Promethease Can Get You More From Your 23andMe Data

A while back, I took the 23andMe plunge. While there are always concerns about how data gets handled, I enjoyed the process. I still log in a few times a month to participate in research questions. Still, I wondered if I could get more out of the data they processed. Enter Promethease.

Using SNPedia, Promethease gives you the good, the bad, and the neutral data around your genetics. It’s fairly cheap at around $10 to start and they’re always having freebies – like, right now through May 10th, you can get your report for free.

Once I saw they were offering another freebie, I jumped at the chance to put in my 23andMe data.

It only took about 15 minutes for them to process the raw data from 23andMe. After going through the report, I feel like I have some potential directions for my neuroWTF. Where I really spent time was in the uncool section of my report – the bad.

What I found is that I’m at higher risk for diseases including RA (LOLOLOL), Alzheimer’s (up to 11% more likely), Crohn’s Disease, and Ankylosing Spondylitis. I learned that I have a slow metabolism, especially for steroids, hormones, and protein. I also have a lower response to inhaled steroids… AKA having to use my inhaler a few times to get relief makes a lot more sense.

One of the most interesting things was to learn that I’m likely a carrier for phenylketonuria – a condition that is fairly similar to some of the reactions I have to phenylalanine-containing products. I can’t do diet sodas, sugar-free anything, or even chew most gum.

What I really appreciated was linking these issues to studies around specific genetics. I am 4.6 times more likely to have Ankylosing Spondylitis, for example. The piece that shares this and which genetic component(s) were tested for it has links to the research providing the hypothesis around that figure.

In short, they give you likelihoods and the reading to dive into should you want to learn more. It’s a great tool for engaged patients. It doesn’t seem to matter where you got the data initially (23andMe, Ancestry, etc.) as long as you have the raw data or can grant Promethease access to it.

And, for those concerned about your data? You can download all the information and it’s wiped from their site after a little over a month.

The one negative is that the data is tedious to go through. I had nearly 400 items in the negative category, and a lot of those were repeats. I wish there was an easy way to fold everything up to see various conditions and your increased risk per published paper.

This was way faster than getting the tests actually done, and it’s really nice to have all this raw data. It’s absolutely a service anyone interested in digging more into their genetics should try out.

What do you think? Have you tried Promethease yet?