a warning that is very direct and says "Are you sure you want to know this?".
That's basically telling them with ambiguity attached. I'm not sure it's much better.
They should do a product that only tests for preventable, curable conditions.
Telling someone they have a high risk of breast cancer or bowel cancer is helpful: they can get regular checkups.
Telling someone they have a high risk of Parkinson's or MS is just cruel.