The Ancestry DNA Test Kit and the 23 & Me Genetic DNA test Kit are interestingly enough pitched as a way to learn about your ancestry. I am sure that is interesting. More interesting is what you can learn about the medical implications. While we are still learning about all the genes and what they mean we already know a lot and learn more every day.
With either DNA test you can download your DNA file and cross reference it with SNP data and SNPedia. Here are a few examples of genes that can be cross referenced.
- rs7412 and rs429358 can raise the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by more than 10x
- rs9939609 triggers obesity and type-2 diabetes
- rs7903146 in 3% of the population greatly increases the risk of type-2 diabetes
- rs12255372 linked to type-2 diabetes and breast cancer
- rs1333049 coronary heart disease
The Ancestry DNA Test Kit and 23 & Me Genetic DNA test Kit each use different DNA sequencing microchips and therefore have some differences as far as what SNPs they sequence or not. For this reason you might choose one over the other or just choose to do both of them.