Gout, Glaucoma, and TB - Oh My!

The exciting part about checking my 23andMe profile is that things are always changing. One week I'll go in and find new research on breast cancer and Endometriosis. And on other weeks, like this one, I'll find a whole slew of diseases that I'm at an increased risk for!!!!!!!

Did I mask my anxiety with all those exclamation points?

Didn't think so.

But boy there is some interesting stuff happening, especially in my profile.

One look at you might think I was Courtney Love.

I've got an increased risk for Heroin addiction (who needs alcohol when you can go for the hard stuff?) and Tourettes.

DAMNIT!

(ha).

[Side note: Did anyone see that special last night on 20/20 about kids with Tourettes? Heartbreaking.]

Also, gout, glaucoma, and tuberculosis.

It's important to realize that these reports have varying levels of confidence, which 23andMe makes sure to notate (using a very friendly star system - only two stars of confidence on my heroin addiction propensity but three on TB - yikes). Additionally, they site the journal articles so that you realize it's not just some random shot in the dark.

Then again, it depends on how much you believe in the accuracy of scientific research, which in order to provide these numbers and risks, has to use samples. Are the samples completely representative? Probably not. But it's completely fascinating to me.

And at least now I have a bit of an excuse for my sailor mouth. (ahem).

I'm actually at a moderately increased risk for something that my mom has and is currently dealing with, which I'll talk more about next week. And if you're like "WTF is this?" go read my post about my participation in the 23andme Genome Project.