23andMe.com Genetic Testing for Health and Genealogy

Joanna Mountain, Senior Director of Research for 23andMe, in Kenya.

Last week on The Forget-Me-Not Hour Joanna Mountain, Senior Director of Research for 23andMe, joined me and talked about the different results that can be found with 23andMe’s genetic testing. 23andMe tests for both health and genealogy.

With the health results, you can find out how your genes may make you more likely to have certain diseases, what diseases you carry genetically, and what traits you may have. With the disease risk results, you find out if your risk is elevated, average or below. With carrier status, you find out if you have certain genes or mutations that may cause disease or give you a predisposition for certain diseases. For example, the BRCA mutation increases your chances of getting breast cancer. With traits, you can find out if you have a tendency for certain conditions like having freckles or being lactose intolerant or having celiac disease.

With the genealogy test, you can find cousins through the autosomal DNA genetic testing that 23andMe does. You have an excellent chance for finding cousins within the last five to six generations. When you get past that length of time, you are less likely to find cousins; however, I found a few cousins who went back eight to ten generations–just from the luck of the DNA draw. You also find what your YDNA and mitochondrial or mtDNA results are. You can even find out if you have Neanderthal genes. (I do–about 3%.)

With the new service available through Family Tree DNA, you can link your 23andMe genetic testing results to FTDNA and have two databases in which to find cousins. Test with 23andMe and post your results with Family Tree DNA.

Find out more about 23andMe’s genetic testing from Joanna Mountain here.