Health reports from raw DNA

My friend, Shannon Wilkinson, passed along to me an email from Promethease, a company that generate health reports based on your autosomal DNA results. For the next couple of days you can create a free account and receive a free, downloadable report. If you’ve already done a DNA test, as I have, you can upload the raw data and find what your genes tell you about your health risks, good and bad. This offer expires Thursday, May 10, 2018. (Here’s a review of Promethease from last October on the blog DNAeXplained.)

I appreciate Shannon telling me about it, but I’m going to ponder it for a day before submitting. In order to even enter the site, you have to agree to some legal terms and the last one is, I accept the risk of learning that I may be at high risk for a debilitating disease. That gave me pause. I’m not sure I want to know that I’m at a high risk for a debilitating disease. My rational mind says that knowledge is power and if I know that I’m at risk perhaps I can do something to reduce the risk. My emotional side thinks it’s easier not to know.

Last year, I did submit my DNA to VitaGene, which provides health information with an eye toward taking appropriate nutritional supplements. I had no problem with that and found the results of passing interest.

So I’ll ponder for a day, but I suspect I’ll take advantage of this free offer. What about you? Have you received health information from your DNA data and are you glad you did?