<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-15595 size-full" title="DNA-bases" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/DNA-bases.png" alt="" width="607" height="457" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/DNA-bases.png 607w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/DNA-bases-300x226.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 607px) 100vw, 607px" />
Can 23andMe sample my dead relatives and why do you use spit to extract my DNA?
Inquiring minds want to know, or at least a lot of our customers do. 
There really are no dumb questions and if you have something to ask, we’ve probably heard it before. 23andMe has a lot of resources for folks trying to learn the basics; from<a href="https://www.23andme.com/user/claim/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> how do I register a kit</a> to<a href="https://www.23andme.com/gen101/snps/"> what’s a SNP</a>.
While we like to write about interesting genetic breakthroughs and compelling stories about people using 23andMe in unique ways on the blog, there’s something to be said about just covering the basics.
Like why we use spit and can’t sample your dead relatives.
Leave it to two science teachers to attack these pressing questions and many more.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-17508" title="Lab Out Load Logo" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Lab-Out-Load-Logo.jpg" alt="" width="204" height="198" />
Dale Basler and Brian Bartel, who when they’re not molding young minds also have a podcast and blog called<a href="http://laboutloud.com/"> Lab Out Loud</a>, spent some time with 23andMe scientist Emily Drabant talking about science and some of the<a href="http://laboutloud.com/2013/02/episode-90-looking-at-our-dna-with-23andme/"> basics of 23andMe</a>.
Dale and Brian asked about spit samples and dead relatives along with questions about how our Relative Finder determines how closely related someone is to you or the relative importance of your individual risks for a particular disease or how that risk compares to the average.
Check out the Lab Out Loud’s<a href="http://laboutloud.com/2013/02/episode-90-looking-at-our-dna-with-23andme/"> podcast</a>.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

Some Basics About Using 23andMe

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13288" title="CancerInfographic" alt="" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/CancerInfographic-300x254.jpg" width="300" height="254" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/CancerInfographic-300x254.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/CancerInfographic-768x650.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/CancerInfographic.jpg 849w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
A new study by researchers at Boston’s<a href="http://www.brighamandwomens.org/"> Brigham and Women’s Hospital</a> draws attention to the value of online resources to document family medical history.
23andMe customers can record their family medication information in several ways, including through our Cancer Family History survey – men’s version and women’s version.
Having a simple record of the conditions your siblings, parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents have faced can help both you and your doctor know what to watch out for to keep you healthy. But often people don’t know or have failed to keep track of that valuable information, making it harder for doctors to assess risks for things like cancer or other chronic diseases.
Scientists at 23andMe<a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1002973"> have shown</a> how using family history information together with genetic testing can offer even better risk prediction for disease.
The new study published in the<a href="http://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11606-013-2338-z"> Journal of General Internal Medicine</a> found that offering a simple online tool to track that history can help. About 10,000 patients were given an opportunity to fill out their family health histories and lifestyle information online while they waited for their physician visit.  When they completed the questionnaire, patients were given a report that summarized their risks for cancer, heart disease, diabetes and stroke. The physician could also choose to transfer the submitted information into the patients’ electronic medical records. About 6,000 other patients in the study simply saw their physician as usual.
The study found that the online tool offered patients a chance to document important family medical history and helped doctors document histories of disease that otherwise would have been missed.
About 1,000 patients ended up filling out the tool, or 10 percent of those who were given the opportunity. Overall, two percent of those who had a chance to fill out the online tool had their family history information incorporated into their medical record within 30 days compared to 0.6 percent of patients that were not given the tool. Of those who filled out the tool, 10 percent had family history information incorporated into their medical record compared to 0.8 percent of patients that would have been likely to fill out the tool had they been given the chance. This may indicate that among patients motivated to provide their family history information, the tool increases the probability that the information is captured in their medical record.
While the study’s findings are very preliminary, it does suggest the value of online tools for better documenting family medical history information. Still, only 10 percent of those given the chance actually filled out the online tool, citing lack of time as the main reason. This suggests that providing access to the online tool well before the appointment (rather than in the waiting room) would increase uptake.
In a press release concerning the study, Baer said “This type of risk assessment tool may be useful for collecting information on family history and lifestyle factors and may also help increase communication between physicians and patients about their risk.”

23andMe Medical History

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-16833 size-full" title="23andMe-Uta-007" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/23andMe-Uta-007.jpg" alt="" width="508" height="726" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/23andMe-Uta-007.jpg 508w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/23andMe-Uta-007-210x300.jpg 210w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 508px) 100vw, 508px" />
 
We know from scientific research that, in general, people don’t freak out about the results they get from personal genetic testing. When the results show an increased risk for serious illness, how do they react?
It turns out that even then, the news doesn’t trigger serious anxiety. Quite the contrary, the results, according to a new <a href="https://peerj.com/articles/8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">23andMe study published today</a> in the online academic journal <a href="https://PeerJ.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">PeerJ</a> found these test results prompted people to take positive steps, including talking to their doctors and discussing the results with family members who could also be at risk.
Lead author of the study and 23andMe’s Senior Medical Director, <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/news/23andmes-uta-francke-lauded-by-ashg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dr. Uta Francke </a>said the research addresses one of the most urgent questions in the field of genetics, “namely the impact of receiving unexpected information about high genetic risk for a life threatening disease.”
In this case, the study looked at how people reacted when they learned for the first time that they carried a mutation in either the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene that put them at higher risk for breast and ovarian cancer.
Five to ten percent of breast cancers occur in women with a genetic predisposition for the disease, usually due to mutations in either the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. The mutations at the center of this study are responsible for a substantial number of hereditary breast and ovarian cancers among women with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.
The study found that those who acquired the potentially life-saving information not only took appropriate actions on their own behalf, but also notified relatives who might share that risk. In what the study described as a “cascade effect,” these relatives were tested because they were related to someone who had one of the high risk mutations.
A number of relatives who were subsequently tested discovered they too had one of the high risk mutations.
The findings are important given that a frequent criticism of direct-to-consumer testing is based on the assumption that it causes either serious emotional distress or triggers deleterious actions on the part of consumers.
Individuals who learned they had the mutation said they did not suffer serious emotional distress, and did not take inappropriate actions.
The study authors suggested that broader screening of Ashkenazi Jewish women for these three BRCA mutations should be considered.”

Customer response to direct-access BRCA genetic testing

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-17459 size-full" title="richard-with-adoptive-parents-lo-res" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/richard-with-adoptive-parents-lo-res.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="960" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/richard-with-adoptive-parents-lo-res.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/richard-with-adoptive-parents-lo-res-240x300.jpg 240w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/richard-with-adoptive-parents-lo-res-704x880.jpg 704w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" />Richard Hill as a child with his adoptive parents, Harold and Thelma Hill. 
Richard Hill spent his career working in the sciences and in marketing, but hearing about his decades-long search for family you get the sense he would have made a great detective.
While shoe leather helped him unravel much of the mystery of his birth, it wasn’t until the availability of personal genetic testing, including testing through 23andMe, that Richard completed the picture of his biological family.
“My search had lurched ahead and stalled repeatedly over 31 years,” he says in a book he wrote about his quest <a href="http://www.dna-testing-adviser.com/finding-family-book.html">Finding Family: My Search for Roots and Secrets in My DNA</a>. 
The gap in Richard’s history became apparent when he was 18. That’s when his doctor looked through his medical file and let slip that Richard had been adopted. He was stunned.
“My heart skipped a beat,” Richard said in his book.
‘“Excuse me?” I asked. I must have misheard him. Or maybe he had me confused with someone else. I’m Richard Hill, son of Harold and Thelma Hill. Surely, he must have someone else’s file in his hands.’
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-17460 size-full" title="Richard-Hill-01-HI-RES" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Richard-Hill-01-HI-RES.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="2100" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Richard-Hill-01-HI-RES.jpg 1500w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Richard-Hill-01-HI-RES-214x300.jpg 214w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Richard-Hill-01-HI-RES-768x1075.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Richard-Hill-01-HI-RES-731x1024.jpg 731w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Richard-Hill-01-HI-RES-629x880.jpg 629w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Richard-Hill-01-HI-RES-843x1180.jpg 843w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" />
Find Him
Thus begins Richard’s saga, which is part memoir, part detective story. It details his search for family, and how after decades of using paper records and tracking down whoever knew any tidbit of information that could help, Richard finally turned to DNA testing from 23andMe and other services. These tests helped him identify first his late biological father’s surname and later confirmed his exact place in his large biological family.
His search wasn’t fueled by a sense of abandonment. Richard knew his parents loved him, and he in turn loved them. Whenever someone asks him about finding his “real” parents, Richard corrects them, saying his real parents were the couple who adopted him. But the search and the answers he found on the way helped him fill in missing pieces of his history.
“I have a great appreciation of my adoptive parents and how they raised me,” he said. “And this certainly has made me think about the whole nature versus nurture thing and what I got from my biological parents versus what I got from my adoptive parents. But it’s also made me feel more complete.”
Or as he says in the book, “many of us (adoptees) will never know peace until we know all the pieces.”
Richard said that although he learned about being adopted at 18, his career and family all got in the way of seeking out more information about his birth parents. Digging into his adoption didn’t start in earnest until he was in his 30s after his father was bedridden by a stroke. He’d visit his dad often during that time and he would sit at his father’s bedside and talk. At one point, as if freeing a burden that had weighed on him all those years, his father said, ‘Well I guess you know you were adopted?”
His father went on to reveal the first bits of information Richard had ever heard about his biological mother. She was “a cute little Irish girl” and her name was “Jackie.” He added one more fascinating piece: that she had had another son. So Richard learned that somewhere out there he had a brother. His father suggested that Richard should find him.
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Ancestry Tools You Can Use
Not everyone’s family story is cloaked in mystery like Richard Hill’s. Most of us just want to learn a little more about our history and gain insight into the generations from which we descended.
23andMe’s Ancestry tools can help you explore what your genetics says about your ancestry. Some of the insights can only be had through genetics. When used with other information – whether it’s your family’s oral traditions, names of ancestors in a family Bible, or other paper records – your 23andMe results can become even more powerful.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-14613" title="ancestry dashboard" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/ancestry-dashboard-200x200.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="200" />
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“Bingo”
When Richard started looking, he almost immediately faced daunting obstacles and dead ends. For instance, although he found the identity of his biological mother, he quickly learned that she’d died a little over a year after his birth. With a lot of work and luck, he was able to connect with her son, his half-brother. The two met for the first time in 1981.
But finding Richard’s biological father seemed impossible: He had no name – the one on his original birth certificate was the name of his birth mother’s ex-husband. In addition, his mother never told anyone who fathered her second child. The pregnancy itself was a secret and she had left town for the delivery. Still, none of that stopped Richard from searching. He did this by painstakingly piecing together his mother’s life at the time of his conception in 1945, and then contacting people who knew her or worked with her at the time and were still alive.
It took years. At one point he thought he’d found his birth father only to learn, after a paternity test, that he was wrong. That didn’t stop him either.
Finally, with the advent of early genetic tests that traced Y-DNA, the paternal line, Richard matched a distant cousin whose surname might also be that of his father. That provided a vital clue. He went back to some of the records he’d accumulated in his search. His mother had worked at a bar called Dann’s Tavern. Looking at old records he noticed that the name of the bar’s owner matched the surname he’d dug up.
“Bingo,” Richard thought.
Correcting a Mistake
Although the bar was long gone, and its owner dead and buried, Richard was able to find a niece of the man. He learned the owner was one of five brothers, and all of them were now deceased. So Richard started contacting sons of each man, asking if they would agree to a DNA test to determine if they were siblings. But unlike 23andMe’s test that now reads more than a million points in your genome, the only test available then looked at just 15 genetic markers to estimate family relationships. That test led him to identify the wrong man as his father and the wrong children as his siblings. It took a few more years, and a test by 23andMe and a test by FTDNA, to figure out that he’d made the mistake.
The two tools he used to correct the mistake were 23andMe’s Relative Finder and FTDNA’s Family Finder. The first test was on a man he thought was a cousin, but after getting the results back from 23andMe, it was clear that this man was actually his half brother.
“DNA testing helped me and it can help others,” Richard said.
His years of searching and his use of DNA testing has also made him a go-to source for others turning to genetic testing for more answers about their ancestry. He set up a website, <a href="http://www.dna-testing-adviser.com">www.dna-testing-adviser.com</a>, to help people make sense of the different tools out there.   And even with the ups and downs of his family search, he doesn’t regret a thing.
&#8220;I did not have to give up anybody in my adopted family. It&#8217;s not an either-or thing. You&#8217;re just adding on. You can&#8217;t have too much family.&#8221;

23andMe’s Tools Help Solve Ancestry Mystery

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-17426 size-medium" title="heart health infographic" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/heart-health-infographic-300x263.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="263" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/heart-health-infographic-300x263.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/heart-health-infographic-768x673.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/heart-health-infographic-880x771.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/heart-health-infographic.jpg 897w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
February is American Heart Month and a time to focus on what remains the nation’s number one killer – heart disease – which is responsible for one in three deaths in the United States every year.
Why heart disease is so deadly has a lot to do with lifestyle and diet in America. Obesity, even among the very young, is increasingly commonplace, and the <a href="http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/PhysicalActivity/StartWalking/The-Price-of-Inactivity_UCM_307974_Article.jsp">majority of Americans</a> do not get enough exercise, according to the American Heart Association.
Fortunately, we can all reduce our risk of heart disease. We can exercise more, eat right and reduce stress in our lives. But it’s also important to understand, that like many health conditions, genetic factors contribute to heart disease risk.
Understanding how your genetics plays a role can help you craft the most effective plan for a healthy heart.
23andMe reports on several genetic factors that impact heart health, such as those associated with coronary heart disease and atrial fibrillation, as well as a rare heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. We also have reports on how your genes affect your response to anti-clotting drugs to reduce the risk of heart attack.
The role genetics plays in these different conditions varies greatly. In some cases, such as in coronary heart disease, many of the genetic factors involved are not yet fully known.
While you can’t change your genetics, you can do a lot to change your risks for heart disease by changing your lifestyle. Cutting out smoking, lowering cholesterol, exercising more and eating right can go a long way towards keeping your heart healthy.

Genetics and a Healthy Heart

<div id="attachment_17393" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-17393" class="wp-image-17393 size-medium" title="Telomere_caps" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Telomere_caps-300x236.gif" alt="" width="300" height="236" />Chromosomes tipped by telomeres.</div>
A study <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2013/01/23/science.1230062.long">published recently in Science</a> by Susanne Horn and colleagues is a noteworthy example of hypothesis-driven science done right. It exemplifies how seemingly obscure findings can lead to new hypotheses and provide insight into human health and disease.
Horn and her colleagues studied a family prone to melanoma and other cancers and found a mutation located near the TERT gene in a region that controls the gene. Researchers have long been interested in this gene because it encodes a protein called telomerase that is important for both aging and cancer.
The telomerase protein protects telomeres, the “caps” at the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres have been likened to the plastic tips on shoelaces because they stop the ends of chromosomes from coming apart and are critical for a healthy cell. Telomeres become shorter each time a cell makes a copy of itself and thus get shorter with age. Since the telomerase protein adds DNA back onto the telomere each time the cell divides, numerous researchers have studied it in the interest of prolonging human life. But others have cautioned that too much telomerase activity might contribute to cancer.
Horn looked to see if more people with melanoma also had the mutation discovered in the family but were unable to detect it in individual cases of melanoma, in other families with melanoma, or in large genetic databases. It seemed to be a genetic one-off, a mutation isolated to this one family.
Realizing that this unique mutation might provide insight into a mechanism of cancer, the researchers next looked at DNA from melanoma tumors and found very similar mutations. The mutations in the tumors were not present in the person’s DNA at birth but rather arose during his or her lifetime. By analyzing the mutations very closely the researchers concluded that both the mutation found in the family and those found in the tumors contribute to cancer through a similar mechanism.
Both types of mutations influence the regulation of the TERT gene and result in increased levels of the telomerase protein. Normally telomerase is not active in adult cells that aren’t dividing &#8212; for instance cells in the skin, heart and other places. In people with these mutations, more telomerase likely leads to longer telomeres, more dividing cells and ultimately cancer. Though scientists <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/science/new-mutations-discovered-in-melanomas.html?_r=0">have also cautioned</a> that it might not be this simple and that too much telomerase protein could also promote cancer through other mechanisms.

Rare Mutation Leads to New Insights into Melanoma

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There are lots of things we can&#8217;t change, but our lifestyle isn&#8217;t one of them. Good thing, too  – our weight, nutrition habits, and exercise behaviors impact us beyond whether we look good in a swim suit. They also influence our risk for many different diseases.
In the same way, our DNA also contributes to our risk for various diseases. It&#8217;s where our lifestyle and DNA intersect that we have the greatest potential for positive change. For instance, the knowledge that my genes put me at higher-than-average risk for heart disease may make me think twice about the extra slice of bacon (so long as it&#8217;s not within smelling distance!). And going light on the bacon for the long haul may ultimately lower my risk for many conditions besides heart disease.
So where might your genetic incentives be?
<div>Obesity</div>
Extra pounds equate to extra risk for numerous <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-health-ancestry/">health conditions</a>. The obese are seven times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, three times more likely to develop gallstones, and twice as likely to develop coronary heart disease or venous thromboembolism (blood clots) compared to those at a healthy weight.
Each of these obesity-associated conditions has at least one 23andMe genetic report (see the links above).  If you find that your genetics puts you at higher-than-average risk for one of these conditions, perhaps this knowledge will motivate you to keep your weight in check.  To the fortunate few with lower-than-average genetic risk for all the conditions above, don’t grab that donut yet.  Obesity still increases your risk compared to those at a healthy weight, and there are likely many additional genetic factors that are as-of-yet unknown but may contribute to your risk.
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Not yet a 23andMe customer? Learn what your DNA says about your ancestry. <a href="https://www.23andme.com/store" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Visit our store</a>!
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Nutrition 
Poor nutrition, even discounting its effect on your waistline, certainly doesn’t keep the doctor away.  People who consume red meat ten times per week or more have about a 50 percent higher risk for age-related macular degeneration, an eye condition that can lead to blindness. Furthermore, studies suggest that a diet high in fiber, vegetables, nuts, and foods typically found in Mediterranean cuisine is associated with 20-40 percent lower risk for coronary heart disease. Colorectal cancer is also linked with poor diet habits, and experts suggest that  diets high in fiber and low in fat can lower your risk.
If you find that you are at increased genetic risk, this knowledge may help you prioritize which dietary changes to make. For example, a person who has a strong genetic risk for age-related macular degeneration might consider eating more fish, nuts, and leafy greens  – foods linked to lower risk for that disease.
Exercise 
A gym membership (if actually used) may positively impact your health. For starters, exercise helps keep one’s weight in check; people who exercise regularly are up to 60 percent less likely to be overweight than people who don&#8217;t exercise.
Even beyond that, exercise can strengthen one of your most important muscles: your heart. People who don&#8217;t exercise are about twice as likely to develop coronary heart disease as people who exercise regularly. In women, walking just an hour a week is associated with 50 percent lower risk for coronary heart disease and in men, vigorous activity and playing sports may lower the risk for heart disease.   If your genetics suggest you&#8217;re at higher than average risk for heart disease, take that as extra incentive to hit the gym regularly!
Poor exercise also influences your risk for type 2 diabetes.   People who engage in moderate physical activity on a regular basis or simply walk for at least two and a half hours a week at a brisk pace are about 30 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes compared to people who don&#8217;t exercise.   If your genetic report shows you are already at higher than average risk for type 2 diabetes, perhaps you may want to go the extra mile to make a change.
The Competitive Advantage 
Unfortunately, health isn&#8217;t an even playing field. Just as some people have genetic variants associated with lower than average risk for disease, some are born with skinny genes (and can wear skinny jeans).
<div>Still, there are other genetic factors that may help in the battle of the bulge. One that&#8217;s received a lot of attention is in a gene called PPARG. Normally, high fat intake is associated with weight gain, but in people with a certain variation of the PPARG gene, a diet high in monounsaturated fat is actually linked to weight loss. Monounsaturated fat is found in olive oil, so this type of diet has been nicknamed the &#8220;Mediterranean&#8221;-style diet.</div>
Very few genetic factors have been reliably linked to diet and exercise but some of the preliminary findings..
Whatever your health goals may be, we wish you success that outlasts the month.  May this knowledge about your DNA  – whether that be the genetics of disease risk or the genetics of losing weight  – help you towards a fitter you.

Your Lifestyle, Your Health, Your Genes

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-7425" title="ancestry-photo-sheridan" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ancestry-photo-sheridan.png" alt="" width="280" height="152" />
We first met <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-and-you/23andme-how-to/ancestry-at-23andme-introducing-sheridan/">Sheridan</a>* in the fall of 2010. As an adoptee, she was curious about her DNA and what 23andMe might be able to tell her.
With the help of old friends and some new ones on 23andMe, Sheridan learned about her <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-and-you/23andme-how-to/ancestry-at-23andme-sheridans-global-origins/">global origins</a>,  which include an African-American father and a mother of European descent, and <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-and-you/23andme-how-to/ancestry-at-23andme-sheridans-got-relatives/">connected with DNA relatives</a>.
She even discovered that she and her good friend Brian are <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-and-you/23andme-how-to/ancestry-at-23andme-finding-connections/">4th cousins</a>, which means she has some Irish ancestry. Together, they <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-and-you/23andme-how-to/ancestry-at-23andme-old-roots-and-new-horizons/">figured out a branch of her family tree</a>.

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For a quick Ancestry primer, check out:
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-and-you/genetics-101/ancestry-at-23andme-what-can-you-learn/">Ancestry at 23andMe: What Can You Learn?</a>
Follow Sheridan’s journey from the beginning:*
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-and-you/23andme-how-to/ancestry-at-23andme-introducing-sheridan/">Introducing Sheridan</a> 
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-and-you/23andme-how-to/ancestry-at-23andme-sheridans-global-origins/">Sheridan’s Global Origins</a> 
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-and-you/23andme-how-to/ancestry-at-23andme-sheridans-got-relatives/">Sheridan’s Got Relatives</a> 
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-and-you/23andme-how-to/ancestry-at-23andme-finding-connections/">Finding Connections</a> 
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-and-you/23andme-how-to/ancestry-at-23andme-old-roots-and-new-horizons/">Old Roots and New Horizons</a>
*Sheridan and her story are works of fiction and any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental.
</div>
<h6>Using DNA Relatives</h6>
For Sheridan, learning about herself on 23andMe did more than just kindle a love for the Irish. By combining the information she learned about her ancestral origins with information from some of the <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">DNA Relatives</a> she found, she and Brian were able to fill in the first pieces of her genealogical history.
Since then, Sheridan’s filled in even more of the family tree on her mother’s side.
Her second cousin Mike, identified through 23andMe as a DNA Relative, was able to track down the name of his grandmother’s sister &#8212; a woman very likely to be Sheridan’s own grandmother. To Brian’s delight, Mike also found the name of his grandmother’s sister’s husband, a Fitzpatrick descended from the same Irish ancestors as Brian.
<h6>Neanderthal</h6>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-17249 size-medium" title="Neanderthal-friends-sheridan" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Neanderthal-friends-sheridan-272x300.png" alt="" width="272" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Neanderthal-friends-sheridan-272x300.png 272w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Neanderthal-friends-sheridan-768x849.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Neanderthal-friends-sheridan-927x1024.png 927w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Neanderthal-friends-sheridan-796x880.png 796w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Neanderthal-friends-sheridan-1068x1180.png 1068w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Neanderthal-friends-sheridan.png 1192w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 272px) 100vw, 272px" />
Brian always kept her in the loop on 23andMe, though. Some more mutual friends joined and they quickly started sharing on 23andMe. Sheridan remembers when the <a href="https://www.23andme.com/you/labs/neanderthal/">Neanderthal Ancestry feature</a> came out. There was an unofficial contest over who had the most <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/ancestry/find-your-inner-neanderthal/">Neanderthal DNA</a>; Brian was disappointed that he was solidly average for a Northern European person. Sheridan tried to cheer him up by pointing out that he still had the most caveman of their friends with mostly European ancestry.
“Besides,” she said, “I only have 2.2 percent Neanderthal!”
“That’s because Neanderthals were never even in Africa to begin with,” he snorted, but he seemed mollified.
Sheridan, far from feeling shortchanged, found it fascinating that even a small percentage of her DNA could be traced back to these prehistoric “cousins.”
<h6>Ancestry Composition</h6>
But Brian’s Stone Age enthusiasm paled in comparison to his excitement over Ancestry Composition. A new and improved replacement for the popular Ancestry Painting feature, <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/ancestry/23andmes-newest-feature-explores-your-ancestry/">Ancestry Composition</a> gives a much more detailed breakdown of a person’s genetic ancestry. Brian called Sheridan at two in the morning when it came out.
“It’s here!” he exclaimed when she groggily answered the phone.
“Unghh wha&#8211;?” she mumbled.
“Ancestry Composition! Like Ancestry Painting, but way better. Remember? Your Ancestry Painting was cool, but your Composition is even cooler. Mine’s still kind of boring, though. But you should look at yours! And I can see it split it up by which side I got from my mom and which side from my dad and you can zoom in and out and change the thresholds&#8230; hey, you still there? Sheridan? Hello?”
So maybe two in the morning wasn’t the best time for Brian to tell Sheridan about Ancestry Composition. But the next day they met up at the coffee shop to explore the new feature together.
Brian quickly explained that 23andMe had updated its main ancestry feature with lots of examples of people with full ancestry from different parts of the world &#8212; like South Asia, France, or Finland. Some of these people were part of research studies and their genetic data is publicly available. But many of the people 23andMe used to develop its ancestry analysis are 23andMe customers themselves.
“Of course, you can only learn what, say, ‘Welsh DNA’ looks like if you have some examples of it,” he said. “The more examples you can learn from, the better your analysis will be. And 23andMe has a lot of different types of examples.”
<img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-17254" title="Brian-composition" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Brian-composition-700x421.png" alt="" width="350" />
Brian clicked on the ‘+’ symbol in the “Resolution” bar to zoom in. “It’s still all European for me &#8212; no surprise &#8212; but now it can break it down into sub-regions.” The list of ancestries on the right of the screen expanded as he clicked and when he hovered the mouse pointer over the darker blue ring the map zoomed in to the British Isles.
“See? 99% British and Irish!” he said, puffing out his chest, which today was sporting, perhaps not accidentally, a green “Kiss me, I’m Irish!” t-shirt.
Sheridan rolled her eyes.
“Ok, ok, you were saying mine was cooler, though, right?”
“Oh, right. Yeah.”
Sheridan scooted him aside and pulled her Ancestry Composition up on the screen. The rings quickly morphed into concentric stacks of bright colors with a rainbow-colored map in the middle.
“Ooh,” she breathed. “Yeah, that’s pretty cool.”
<img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-17299" title="sheridan-composition" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/sheridan-composition-700x500.png" alt="" width="700" />
According to the new analysis, Sheridan’s DNA was about 62% European, 37% Sub-Saharan African, and 1.2% East Asian or Native American. The rest of her DNA was unassigned, meaning it couldn’t be mapped confidently to any specific population.
&#8220;Africa isn&#8217;t broken down into sub-regions yet the way Europe is,&#8221; Brian said, pointing to the pink stripe, &#8220;but 23andMe is going to update this soon.&#8221;
&#8220;Hm, I guess I can wait a little longer,&#8221; said Sheridan. &#8220;It&#8217;s nice to see all the European populations, though. Look, there’s the Irish ancestry for me, too!”
She already knew that she probably had some Irish ancestry based on the fact that she and 99% Irish Brian were 4th cousins and they’d traced their Irish family connection through her second cousin Mike, but it was somehow gratifying to see it spelled out so clearly on her screen. She could also see that she had some Eastern European and even a bit of Native American ancestry.
<img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-17257" title="Miguel-composition" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Miguel-composition-300x161.png" alt="" width="350" /> 
<img decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-17258" title="Mesut-composition" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Mesut-composition-300x154.png" alt="" width="350" /> 
<img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-17262" title="Ancestry Composition Native American" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Ancestry-Composition-Native-American-700x331.png" alt="" width="350" />
There was also a small dark blue band in her Composition labeled as “Ashkenazi”.
“That might actually be interesting,” Brian mused, “Let’s look into that later.”
For now, Ancestry Composition kept them busy as they explored their friends’ results. Miguel had a colorful Composition like Sheridan, except it had much more Native American and much less African. Mesut, Sheridan’s Turkish friend, was mainly Middle Eastern and European.
“Did Camille know she has Native American ancestry?” she asked, pointing to the 3.3% Native American in her Ancestry Composition.
“Not before she did 23andMe,” said Brian. “When she saw that result she did some digging and it turns out that her paternal grandfather was one-eighth <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ojibwe_people">Chippewa</a>!”
He went to the drop down menu and selected another friend of theirs, Jamie. “This is pretty cool, too. Jamie’s half Askhenazi Jewish, and since her parents are also on 23andMe you can use the ‘Split View’ setting to see which side of the family it’s from.”
The map in the middle disappeared and the labels “Father” and “Mother appeared on either side of a vertical line splitting the colored rings in half. Sheridan could see that the Ashkenazi ancestry was clearly from Jamie’s mother’s side.
“Wow, that’s cool,” said Sheridan.
She thought for a second.
“So if I do end up learning who my mother is, and if I’m able to find her, and if she wants to do 23andMe&#8230; would this be able to tell me more about my father’s side, too?”
Brian nodded.
“That’ a lot of ‘ifs’, but yeah, I think so. You just need one parent for it to tell which half of your DNA came from that parent. Then by default, the other half came from the other parent.”
“Whew.” Sheridan sat back. “This whole genetic ancestry thing just got even more interesting.”
To be continued&#8230;

Ancestry at 23andMe: New Insights for Sheridan

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-2804 size-full" title="smoking" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/smoking.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="260" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/smoking.jpg 350w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/smoking-300x223.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" />
You probably know that smoking and excessive drinking are bad for you. But did you know that your genetics also factor into how much those vices can impact your health?
Healthy lifestyle choice – like avoiding cigarettes – make you less susceptible to a host to diseases. For instance, non-smokers live, on average, a decade longer than smokers. Genetics aside it just makes a lot of sense to avoid lighting up.
But genetics also plays a role. Your genes – regardless of your health habits – may put you at higher risk for certain diseases associated with smoking and drinking.  That can make the healthy choices you make that much more important.
Your genetic information, when taken together with information about your lifestyle and environment, will give you the most complete picture of your health risks.
But, in a few cases, your genetics can increase the risks of smoking and drinking by much more than either risk factor alone. Heightening the importance of making healthy choices. Here are a few examples.
A variant in a single gene, <a href="http://www.23andme.com/topics/health-predispositions/alpha-1-antitrypsin-deficiency/">alpha-1 antitrypsin</a>, leads to deficiency in a protein that protects fragile lung tissue. This can put one at more risk for emphysema and liver disease. Because smoking can further reduce the levels of the protective protein, it can further increase the risks for lung disease.
Another variant in the ALDH2 gene causes a deficiency in its enzyme product – aldehyde dehydrogenase. Those lacking this enzyme are at increased risk for esophageal cancer, especially for those who smoke or drink.
The magnitude of the combined effect varies from study to study, but the basic finding that these three risk factors synergistically increase the risk of esophageal cancer is definitive.
In the case of smoking, a variant in the CHRNA gene is strongly associated with how many times you light up in an average day. In people with European ancestry, each copy of an A at the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1051730 is associated with smoking one more cigarette per day on average. It’s unclear if the association also holds true for people of African or Asian ancestry.
As for drinking, a number of previous studies found an association between the SNP rs1800497 and alcoholism, with each copy of A at that location increasing a person’s odds of being alcoholic by 1.2 times.
Keep in mind that there are many of other conditions associated with smoking and drinking that are also impacted by your genetics. For instance, if you light up regularly, you’re putting yourself at a higher risk for such things as lung cancer, esophageal cancer, age-related macular degeneration, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, venous thrombosis and coronary heart disease.
Heavy drinking increases your risk for esophageal cancer, colorectal cancer, and atrial fibrillation 
esophageal cancer, colorectal cancer and atrial fibrillation.

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