<figure class="wp-block-table"><table class="has-fixed-layout" style="border:1px solid #000; border-collapse:collapse;"><tbody><tr><td>
<h2>Key Takeaways</h2>
<ul><li>23andMe scientists and collaborators have shown that asthma, hay fever and eczema share many underlying genetic associations, pointing to a common immune-system foundation.</li>
<li>Including diverse populations in genetic research helped uncover additional genetic variants associated with eczema.</li>
<li>Insights from large genome-wide studies have shaped the science behind 23andMe&#8217;s five allergy and asthma reports.</li></ul>
</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



If you have ever spent a May morning sneezing your way through a pollen cloud, or watched a child scratch at itchy patches of eczema, you are not alone. May is Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month, and according to the <a href="https://aafa.org/allergies/allergy-facts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America</a>, more than 100 million people in the United States experience some form of allergy each year. Behind those numbers sits a deep and tangled biology, one that 23andMe scientists and their academic collaborators have been working to untangle for more than a decade.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-decade-plus-of-allergy-and-asthma-genetic-research">A decade-plus of allergy and asthma genetic research</h2>



<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23817569/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">In 2013</a>, 23andMe researchers led a genome-wide association study (a GWAS, which looks across the genome for genetic variants more common in people with a given trait) of nearly 54,000 people with self-reported allergies. That early study identified <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/new-genetic-associations-found-for-allergies-and-asthma" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">16 genetic variants</a> associated with cat, dust-mite and pollen allergies, eight of which overlapped with asthma. In the years that followed, 23andMe contributed to more than a dozen additional publications.



A 2017 paper in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29083406/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Genetics</a> analyzed about 360,000 people and identified 136 genetic variants associated with asthma, hay fever or eczema. This showed that these conditions may have a common genetic foundation rooted in immune regulation. Follow-up work in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29679657/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2019</a> and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32603359/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2020</a> pushed further, surfacing <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/the-shared-genetics-of-allergies-hay-fever-and-eczema" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">eleven additional variants in or near nine genes</a> associated with allergies, and finding additional genetic variants associated with developing allergies, asthma and eczema <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/researchers-identify-new-genetic-associations-for-allergies-asthma-and-eczema" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">at a very early age</a>.



Digging more into age of onset, a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30929738/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2019 analysis</a> using UK Biobank data, and then replicated with 23andMe data, found that around 30% of the genetic variants associated with asthma were shared between childhood-onset and adult-onset asthma, but most genetic variants were distinct.



A <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37794016/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2023 multi-ancestry analysis</a> that included more than 3 million consented 23andMe research participants identified new genetic variants associated with eczema. Importantly, this work included a diverse set of participants that enabled the discovery of two genetic variants that may be associated with eczema specifically in people of Japanese ancestry. It&#8217;s a reminder that studying diverse populations matters for finding new genetic associations.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-insights-don-t-stop-at-the-journal-page">Insights don&#8217;t stop at the journal page</h2>



Discoveries from the 23andMe Research Institute don&#8217;t sit on a shelf. Many of them flow directly into the reports you can see in your <a href="https://www.23andme.com/membership/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">23andMe+ Premium</a>™ account, including five that are especially relevant this month: <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/health-predispositions/asthma/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Asthma</a> and <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/health-predispositions/eczema/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Eczema (Atopic Dermatitis)</a>, which can be found with other Health Predisposition reports, and <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/wellness/cat-allergy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cat Allergy</a>, <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/wellness/dog-allergy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dog Allergy</a>, and <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/wellness/seasonal-allergies/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Seasonal Allergies</a>*, which can be found with other Wellness reports.



Each of these reports uses a polygenic score, a calculation that adds up the small effects of many genetic variants to estimate your likelihood of developing a condition. This information, alongside other factors like family history and environment, may help you understand and manage these conditions.&nbsp;



The genetic variants drawn on by these reports trace back to research like that above, which is to say, they trace back in part to consented 23andMe research participants who answered survey questions about their own allergies and asthma. The more people contribute, the better the science gets, and the better the reports become for the next generation of 23andMe members.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-you-can-do-this-allergy-season">What you can do this allergy season</h2>



Genetics is only one piece of why asthma or allergies show up in your life, and there is plenty you can do regardless of what your genes say.



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Track your triggers. Keeping a simple log of when symptoms flare can help you and your clinician spot patterns, whether the culprit is tree pollen, a particular pet or an indoor mold.&nbsp;</li>



<li>For those with asthma, recognize the warning signs of an asthma attack and create a plan for action. Catching an asthma attack early can prevent severe symptoms.</li>



<li>Check your reports. Your 23andMe Asthma, Eczema (Atopic Dermatitis) and allergy-related reports can give you a sense of your genetic likelihood, which may be useful context to share with a healthcare professional.</li>



<li>Talk to a clinician. If symptoms are persistent or affecting daily life, allergists and dermatologists have a growing toolkit of treatments.</li>
</ul>



The science that built today&#8217;s reports were powered by people willing to share a little about their own health. 23andMe research participants are helping to shape new discoveries. The next finding might just turn into the next report.



*The 23andMe Asthma, Eczema (Atopic Dermatitis), Cat Allergy, Dog Allergy, and Seasonal Allergies PRS reports are based on a genetic model that includes data and insights from 23andMe consented research participants and incorporates many genetic variants to provide information on the likelihood of experiencing these conditions. These reports do not describe a person’s overall likelihood, do not account for lifestyle or family history and have not been reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration. These reports are not intended to tell you anything about your current state of health, or to be used to make medical decisions or determine any treatment.

Sr. Manager, Product Science

Alisa Lehman

The Genetics of Asthma and Allergies: More Than a Decade of 23andMe Research

This week, we released a new 23andMe+ Premium report on asthma powered by 23andMe research.
Asthma is a chronic lung condition that occurs when the immune system overreacts to an environmental trigger, causing inflammation, increased mucus production inside the airways, and tightened muscles around the airways. 
While it’s more common for asthma to be diagnosed during childhood, it can develop at any time.
<h6>Understanding Asthma </h6>
It is estimated that around<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/asthma/nhis/2019/table2-1.htm"> 12 percent of people</a> in the U.S. have asthma. Besides genetics, other non-genetic factors like ethnicity, long-term irritant exposure, and age can increase a person&#8217;s chances of developing the condition.
In 2020, an<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/researchers-identify-new-genetic-associations-for-allergies-asthma-and-eczema/"> international team of scientists</a> uncovered new genetic associations for several allergic conditions – specifically allergies, asthma, and eczema – by studying the age of onset.
The researchers used data from the UK Biobank to identify 76 genetic variants associated with these allergic conditions in or near 18 different genes. They found that about 50 of these variants were associated with a higher risk of both developing allergic conditions in the first place and developing them at an early age.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-30335 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/asthma-story-1.4435b09a0863.svg" alt="" width="306" height="403" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/asthma-story-1.4435b09a0863.svg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/asthma-story-1.4435b09a0863.svg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/asthma-story-1.4435b09a0863.svg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/asthma-story-1.4435b09a0863.svg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/asthma-story-1.4435b09a0863.svg 306w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 306px) 100vw, 306px" />
<h6>A New Report</h6>
Our new Asthma report is powered by data from people who have consented to participate in 23andMe research. It uses machine learning techniques to estimate an individual’s likelihood of developing asthma.
This estimate is made using a statistical model that includes 24,244 genetic markers and information on an individual’s ethnicity and birth sex. See our<a href="https://permalinks.23andme.com/pdf/23_21-PRSMethodology_May2020.pdf"> white paper</a> to learn more about the science behind the report.
<h6>Asthma Attacks</h6>
People with asthma may experience shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, coughing, or wheezing. Each of these symptoms can range in severity.
Symptoms often come and go, and specific triggers can cause them to worsen or flare up suddenly in episodes called asthma attacks. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-30336" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/asthma-story-2.3188cc48c4e0.svg" alt="" width="221" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/asthma-story-2.3188cc48c4e0.svg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/asthma-story-2.3188cc48c4e0.svg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/asthma-story-2.3188cc48c4e0.svg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/asthma-story-2.3188cc48c4e0.svg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/asthma-story-2.3188cc48c4e0.svg 306w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 221px) 100vw, 221px" />
<h6>Common Triggers</h6>
Asthma triggers vary from person to person. However, some of the most common triggers include allergies, air pollution, tobacco smoke, respiratory infections, and cold air
<h6>Managing Asthma</h6>
Simple strategies like identifying and avoiding triggers and recognizing the warning signs of an impending asthma attack can help reduce the severity and frequency of symptoms. 
Staying up to date on vaccines and avoiding smoking and second-hand smoke can also be helpful.
People with asthma triggered by allergies can minimize allergen exposure by using HEPA air filters and vacuum cleaners. And people who are allergic to dust mites can use impermeable pillow and mattress covers to reduce exposure. 
In addition, medications like quick-relief inhalers, and long-term asthma control medications can help manage symptoms.
<h6>Learn More</h6>
23andMe’s new Asthma report (powered by 23andMe Research) is available to 23andMe+ Premium members. To view your report, go<a href="https://you.23andme.com/reports/prs.asthma/"> here</a>.
Not a customer? Find out more<a href="https://www.23andme.com/membership/"> here</a>.
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23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

New 23andMe+ Premium Report on Asthma

By Christophe Tchakouté, 23andMe Biostatistician
The number of weekly asthma attacks among people in the U.S. with active asthma increased by 10 percent in 2020 compared to the year before, according to new research data from 23andMe.
Our scientists wanted to explore why, and better understand whether these increases in asthma attacks, known as asthma exacerbations, were influenced by geography, mental health variables, or some other factors like the unprecedented number of wildfires in the western U.S. in 2020.
Asthma, which impacts more than 25 million Americans and about 330 million people worldwide, is a chronic disease of the lungs that causes inflammation and narrowing of air pathways. Asthma attacks lead to shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, and chest tightening. These attacks can be triggered by environmental factors, such as pollution, or smoke, or stress and anxiety. The most severe attacks can lead to hospitalization. Asthma is also an underlying risk factor for more <a href="https://you.23andme.com/covid19/">severe symptoms from COVID-19</a>.
Last year offered the worst combination of factors that could trigger attacks among those with asthma, including massive wildfires on the West Coast, as well as economic uncertainty and stress from the COVID-19 pandemic. But understanding what contributed to last year’s increase in asthma attacks is not so simple. For one, collecting longitudinal data on asthma is challenging and there is a scarcity of data looking at asthma attacks in 2020.
<div id="attachment_32494" style="width: 761px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32494" class="wp-image-32494 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Figure-1-Wildfires.jpg" alt="" width="751" height="504" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Figure-1-Wildfires.jpg 751w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Figure-1-Wildfires-300x201.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 751px) 100vw, 751px" />Figure 1: Year-over-year comparison of asthma attacks.</div>
In looking at 23andMe research data, collected from customers in the United States with asthma who consented to participate in research, even after controlling for known exacerbation risk factors such as obesity, area of residence, and sex (women are at higher risk for asthma), our researchers still saw a year over year increase in asthma attacks. (see Figure 1).
The increase also surprised our researchers, who anticipated that the shelter-in-place orders enacted in March 2020 would decrease pollution and subsequently result in a decrease in asthma exacerbations. However, this explanation is unlikely since springtime asthma exacerbations were higher in 2020 compared to 2019 and followed similar seasonal trends as in 2019 due to allergies (see Figure 1). Such seasonal fluctuations occur because the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/climateandhealth/effects/allergen.htm">increase of pollen</a> due to changes in the weather can trigger asthma symptoms.
<div id="attachment_32496" style="width: 761px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32496" class="wp-image-32496 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Figure-2-Wildfires.jpg" alt="" width="751" height="504" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Figure-2-Wildfires.jpg 751w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Figure-2-Wildfires-300x201.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 751px) 100vw, 751px" />Figure 2: Asthma exacerbations across different US regions</div>
23andMe researchers’ analysis also compared monthly asthma exacerbations from 2019 to 2020 across the four main regions of the United States: the South, the West, the Northeast, and North Central. They did not observe substantial differences in monthly asthma exacerbations across regions for 2019 and early 2020 (See Figure 2). 
However, from the end of the summer of 2020 to the beginning of the fall of 2020, researchers observed a steep increase in asthma exacerbations on the West Coast (See Figure 2).  This timeline overlaps with the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/fires-map-tracker.html">western wildfires</a> that resulted in severe air pollution over multiple weeks on the West Coast. According to one estimate by Cal Fire, the 2020 California wildfires pumped a record of more than 115 million metric tons of CO2 into the air, or more than eight times the annual average.
Initially, 23andMe was also interested in exploring how anxiety changed monthly from 2019 to 2020. However, none of the anxiety-related longitudinal surveys in the 23andMe research data could be used to address this specific question. Instead, researchers compared monthly self-reported asthma exacerbations from 2019 to 2020 among research participants with active asthma and generalized anxiety disorder and those with active asthma and no generalized anxiety disorder (see figure 3). The team found that asthma exacerbations increased from 2019 to 2020 in both groups. On average, customers with a generalized anxiety disorder had 62 percent higher levels of asthma exacerbations when compared with those with no generalized anxiety disorder (see figure 3) after adjusting for other important variables.
<div id="attachment_32497" style="width: 761px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32497" class="wp-image-32497 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Figure-3-Wildfires.jpg" alt="" width="751" height="504" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Figure-3-Wildfires.jpg 751w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Figure-3-Wildfires-300x201.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 751px) 100vw, 751px" />Figure 3: Asthma exacerbations and generalized anxiety disorder</div>
This small sample analysis highlighted an increase in asthma exacerbations in 2020. Although it was not possible to track how anxiety changed from 2019 to 2020, this analysis demonstrated that research participants with a generalized anxiety disorder had high levels of asthma exacerbations in 2020.
In addition, a strong association between the western wildfires and a spike in asthma exacerbations was observed in 23andMe research data. This is consistent with <a href="https://www.med.ubc.ca/news/wildfire-smoke-has-immediate-harmful-health-effects/">previous evidence</a> shedding light on the link between proximity to wildfires and chronic lung disease exacerbation.
Given that asthma exacerbation can lead to severe hospitalizations as well as worsen COVID-19 disease prognosis, special consideration should be given to this population.
This small analysis highlights how 23andMe research data can be leveraged to gain rapid insights into how naturally occurring events can affect the health of a specific subpopulation.
23andMe Customers who have consented to participate in research and who wish to contribute to our asthma survey can do so <a href="https://you.23andme.com/research/surveys/asthma_update_0/">here</a>. Not yet a customer? Find out more about our service <a href="https://www.23andme.com/compare-dna-tests/?sub=ver2&amp;cabt=nao">here</a> or you can learn about some of our published research <a href="https://www.23andme.com/publications/">here</a>.

Western Wildfires Increased Asthma Attacks in 2020   

Led by researchers in Australia, an international team of scientists uncovered <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008725">new genetic associations</a> for allergies, asthma, and eczema by studying how soon in life individuals developed those conditions.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Dandelion-Allergies-300x200.jpg" alt="" class="alignright wp-image-26256 size-medium" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Dandelion-Allergies-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Dandelion-Allergies-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Dandelion-Allergies-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Dandelion-Allergies-880x587.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Dandelion-Allergies-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Dandelion-Allergies.jpg 1254w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
 
The researchers identified 76 genetic variants associated with these sorts of allergic diseases in or near 18 different genes. They found that about 50 of the variants are associated with both a higher risk for developing allergic diseases and developing one of these conditions at a very early age.
<h6>Genetic Burden </h6>
The significance of the finding is that it can help determine the overall “genetic burden” for developing allergies, or asthma or eczema, according to the co-lead author of the study Manuel Ferreira, Ph.D., a specialist in the genetics of asthma formerly at the<a href="https://www.qimrberghofer.edu.au/"> QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute</a> in Brisbane, Australia.

In this <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008725">study</a>, the findings indicate that people with the highest genetic risk are likely developing one of these conditions earliest in life. Those with the lowest genetic risk may never develop symptoms. Using this insight also helped researchers identify new genetic associations for these conditions.
 
While genetics plays an important role, environmental factors also influence the risk of developing an allergic condition. But the findings will help researchers better understand why and how allergic disease develops in some individuals and not others, as well as understand the genetic influences.
<h6>Overlapping Risk</h6>
Ferreira, now at Regeneron, previously worked on a study that found<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ng.3985"> overlapping genetic risk</a> factors for allergic diseases, such as asthma and hay fever, which used data from 23andMe. 
 
For this study, the researchers used data from the dozens of previously published genome-wide association studies for allergic disease — some of which included data from 23andMe, as well as the UK Biobank and others.

You can read the full study in <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008725">PLOS Genetics.</a>

Researchers Identify New Genetic Associations for Allergies, Asthma and Eczema

Starting today, we&#8217;re providing an easy way for our customers to share and crowdsource treatments they use to manage common health conditions, like depression, asthma, <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/new-23andme-report-on-attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder">ADHD</a> and migraine.
<h6>Conditions Pages</h6>
All 23andMe Health + Ancestry service customers will be able to learn about the effectiveness and popularity of hundreds of different treatments for common conditions — and will also be able to contribute their own personal experiences. Crowdsourced treatment ratings are just one facet of our new <a href="https://you.23andme.com/research/condition/">Condition Pages</a>, which contain database insights on 18 <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/23andme-adds-another-important-condition-to-health-communities">common health conditions</a>.
Each condition page includes scientifically curated information describing the condition, its genetic and non-genetic influences, as well as how common it is in 23andMe research participants.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-26135 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Conditions-PageDepression.jpg" alt="An image from the health conditions page showing results around depression." width="890" height="681" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Conditions-PageDepression.jpg 890w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Conditions-PageDepression-300x230.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Conditions-PageDepression-768x588.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Conditions-PageDepression-880x673.jpg 880w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 890px) 100vw, 890px" />
The treatment section summarizes what 23andMe customers with these conditions say works or does not work in treating their condition.
<h6>Treatments Page</h6>
This kind of crowd-sourced tool allows individuals with say, depression, to see what other customers say is effective or not effective in treating the condition. This offers people a different kind of information than they could get simply by doing a Google search, because it comes from others like them living with the same conditions.
Since rolling out the treatment pages over the past few weeks, thousands of people have already contributed over 30,000 personal reviews of their responses to different treatments. This is allowing people to <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/23andme-adds-another-important-condition-to-health-communities">build communities</a> that share common conditions but have different strategies for dealing with them. At 23andMe, we believe in helping our customers manage their health — not just through <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-health-ancestry/">genetic reports</a>, but also by giving them access to lots of useful, relevant information.
“It’s evident by the growing response from our customers that there is a real desire for information around health treatments,” says Jessie Inchauspe, the product manager who spearheaded work on the treatment pages. “It’s important to enable people to actively engage in sharing health information with each other.”
This is the first time we’ve enabled customers to share real-time health information with one another.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-26134 size-large" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Treatment-effectivenss-1024x946.jpg" alt="A page from the health conditions feature that shows an example of how people report what they do for their depression including using medication and exercise and how they rate its effectiveness." width="1024" height="946" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Treatment-effectivenss-1024x946.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Treatment-effectivenss-300x277.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Treatment-effectivenss-768x710.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Treatment-effectivenss-880x813.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Treatment-effectivenss-1180x1090.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Treatment-effectivenss.jpg 1554w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
For example, you can see here the most <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/what-patients-say-works-for-bipolar-disorder">effective treatments for depression</a> reported by 23andMe customers. These include therapy, exercise, and antidepressants such as Zoloft and Wellbutrin.
<h6>Crowdsourced Information</h6>
You can also see what treatments could potentially lead to worse outcomes. For example, based on the data shared for asthma, inhalers were among the most used and most effective treatment, but they also included some cases where the symptoms got worse. However, “avoiding allergens” was a relatively effective approach without any potential negative effects.
Many treatments are designed for the average patient in mind, but few of us are actually average. We are each unique, and understanding those differences — even small ones — is essential to learn how to better treat conditions and make medical care more personalized. Genetics certainly offers important insight into how we differ in response to treatments. Allowing people to have a place to share their own experience will also aid in our understanding.
For now, the purpose of these pages is to share this crowdsourced information on the effectiveness of treatments. But the information could at some people aid in research into how people of different ethnicities or different genetic makeups respond differently to treatments.

Crowdsource Treatments for Health Conditions

An international team of scientists, led by researchers in Australia, found more than a hundred different genetic variants in or near immune-related genes that are associated with having asthma, hay fever and eczema.
In a study published this week in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ng.3985">Nature Genetics</a>, researchers at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane Australia— and about a dozen other institutions around the world including 23andMe — identified new genomic regions associated with these three allergic diseases providing a deeper understanding about why these conditions often occur together in an individual.
Led by Manuel Ferreira, Ph.D, the study was three times larger than the next largest genome wide associations of allergic disease. This study also stands out because it didn’t focus on just one condition, looking instead at the overlapping genetic influences for these three conditions, which tend to occur together.
“Asthma, hay fever and eczema are allergic diseases that affect different parts of the body: the lungs, the nose and the skin,” Ferreira said. “We already knew that they were similar at many levels. For example, we knew that the three diseases shared many genetic risk factors. What we didn’t know was exactly where in the genome those shared genetic risk factors were located.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/iStock-636878352-1024x793.jpg" alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-25827" width="1024" height="793" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/iStock-636878352-1024x793.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/iStock-636878352-300x232.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/iStock-636878352-768x594.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/iStock-636878352-880x681.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/iStock-636878352.jpg 1164w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />By dramatically increasing the size of the study and focusing on three overlapping conditions, the researchers substantially improved their ability to identify shared risk variants.
The scientists looked at data from more than 360,000 people — including data from about 118,000 23andMe customers who consented to participate in research as well as data from institutions in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia. Their analysis identified more than 130 different genes or gene regions associated with allergic disease, with the vast majority involved in immune response. This, in turn, explains why these conditions often occur together.
“Our genetic findings demonstrate that asthma, hay fever, and eczema co-occur to a large extent because they share genetic risk variants that dis-regulate the expression of immune-related genes,” the researchers concluded in their paper.
The majority of genes and gene regions identified influence the function of immune cells. The genetic variants identified in the study disrupt the function of genes involved in immune response, in essence turning them off. 
Beyond identifying the different genes involved and explaining why these conditions occur together, the study also helped identify potential new treatments for therapy. 
“Importantly, we have identified several drugs that we believe could be targeted at some of these genes to treat allergies,” Ferreira said. “The first step would be to test those drugs in the laboratory.”

New research identifies more than a hundred immune-related genes associated with asthma and allergies

Sorting through hundreds of genetic risk variants for asthma, Australian scientists – with input and data from researchers at 23andMe – have <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-thumbnail wp-image-5814 alignright" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/iStock_000003241516XSmall-200x200.jpg" alt="inhaler_asthma" width="200" height="200" />identified an association between asthma and the expression of four genes, a finding that could aid efforts for treating the chronic disease that impacts an estimated 300 million people worldwide.


Published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, the<a href="http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(16)30804-1/pdf"> new study</a> – led by asthma researchers at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, Australia – took an innovative approach to identifying these four genes, developing a gene-based test and software the researchers dubbed EUGENE. This approach combines information from genome wide association studies for asthma with expression Quantitative Trait Loci, or eQTLs, known locations in the genome that influence how that gene involved in asthma are expressed.


Because there are so many different genetic risk variants for asthma – potentially thousands of variants – the researchers were looking for a way to improve the power of traditional genome wide association studies for identifying genes that have a functional role in the disease.


This approach helped researchers to find four genes B4GALT3, USMG5, P2RY13 and P2RY14. Two of those genes – P2RY13 and P2RY14 – are both associated with impaired lung function in asthmatics. P2RY14 also is associated with elevated white blood cell counts, which is often seen during a heightened inflammatory response.


Beyond identifying these four novel asthma risk genes, the lead researcher Manuel Ferreira and his team took these findings a step further. They did functional studies in mice to look at changes in the expression of two of the genes – P2RY13 and P2RY14.
The researchers found that increased expression of these two genes in mice resulted in impaired lung function and an increase in eosinophil counts – the white blood cells that are often used as biomarkers for asthma. These findings may aid in research into treatments for asthma, according to the study authors.
The study appears in the <a href="http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(16)30804-1/pdf">Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.</a>

A new methodology helps identify four new asthma risk genes

<div id="attachment_23961" style="width: 250px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23961" class="wp-image-23961 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/esteban-gonzalez-burchard-240x300.jpg" alt="esteban-gonzalez-burchard" width="240" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/esteban-gonzalez-burchard-240x300.jpg 240w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/esteban-gonzalez-burchard-768x960.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/esteban-gonzalez-burchard-819x1024.jpg 819w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/esteban-gonzalez-burchard-704x880.jpg 704w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/esteban-gonzalez-burchard-944x1180.jpg 944w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/esteban-gonzalez-burchard.jpg 1157w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" />Esteban G. Burchard, MD, MPH</div>
Asthma can start with simple tightness in the chest, but end in an epic battle to breathe.
So whether you are black or white, Asian or Latino, an asthma attack can be frightening, especially if you are a kid.
But who you are, or more accurately what your ancestry is, does matter in what scientists can say about the triggers, causes and biology of the disease.
There has been a lot of research that’s been done on asthma, and we know a lot about the condition. But the vast majority of that research has been done only on people of European ancestry, and in many cases it offers little insights for people of other ethnicities.
Some estimates show that<a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v475/n7355/full/475163a.html"> more than 90 percent</a> of the research into the genetics underlying disease is on individuals of European descent alone.
That’s a problem for everybody, according to the University of California at San Francisco Professor<a href="http://profiles.ucsf.edu/esteban.burchard"> Esteban Burchard</a>, an MD, MPH.


“Almost all the genetic studies of asthma have been done using white patients only, but you can’t assume these results will apply to other ethnic groups,” said Esteban, who directs the Genes-environments &amp; Admixture in Latino Americans Study and the Study of African Americans, Asthma, Genes &amp; Environments at University of California San Francisco.
He also serves as an expert on research disparities for President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative.
<div id="attachment_23960" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23960" class="wp-image-23960 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Asthma-prevalence-300x172.jpg" alt="Asthma prevalence" width="300" height="172" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Asthma-prevalence-300x172.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Asthma-prevalence.jpg 752w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Asthma prevalence among children of different ancestry.</div>
A long-time friend of 23andMe who previously served as an advisor in the company’s effort to recruit more African Americans called “Roots into the Future,” Esteban said that the lack of diversity in research leaves non-Europeans behind in the genetics revolution and it leaves huge gaps in scientists’ understanding of disease.
There are efforts to change that.
Recently 23andMe received<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/news/announcements/23andme-scientists-improving-diversity-in-genetic-research/"> a National Institutes of Health grant</a> for a project that uses admixture mapping as a way to aid gaining better insight into health research for underrepresented communities. While this doesn’t involve recruiting, it could help leverage 23andMe’s diverse collection of customers who have consented to research.
The need for these kinds of approaches to improve diversity in research are very apparent. Asthma is a case in point. It is the most common chronic disease among all children, but it hits African American and Puerto Rican kids at almost twice the rate of all other children. About 18 percent of Puerto Rican children have asthma, while about 15 percent of African American kids do.
Addressing this head on, Esteban recently lead a team that completed the largest single study of the genetic and environmental causes of<a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00251-016-0914-1"> asthma in African American children</a>. The study suggests that only a tiny fraction of known genetic risk factors for the disease that have been discovered in other research actually apply to African Americans.


“This paper is an important first step towards truly understanding the biology of asthma in African Americans,” Esteban said.


The paper also reinforces the importance of gathering more research data on people of all ancestries to improve the insights that can be gained through genetic research.
The study included data from more than 1,200 African Americans, about 800 of whom have asthma, to look for genetic variants associated with the disease. The researchers looked at genetic variants known to be associated with asthma in people of European ancestry. They found that 95 percent of the variants that increase risk for asthma in Europeans didn’t appear to increase risk for African Americans. And for the first time they identified genetic variants associated with higher risk for asthma in African American children. Those variants were in or near genes that are also associated with obesity and inflammation, which could help researchers as they investigate the biology of the disease.
For Esteban this clearly shows the value of the research the team is doing by focusing on people of color.


“We want to understand why some minority communities have higher rates of disease and how they may respond differently to treatment,” he said. “But the risk factors we identify in these understudied populations can also point the way to new biology, which can be important for everyone.”

Asthma in African American Children

Researchers know that certain genes, or more accurately regions in our genes, are <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-23879" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/traits-300x149.jpg" alt="traits" width="300" height="149" />multitaskers, influencing a wide variety of traits and conditions that range from such things as the size of our noses to our susceptibility to childhood ear infections to our risk for Parkinson’s disease.


A new study led by researchers at the <a href="https://www.nygenome.org/">New York Genome Center</a> and 23andMe analyzed 42 different traits and identified more than 300 locations in the genome that influence multiple traits and conditions. The study, <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.3570" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">published in Nature Genetics</a>, was supported through a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
It’s not news that a single genetic variant may influence multiple traits and conditions. There’s even a name for this in genetics: pleiotropy. But <a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/46094/title/Genetic-Connections-Among-Human-Traits/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this research</a> took that one step further going beyond the mere correlation and developing a method to identify the biological relationships between traits to show causal connections.
“While genomic studies have been successful in identifying genetic variants that influence disease risk, it’s important to understand the impact of genetic variants across many diseases,&#8221; said <a href="https://jkplab.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Joseph Pickrell</a>, PhD, the lead author of the study and an assistant investigator at New York Genome Institute.
Pickerll is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University.
He said genetic variants may be influence many different conditions in different ways.


&#8220;For example, if a genetic variant decreases risk of schizophrenia but increases risk of Parkinson’s disease, drugs that target this gene may have unintended consequences,&#8221; Pickrell said.


Excluding so-called “trivial” correlations, the researchers identified several different clusters, some of which showed causal relationships. This causal relationship might be direct, so for example a single genetic variant might influence many different traits or conditions, or a variant might influence one trait or condition and that in turn leads to another trait or condition.
Researchers in this study found that variants known to influence puberty also influence height, male pattern baldness and BMI, which are all related to hormonal regulation. Another cluster was found around metabolic conditions such as coronary artery disease, red blood cell traits and lipid levels. And researchers also noted clustering around immune response with conditions like asthma, allergies, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis and infectious diseases like childhood ear infections and tonsillitis clustering together.


The researchers say their study validates the use of genome wide association studies to find variants that influence many different traits. In turn identifying them may also help to highlight true causal relationships by bringing into sharp relief the biology behind certain conditions. Although the researchers say they have only identified a modest number of variants that causally influence multiple traits and conditions, they suggest that a larger study would uncover many more.
Finally this study also highlights the value of the mix of data 23andMe customers share for research, which includes not just genotypic data from detailed phenotypic information.
This allowed 23andMe to contribute to this study by including information from more than 300,000 customers who consented to research.
This is valuable information for researchers who can tap into a wide range of phenotypes as varied as allergies and asthma or the timing of puberty or whether they have chin dimples or had a lot of ear infections as a child. It’s this kind of rich data that can lead to unexpected insights that 23andMe is uniquely able provide scientists.


“This study illustrates the value of collecting not just genotypic data but a wide variety of phenotypic data, something that 23andMe is uniquely able to do,” said co-author David Hinds, PhD,  principal scientist, statistical genetics at 23andMe.  “The ability to study this type of rich phenotypic and genotypic data at scale makes it possible to uncover unexpected insights.”


The study appears in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ng.3570.html#access" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nature Genetics</a>.

Genetic variants found to influence multiple traits and conditions

23andMe announced this week that it would add access to genetic information to ResearchKit, an open source framework introduced by Apple <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-23714" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Phone-Iimage-145x300.jpg" alt="Phone Iimage" width="300" height="619" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Phone-Iimage-145x300.jpg 145w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Phone-Iimage-496x1024.jpg 496w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Phone-Iimage-427x880.jpg 427w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Phone-Iimage-572x1180.jpg 572w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Phone-Iimage.jpg 716w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />that allows researchers and developers to create powerful apps for medical research.
As an update to their existing studies, scientists at <a href="http://apps.icahn.mssm.edu/asthma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mount Sinai</a> and <a href="https://med.stanford.edu/myheartcounts/faq.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Stanford</a> will be the first to use 23andMe&#8217;s module to incorporate genetic information from 23andMe in their research.
It is 23andMe’s first foray in what will likely be many efforts to leverage mobile technology for collecting more than just survey data as we currently do. In this case, it will be used to study asthma and heart disease.


The updated apps developed for the studies also allow 23andMe customers to easily participate after a simple informed consent process. These studies have great potential to uncover new information about asthma and heart disease. But beyond that, they also hint at the potential of integrating mobile technology into ongoing genetic research.
Scientists are already marveling at how smartphones could power this kind of research.
“Phones are always with you,” said Rob Borkowski, Ph.D., 23andMe&#8217;s Platforms Product Manager. “So unlike with a computer, you don’t have to log on and then fill in information about your activity. Your phone can record that kind of information automatically.”


A smart phone can seamlessly track activity, sleep or even the rate of your tapping, said Rob. For researchers, this kind of real-time information could help them follow the progression of an illness, and for patients a smartphone can give them a simple way of recording symptoms as they happen.
<div id="attachment_21761" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21761" class="wp-image-21761 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RobSquare-300x300.jpeg" alt="RobSquare" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RobSquare-300x300.jpeg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RobSquare-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RobSquare-768x768.jpeg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RobSquare-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RobSquare-880x880.jpeg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RobSquare-1180x1180.jpeg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RobSquare-271x271.jpeg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RobSquare-372x372.jpeg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RobSquare-574x574.jpeg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RobSquare-980x980.jpeg 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RobSquare.jpeg 1925w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Rob Borkowski, 23andMe&#8217;s Platforms Product Manager</div>
23andMe&#8217;s unique research platform is centered on engaging easily with customers. It offers people a simple way to participate in research if they wish, while also learning about themselves.
By leveraging online tools, 23andMe&#8217;s platform has already proven that it can accelerate the pace of research.
By integrating the smartphone into that process, it adds another layer of information for researchers to parse. It also makes it that much simpler for people to participate and that much easier for researchers to collect new kinds of data, said Gregory Frank, 23andMe’s director of business development.


Other researchers are already using smartphones to do such things as study the progression of neurodegenerative diseases by tracking changes in how patients click on their phones or gauge differences in the pace of their steps, said Gregory.
Beyond that there is the sheer number of mobile phones, even in undeveloped areas.
This opens up other avenues to find under served communities not just for researchers but for both doctors and patients interested in the delivery of mobile health care. In the short term the availability of mobile phones makes it easier to both participate in research and gather data for research.


As part of this broader effort to leverage mobile technology, 23andMe will allow researchers to broaden their efforts at recruiting not just to current 23andMe customers but enlist new participants through the ResearchKit app. (New participants get a free 23andMe kit as part of the project.) What makes this new feature attractive is that it gives scientists another tool for the sometimes difficult task of recruiting research participants.
It’s a turnkey feature for researchers, and for those who choose to participate they in turn get to contribute to research while also getting access to genetic information about themselves.

asthma