DNA test

[missyinacage]

My husband and I decided to give each other the 23 & Me DNA ancestry and health test for Christmas. He had done the Ancestry DNA test years ago but was interested in the health aspect, as am I. I didn't really find out anything I didn't already know EXCEPT ..

They use your genetic makeup to determine what your body is most likely to weigh. And, apparently, I am genetically pre-disposed to weigh a normal amount. This might seem like common sense, but since my entire family is heavy, I've always assumed we, myself included, were just genetically prone to be over-weight. To find I'm not is oddly freeing.

I've accepted that my behaviors are the reason that I had to have WLS and that only I can determine my weight in the future. But I've always gone on the assumption that I'm going to have to fight a natural tendency toward obesity. And while I'm still going to have to fight my own tendency to overeat, I am actually feeling really good about this. It's just given me a positive boost to know that I'm not fighting nature; only my own bad behaviors.

 

[3momchaos]

You made me go back to my 23&me to see what mine said LOL Nothing about weight but I’m at a higher than average risk for type 2 diabetes.

 

[Emacc08]

I didnt know 23 & me did this! how cool! i did ancestry as well, but it doesn't really give you much info. Now i want to do this! My family is overweight as well. Well the women, the men are perfectly healthy.

 

[KarenWV]

That is so interesting to find out that kind of health info. I might have to check into this.

 

[3momchaos]

Oh I was wrong-went back and looked again. Genetically predisposed to average weight, but weigh more on a high saturated fat diet…isn’t that everyone LOL

 

[Emacc08]

Oh I was wrong-went back and looked again. Genetically predisposed to average weight, but weigh more on a high saturated fat diet…isn’t that everyone LOLView attachment 4853

i like the caffeine "likely to consume more." lol! I lived on caffeine for a long time (thank you nursing school) but don't really care for it now unless i have a bad migraine. how weird!

 

[3momchaos]

I used to live on caffeine too, thank you 3 kids within 2 years of each other LOL But now I have about 16oz every morning, and that’s it.

 

[missyinacage]

Mine also said likely to consume more caffeine, which is 100% true! Mine actually said that I should not expect any weight difference with a high saturated fat either!! I think some people do good on low carb/high fat diets and some on low fat/higher carbs diets. So, I took this to mean that it doesn't much matter where my calories come from. Which is good, I guess. I just really have to keep an eye on how much I eat.

 

[NewChallenge]

Thank you for sharing this. I am doing the metabolism one from Everlywell. I hope my will be half as cool as your was

 

[missyinacage]

Thank you for sharing this. I am doing the metabolism one from Everlywell. I hope my will be half as cool as your was

I would be very interested in that. I didn't know they did those. When Ryan did that study where they determined how his body deals with sugar/fats/carbs etc I was amazed. Wouldn't that be the best information in the world to have?

 

[NewChallenge]

I would be very interested in that. I didn't know they did those. When Ryan did that study where they determined how his body deals with sugar/fats/carbs etc I was amazed. Wouldn't that be the best information in the world to have?

Missy I will share this info with you when I get it. I have not even got the test yet so it may be a bit. Shipping is so slow right now.

 

[WazzuCoug]

I did 23&Me a couple of years ago, and it is pretty interesting stuff. The part of the results I found most interesting was connecting with people to who I discovered I was related, not just based on the DNA, but after comparing relatives that we had in common after the DNA identified someone as a "cousin" or whatever. That was pretty cool. Getting a general idea of the various percentages of my heritage (44% Scandinavian, 27% French & German, 6% British & Irish, etc.) was neat. The Health insights were interesting, but something to definitely take with a grain of salt.

With regards to DNA and obesity, there are genetic markers that can predispose a person to obesity or type 2 diabetes, but I think science if finding out that the health of a person's microbiome is the main factor in the equation, which is why I went the direction of mapping my microbiome and discovering what foods might help build it up to a better state. A blind test of a person's microbiome can be read with more than 90+% accuracy to determine if the person who gave the sample was obese or not. Trying to determine that through DNA isn't even close to that level of accuracy.

Metabolism is also part of the equation, but it ties back to food and the microbiome. Those gut bugs drive so many things in our system, it's really amazing, from efficiency processing calories to serotonin and many other hormones. When we eat poorly, so many chemical signals get disrupted and it's really hard to recover, as most of us have experienced.

I think the DNA stuff is pretty cool.

 

[eladams2015]

My hubby and I have done this as well. It is interesting, because both of ours have re-confirmed a lot of things that we already knew about our genetics with family illness etc.