Holy Sh*& !!!!!!!!!!!!

[LydiaGaebe]

HELP!
I quite innocently stumbled into something that scared the "fecal matter" right out of me!

On the GEDMatch site I found a link to a deeper look into one's DNA and found something positively frightening lurking in my chromosome 11. I know very little about DNA beyond the "family finder" related material here and elsewhere on the internet.

Oh, and GEDMatch has crashed again....That's why my panicked note is here.

It was highlighted in red and my curiosity led me to learn a scary fact it has something to do with the heart! And it's a dominate gene. YIKES!

What the hell am I, an innocent middle aged history major supposed to do with THAT information? I don't have kids, but my sister has two adult kids and a grandson.

HELP!

"GizaTheCat"

[KSDA]

I'm certainly no expert in this matter and have not personally seen your results, but I will say this: genetic test results are certainly not definitive when it comes to predicting the health of an individual, but could be helpful for indicating which personal "quirks" might need further examination. The best advice I can give is for you to go see a doctor and discuss your concerns with him or her. Best wishes!

[Lipitzan]

You must take these things with a grain of salt. There are also epigenetic factors and lifestyle factors that impact your health. Also many of these "x more likely to's.." are often simple associations and not outright causes for disease.

[gtc]

If you are interested in the health implications of DNA, then ordinarily I would suggest that you test with 23andMe, which specializes in that. However, they are currently having a battle with the FDA and have suspended health-related testing pending resolution of that battle.

[Ann Turner]

Since you can't recreate the report at GEDMatch right now, we can't discuss the specifics.

I'm assuming you have results from Family Finder? I'm a bit surprised that this information came up at GEDMatch, since FTDNA has the stated goal of removing health-related SNPs from your download.

The next surprising thing is that the mutation was described as autosomal dominant. 23andMe does test for a number of "Mendelian" diseases (where the inheritance pattern such as dominant or recessive is clear, vs many variants that give an increase in "relative risk"). But the majority of those tests involve custom SNPs, not found on the standard chip.

One way to cross-check the GEDMatch report is to run your results through Promethease.

http://www.snpedia.com/index.php/Promethease

[mebrowndfw]

If you are interested in the health implications of DNA, then ordinarily I would suggest that you test with 23andMe, which specializes in that. However, they are currently having a battle with the FDA and have suspended health-related testing pending resolution of that battle.

23andMe no longer offers the medical analysis.

[gtc]

23andMe no longer offers the medical analysis.

Yep, that's what I said.

[mebrowndfw]

Yep, that's what I said.

Thanks for pointing that out. LOL. I'm not sure how/why, but I read something completely different the first time.

Michael

[keigh]

First things first. Calm down. Take some deep relaxing breaths.

Try going to back GEDmatch and get the exact details as to what you read. I read it was back up again. It is sort of an off and on thing. Print out the information if you can so you'll be able to discuss the details of any questions you might have.

Then make an appointment with your doctor or a cardiologist, if you're really worried, and talk to a professional about the possible problem.

If this happened to me it would scare me too, so I'm giving you the advice I'd give me. Good luck and best wishes.

[Brunetmj]

Another fact not mentioned is the importance of family history. On any physicians preadmission that is usually one of the first questions they ask. If I belived every SNP that crossed my path, I likely would'nt leave my house...

[penguin]

Just post the snp here or search for it on 23andme and a number of folk will likely tell you a great deal there is to know about it. It's probably no big deal. if its one of the ones with an "odds ratio" that a tiny bit higher, or even 4 times as high, as usual risk, it usually, by itself, means nothing. But post it, and we can all talk specifics.