When you go into 23andMe’s Gene Journal, a place I’ve been frequenting a lot lately, you can view how diseases like Age-related Macular Degeneration apply to your own DNA.
Each disease, condition etc is given a research confidence rating from 1-4 stars. A topic with four star rating means that they are “widely accepted by the scientific community”.
Topics with lower ratings, 1-3 stars, means that they research “published in peer-reviewed journals but may not yet be widely accepted”.
Here is a list of topics given four stars by 23andMe (Only topics A-C):
1) Age-related Macular Degeneration
2) Alcohol Flush Reaction
3) Bitter Taste Perception
4) Blood Groups
5) Breast Cancer
6) Colorectal Cancer
7) Crohn’s Disease
Now here is how each of the above four star-topics apply to my own DNA:
Age-related Macular Degeneration
Can’t remember my family history of developing AMD in older age, so I will probably be doing some family sleuthing on the subject.
The above average odds calculation will probably make me more likely to pay more attention to general antioxidant vitamin and zinc intake and more willing to say “yes” to the eye exam people when they want to do extra things to my eyes.
Alcohol Flush Reaction
Bitter Taste Perception
Looks like I have an 80% chance of not being able to taste certain bitter flavors. This probably correlates to why I don’t put cream and sugar in my coffee when most of my friends load their coffees up.
My motto: The blacker and bolder the better.
Blood Groups
All this one does it show me how limited my knowledge is of blood “types” and blood in general. Man, I will be spending plenty more time on this one later.
Breast Cancer
I know men can develop breast cancer, too, but not to worried about this higher than average odds calculation.
Colorectal Cancer
Anyone know how this is usually detected? I know how prostate cancer is checked for, but not colorectal cancer (see my earlier post on prostate cancer).
Oh yeah, know I remember. Colonoscopy!
Crohn’s Disease
I will be covering more four star-topics (D-Z) in later posts.
If you would like me to share my genetic profile with you, go here. You can also view all our ‘My Genome’ posts here.
