23&Me

[Texas83]

Has anyone done any of the genetic testing like 23&me? If so did you find anything that was helpful for your condition? Just curious. Thanks!

 

[Dan_USAAZ]

Hi @Texas83,
There is a section in PR devoted to genetic testing and research. It has a lot of good information.

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?forums/genetic-testing-and-snps.12/

I am somewhat new to the topic of my genetics and have not as of yet found anything helpful in terms of my own health. I find it very interesting, but am struggling to justify what I am getting out of it based on the time I am putting into it. If I lower my expectation level to enjoying an interesting topic and relearning basic genetics, then it is worthwhile.

I will be curious to hear others input and experiences.

Dan

 

[Hip]

I am somewhat new to the topic of my genetics and have not as of yet found anything helpful in terms of my own health. I find it very interesting, but am struggling to justify what I am getting out of it based on the time I am putting into it.

I think yours is a very common experience on these forums.

Out of the hundreds of ME/CFS patients on this forum who have had their genotype tested by 23andme, very few (if any) seem to have discovered anything that led to an improvement in their ME/CFS or related health issues. So given the large learning curve involved, it's hard to justify delving into your 23andme data as an experimental ME/CFS treatment route.

That said, it is interesting to learn about your own genes, and I am glad that I got tested by 23andme.

 

[nanonug]

Out of the hundreds of ME/CFS patients on this forum who have had their genotype tested by 23andme, very few (if any) seem to have discovered anything that led to an improvement in their ME/CFS or related health issues.

I'm in complete agreement with this statement. Just wanted to add that there is a big limitation with 23andMe: they don't do whole genome sequencing. Or even exome, for that matter. This, in and of itself is a big limitation.

I have identified some "problematic" mutations in my 23andMe data but they are only significant if compounded by other mutations. As luck would have it, 23andMe just doesn't test what I need. So, lately, I have been trying to convince myself to spend a grand on WGS. But I'm not there yet.

 

[Hip]

As luck would have it, 23andMe just doesn't test what I need. So, lately, I have been trying to convince myself to spend a grand on WGS. But I'm not there yet.

I know very little about this: what are the advantages of whole genome sequencing over just specifically determining you SNP mutations as 23andme do? Isn't it the SNP mutations that are responsible for the most of the differences between one person and the next, with most (99.9%) of the human genome being identical from one person to the next?

I know that 23andme do not cover all the SNP mutations (and in fact I heard their later chips cover less SNPs than their original chips — so you got more info if your did you 23andme test in the early days). Is it that whole genome sequencing covers the full range of SNPs?

 

[nanonug]

Is it that whole genome sequencing covers the full range of SNPs?

Yes, that's one of the reasons. The other is that you also get all insertions and deletions. With 23andMe, I think you only get a handful of these. There are also copy number variations. It used to be that these were tough to do with sequencing as well but I don't know if things have improved in this respect.

 

[Texas83]

Thanks for the insights!