Years ago Ancestry gave me a free DNA kit, my reward for being a long time customer, I finally used it and about a year ago I found my biological father. While finding my Dad wasn’t the reason for using the kit, it was to try to solve the brick wall that was my 3X great grandfather, it was a wonderful bonus. As it turns out there was medical information I needed from my Dad but because he passed away in 1979 and there are no close relatives living there was only what I could glean from family history and death certificates. I found the family carried a fatal gene linked disease Spinocerebellar Ataxia. I knew my paternal grandfather died of it and many of his siblings and their children. My Dad was 60 when he died and his father didn’t show signs of the disease until he was in his early 60s so there was no way to know if it was passed to my father, or to me and my children and grandchild. I wasn’t showing symptoms but that didn’t mean I couldn’t pass to my children and them to theirs. It was important to know if I had passed it on but genetic testing starts at $300 and with 37 different kinds of Spinocerebellar Ataxia I had no idea if one test would catch all the information I needed.
Then I discovered a service willing to give you a genetic run down for free, they now charge $10 but money well spent. Because my raw data was from Ancestry who shoots a large chunk of your DNA I got a lot of really good information. 23 and Me is the other testing service that runs even more of your DNA, which gives you the most complete results. Other DNA genealogy services do not, so you may or may not get the information you need or want. I found out I do not have the Spinocerebellar Ataxia alleles with runaway replication. I don’t so my kids and grandkids don’t either, what a relief!
It didn’t stop there, possibly the report on medications and your potential reactions were the most valuable to me. I found out why opioids don't work very well for me as pain relief, why Tylenol makes me sick, why I can’ t take Statins and a number of other drug issues that should save me in the future. I found out I was a fast metabolizer and a slow absorber, something we had suspected for some time. This is important to know because it directly impacts the effectiveness of any drug you take. Drug companies are becoming increasingly interested in genes and their drugs, how they work or don’t work together, and with that doctors are looking too. It is a new frontier in Cancer research and treatment, being able to find the best drug to treat you based on your genetics and the genetic makeup of your Cancer.
I found out I don’t have the breast cancer genes BRCA 1 & 2, although good to know was not a surprise based on family history. In the report, you get your genetic risks along with any mitigating genes and an overall assessment of your risk factor. What you find is mostly average normal things, I have a family history and genes for CAD and Type II Diabetes, but I also have mitigating genes so it is a wash and my risk is at most average. Even so, none of this means you will actually get something because your lifestyle makes a difference too, you will know better based on your own family history.
In researching my inability to process Folic Acid and my B12 issues I found the answer. It is a double mutation of the MTHFR gene and the C677T allele. Yes, we call it likes we sees em, LOL. This is not rare, up to 40% of the population has at least one mutated allele, two is a little less common. I also have MTRR A664A, two of them and it is responsible for how folate (B9-folic acid) attaches to B12. Both of these mutations can cause neural tube defects. When I was having children 50 years ago doctors didn’t routinely give out prenatal vitamins and I had no idea why it took 5 pregnancies to get two healthy babies.
What has saved me all these years and account for my two healthy babies is my diet. If you look at a list of foods rich in Folic Acid and B12, you would see a list of my favorite foods. Eating lots of green leafy vegetable also has the added advantage of providing me with lots of calcium. But I digress, about ten years ago I found out I had a very serious B12 deficiency and the beginnings of neuropathy in my feet. All this while I have been taking B12 religiously, the B12 was supposed to help the neuropathy and didn’t. I was taking the wrong kind, I needed methylated bioavailable B12 so my body could use it. I started on the correct B12 about two weeks ago and my toes are beginning to feel each other, this is an improvement. With the B12 I am taking Folate (B9). I am as healthy as I am because I am basically a rabbit in human form. Getting this under control will help my overall health because this mutation affects so many other things like allergies and asthma, sleep problems, your heart health, brain health etc.
Any of you who have been following the search for my father know how surprised I was to find out I am very much like him. I am more convinced than ever it is absolutely nature not nurture and I have the mutated gene to prove it, MAO-A R297R. the “Warrior Gene”, altho not all warriors are birthed to be psychos.
The story of the warrior gene dates back to the early 1990s, when several groups reported a link between violent aggression and a gene on the X chromosome that encodes for an enzyme called monoamine oxidase A (MAOA), which regulates the function of the neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin. The correlation first emerged from studies of a large Dutch family whose male members were mildly retarded and extremely violent. Two were arsonists, one tried to run over an employer with a car, another raped his sister and tried to stab the warden of a mental hospital with a pitchfork. The men all lacked monoamine oxidase A, suggesting that they possessed a defective version of the MAOA gene.
My mutation is the 4R (repeat) A;A which is the best one to have, you get all the advantages of the Warrior Gene without the downside. The A or A;A variant is sometimes called the “happy gene”. Women have two Alleles, one from their mother and one from their father, so he had to be an A which fits what I know about him. Even tempered, happy, not easily rattled and fearless when it came to speaking truth to power. Does this mean my mother was also A, well on the surface, yes, but she may not have had the mutation at all and the A could have come from my maternal grandfather which fits much better with temperament.
This mutation is fascinating. Roughly a third of the population has it in both men and women. It is studied in men but poorly studied in women. It is also an easy excuse for serial killers and despots. It is also a very old mutation, many millions of years old and is shared with apes and Old World monkeys, so it first appeared in a common ancestor. The fact it is millions of years old means it was favored by natural selection, obviously, it can’t be all bad, Those variants with the least control certainly have the potential of being extremely violent and this is where nature and intelligence can mitigate the urge for violence. All of the variants share a personal fearlessness, so soldiers, first responders etc., can benefit from this mutation. But so can business leaders and politicians because they are also risk takers. Not crazy risks, but calculated risk, and they are very good at quickly assessing the potential return to them for a particular action. The mutation often expresses itself in big dreams and aspirational ideas that ultimately come to fruition.
No one remembers my Dad ever being really angry, but the ability is still there. I am slow to burn but when I do it is pretty bright. There have only been two times in my life when I truly “lost it” but when pushed I am like a rat in a corner. This is not to say I don’t have my “time to burn a village” moments but like my Dad, I find other ways to express my anger, which is more likely to get the desired results than a punch in the nose. I am also aggressive and confronting when needed. I have no problem sticking up for myself and while my childhood certainly colors the expression of my mutation, it also may be what made it possible for me to step over it and leave it behind. That is another benefit of the mutation, the ability to compartmentalize experiences. There is also the potential to be able to easily deal with a good deal of stress. I beleive this may be true because my life has always been stressful and it just seems normal, or as my youngest says, just another Tuesday.
Sounds like a good mutation to have, I know I like it and clearly, it provided a necessary advantage to evolving humans. But like with so many things it has also been used to unfairly characterize races, so I think it is required to recognize the importance of this mutation in moving humanity forward, because not all research is good research and not all science is good science. This mutation doesn’t mean you are a violent person and so much more than one gene mutation goes into any tendencies we may have. Not just in additional genes and how they work together but our experiences. Warrior Gene perhaps, just remember Berzerkers do not make a good army, good soldiers need that bravery but also control
It also should go without saying if you find something troubling PLEASE go to your family doctor or genetic counselor. As a woman I am also concerned about the cost of genetic test for the BRCA 1&2, promethease or codegen will tell you if you have the gene, what it means and THEN you go to your doctor to confirm and go from there. But I think it is helpful to know you can find out without first spending hundreds of dollars, you can have the mutation even if no breast cancer in your immediate family, so check!
https://www.promethease.com $10 Takes all major DNA services
https://codegen.eu. Free Takes all major DNA services
genomelink.io Free Takes all major DNA services
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