I'm interested in doing this. Can someone who has already done it give me an idea of the kind of things I might discover which I can actually act upon? Although it would be interesting paying £125 for a list of things that might happen isn't very appealing unless I can work to mitigate them or use the advice to improve my life in some way. Considering the privacy implications the benefit needs to be pretty big.
23andMe UK
21–30 of 70 posts
Re: 23andMe UK
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
> denying of health insurance All the health insurance I've ever had has had cover for pre-existing conditions, required no medical details or medical examination. As far as I can tell, insurance companies have surprisingly little interest in my health, past my age and sex. I can't see that changing so far that they pay third parties for a genetic screen in the near future.
Just from (UK) insurer Aviva's health insurance policy: "We don’t cover treatment of pre-existing conditions or related conditions if you had symptoms of, medication for, treatment for or advice about that condition in the five years before your joining date." It wouldn't take much for companies to start requiring that you disclose the knowledge you're at (high?) risk of something and adjusting their prices according…
Often (in the UK at least) if your insurance is provided as a benefit through a company rather than buying your policy directly, pre existing conditions will be covered even though the provider would normally exclude them if purchased by an individual.
Re: 23andMe UK
#23Has anyone submitted something other than a human sample? I have to wonder if anyone has submitted a bovine or dog sample as a joke.
Expensive joke
Re: 23andMe UK
#24If I'm in the US, is there any way to proxy into my full health results?
Of course, they're just calling SNPs and using published GWAS studies to estimate disease risk. You can get your "raw genome" text file from 23andMe and convert to e.g. VCF format for use in a bioinformatics tool like the variant effect predictor. Besides, really the most interesting health-related alleles are the simplest: ApoE, BRCA1 — no complicated algo is needed to interpret those associations.
Is there an easy way (or introductory guide) for someone not familiar with bioinformatics tools?
Re: 23andMe UK
#25I'm curious, have companies like this ever been subpoenaed for their data as part of a fishing expedition to catch a criminal or find the father of a child for child support, etc? To example, there's been a few examples where they found someone through relative('s) DNA for murders in the past, but DNA was voluntarily given.
If one gives their DNA voluntarily (for a particular case) and they are cleared of any wrong doing, is their DNA information still kept on file by law enforcement?
Re: 23andMe UK
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of course, they're just calling SNPs and using published GWAS studies to estimate disease risk. You can get your "raw genome" text file from 23andMe and convert to e.g. VCF format for use in a bioinformatics tool like the variant effect predictor. Besides, really the most interesting health-related alleles are the simplest: ApoE, BRCA1 — no complicated algo is needed to interpret those associations.
Is there an easy way (or introductory guide) for someone not familiar with bioinformatics tools?
Re: 23andMe UK
#27If I'm in the US, is there any way to proxy into my full health results?
Of course, they're just calling SNPs and using published GWAS studies to estimate disease risk. You can get your "raw genome" text file from 23andMe and convert to e.g. VCF format for use in a bioinformatics tool like the variant effect predictor. Besides, really the most interesting health-related alleles are the simplest: ApoE, BRCA1 — no complicated algo is needed to interpret those associations.
Thanks for the comment - my wife and I submitted 23andme kits for fun and learned some of our history, but I was disappointed we weren't able to get any health information from it. I didn't know you could get your genome info from 23andme and get it interpreted by someone else!
Re: 23andMe UK
#28Has there been any update on their Health Reports being supported again? That's the killer feature that I'm waiting for them to turn back on.
Personally I'd be much more comfortable taking the results and doing my own research or getting a Doctor's advice. I don't see how they can ever turn that feature back on when the risk of people blindly following the advice (and the chances of it being incorrect) are high enough.
Re: 23andMe UK
#29A cautionary tale...
I bought an Ancestry(.com) DNA test a number of years ago. The product had the advantage that it was integrated in to their genealogical research platform (a subscription service). When you found a match in the database you could click straight through to that members family tree
.... then they shut down the "old" platform entirely, gave me X days to download my data, and told me to get lost. Visiting the site today we see "The AncestryDNA product is not currently available for purchase outside of the United States"
Furthermore, their "all new" tests are focused, like 23andMe, on telling you about more gimmicky crap like your health, ethnicity, and ancient migratory ancestry, and not helping you find distant cousins you can work with. Really sad.
I cancelled my ~$160 annual subscription on principle after that
Re: 23andMe UK
#30Has there been any update on their Health Reports being supported again? That's the killer feature that I'm waiting for them to turn back on.
Personally I'd be much more comfortable taking the results and doing my own research or getting a Doctor's advice. I don't see how they can ever turn that feature back on when the risk of people blindly following the advice (and the chances of it being incorrect) are high enough.
The power to do data analysis and then inform their users of potential trouble is, in my mind, the entire point of their service.
It doesn't have to be provided as 'advice' but rather a general statement such as '...other members have genetic markers that indicate a propensity toward heard disease; you share these same genetic markers and should be aware of potential issues in this regard.