Has anyone here ever gotten one of those home DNA tests?

[JDTAY]

So, looking at more Ancestry records, my mom's dad's mom's sister died at age 48 of a breast carcinoma. So I guess maybe my mom inherited the CHEK2 mutation through her dad's mom. Her dad's mom actually lived to a good age though, and I can't find the record of her death.

Well, this is assuming the CHEK2 mutation my sister has came from mom. I don't think my mom was ever tested for it. We're just kinda assuming, given how my mom and her sister died.

Edit: My mom's dad's mom also had a brother who died at 53 of a liver carcinoma. Man, I wish I could see what her own cause of death was. My mom's dad's mom, I mean.

 

[levi]

my mom's dad's mom's sister

Who's that, your grandfather along the matriarchal line's aunt? 4 generations ago? You'll have so much other DNA mixed in since then that I'm not sure how someone back then died actually relates to your risk pretty much at all.

 

[JDTAY]

You know, I was talking to my twin sister today, and she thought my mom's sister might've had some type of cancer other than breast. She seemed confused on the details though. Said she thought it was in the arm. Who gets arm cancer?

I tried looking it up, but it's hard to get details on a death as recent as 1990. Since she didn't make it to age 40 though, whatever she had was serious.

 

[JDTAY]

So, apparently the most common "arm cancer" would be a sarcoma. I did mention way earlier in this thread, CHEK2 is thought to be linked to sarcoma, but it doesn't say which mutation is the one that's linked to it. I don't think it would be the main 1100delC one.

It reminds me of how my mom's cancer spread too. They had to cut off the main nerve to one of her arms, I forget why. She lost use of it. Her cancer definitely started in the breast though.

 

[Null]

 

[levi]

Is that a MRrrrrie machine?

 

[JDTAY]

Been trying to trace back the possible CHEK2 lineage more. I have a fifth great grandmother, going back through my mom's dad's mom's side, who died at age 27. I can't see the cause of death though, because I only paid for access to US records, and this one was in 1797 in Germany. I'm not even sure how familiar they would have been with cancer back then. Given the time period and age, it's also likely that she could've died of some other illness. People just died early more often back then.

 

[JDTAY]

Yeah, I'm not sure that's even her real death date. It's hard to know though, since the records are German, and I don't have access to them. One thing that is consistent is that she only had one child, which would have been unusual for that time, unless she died early like the other Ancestry users think she did.

 

[JDTAY]

So, that CHEK2 test I scheduled with my doctor starts tomorrow. I'm not sure how many genes they're checking, for example just CHEK2 or all moderate-risk to high-risk hereditary cancer genes. I'll tell you guys after I get back from the appointment. Of course, it takes weeks to get the results back, especially depending on how much they check.

As for home DNA testing, I still stand by my statement that I'll only do that if I actually have my sister's CHEK2 mutation. If I'm clear of it, I'll just go ahead and forget all my ancestry.

 

[JDTAY]

My appointment didn't go like I thought. Apparently they want to talk to my sister first to see what exactly she had. They were going to contact her later today, and let me know about what happens next.

 

[JDTAY]

Well, I ended up calling my sister, and she said she talked to them, but it sounded like she refused to cooperate with them. She says I don't need to know my genetic cancer risk, since it's something I can't control. She says to focus on things I can control.

As you can imagine, I'm kind of going nuts right now.

 

[JDTAY]

Crap, I saw how my mom went out. She lost her mind toward the end of it. I think I'd rather bleed out.

I mean, part of the reason I wanted this test in the first place was as a lead-in to cancer tests, since I have lots of problems already that might be explained by it.

 

[Null]

As you can imagine, I'm kind of going nuts right now.

I saw how my mom went out. She lost her mind toward the end of it.

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[JDTAY]

So, um, as it turns out, even though most of the home DNA tests on the market don't give health reports, they do allow you to download your full raw data for personal analysis. I was going to get the AncestryDNA kit off Amazon sometime before their holiday offer expires.

The most popular way to do personal analysis of your DNA data seems to be uploading it to Promethease, but that site costs $12 and I can't pay for it with gift cards like I can on Amazon. I no longer have a debit card I can use either.

Do any of you guys happen to know of any free alternatives to Promethease for DNA data analysis?

Edit: You know, searching myself, codegen.eu and impute.me look promising.

 

[FBnil]

since it's something I can't control. She says to focus on things I can control.

Exactly! Sounds like a sensitive person, your sis. Totally in line with what someone else said:

གལ་ཏེ་བཅོས་སུ་ཡོད་ན་ནི། །
དེ་ལ་མི་དགར་ཅི་ཞིག་ཡོད། །
གལ་ཏེ་བཅོས་སུ་མེད་ན་ནི། །
དེ་ལ་མི་དགའ་བྱས་ཅི་ཕན། །

Translation into English in the following link:

“If the problem can be solved why worry? If the problem cannot be solved worrying will do you no good.” – Fake Buddha Quotes

fakebuddhaquotes.com

 

[FBnil]

full raw data for personal analysis.

Does it contain also the epi-genetic markers? Because those manipulate the expression of a gene. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC5075137/

Does the data contain the human CRISPR zones? And are these also marked separately? These zones contain a library of parts of patogens to create scissors (cas9) to destroy them, when patogens are found in the body. Through those, you have extra healing power.

Genetics is more complex than just searching strings with perl (There is a full human genome you can download for free, and lots of perl tools to search for strings inside the sequence)

Just to quote:

• The research team has been tracking abnormalities in blood, as well as epigenetic changes, which may serve as indicators, or markers, of exposure to air pollution and toxic metals at levels that can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, particularly in elderly men.
• Incorrect epigenetic marks can result in birth defects, childhood diseases, or symptoms of diseases in other interims of life. Epigenetic mechanisms also regulate development and adaptations during the life of an organism, and their alterations may result in various disorders such as cancer.
• Epigenetic alterations have a high potential to provide a valuable source of innovative biomarkers for cancer, owing to their stability, frequency, and noninvasive accessibility in bodily fluids. Numerous DNA methylation markers are now tested in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) as potential biomarkers, in various types of cancer.
• Epigenetic mechanisms such as histone modification and DNA methylation stabilize gene expression, which is important for long-term storage of information. Not surprisingly, epigenetic changes are also a part of brain diseases such as mental illness and addiction.
  
  So the DNA says nothing if you don't look at the epigenetic markers too...

Here's one that's surprising (to me):

Poverty linked to epigenetic changes and mental illness​

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2016.19972

addendum: So Paris Hilton's photoshopped T-shirt was right.... stop being poor!

 

[JDTAY]

This article says that AncestryDNA is the best incomplete DNA test for raw data. More than twice as many ClinVar SNPs as 23andme.

Best DNA Raw Data: 23andMe, AncestryDNA, or MyHeritage? – Genetic Genie

Company Pros Cons 23andMe The most mtDNA SNPs The most Y SNPs Good for Y & mtDNA ancestry Good for health variants Proprietary variants A lot of miscalls Not as good as Whole Genome Sequencing AncestryDNA The most X SNPs The most clinical (Clinvar) SNPs The most drug response SNPs The best for...

geneticgenie.org

The article says whole genome sequencing is the true way forward, but I looked that up and it's $999. I think my $59 kit can whet my appetite until whole genome sequencing comes down in price.

 

[netcat]

JDTAY don't do it. you'll probably find out your related to you-know-who

 

[JDTAY]

The one other thing I wanted to say about whole genome sequencing is that the company I looked at said it generates 300 GB of data. My laptop doesn't even have 300 GB of storage. So not only do I have to wait for the price of whole genome sequencing to come down, I also have to wait for the price of data storage to come down.

 

[FBnil]

Why not use that 59 dollars to buy a backup harddisk? You can get 2TB for that money.
Backups are good... makes your data save. For example: a full disk backup, just in case your OS decides to upgrade to Windows 11 and breaks halfway...

Speaking of backups: As your DNA data is not yet regulated*, "they" are selling your genome to make another buck somewhere. And 23andMe is backed by G00gel, so know what you are getting into... all your data are belong to us.

*it might be now, but not sure.

Post automatically merged: Dec 20, 2021

Also: If you want to work somewhere, they will be able to look you up and say: No, you can't work here, see these basepairs? uh-huh, out!