One of the newest fads that I am totally down for is knowing our genetic history and ancestry. It has always been something talked about in my household because my Nana is a genealogist. But I know for most people that isn’t the norm. It was a fact that I knew I was Jordanian, Palestinian, Irish and Italian so this experiment I did was supposed to be very straight forward since I already knew the answers. But the results I got were surprising!
As we all know, this is #ScienceSunday so we need to go over something sciencey here!! So let’s talk about genes, DNA, and inheritance.
Inheritance is the process of genetic information being passed on from parent to child. We get one copy of our genome from each of our parents. Humans are diploid, which means we have two sets of 23 chromosomes (long strands of DNA wrapped around a protein). Our sex cells however are haploids (single set of chromosomes) and only become diploid when a male sperm and female egg combine to form a diploid fertilized egg.
DNA is deoxyribonucleic acid and is the genetic code that determines our “genes”.
Okay science over, let’s get to the juicy stuff!
The top two genetics services are Ancestry.com and 23andMe. I decided to try both including their health profiling.
Up first, Ancestry.com
This was the first service I used since I got it as a Christmas gift from the best Nana in the world. The process of sampling is simple. Spit in a tube, add the solution, and send off the package in the mail. I did this all around Christmas time so I had an extended wait time of 8 weeks since it was their busy season. The health portion was an added cost but they could use the sample I already sent to them which was great.
And the results showed…
Ethnicity Estimate: Health traits:
- 71% Middle Eastern (obvs) Don’t sneeze when
exposed to bright light (ehh) - 12% Ireland and Scotland (another obvs) Developed all of my
wisdom teeth (true) - 9% Turkey and the Caucasus Don’t have a cleft chin
- 1% Italy (shockingly low) Wet earwax (so true sorry
if that’s gross) - 1% England, Wales, and NW Europe Dark eyes (true)
- 1% Spain Index finger longer than
ring finger (true) - 1% Mali Darker, average thickness hair
(true) - 1% North African Less sensitive to umami (???)
Light to medium skin tone (true)
Naturally wavy (more curly)
For the most part, it seemed pretty accurate. I would recommend the ancestry part of it but I don’t think the health part is necessary.
Then we have 23andMe.
So for sure, 23andMe is more expensive than Ancestry.com but if you can find a deal on Amazon Prime Day like I did, its 50% off which is INSANE! I ordered the ancestry and health kit also so I could compare equally. Same process as Ancestry.com where you spit into the tube, add solution, and ship it back. I sent my sample at a less busy time so my expected wait time was only 4 weeks.
And the results showed…
Ethnicity Estimate: Health traits/Variants:
- 40% Jodanian (obvs) Late Onset Alzheimer’s slightly increased risk
- 23.1% Lebanon (shocking) Aging-Macular Degeneration
(variant detected) - 8.8% Broad Western Asian & North African No cleft chin
- 8.9% Spanish and Portugese No dimples
- 0.8% Italian Wet earwax
- 3.1% Broadly Southern European Likely to be afraid of heights
- 6.9% British and Irish Light straight hair
- 1% French and German A little unibrow
- 0.5% Scandinavian No sneezing at the sun
- 2.1% Broadly Northwestern European Bitten by mosquitoes more often than others
- 1.1% Broadly European Lactose intolerant
- 1.6% Sudanese More than average sleep
movement (this is so true, sorry Michael!) - 0.2% Ethopian and Eritrean
- 0.2% Broadly North African
- 0.7% Nigerian
- 0.2% Broadly West African
- 0.1% Broadly Sub-Saharan African
- 0.7% Unassigned
This test went way more in depth in both the ancestry and health sides. I was intrigued to see how low they can test for. And how it tested for a food intolerance! How neat! I thought it was great to see that they tested for detrimental variants. I don’t like surprises so this was perfect for me.
Doing these tests is definitely an investment but I think is worth it. It can help you if you have no idea where your ancestors come from. Michael had no idea until he did his Ancestry.com test. Now he knows and talks about it all the time! If I had to choose one or the other, I think the 23andMe would be my choice. Solely for the added health option. I think it gives such important testing information.
If you go and do any of these tests, tag me in your posts online! I’d love to see your ancestry and health results!!
Xox, Z
