If you haven’t seen it already, tune into CBS This Morning’s interview with 23andMe’s CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-19715" alt="Most Daring CEO" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Most-Daring-CEO-300x174.jpg" width="300" height="174" />
Sitting down with hosts Charlie Rose, Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King, Anne spoke about how taking the test changed her own life and her goals for 23andMe.
Testing can offer people “a roadmap” for what they could do to potentially stay healthy. As more people test and with enough data, Anne said there is potential to change health care. Her goal is to for people to be empowered with information about their health so that they can be “healthy at 100.”   The goal of having all that information is to better predict health outcomes for people and personalize medicine.
&#8220;A million people walking around with their genomes, I believe, is going to be disruptive to the health care system,&#8221; she said.
Check out “the most daring CEO in America” in action.
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23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

23andMe’s Daring CEO On CBS

Today in San Francisco,<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-19537" alt="Anne Cover Shot" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Anne-Cover-Shot-282x300.jpg" width="282" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Anne-Cover-Shot-282x300.jpg 282w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Anne-Cover-Shot-768x817.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Anne-Cover-Shot-963x1024.jpg 963w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Anne-Cover-Shot-827x880.jpg 827w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Anne-Cover-Shot-1109x1180.jpg 1109w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Anne-Cover-Shot.jpg 1648w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 282px) 100vw, 282px" />
Of course 23andMe is there. Our very own co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki, recently named by the magazine as the<a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3018598/for-99-this-ceo-can-tell-you-what-might-kill-you-inside-23andme-founder-anne-wojcickis-dna-r"> “Most Daring CEO In America,”</a> will talk about her vision for the company. &nbsp; 23andMe was founded in part to empower people by giving them access to their own genetic information and involving them in their own health in ways that will also accelerating research and lead to a new era of personalized medicine. Along with talking about 23andMe&#8217;s core values, Anne will explain the benefits of getting tested.
With a welcome from San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, the conference will include such luminaries as Ben Silbermann, the CEO of Pinterest and Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger and a long list of others.
23andMe will be tweeting out of the meeting most of the day today. You can find us<a href="https://twitter.com/23andMe"> here</a>. Check it out.

23andMe And Innovation

He may have seen his mother once before, but PJ Holland can’t be sure. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-19680 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AgnesMHolland-e1398988404182-216x300.jpg" alt="" width="216" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AgnesMHolland-e1398988404182-216x300.jpg 216w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AgnesMHolland-e1398988404182-768x1067.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AgnesMHolland-e1398988404182-737x1024.jpg 737w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AgnesMHolland-e1398988404182-633x880.jpg 633w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AgnesMHolland-e1398988404182-849x1180.jpg 849w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AgnesMHolland-e1398988404182.jpg 1270w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 216px) 100vw, 216px" /> 
It’s a fleeting memory, one of his first. He would have been two or three at the time. He remembers watching two women crying and hugging each other near his room. He thinks one of the women was his mother. He remembers seeing the two women hold each other, and then they were gone.
So the first time PJ Holland saw his mother’s face, it was in a photograph. It was this August. He was 80.
The old black and white image of his mother had been taken long before his birth and he saw it for the first time only after spending decades looking for her. He, and his niece Marilyn Souders, would never have found his mother if it hadn’t been for 23andMe.
“One day I logged into his account and it said, ‘You have a match,’” said Marilyn, whose family took PJ in when he was 19, and made him one of their own.
“We spent so long looking,” said Marilyn.
PJ’s story came to us from<a href="http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/p/about-me.html"> CeCe Moore</a>. CeCe wrote about PJ<a href="http://adoptiondna.blogspot.com/2013/10/pj-hollands-dna-journey-to-find-his.html"> here</a>. A Dallas TV station broadcast his story, and that in turn got picked up nationally. It’s easy to see why.
PJ’s early life reads like a Charles Dickens novel. His mother, Agnes, grew up in South Dakota, got pregnant out of wedlock, and moved to Kentucky to have her son. She didn’t have the means to raise him herself and put him in an orphanage run by nuns. She hoped a good Catholic family would adopt him. She’d gotten a job in the laundry there so she could be near him, and would visit him regularly. But after a while an administrator stopped her from visiting because every time she left he would cry.
PJ and his niece Marilyn pieced some of his story together after years of collecting bits and pieces of information. Many, many years ago Marilyn had even gone so far as to organize a reunion of women who worked at the hospital where he was born. Although they had PJ’s mother’s name and were able to find some of those small details of his early life, Marilyn and PJ never were able to find his mother.
Marilyn even went so far as to send out letters to everyone with his godmother’s name who lived in Ohio, only to find out that she had died in 1935. Marilyn found his godfather, but he turned out to simply be the attending physician at the hospital where PJ was delivered.
“I tried so hard,” said Marilyn.
Then one day she logged onto PJ’s 23andMe account.
&#8220;This big pop-up comes on and said, &#8216;You have a first cousin match,&#8217; and I&#8217;m like, &#8216;Oh my God! I can&#8217;t believe this!'&#8221;
The match was with Cathryn Mudon, a 30-something aspiring actress in New York, who was identified by 23andMe as PJ’s, first or second cousin. (She is a first cousin once removed, meaning her father is PJ’s first cousin.)
Cathryn, who’d tested for health reasons after reading about Angelina Jolie’s breast cancer scare, didn’t quite get that this was a momentous connection for PJ.
<div id="attachment_19681" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-19681" class="wp-image-19681 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/JohnMudonPJHolland-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/JohnMudonPJHolland-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/JohnMudonPJHolland.jpg 400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />PJ, left, and his new found first cousin John Mudon.</div>
&#8220;I didn&#8217;t understand the magnitude of it.  I was like, &#8216;Oh cool. Neat to meet you.&#8217; It&#8217;s such a distant generation that I didn&#8217;t think much of it,&#8221; Mudon told the Dallas TV station that covered his story. &#8220;And (Marilyn) was like, &#8216;You don&#8217;t understand. We&#8217;ve been searching for Agnes since 1970.&#8221;
It really went back much, much farther than that.
PJ had been looking his whole life. He was one of the few Depression era kids at the orphanage who didn’t get adopted. Many of them had been deposited in the orphanage because their families had fallen on hard times and simply couldn’t afford to care for them, but they sometimes visited.
On what the orphanage called “People’s Day,” relatives would come and see the children.
&#8220;All the orphans had people visit them on &#8216;people’s day&#8217; except me, because there were no relatives,&#8221; PJ said.
By 12, considered too old to be adopted, PJ been sent to work as a farmhand, but he ran away and hid in the convent. They let him work there until he left at 16, when he lied about his age so he could join the Army. When he got out the Army, it was Marilyn’s family who took him in. They helped the then 19 year-old get a high school education and a job.
PJ’s life has been anything but tragic. He did find a family who cared about him. Marilyn knew him as “Uncle PJ.” He traveled the world, met and married a beautiful woman, the artist<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilma_G._Holland"> Vilma Isabel Gonzalez Cordova Holland,</a> and succeeded in his career. But even after he retired and neared his 80s, PJ longed to find his mother.
Within a few hours of connecting with Cathryn through 23andMe, Marilyn talked to her on the phone. PJ eventually connected with Cathryn’s father, John, PJ’s first cousin. Cathryn and her father then made arrangements to visit PJ in Texas, bringing with them photos of his mother, but also of her brothers, sisters, and his grandparents.
<div id="attachment_19677" style="width: 249px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-19677" class="wp-image-19677 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PJ_1949-239x300.jpg" alt="" width="239" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PJ_1949-239x300.jpg 239w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PJ_1949-768x962.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PJ_1949-817x1024.jpg 817w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PJ_1949-702x880.jpg 702w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PJ_1949-942x1180.jpg 942w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PJ_1949-scaled.jpg 2043w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 239px) 100vw, 239px" />PJ in his Army uniform in 1949.</div>
When John first saw PJ in the airport he said he immediately saw the family resemblance. PJ saw more photos of his mother, Agnes, most of them for the first time. He also heard a little bit about her from John. The family hadn’t known about the pregnancy, and after leaving South Dakota, Agnes never went back. She became estranged from her family, periodically sending letters to her youngest sister Hazel, John’s mother.
There are still gaps in the story that PJ would like to fill. For one, they know that his mother moved to Cincinnati and may have worked at a school. She died in 1989. They found the apartment where she used to live and the church she attended, but Marilyn said they’ve been unable to find out more.
They still hope that PJ’s story might prompt someone to come forward who remembered Agnes and give them more information about her life.
“But we would have never found her without 23andMe,” she said.
23andMe provides genetic testing services for informational purposes; your results may or may not help you to search for or identify relatives or family members.

23andMe Helps Man Find Family

An adoptee, Cody Harden turned to 23andMe to search for medical information. Little did he know that in his search he’d find more than just data about his health, he found family. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-19653 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Cody-Hardens-Photo-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Cody-Hardens-Photo-200x300.jpg 200w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Cody-Hardens-Photo.jpg 427w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /> 
Cody, a 39-year-old software systems specialist, hadn’t tested with the intent of trying to find his biological family. It just happened.
“I had a great life and my adoptive parents were wonderful,” he said. “I didn’t know the circumstances of my adoption, why I was given up, so I didn’t know if it was good or bad. I   didn’t really care to find my relatives.”
His search had really been about his health and wanting to learn about what, if any, genetic risks he had. So when he discovered that 23andMe had matched him to potential distant cousins, his reaction was lukewarm.
“I thought that was neat, but it was more of a novelty than anything else,” Cody said.
A little later, 23andMe matched him with someone that could be a fourth cousin. That caught his attention. He connected with his fourth cousin through 23andMe. The cousin didn’t know where Cody fit into the family but decided to start digging around.
“That kind of got the ball rolling, and eventually there was a second cousin, and poof! There’s the family,” he said.
His excitement grew as he got closer and closer to tracking down his half-siblings and parents. He learned that his father was fifteen and his mother only fourteen when they’d had him.
“They really didn’t talk about it for the next forty years,” Cody said.
He also grew more apprehensive.
“Are there going to be hard feelings? Did I ruin someone’s life?” he wondered. “Would they resent me?”
Then last spring he talked to his birth father for the first time, who encouraged him to contact his birth mother. It took a bit more work to track her down, but he eventually found and contacted her.
“I could tell she was so nervous and excited,” Cody said. “I felt for her.”
He discovered he’d grown up only 45 minutes away from her and his half brother.
“What a trip,” he said.
Cody says he felt an instant connection when meeting his half brothers and parents for the first time.
“In the last few months I learned a lot about genetics,” he said. “Personalities are just as much inherited as they are how you grew up.”
He looks more like his mother, he says, but he’s inherited his father’s outgoing, prankster personality.
He’s since visited with his half brother on his mother’s side several times, as he lives closer than his father and his father’s son. He keeps in touch with both sides by phone and intends on keeping up with that connection.
Still, it’s amazing to him to think that just last year, he had no idea who any of these people were.
“This is all really new to me,” Cody says. “It’s exciting to know that I’ve got half-brothers here and there, and I’ll try to make the most of it with whatever time I have left.”
Results not typical. Results vary due to unique differences in each individual’s DNA. On average, users receive at least one or two results that may help with proactively managing health.  23andMe’s services are not a substitute for professional medical or diagnostic advice.

An Unexpected Discovery

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-19644 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/IBS-Infographic.jpg" alt="" width="708" height="458" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/IBS-Infographic.jpg 708w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/IBS-Infographic-300x194.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 708px) 100vw, 708px" />For the live-updated, fully-labelled, interactive version of this infographic, <a href="http://curetogether.com/irritable-bowel-syndrome/ig/treatment-effectiveness-vs-popularity">click here</a>.
By Alexandra Carmichael, Co-Founder of CureTogether
The pain, cramping, and discomfort of Irritable Bowel Syndrome can be distracting and embarrassing. CureTogether, a free resource owned by 23andMe, asked 5,381 people who live with IBS to share what treatments work best for them, and the results are surprisingly lifestyle-driven rather than medical.
People who participated in the survey reported that controlling their diet and reducing stress helped them feel better. They also said that heat and the drug Immodium eased their discomfort. Treatment ideas that didn’t seem to help included fiber supplements, SSRIs, and magnesium.
These are all treatments suggested and reported by patients, so some redundancy in the terms used is to be expected. In addition, the term “treatment” in this study refers to anything patients describe using to help them feel better, whether it is an officially prescribed medical treatment or not.
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 200px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">Most Effective Rated Treatments for Patients with IBS 
1. Avoid foods that cause flare-ups 
2. Elimination diet 
3. Bowel movement 
4. Cooking at home 
5. Low-carb gluten-free diet 
6. Avoid dairy 
7. Heat 
8. Low inflammation diet 
9. Reduce stress 
10. Immodium</div>
Where did this data come from? This is the result of a four-year CureTogether study on <a href="http://curetogether.com/irritable-bowel-syndrome/symptoms/">Irritable Bowel Syndrome</a>, in which 5,381 people shared information about their symptoms and what treatments worked best for them. We’d like to thank those who participated. And just as they shared their experience with treatments, we’re freely and openly sharing the results of the IBS study.
This is part of a regular series of CureTogether <a href="http://curetogether.com/blog/category/research-findings/">research findings</a>. CureTogether’s research findings are different than <a href="https://www.23andme.com/about/factoids/">those made by 23andMe</a>, which look at genetic associations with illness, traits and drug response. But as we continue our work with the CureTogether community, 23andMe hopes to incorporate more of this kind of self-reported information into our own research. CureTogether present its findings just as they are – patient-reported data – to stimulate discussion and generate new insights for further research.
Please tweet, blog, or pass this along to anyone who can benefit or is interested in Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Thank you!

Alexandra Carmichael

What Patients Say Works For IBS

Ed note: This post has been slightly changed since it first went up. We&#8217;ve also added in links to the posters that were presented at the conference. They are listed at the bottom of this post.
At this year’s American Society of Human Genetics meeting in Boston, a team of 23andMe scientists presented findings ranging from genetic associations of immune response and asthma, to a study looking at the genetics behind opioid-induced vomiting.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-19557 size-full alignright" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/researchers.jpg" alt="" width="430" height="946" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/researchers.jpg 430w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/researchers-136x300.jpg 136w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/researchers-400x880.jpg 400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px" />
David Hinds, a Principal Scientist here, spoke about the study, filling in for 23andMe&#8217;s Senior Director of Research, Joanna L. Mountain. Unlike many other pharmacogenetic studies that focus on very small cohorts, this study included more than 2,400 individuals who reported that the opioid codeine triggered vomiting.
The study had about 10,000 controls, or individuals who reported no problems taking the pain medication. Beyond the relative robustness of the study, the research is also significant in that it looked at the genetics behind moderate side effects to a prescription drug.
Rarely done in pharmacogenetic studies, moderate side effects still play a huge role in the relative effectiveness of medication because they impact whether people actually use the drug as prescribed. Nick Eriksson, a Principal Scientist at 23andMe, also spoke at the conference. Nick described how 23andMe uses correlated phenotypes to functionally classify different genetic associations. On occasion, a single genetic variant will be associated with multiple different phenotypes.
For example, this occurs in autoimmune diseases, where a single SNP influences multiple different diseases. Sometimes these shared associations are more surprising, such as the genetic association shared by both <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/health-traits/23andmes-latest-publication-shines-light-on-male-pattern-baldness-and-unexpected-associations-with-disease/">Parkinson’s disease and baldness</a>. By leveraging the huge range of phenotypes that 23andMe customers have reported, we can search for other surprising shared associations and use those to cluster SNPs in functional categories. This in turn can give insight into the function of disease associated genetic variants. Using this method, we looked at correlations between breast cancer and breast size, body mass index and food choice, and hair color and skin cancer.
Our scientists also presented findings related to genetic associations with different immune responses, associations found in a very large study of genetics behind asthma, the associations with susceptibility to infectious disease, as well as genetic associations for uterine fibroids.
Also on hand at the conference was 23andMe’s Senior Medical Director,<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/news/23andmes-uta-francke-lauded-by-ashg/"> Uta Francke, MD</a>, who spoke at the conference about online genetic education and counseling. Below the links to the posters presented at ASHG:
• <a href="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/GWAS-Uterine-Fibroids.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GWAS Analysis in a 23andMe Cohort Identifies Novel Associations with Uterine Fibroids</a>, a poster presented by Alena Shmygelska
• <a href="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/GWAS-for-Susceptibility-to-Infection.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GWAS Identifies Classical HLA Alleles Associated with Susceptibility to Infectious Diseases</a>, a poster presented by Chao Tian
• <a href="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ASHG2013asthma_final1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A Large Scale GWAS of Asthma in the 23andMe Cohort,</a> a poster presented by Dave Hinds
• <a href="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ASHG2013poster-jyt-final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GWAS of Diverse Immune-Related Phenotypes Highlights Complex Overlapping Pathways of Immune Response</a>, a poster presented by Joyce Tung

23andMe At ASHG

Most 23andMe customers are interested in knowing what their genetics says about potential health risks.
They’re interested in exploring their own genetic information because knowing gives them the power to take action.
<div id="attachment_19583" style="width: 550px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-19583" class="wp-image-19583 size-large" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Fast-Company-Graphic-540x1024.jpg" alt="Here's a graphic from the Fast Company article showing a snapshot of some of our customer data." width="540" height="1024" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Fast-Company-Graphic-540x1024.jpg 540w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Fast-Company-Graphic-158x300.jpg 158w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Fast-Company-Graphic-768x1457.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Fast-Company-Graphic-464x880.jpg 464w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Fast-Company-Graphic-622x1180.jpg 622w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Fast-Company-Graphic-scaled.jpg 1349w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px" />Here&#8217;s a graphic from the Fast Company article showing a snapshot of some of our customer data.</div>
Knowing allows them to take preventative measures or prepare and mitigate for the things that can’t be changed. They also understand that an identified genetic risk for a condition isn’t the whole picture. Your genetics is important, but your health is influenced by many factors – your diet, whether you exercise, the amount of stress in your life along with what’s in your DNA. Knowing about a risk gives you the power to make changes to either prevent what you can or mitigate what you can’t.
But not everyone sees things in that way. Some people don’t want to know.
Among the many interesting angles in the recent<a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3018598/for-99-this-ceo-can-tell-you-what-might-kill-you-inside-23andme-founder-anne-wojcickis-dna-r"> Fast Company article</a> about 23andMe and our CEO Anne Wojcicki, the story identified the challenge of marketing direct-to- consumer genetic testing to the<a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3019942/the-marketing-challenge-of-99-dna-testing-company-23andme"> right audience</a>.
Ultimately we think that all individuals will find value in genetic testing, but for now many of our customers choose 23andMe because they want to know.
“Our marketing team’s job is to find people who aren’t afraid to manage their health, who aren’t afraid to know,” said Andy Page, 23andMe President.
It is interesting to look a little deeper at this notion of why some people want to know and some others don’t. If you talk to someone who has tested, they’re often baffled as to why someone wouldn’t want to know. Conversely, if you talk to someone who doesn’t want to get tested, he or she seem incredulous that anyone would want to find out they had a genetic risk for any disease. It’s actually a central paradox in the Fast Company article as the writer considers her next steps after learning that her young adopted daughter has a genetic risk for getting Alzheimer’s late in life.
What’s with the stark contrast between these two camps of people? A lot, apparently.
Recently,<a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/07/10/0956797613478616.abstract"> a study</a> by researchers at the<a href="http://www.psych.ufl.edu/"> University of Florida</a> looked specifically at why some people avoided learning about their health risks, even when knowing those risks might help prevent them from ever developing the disease.
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZdDN8pm6gbY?rel=0" width="300" height="169" frameborder="0"></iframe>
The researchers learned that a person’s receptiveness to this kind of information has everything to do with how the information is presented and who is presenting it. In one group of individuals, the researchers found that people were more likely to opt-in to finding out about their risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease if they were asked to talk about why they might not want to see the information. It also helped if they were given information about how they could reduce their risk, and whether or not 
the condition was treatable.
And although some individuals said they would avoid finding out about a risk because they might be distressed by it, <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/useful-genetics/">several studies</a> indicate that people don’t experience inordinate stress. Learning of these risks can also trigger positive actions, like talking to a doctor and preventative treatment.
23andMe gives people the choice to take this information and inform how they manage their own health. We&#8217;ve included a short video from a PBS station in San Francisco asking people whether they&#8217;d want to know. Check it out.
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A couple of producers for &#8220;On The Media&#8221; a show that airs regularly on NPR stations discuss the reasons they&#8217;ve decided to do 23andMe and then spit together. Have <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/radio/#/ondemand/325920" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a listen</a>.
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To Know Or Not To Know

The<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-19548" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/erase-fear-300x199.jpg" alt="erase fear" width="300" height="199" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/erase-fear-300x199.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/erase-fear.jpg 425w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
In addition, the study,<a href="http://www.stsiweb.org/index.php/about/bio/bloss"> by Cinnamon Bloss, Ph.D.,</a> found that the test didn’t result in increased anxiety in participants.
Scripps has been studying consumer reactions to genetic testing for a couple of years now, and the results from this study follow up on more preliminary<a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1011893"> studies</a> that showed similar results.
Last year, Bloss presented some of her data at the conference of the<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/data-on-personal-genetics-at-ashg/"> American Society of Human Genetics in San Francisco</a>.
Since direct-to-consumer genetic testing became available, there has been criticism that the tests would trigger undue anxiety among participants. Studies have not found this to be the case, however.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/few-worry-about-genetic-testing/">We&#8217;ve written</a> before about some of the work Bloss and her team have already done. These and other studies provide real data showing the value for consumers of this kind of information when applied to their own health. In fact, nearly all participants found the information to be useful. And those who learned they had an increased genetic risk for certain conditions often worked with their doctors to take preventative actions to mitigate those risks.

Useful Genetics

You don’t need an excuse to read the always-interesting magazine<a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/"> Fast Company</a>, but if you did, here it is:
This week’s cover story,  “The Most Daring CEO in America,” features 23andMe’s CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-19537" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Anne-Cover-Shot-282x300.jpg" alt="Anne Cover Shot" width="282" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Anne-Cover-Shot-282x300.jpg 282w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Anne-Cover-Shot-768x817.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Anne-Cover-Shot-963x1024.jpg 963w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Anne-Cover-Shot-827x880.jpg 827w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Anne-Cover-Shot-1109x1180.jpg 1109w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Anne-Cover-Shot.jpg 1648w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 282px) 100vw, 282px" />
Writer Elizabeth Murphy gets to the core of what 23andMe is trying to accomplish: what we’re doing is new, our service offers incredible potential to change how people approach their health and wellness, and that our research model offers new opportunities for scientific discoveries.
But to get there, 23andMe also has to clear some hurdles outlined in Murphy’s story. One of those is simply a matter of explaining the complicated science behind genetics. Another is reaching the people we’ve identified as <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3019323/to-know-you-is-to-really-know-you" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">our core audience</a>: those who see value in having access to their genetic information because of the power that knowledge brings them in managing their own health.
Or as Neil Rothstein, 23andMe’s vice president of marketing, says in the piece, “We’re not really focused on a specific age group or gender or fitness level. It’s people who have this control mind-set.”
Murphy mentions 23andMe’s first-ever<a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3018619/getting-the-message-out"> TV ad campaign</a>, which also happens to be the first time any personal genetics company has aired this kind of health-focused commercial on television.
While 23andMe is focused on providing valuable health and ancestry information to consumers, 23andMe President Andy Page emphasized that as our customer base grows it will power the research to make important genetic discoveries in the future.
As Anne says in the article 23andMe’s mission as a company isn’t just about return on investment, but “revolutionizing healthcare.”
Check it out here.

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