Why everyone needs a DNA test

in #dna7 years ago

Dna test is something I ordered like two months ago. Just after I bought it, went to see package tracking, couldn't wait till it gets to the final destination, which is, in this case, in my hands. It took a month till it finally came. DNA test package is actually a box which contains detailed instructions and a test tube for your saliva. You have all steps to help you do a test included so you don't have to worry that you are doing something wrong. Just activate your test, spit in the tube (this was a little bit disgusting) and ship it back to Ancestry.

About a month I was refreshing my email and Ancestry online page until the results finally came. It was a New Years Eve. About 11 pm. You can imagine my face when I saw an email ''Your results are ready.'' New Years Eve! I was having fun with my friends and now, when I saw that, I just went crazy. Tried to open it on my mobile phone but something was wrong (my mobile was from the decade before Christ) so I gave up and decided to have fun and see it when I come home.

Finally, results. My origin was not so interesting and fascinating, I mean, it was expected, even though I hoped that it will say something like I have a little bit of Aborigine's blood. But oh well, that didn't happen. I'm a pure European: 67% Europe East (Northeast Italy, Croatia & Bosnia and Herzegovina), 27% Europe South and some low confidence regions which I found not interesting at all. Let's simplify it – I am a pure Balkanic.

Then, you come to the interesting part. When you go to the settings, there's a small part where you can download your raw DNA data. This contains your genes and describes things that are known until that day about each specific gene you have. you can upload the zip file you downloaded from ancestry to many pages which will provide you information about your genes. Some of the genes are pretty investigated and some of them are not, of course. I uploaded it to the Promethease site which I found pretty easy and organized to understand. When you open it, you have like a zillion different genes described in your DNA results. The most interesting and valuable ones are those in the very beginning (as far as I know). You have written all the diseases, psychical and physical, and risks that are for you to get those. Of course, you can't let it get in your head, it's just on the basis of genes. You can have a specific gene that can make you get f.e. lungs cancer and never get one. It can actually help you to act like you could do something about it. Fe. if you are a smoker, you could stop smoking if you have 20 times increased the risk for it, or at least cutdown the number of cigarettes per day.

Also, every gene that is investigated provides short paragraph with the described reasons why the particular gene encodes and what does it mean in combination with your specifical genotype. Under the mentioned paragraph, you can press ''more info'', what will switch you to the SNPedia site. Here, you can see more details and explained reasons for the beliefs why your genotype encodes particular condition. Also, you can search further – this site provides access to studies which will show the researches that your genes transcription is based on. Pretty amazing, isn't it?

To be honest, my results did help me a lot but also complicated my understandings about my functioning in global. But, that was only a few days after getting the results, as I told you already, you can't let it get in your head. But it is something that helped me to understand some of my behaviors (at least I explain those on the basis of genes, especially those behaviors which I don't like lol). It also provided me a lifetime material to explore and not to scroll Facebook 24/7. Even if you are a complete amateur on this thing about genes, you will find it very interesting when you get into the depth of the content. I visit Promethease site like few times on a daily basis and each time I find something new! So, if you want to know more about yourself, do a DNA test, you won't be sorry.

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I'm waiting for my AncestryDNA test to be processed now. I'm really curious as to how it will compare to my FTDNA results. I've also uploaded the data to Promethease but I've forgotten to go back to study more of it.

Are you going to use your DNA results to do any family research? That's why I took the test, to help my research. :)

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