June 9, 2022 • 25 mins
This episode is something special I did in conjunction with 23andMe and the SPIT podcast which you can hear on iHeartRadio. I took a look into what my DNA says about me. Beyond what my ancestry says, with a focus on my health. Throughout this process I learned about two genetic variants that could impact myself or my family and also that I have a typical likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes, which has always been a concern since it runs in my family. There’s also fun stuff I learned from my DNA… I won’t be losing my hair anytime soon and why I experience itchier mosquito bites. Stacey Detweiler and Alisa Lehman from the 23andMe team both join me to go over some of my results and help understand more about my DNA.
Next, I go a little deeper into what the results I got specifically mean to me. Things I’ve experienced with my family and in my past and why this process has been eye opening in some cases. The best thing to come out of this has been the information learned and knowing what to do next to improve my health.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Have you ever thought about how incredibly complex I spit is.
It may only be water, but just aliva isn't simple.
That remaining one holds incredibly meaningful information that could change everything.
And I'm not just talking about your family treat Hi.
I'm barretton Day Thurston and on this season of Spit
(00:24):
and I Heart Radio podcast with twenty three and Me,
we explore how DNA isn't just about ancestry, it can
also be key to understanding your health. Hi again, We're bad.
Oscar Ramirez, host of The Daily Dive, is all about
(00:44):
the facts. Each day, his podcast explores the most interesting
news of the day with the writers, the analysts of
reporters who know the real story. So when Oscar took
his twenty three and Me test, you know he had questions.
In this episode, Oscar sits down with twenty three and
Me's Stacy Dettweiler and the Lisa Layman to get to
(01:05):
the bottom of his test results. As an Hispanic man,
diabetes in high blood pressure run in his family. So
what can his twenty three and me results to Oscar
about his own health. It's a fascinating conversation and the
must listen for anyone interested in unlocking the knowledge contained
in their own DNA. Oscar takes a deep dive into
(01:26):
his variance and tries to get to the bottom of
some things that just don't add up. For example, Oscar
loves cilantro, but according to his test results, he's supposed
to hate it. So what's going on. Let's listen in
and learn more about the awesome power of DNA when
it comes to understanding your health. I'm Oscar Emiress and
(01:50):
this is the Daily Dive. This episode is something special
I did in conjunction with me in the Spit podcast,
which you can hear and I heart Radio. I took
a look into what my DNA says about me, beyond
what my ancestry says and with a focus on my health.
Throughout this process, I learned about two genetic variants that
(02:12):
could impact myself for my family, and also that I
have a typical likelihood of developing type two diabetes, which
has always been a concern since it runs in my family.
There is also some fun stuff I learned about my
d N a I won't be losing my hair anytime soon,
and why I experienced itchyr mosquito bites. Stacy Dettweiler and
at Lisa Lehman from the twenty three and Me team
(02:32):
both joined me to go over some of my results
and help me understand more about my DNA. Next, I
go a little deeper into what the results I got
specifically mean to me, things I've experienced with my family
and in my past, and why this process has been
eye opening. In some cases, the best thing to come
out of this has been the information learned and knowing
what to do next to improve my health. It's news
(02:53):
without the noise. Let's dive in the good thing is
for you. It sounds like there was just one variant identified,
and something that's really interesting is these variants are actually
very common, and so a lot of people are walking
around with these variants, and so really just having one
variant doesn't increase your risk compared to the general population
because most people do have these variants. Joining us now
(03:14):
is Stacy Dettweiler, a genetic counselor and manager on the
Medical Affairs team at twenty three and Me, and the
Lisa Lehman, a senior manager on the product science team
at twenty three and Me. Thank you for joining me, ladies,
Thank you all, Thanks for having us. All right, So
this whole thing special episode of The Daily Dive done
in partnership with twenty three and Me and the Spit podcast.
(03:35):
You can hear that on I Heart Radio. Uh I,
this was the first time doing one of these DNA
test genetic tests and all that. It was a lot
of fun. You know, you sign up on the app,
you spitting a little tube, send it off, get a
bunch of results. For this we're specifically focusing on what
your DNA, what your genes can tell you about your
health things, diseases, illnesses, things that you can be predisposed
(03:58):
to because of your genet X and uh you know,
going into it, you kind of have this little worry
you know what am I going to be flagged for?
What's going to happen? Even as you opt into certain
reports it tells you, like for Alzheimer's, you know, you know,
be very conscious of what you're gonna get into on
this because it could be unnerving what you get. Uh
So I I kind of experienced all that stuff going
(04:20):
into this, so I opted into for all of that.
I wanted to know what, uh my genes, my DNA
could tell me as much as possible and Thankfully, it
came back with just a few things. Some of the
scary things, right, a lot of people are concerned with
their health didn't come through. But I was flagged for
two variants for certain things and likelihood for developing type
two diabetes. So we'll get into all of this right now.
(04:41):
I want to bring you, ladies on to talk about
the science of how this stuff works. The first thing
I was flagged for was age related macular degeneration. So
this is uh, one of the most common causes of
irreversible vision losses. Happens in older adults. Usually I have
one variant. It's the A six nine S variant in
the A r M two gene. So very little complicated
(05:02):
right now. But a lot of people don't really have
a basis for understanding some of these things. So ladies,
if you can help me explain, help explain what does
this mean in particular. You know, I think the main
aspect is genetics is part of the story, right, and
so for this condition, usually macularity generation, I'm going to
say a m D for short. Um, we know that
(05:22):
there are some genetic variants that do increase your risk
of developing this, right, But luckily there's a lot of
other factors that play a role. Lifestyle smoking is a
big one, right, So there's a lot of action ability
within these results that you can do to reduce your chances.
The good thing is for you, it sounds like there
was just one variant identified. And something that's really interesting
(05:43):
is these variants are actually very common, and so a
lot of people are walking around with these variants and
so really just having one variant doesn't increase your risk
compared to the general population because most people do have
these variants. UM. It's when you start getting multiple that's
when that risk can really increase. Yeah, and when you
get to results through the app or on your online it,
(06:05):
it did tell me that I'm not at a particularly
likelihood for developing this UM. But you know, obviously one
of the things that happens is the vision loss, and
this figures into kind of my personal overall story. There's
a lot of themes running with vision, whether it be
through diabetes and other things. So I open it right,
and a lot of this we're using these things to
kind of empower ourselves to learn more about ourselves. You know.
(06:27):
I know a lot of people don't obviously go to
the doctor all the time, and you know, you go
when something's wrong and you don't really know what's happening
in your body until it's too late. Sometimes I have
to admit I'm kind of guilty of that myself. And
so these things are eye opening. So as we kind
of go through, I'll connect the dots on some of
these things. Another one that I was flagged for, So
this is hereditary emo chromatosis. Basically it's something that could
(06:50):
lead to iron overload. Again, it flagged me for one
of these genes. It said that I'm not at particular
risk for this, but still this is another They're one
of those genes that I carry around. Yeah, and it's
probably again another one that you've never heard of before,
you twenty three and me. And that's very common for
a lot of these genetic conditions that have it where
(07:11):
you know, it's one gene that can really be impacted
that can cause these conditions. Um, and this one is
kind of more considered an autosomal recessive and so having
just one variant, we typically think of you as being
a carrier. You carry a variant, but you really don't
have the condition in terms of expressing symptoms unless you
(07:31):
have kind of a combination two copies of a of
a particular variant. And the interesting thing with this condition
too is that again genetics is still not the full story.
There's a lot of people that have two copies of
a variant or two different variants um and they don't
still develop the iron overloads. So there's you know, again,
genetics is a huge aspect of it when we're talking
(07:53):
about health, but there's a lot of other things that
go along to like lifestyle that can play a big all.
But I think the main thing for you is, you know,
it might not be an indication for concern for your help,
but it could be for family members or your offspring,
because that's when you can actually have that chance. That's
exactly That's exactly my next point right there. So when
(08:14):
you read some of these reports either on the app
or or online and everything, they're very detailed, very thorough,
really help you kind of navigate what the the information
that you're being given, right, it will help you on
the other end of things, let's create a health plan.
So I very much appreciate that, but it did say,
you know, it says in that there's a concern right
that you can pass this variant onto your children. So
(08:37):
if my wife has one of the other variants, then
these things started kind of start compounding on each other.
Um So it feels like, now I need to have
my wife take one of these DNA tests just so
we can start checking all this stuff out and then
some of the signs and symptoms of iron overload, not
that I have it or will develop it, but heart disease, diabetes,
these are things that run in my family. So now
(08:58):
to the big one, the diabetes. With this DNA test,
it said I have a typical likelihood of developing type
two diabetes. To your point, Stacy, right, you've been making
the point that there's a lot of other factors that
weigh in on this. It's not just your genetics. It
is your lifestyle. And you know, we know people that
are overweight, unhealthy lifestyle. You can turn around diabetes in
(09:19):
a lot of cases when you adjust that lifestyle. But
I was talking to my mom for some of this stuff,
and she's like, man, some of this stuff is depressing
to kind of go through because this does run in
my family all over the place, on both sides. My grandpa,
his brothers and sisters, my grandma, my mom has pre diabetes.
My sister had gestational diabetes and it went away after
(09:40):
the kids came. And uh, you know, on my dad's side,
high blood pressure, all of this stuff. But on this one,
it tells me, uh, you know, I'm Latino, my family
mostly comes from Mexico. My genetics say, I'm an estimated
fort chance of developing type two diabetes. Yeah. So, Lisa,
do you want to talk a little bit about how
this report differs compared to the other ones and the
(10:02):
science behind it. Yeah. So for the other two continents
that you were talking about, right, it was really about
that like the one variant where you have this one
variant UM, and again if you had a combination of
a couple of these variants, that would you know, increase
your your likelihood of developing those conditions. But as you know,
type two diabetes it's really common. And actually there's not
just one variant or one gene that's involved in UM
(10:24):
potentially developing this condition. So for this report, what we
look at is actually over a thousand different places in
your in your DNA, and we add up the effect
of all of those different places UM to give you
that sort of score, that percent chance of developing type
of diabetes. And in your case, we're saying you have
like this typical likelihood, but as you noted, that typical
(10:45):
likelihood is still pretty high, you know, chance is still
a pretty high chance of developing um T t D.
But again, there's all those other factors that Stacy was
talking about, you know, your way to your lifestyle, your diet,
your family history. All of that goes into whether you
actually go on to develop diabetes. So there's definitely other
things you can do besides just knowing about your genetics. Yeah, definitely.
(11:08):
And you know, in my own personal health, right, I
used to be a lot heavier when I was younger.
More recently I began to lose a little bit of weight,
and but you look at some of these symptoms that
you can get, you know, increased thirst, frequent urination, fatigue,
blurred vision again one of these other common things that
I've noticed, Right, I feel like I remember having some
(11:28):
of these things maybe and then going away a little
bit once I lost some weight. Uh. You know, I'll
get a little bit into more personal details of this,
uh in the next segment when I continue to talk
about all this. But it's it's interesting and it's one
of the things that affects a lot of people in
the country. Across the general US population around people are
expected to develop type two diabetes during their lifetime. It's
(11:49):
it's a big thing, and it impacts people's health in
in so many ways. So it's important to kind of
know these things and start looking into your own health
to to hopefully mitigate some of these things. And and
I'm very appreciative of this whole process because sometimes a
lot of people put their health on the back burner
and these things kind of open your eyes. And again
to the credit of twenty three me and the apps
(12:10):
and everything, it really helps you with the follow through.
Why don't you speak to a doctor that will give
you tips and tricks on what to help with all
of it. So, uh, it's it has been eye opening
for me and conversations I've had with my mom, like
I said, and just looking at my own personal health. Um,
so I appreciate that and it's you know, it's making
me want to to really start changing things again in
(12:33):
my lifestyle. Thank you for walking me through some of this.
Is there are important things I didn't want to talk about,
some fun things as well that you get to look at.
There's so many things in here. One of the main
things I tell people when I did the twenty three
and me thing, everybody starts talking about Neanderthal DNA right away,
and so what's with the neanderthal dna? It told me
(12:55):
I have more Neanderthal DNA than of other twenty three
and me customers. I think it's about two percent of
my total DNA. But man, I feel like a caveman
after that. Definitely don't feel like a caveman. I think,
UM hopefully that's one of the things that comes across
the in that report is actually, you know, we all
share a little bit of me anitholo DNA, so UM
(13:17):
some history about that. UM scientists not at three and
UM actually sequenced in the ornitholo genome and so when
they did that, you can compare that to you know,
the human genome, and you can say, oh, look there's
overlap here. So some of our ancestors were, you know,
enjoying each other back, you know, fifty plus years ago.
(13:37):
As we spread across the across the globe, and our
DNA sort of carries that signature UM in all of us,
and so it tells us that that DNA can influence
certain traits and I look through and some of these
things were like spot on. It tells me I have
a variant associated with experiencing more itchy mosquito bites and
that man, I hate that I get bit up more
(13:58):
than the other people I'm around, and then I am
like constantly scratching. You know, it's like the itch goes
away and you don't want to touch you more for
fear of activating the itch all over again. Um, I
have two variants associated with being less likely to have
a fear of heights. Totally true. I am unafraid of that.
This one is a little iffy. It told me I
could be a better sprinter than a distance runner. I'm
(14:19):
not sure how how much that one pans out, but
apparently these things come from from that side of our
DNA at least. Yeah, Well we've what twas found looking
at that portion of Neanderthal DNA is we can find
those associations. So between a trait um like you know,
each mosquito bites, and that's the specific genetic variance that
(14:40):
came from our nan and Paul ancestors. So that's what
you know. That part of the report is telling you,
you know, where did you inherit? Thatsquito bite from. Some
of the physical traits that were also fun. You know,
we all have our things that we're concerned about, our looks,
our appearances. Uh. These ones, I was very happy to
see bald spot and early hair loss. I'm not likely
to develop that stuff. My dad had a great head
(15:02):
of hair. Although gray's gray hairs are like crazy and
they're coming up on me and my beard and everything. Um.
I didn't want to talk about some of the things
that don't add up though, because I think a lot
of people look at these ancestry reports, these DNA reports
and all that, and they say, well, this doesn't match up.
So if you could help explain why some of that
doesn't come through. Some of these things that didn't add
(15:22):
up for me. Where says I'm not likely to be
an especially deep sleeper. I sleep like a rock. I
get in there and fall asleep right away, and I
fall asleep. And uh, the last one, the main one
I think for me, was it says I'm slightly higher
odds of disliking cilantro. A lot of people say it's
associated with like a soapy taste. That one is not
me either. I love Cilantro, So how come some of
(15:44):
these don't match up? Sometimes we'll take Cilantro as as
the example. I think, Um, you know, one thing is
your DNA might nudge you in one direction or the other.
So right in your case, it's saying, oh, you're you're
more likely than the average person or the average ty
three and the research participant um to dislike Cilantro. If
you dig a little bit deeper into the report, we
tell you, you you know only about people tell us that
(16:05):
they dislike Cilantro. So you being a little bit more
likely doesn't mean that you have a hundred percent chance
of disliking Cilantro. Right, So you might just be in
that in that other um, you know, chunk of people
who like Cilantro but have that same genetic background. So again,
you know, there's there's culture, there's the food that you
eat growing up. There's probably other parts of your taste
and smell that that influenced this. But that you know,
(16:28):
the one variant that we found, you know that did
you a little bit um in the dislike. And that's
so true. Uh, in my diet growing up, you know,
I grew up in a Mexican household, a lot of
GUACAMOLEI a lot of other things. We put it in everything,
so probably I just developed the taste for it and
just never turned back. A lot, a lot of fun stuff,
a lot of information. Again, going through this process has
(16:51):
been eye opening in a lot of ways on the
health side of things, on some of this fun stuff
that just kind of you know, I sat back and
got my results and I was clicking through that for
like an hour. You know, you just kind of keep going.
There's so many reports and updated surveys and things that
you can participate in. It kind of keep that information rolling.
So I appreciate all of that, and thank you to
you ladies as well for joining me and helping me
(17:11):
walk through my results. Stacy debt Wiler, genetic counselor and
manager at the Medical Affairs Team A Lisa Lehman, senior
manager on the Product science team at ME. Thank you
both for joining me. Thank you, thank you for this report.
What we look at is actually over a thousand different
(17:32):
places in your in your DNA, and we add up
the effect of all of those different places um to
give you that sort of score, that percent chance of
developing type of diabetes. For this segment, I wanted to
delve a little bit more into my personal health. I
wanted to connect the dots for my results. I wanted
to talk a little bit about what it means to
me and what it means for my health. You know,
(17:55):
the whole point of this is to get more knowledge,
to know what our DNA says about us, and then
use that knowledge to to act on things to protect
our health, to make the right steps in our lives
to make sure that we're as healthy as long as
we can be. And thank you to the folks at
twenty three and me for going over my results in
the previous segment. But just as far as these two
(18:17):
variants are concerned, these two variant genes that I have
and the typical likelihood of developing type two diabetes, this
really speaks to me for in a lot of different ways.
So connecting the dots age related macular degeneration deals with
vision loss. Hereditary hemochromatosis can lead to diabetes, and then
type two diabetes is in extreme complications, you can develop
(18:39):
vision loss, heart disease, kidney damage, and so this theme
of vision loss has been something that I've been thinking
a lot about through this process. Now, to be clear,
my results aren't diagnosing me with anything specific or I
am not at a particularly higher risk of developing some
of those things. But it gets you thinking about your
health and that's what's important here. Sharing personal story. When
(19:01):
I was much younger, I was out with some friends
and we were assaulted. Somebody hit me on the side
of the head with with a broomstick. I had to
go to the emergency room and what happened after that
was a detachment of my iris. If you look very
closely into my eye, you can see it. Since then, uh,
you know, I've had experienced a little bit of vision
(19:22):
loss in that I I have developed a cataract. In
that I there will be things down the road that
I will need to take care of my vision. This
is specifically in my right eye. My left eye, I
wear glasses normally. My left eye is experiencing normal vision.
I still need the glasses to see better, but this
is something that I really do need to take care
of in my life. I need to make sure that
(19:43):
I can keep my vision intact as much as possible.
So going through some of these results and seeing what
these variant genes can do and the typical likelihood of
diabetes type two diabetes. It makes you think, It makes
you think of the future, makes you think of your
loved ones. You know. I spoke to my mom for
(20:04):
this process as well, just wanted to get a little
bit more of the family history, and she was describing
a lot of things to me I mentioned in the
previous segment, you know, she said it was kind of
bumming her out. I don't necessarily feel that way. I
feel like I have the tools, I have the knowledge,
especially throughout this process to learning a little bit more
about my jeans and myself, and I feel like I
(20:24):
am empowered to make those uh good health choices. But
a lot of this also leads me to think a
lot about my grandpa. You know, the diabetes thing is
one of the things that really strikes me and my grandpa.
Growing up, I got to see some of the worst
effects of how diabetes treated a person. At one point,
(20:45):
had both of his legs amputated, He lost vision in
one eye. I remember, you know, as a family, we
had to take him to dialysis. He was a very
stubborn man. You know, I loved him, obviously, but he
was a very stubborn man. He refused to go to
treatment sometimes and and really can see the degeneration that
happened in a person for for not following their health,
for not listening to their doctors. And obviously that's not
(21:08):
something that I want to go down through. I don't
want to have that happen in my life. And I'm
happy to know about these things ahead of time. It
leads me to appreciate a lot of things about going
through the process, about learning about my DNA with twenty
three and me and the follow through right the the app,
it really gives you a lot of help with that
(21:28):
follow through. Staying on the notion of type two diabetes.
You know, you click through, you can see what's going on.
It tells you things to help avoid it. Maintain a
healthy weight, get active, eat healthy, don't smoke. That's a
big one all over the place. Talk to a healthcare
professional and consider diabetes prevention program. There's a click through
you can get to a c d C prevention program,
(21:49):
which is great. You know, find other people in your
position take charge in handling your health. An important one
also that I saw on the side. Get a health
action plan. There's a big checklist of things to do
to know more about your variants, to know more about
your typical likelihood for developing certain things, and it really
gives you a lot of information, and I think that's
the most important part, that information. You want to know
(22:12):
as much as you can. A lot of people tend
to put their health on the backburner. You feel, Okay,
there's nothing to check out, but there's always something on
the horizon. Uh. You know myself, I'm close to forty
years old. I'm thirty nine right now, and it's, you know,
time to take these things a little more seriously. It's
been an eye opening experience when you get to examine
a little bit closer your health. You know, we've all
(22:34):
seen those memes about how you can party in your
twenties and rebound like nothing, and then once you hit
your thirties and now you're taking pepto bismol and three
advils before you go out just so you don't get
to add hangover um. And you know, that's just kind
of a silly example, but these things can be a
lot more serious. And that's just some of it, right.
There's a lot of things that you can explore on
(22:55):
the app and explore in your results. It tells you
things about your physical traits. It tells you about how
your DNA may pick your body's reaction to diet, exercise,
and sleep, you know, one of my favorite things. And
here it talks about muscle composition. It says by both
muscle composition is common and elite power athletes. Now I
don't know how true that is, but even still, it's
(23:16):
just fun to explore a lot of it. So for
myself personally thinking about my health, I'm at that part
right now. I encourage others to, you know, obviously, in
consultation with your doctors, to learn more about your health,
learn what your DNA can can enlighten you with and
and let you know more about and use that knowledge,
use that knowledge to act. You know, a big part
of this obviously when you think of twenty three and me,
(23:38):
you think of that ancestry and where you came from,
who your family could possibly be, and that's really important.
But this is that other side right there, learning about
your DNA, learning how you can impact your your future family,
your children. Right if I have a variant of one
and my wife has a variant of another thing, and
we put us together, you know, our children could have
(23:59):
a few more problems. So it's just something very interesting
to look through. And I've had a really good time
taking a look into what my DNA says about me.
That's it for today. Join us on social media at
Daily Dive pod on the Twitter and Instagram, Leave us
a comment, give us a rating, and tell us the
stories that you're interested in. Allow us and I heard
(24:19):
radio or subscribe wherever you get your podcast. This episode
of The Daily Divers produced by Victor Wright and engineered
by Tony Sarrantino. I'm oscar a Mirrors and this was
your Daily Dive and that's it on another dope show.
(24:40):
Did this episode inspire you to take a closer look
at your health history, your genetic makeup. Who knew DNA
could reveal so much about our past while also holding
the keys to certain health insights that may impact our future.
I continue to be inspired by these stories, and I
hope you do as well. Catch you next time. Listen
(25:00):
to Spit, an original podcast from I Heart Radio and
twenty three in the on the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Yeah, m
Have you ever thought about how incredibly complex I spit is.
It may only be water, but just aliva isn't simple.
That remaining one holds incredibly meaningful information that could change everything.
And I'm not just talking about your family treat Hi.
I'm barretton Day Thurston and on this season of Spit
(00:24):
and I Heart Radio podcast with twenty three and Me,
we explore how DNA isn't just about ancestry, it can
also be key to understanding your health. Hi again, We're bad.
Oscar Ramirez, host of The Daily Dive, is all about
(00:44):
the facts. Each day, his podcast explores the most interesting
news of the day with the writers, the analysts of
reporters who know the real story. So when Oscar took
his twenty three and Me test, you know he had questions.
In this episode, Oscar sits down with twenty three and
Me's Stacy Dettweiler and the Lisa Layman to get to
(01:05):
the bottom of his test results. As an Hispanic man,
diabetes in high blood pressure run in his family. So
what can his twenty three and me results to Oscar
about his own health. It's a fascinating conversation and the
must listen for anyone interested in unlocking the knowledge contained
in their own DNA. Oscar takes a deep dive into
(01:26):
his variance and tries to get to the bottom of
some things that just don't add up. For example, Oscar
loves cilantro, but according to his test results, he's supposed
to hate it. So what's going on. Let's listen in
and learn more about the awesome power of DNA when
it comes to understanding your health. I'm Oscar Emiress and
(01:50):
this is the Daily Dive. This episode is something special
I did in conjunction with me in the Spit podcast,
which you can hear and I heart Radio. I took
a look into what my DNA says about me, beyond
what my ancestry says and with a focus on my health.
Throughout this process, I learned about two genetic variants that
(02:12):
could impact myself for my family, and also that I
have a typical likelihood of developing type two diabetes, which
has always been a concern since it runs in my family.
There is also some fun stuff I learned about my
d N a I won't be losing my hair anytime soon,
and why I experienced itchyr mosquito bites. Stacy Dettweiler and
at Lisa Lehman from the twenty three and Me team
(02:32):
both joined me to go over some of my results
and help me understand more about my DNA. Next, I
go a little deeper into what the results I got
specifically mean to me, things I've experienced with my family
and in my past, and why this process has been
eye opening. In some cases, the best thing to come
out of this has been the information learned and knowing
what to do next to improve my health. It's news
(02:53):
without the noise. Let's dive in the good thing is
for you. It sounds like there was just one variant identified,
and something that's really interesting is these variants are actually
very common, and so a lot of people are walking
around with these variants, and so really just having one
variant doesn't increase your risk compared to the general population
because most people do have these variants. Joining us now
(03:14):
is Stacy Dettweiler, a genetic counselor and manager on the
Medical Affairs team at twenty three and Me, and the
Lisa Lehman, a senior manager on the product science team
at twenty three and Me. Thank you for joining me, ladies,
Thank you all, Thanks for having us. All right, So
this whole thing special episode of The Daily Dive done
in partnership with twenty three and Me and the Spit podcast.
(03:35):
You can hear that on I Heart Radio. Uh I,
this was the first time doing one of these DNA
test genetic tests and all that. It was a lot
of fun. You know, you sign up on the app,
you spitting a little tube, send it off, get a
bunch of results. For this we're specifically focusing on what
your DNA, what your genes can tell you about your
health things, diseases, illnesses, things that you can be predisposed
(03:58):
to because of your genet X and uh you know,
going into it, you kind of have this little worry
you know what am I going to be flagged for?
What's going to happen? Even as you opt into certain
reports it tells you, like for Alzheimer's, you know, you know,
be very conscious of what you're gonna get into on
this because it could be unnerving what you get. Uh
So I I kind of experienced all that stuff going
(04:20):
into this, so I opted into for all of that.
I wanted to know what, uh my genes, my DNA
could tell me as much as possible and Thankfully, it
came back with just a few things. Some of the
scary things, right, a lot of people are concerned with
their health didn't come through. But I was flagged for
two variants for certain things and likelihood for developing type
two diabetes. So we'll get into all of this right now.
(04:41):
I want to bring you, ladies on to talk about
the science of how this stuff works. The first thing
I was flagged for was age related macular degeneration. So
this is uh, one of the most common causes of
irreversible vision losses. Happens in older adults. Usually I have
one variant. It's the A six nine S variant in
the A r M two gene. So very little complicated
(05:02):
right now. But a lot of people don't really have
a basis for understanding some of these things. So ladies,
if you can help me explain, help explain what does
this mean in particular. You know, I think the main
aspect is genetics is part of the story, right, and
so for this condition, usually macularity generation, I'm going to
say a m D for short. Um, we know that
(05:22):
there are some genetic variants that do increase your risk
of developing this, right, But luckily there's a lot of
other factors that play a role. Lifestyle smoking is a
big one, right, So there's a lot of action ability
within these results that you can do to reduce your chances.
The good thing is for you, it sounds like there
was just one variant identified. And something that's really interesting
(05:43):
is these variants are actually very common, and so a
lot of people are walking around with these variants and
so really just having one variant doesn't increase your risk
compared to the general population because most people do have
these variants. UM. It's when you start getting multiple that's
when that risk can really increase. Yeah, and when you
get to results through the app or on your online it,
(06:05):
it did tell me that I'm not at a particularly
likelihood for developing this UM. But you know, obviously one
of the things that happens is the vision loss, and
this figures into kind of my personal overall story. There's
a lot of themes running with vision, whether it be
through diabetes and other things. So I open it right,
and a lot of this we're using these things to
kind of empower ourselves to learn more about ourselves. You know.
(06:27):
I know a lot of people don't obviously go to
the doctor all the time, and you know, you go
when something's wrong and you don't really know what's happening
in your body until it's too late. Sometimes I have
to admit I'm kind of guilty of that myself. And
so these things are eye opening. So as we kind
of go through, I'll connect the dots on some of
these things. Another one that I was flagged for, So
this is hereditary emo chromatosis. Basically it's something that could
(06:50):
lead to iron overload. Again, it flagged me for one
of these genes. It said that I'm not at particular
risk for this, but still this is another They're one
of those genes that I carry around. Yeah, and it's
probably again another one that you've never heard of before,
you twenty three and me. And that's very common for
a lot of these genetic conditions that have it where
(07:11):
you know, it's one gene that can really be impacted
that can cause these conditions. Um, and this one is
kind of more considered an autosomal recessive and so having
just one variant, we typically think of you as being
a carrier. You carry a variant, but you really don't
have the condition in terms of expressing symptoms unless you
(07:31):
have kind of a combination two copies of a of
a particular variant. And the interesting thing with this condition
too is that again genetics is still not the full story.
There's a lot of people that have two copies of
a variant or two different variants um and they don't
still develop the iron overloads. So there's you know, again,
genetics is a huge aspect of it when we're talking
(07:53):
about health, but there's a lot of other things that
go along to like lifestyle that can play a big all.
But I think the main thing for you is, you know,
it might not be an indication for concern for your help,
but it could be for family members or your offspring,
because that's when you can actually have that chance. That's
exactly That's exactly my next point right there. So when
(08:14):
you read some of these reports either on the app
or or online and everything, they're very detailed, very thorough,
really help you kind of navigate what the the information
that you're being given, right, it will help you on
the other end of things, let's create a health plan.
So I very much appreciate that, but it did say,
you know, it says in that there's a concern right
that you can pass this variant onto your children. So
(08:37):
if my wife has one of the other variants, then
these things started kind of start compounding on each other.
Um So it feels like, now I need to have
my wife take one of these DNA tests just so
we can start checking all this stuff out and then
some of the signs and symptoms of iron overload, not
that I have it or will develop it, but heart disease, diabetes,
these are things that run in my family. So now
(08:58):
to the big one, the diabetes. With this DNA test,
it said I have a typical likelihood of developing type
two diabetes. To your point, Stacy, right, you've been making
the point that there's a lot of other factors that
weigh in on this. It's not just your genetics. It
is your lifestyle. And you know, we know people that
are overweight, unhealthy lifestyle. You can turn around diabetes in
(09:19):
a lot of cases when you adjust that lifestyle. But
I was talking to my mom for some of this stuff,
and she's like, man, some of this stuff is depressing
to kind of go through because this does run in
my family all over the place, on both sides. My grandpa,
his brothers and sisters, my grandma, my mom has pre diabetes.
My sister had gestational diabetes and it went away after
(09:40):
the kids came. And uh, you know, on my dad's side,
high blood pressure, all of this stuff. But on this one,
it tells me, uh, you know, I'm Latino, my family
mostly comes from Mexico. My genetics say, I'm an estimated
fort chance of developing type two diabetes. Yeah. So, Lisa,
do you want to talk a little bit about how
this report differs compared to the other ones and the
(10:02):
science behind it. Yeah. So for the other two continents
that you were talking about, right, it was really about
that like the one variant where you have this one
variant UM, and again if you had a combination of
a couple of these variants, that would you know, increase
your your likelihood of developing those conditions. But as you know,
type two diabetes it's really common. And actually there's not
just one variant or one gene that's involved in UM
(10:24):
potentially developing this condition. So for this report, what we
look at is actually over a thousand different places in
your in your DNA, and we add up the effect
of all of those different places UM to give you
that sort of score, that percent chance of developing type
of diabetes. And in your case, we're saying you have
like this typical likelihood, but as you noted, that typical
(10:45):
likelihood is still pretty high, you know, chance is still
a pretty high chance of developing um T t D.
But again, there's all those other factors that Stacy was
talking about, you know, your way to your lifestyle, your diet,
your family history. All of that goes into whether you
actually go on to develop diabetes. So there's definitely other
things you can do besides just knowing about your genetics. Yeah, definitely.
(11:08):
And you know, in my own personal health, right, I
used to be a lot heavier when I was younger.
More recently I began to lose a little bit of weight,
and but you look at some of these symptoms that
you can get, you know, increased thirst, frequent urination, fatigue,
blurred vision again one of these other common things that
I've noticed, Right, I feel like I remember having some
(11:28):
of these things maybe and then going away a little
bit once I lost some weight. Uh. You know, I'll
get a little bit into more personal details of this,
uh in the next segment when I continue to talk
about all this. But it's it's interesting and it's one
of the things that affects a lot of people in
the country. Across the general US population around people are
expected to develop type two diabetes during their lifetime. It's
(11:49):
it's a big thing, and it impacts people's health in
in so many ways. So it's important to kind of
know these things and start looking into your own health
to to hopefully mitigate some of these things. And and
I'm very appreciative of this whole process because sometimes a
lot of people put their health on the back burner
and these things kind of open your eyes. And again
to the credit of twenty three me and the apps
(12:10):
and everything, it really helps you with the follow through.
Why don't you speak to a doctor that will give
you tips and tricks on what to help with all
of it. So, uh, it's it has been eye opening
for me and conversations I've had with my mom, like
I said, and just looking at my own personal health. Um,
so I appreciate that and it's you know, it's making
me want to to really start changing things again in
(12:33):
my lifestyle. Thank you for walking me through some of this.
Is there are important things I didn't want to talk about,
some fun things as well that you get to look at.
There's so many things in here. One of the main
things I tell people when I did the twenty three
and me thing, everybody starts talking about Neanderthal DNA right away,
and so what's with the neanderthal dna? It told me
(12:55):
I have more Neanderthal DNA than of other twenty three
and me customers. I think it's about two percent of
my total DNA. But man, I feel like a caveman
after that. Definitely don't feel like a caveman. I think,
UM hopefully that's one of the things that comes across
the in that report is actually, you know, we all
share a little bit of me anitholo DNA, so UM
(13:17):
some history about that. UM scientists not at three and
UM actually sequenced in the ornitholo genome and so when
they did that, you can compare that to you know,
the human genome, and you can say, oh, look there's
overlap here. So some of our ancestors were, you know,
enjoying each other back, you know, fifty plus years ago.
(13:37):
As we spread across the across the globe, and our
DNA sort of carries that signature UM in all of us,
and so it tells us that that DNA can influence
certain traits and I look through and some of these
things were like spot on. It tells me I have
a variant associated with experiencing more itchy mosquito bites and
that man, I hate that I get bit up more
(13:58):
than the other people I'm around, and then I am
like constantly scratching. You know, it's like the itch goes
away and you don't want to touch you more for
fear of activating the itch all over again. Um, I
have two variants associated with being less likely to have
a fear of heights. Totally true. I am unafraid of that.
This one is a little iffy. It told me I
could be a better sprinter than a distance runner. I'm
(14:19):
not sure how how much that one pans out, but
apparently these things come from from that side of our
DNA at least. Yeah, Well we've what twas found looking
at that portion of Neanderthal DNA is we can find
those associations. So between a trait um like you know,
each mosquito bites, and that's the specific genetic variance that
(14:40):
came from our nan and Paul ancestors. So that's what
you know. That part of the report is telling you,
you know, where did you inherit? Thatsquito bite from. Some
of the physical traits that were also fun. You know,
we all have our things that we're concerned about, our looks,
our appearances. Uh. These ones, I was very happy to
see bald spot and early hair loss. I'm not likely
to develop that stuff. My dad had a great head
(15:02):
of hair. Although gray's gray hairs are like crazy and
they're coming up on me and my beard and everything. Um.
I didn't want to talk about some of the things
that don't add up though, because I think a lot
of people look at these ancestry reports, these DNA reports
and all that, and they say, well, this doesn't match up.
So if you could help explain why some of that
doesn't come through. Some of these things that didn't add
(15:22):
up for me. Where says I'm not likely to be
an especially deep sleeper. I sleep like a rock. I
get in there and fall asleep right away, and I
fall asleep. And uh, the last one, the main one
I think for me, was it says I'm slightly higher
odds of disliking cilantro. A lot of people say it's
associated with like a soapy taste. That one is not
me either. I love Cilantro, So how come some of
(15:44):
these don't match up? Sometimes we'll take Cilantro as as
the example. I think, Um, you know, one thing is
your DNA might nudge you in one direction or the other.
So right in your case, it's saying, oh, you're you're
more likely than the average person or the average ty
three and the research participant um to dislike Cilantro. If
you dig a little bit deeper into the report, we
tell you, you you know only about people tell us that
(16:05):
they dislike Cilantro. So you being a little bit more
likely doesn't mean that you have a hundred percent chance
of disliking Cilantro. Right, So you might just be in
that in that other um, you know, chunk of people
who like Cilantro but have that same genetic background. So again,
you know, there's there's culture, there's the food that you
eat growing up. There's probably other parts of your taste
and smell that that influenced this. But that you know,
(16:28):
the one variant that we found, you know that did
you a little bit um in the dislike. And that's
so true. Uh, in my diet growing up, you know,
I grew up in a Mexican household, a lot of
GUACAMOLEI a lot of other things. We put it in everything,
so probably I just developed the taste for it and
just never turned back. A lot, a lot of fun stuff,
a lot of information. Again, going through this process has
(16:51):
been eye opening in a lot of ways on the
health side of things, on some of this fun stuff
that just kind of you know, I sat back and
got my results and I was clicking through that for
like an hour. You know, you just kind of keep going.
There's so many reports and updated surveys and things that
you can participate in. It kind of keep that information rolling.
So I appreciate all of that, and thank you to
you ladies as well for joining me and helping me
(17:11):
walk through my results. Stacy debt Wiler, genetic counselor and
manager at the Medical Affairs Team A Lisa Lehman, senior
manager on the Product science team at ME. Thank you
both for joining me. Thank you, thank you for this report.
What we look at is actually over a thousand different
(17:32):
places in your in your DNA, and we add up
the effect of all of those different places um to
give you that sort of score, that percent chance of
developing type of diabetes. For this segment, I wanted to
delve a little bit more into my personal health. I
wanted to connect the dots for my results. I wanted
to talk a little bit about what it means to
me and what it means for my health. You know,
(17:55):
the whole point of this is to get more knowledge,
to know what our DNA says about us, and then
use that knowledge to to act on things to protect
our health, to make the right steps in our lives
to make sure that we're as healthy as long as
we can be. And thank you to the folks at
twenty three and me for going over my results in
the previous segment. But just as far as these two
(18:17):
variants are concerned, these two variant genes that I have
and the typical likelihood of developing type two diabetes, this
really speaks to me for in a lot of different ways.
So connecting the dots age related macular degeneration deals with
vision loss. Hereditary hemochromatosis can lead to diabetes, and then
type two diabetes is in extreme complications, you can develop
(18:39):
vision loss, heart disease, kidney damage, and so this theme
of vision loss has been something that I've been thinking
a lot about through this process. Now, to be clear,
my results aren't diagnosing me with anything specific or I
am not at a particularly higher risk of developing some
of those things. But it gets you thinking about your
health and that's what's important here. Sharing personal story. When
(19:01):
I was much younger, I was out with some friends
and we were assaulted. Somebody hit me on the side
of the head with with a broomstick. I had to
go to the emergency room and what happened after that
was a detachment of my iris. If you look very
closely into my eye, you can see it. Since then, uh,
you know, I've had experienced a little bit of vision
(19:22):
loss in that I I have developed a cataract. In
that I there will be things down the road that
I will need to take care of my vision. This
is specifically in my right eye. My left eye, I
wear glasses normally. My left eye is experiencing normal vision.
I still need the glasses to see better, but this
is something that I really do need to take care
of in my life. I need to make sure that
(19:43):
I can keep my vision intact as much as possible.
So going through some of these results and seeing what
these variant genes can do and the typical likelihood of
diabetes type two diabetes. It makes you think, It makes
you think of the future, makes you think of your
loved ones. You know. I spoke to my mom for
(20:04):
this process as well, just wanted to get a little
bit more of the family history, and she was describing
a lot of things to me I mentioned in the
previous segment, you know, she said it was kind of
bumming her out. I don't necessarily feel that way. I
feel like I have the tools, I have the knowledge,
especially throughout this process to learning a little bit more
about my jeans and myself, and I feel like I
(20:24):
am empowered to make those uh good health choices. But
a lot of this also leads me to think a
lot about my grandpa. You know, the diabetes thing is
one of the things that really strikes me and my grandpa.
Growing up, I got to see some of the worst
effects of how diabetes treated a person. At one point,
(20:45):
had both of his legs amputated, He lost vision in
one eye. I remember, you know, as a family, we
had to take him to dialysis. He was a very
stubborn man. You know, I loved him, obviously, but he
was a very stubborn man. He refused to go to
treatment sometimes and and really can see the degeneration that
happened in a person for for not following their health,
for not listening to their doctors. And obviously that's not
(21:08):
something that I want to go down through. I don't
want to have that happen in my life. And I'm
happy to know about these things ahead of time. It
leads me to appreciate a lot of things about going
through the process, about learning about my DNA with twenty
three and me and the follow through right the the app,
it really gives you a lot of help with that
(21:28):
follow through. Staying on the notion of type two diabetes.
You know, you click through, you can see what's going on.
It tells you things to help avoid it. Maintain a
healthy weight, get active, eat healthy, don't smoke. That's a
big one all over the place. Talk to a healthcare
professional and consider diabetes prevention program. There's a click through
you can get to a c d C prevention program,
(21:49):
which is great. You know, find other people in your
position take charge in handling your health. An important one
also that I saw on the side. Get a health
action plan. There's a big checklist of things to do
to know more about your variants, to know more about
your typical likelihood for developing certain things, and it really
gives you a lot of information, and I think that's
the most important part, that information. You want to know
(22:12):
as much as you can. A lot of people tend
to put their health on the backburner. You feel, Okay,
there's nothing to check out, but there's always something on
the horizon. Uh. You know myself, I'm close to forty
years old. I'm thirty nine right now, and it's, you know,
time to take these things a little more seriously. It's
been an eye opening experience when you get to examine
a little bit closer your health. You know, we've all
(22:34):
seen those memes about how you can party in your
twenties and rebound like nothing, and then once you hit
your thirties and now you're taking pepto bismol and three
advils before you go out just so you don't get
to add hangover um. And you know, that's just kind
of a silly example, but these things can be a
lot more serious. And that's just some of it, right.
There's a lot of things that you can explore on
(22:55):
the app and explore in your results. It tells you
things about your physical traits. It tells you about how
your DNA may pick your body's reaction to diet, exercise,
and sleep, you know, one of my favorite things. And
here it talks about muscle composition. It says by both
muscle composition is common and elite power athletes. Now I
don't know how true that is, but even still, it's
(23:16):
just fun to explore a lot of it. So for
myself personally thinking about my health, I'm at that part
right now. I encourage others to, you know, obviously, in
consultation with your doctors, to learn more about your health,
learn what your DNA can can enlighten you with and
and let you know more about and use that knowledge,
use that knowledge to act. You know, a big part
of this obviously when you think of twenty three and me,
(23:38):
you think of that ancestry and where you came from,
who your family could possibly be, and that's really important.
But this is that other side right there, learning about
your DNA, learning how you can impact your your future family,
your children. Right if I have a variant of one
and my wife has a variant of another thing, and
we put us together, you know, our children could have
(23:59):
a few more problems. So it's just something very interesting
to look through. And I've had a really good time
taking a look into what my DNA says about me.
That's it for today. Join us on social media at
Daily Dive pod on the Twitter and Instagram, Leave us
a comment, give us a rating, and tell us the
stories that you're interested in. Allow us and I heard
(24:19):
radio or subscribe wherever you get your podcast. This episode
of The Daily Divers produced by Victor Wright and engineered
by Tony Sarrantino. I'm oscar a Mirrors and this was
your Daily Dive and that's it on another dope show.
(24:40):
Did this episode inspire you to take a closer look
at your health history, your genetic makeup. Who knew DNA
could reveal so much about our past while also holding
the keys to certain health insights that may impact our future.
I continue to be inspired by these stories, and I
hope you do as well. Catch you next time. Listen
(25:00):
to Spit, an original podcast from I Heart Radio and
twenty three in the on the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Yeah, m
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