23andMe (and You, and Everyone Else)
Freakonomics Podcast with transcript
- “Wojcicki realized that the U.S. healthcare system — and its investors — were really good at monetizing illness. What about wellness? Not so profitable.”
- … M.I.T. Technology Review predicts that by 2021, more than 100 million people will be part of commercial genetic databases”
- “One thing that drives me crazy in health care is that there’s always this assumption that you and I — the individuals, the lay people, the non-Ph.D.’s, the non-M.D.’s — that we are incapable of taking care of ourselves”
I (founder of VitaminDWiki) was an early customer of 23andMe
I found their work to be excellent
But, they unfortunately do not mention the fact that the genes can be changed
Your genes are NOT your destiny
Gene activation is REDUCED by many health problems, such as cancer (see below).
Gene activation is INCREASED by such things as Magnesium, Resveratrol, etc.
My wife and I found via 23andMe that we both had poor vitamin D receptor genes
I now use 8 methods (see table below) to improve my receptor
My wife also has a high level of vitamin D, but poor health.
She found that all she needed was Resveratrol to greatly improve her health
Vitamin D Receptor Gene at VitaminDWiki
The risk of 40 diseases at least double with poor Vitamin D Receptor as of July 2019
Vitamin D Receptor category has the following
Vitamin D tests cannot detect Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) problems
A poor VDR restricts Vitamin D from getting in the cells
It appears that 30% of the population have a poor VDR (40% of the Obese )
Several diseases protect themselves by deactivating the Vitamin D receptor. Example: Breast Cancer
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The Vitamin D Receptor is associated with many health problems
Some health problems, such as Breast Cancer, Diabetes, and COVID protect themselves by reducing VDR activation
55 health problems associated with poor VDR
A poor VDR is associated with the risk of 55 health problems click here for details
The risk of 48 diseases at least double with poor VDR as of Jan 2023 click here for details
Some health problem, such as Breast Cancer reduce the VDR
VDR at-home test $29 - results not easily understood in 2016
There are hints that you may have inherited a poor VDR
How to increase VDR activation
Compensate for poor VDR by increasing one or more:
| Increasing | Increases |
| 1) Vitamin D supplement Sun Ultraviolet -B | Vitamin D in the blood and thus in the cells |
| 2) Magnesium | Vitamin D in the blood AND in the cells |
| 3) Omega-3 | Vitamin D in the cells |
| 4) Resveratrol | Vitamin D Receptor |
| 5) Intense exercise | Vitamin D Receptor |
| 6) Get prescription for VDR activator paricalcitol, maxacalcitol? | Vitamin D Receptor |
| 7) Quercetin (flavonoid) | Vitamin D Receptor |
| 8) Zinc is in the VDR | Vitamin D Receptor |
| 9) Boron | Vitamin D Receptor ?, etc |
| 10) Essential oils e.g. ginger, curcumin | Vitamin D Receptor |
| 11) Progesterone | Vitamin D Receptor |
| 12) Infrequent high concentration Vitamin D Increases the concentration gradient | Vitamin D Receptor |
| 13) Sulfroaphane and perhaps sulfur | Vitamin D Receptor |
| 14) Butyrate especially gut | Vitamin D Receptor |
| 15) Berberine | Vitamin D Receptor |
Note: If you are not feeling enough benefit from Vitamin D, you might try increasing VDR activation. You might feel the benefit within days of adding one or more of the above
Far healthier and stronger at age 72 due to supplements Includes 6 supplements that help the VDR
Increased risk of diseases if poor VDR
Increased risk associated with a poor Vitamin D Receptor
Note: Some diseases reduce VDR activation
those with a * are known to decrease activation
Vitamin D Receptor and Cancers
89+ Vitamin D Receptor pages with CANCER in the title
This list is automatically updated
8+ genes can restrict vitamin D getting to the cells
VitaminDWiki has documented the ways to improve the Vitamin D receptor activation
Most likely there are similar ways to improve the other genes, such as the Vitamin D Binding Protein
Genetics category listing contains the following
see also
- Vitamin D Receptor has
530 items - Vitamin D Binding Protein = GC has
178 items - CYP27B1 has
63 items - CYP24A1 in title of 34+ items
- CYP2R1 25+ items
- Calcidiol has
48 items - Calcitriol has
62 items - Topical Vitamin D
- Nanoemulsion Vitamin D may be a substantially better form
- 1289 genes changed with higher doses of Vitamin D - RCT Dec 2019
- CYP3A4 (7 as of Dec 2022)
- Getting Vitamin D into your body
Vitamin D blood test misses a lot
- Vitamin D from coming from tissues (vs blood) was speculated to be 50% in 2014, and by 2017 was speculated to be 90%
- Note: Good blood test results (> 40 ng) does not mean that a good amount of Vitamin D actually gets to cells
- A Vitamin D test in cells rather than blood was feasible (2017 personal communication) Commercially available 2019
- However, test results would vary in each tissue due to multiple genes
- Good clues that Vitamin D is being restricted from getting to the cells
1) A vitamin D-related health problem runs in the family
especially if it is one of 51+ diseases related to Vitamin D Receptor
2) Slightly increasing Vitamin D shows benefits (even if conventional Vitamin D test shows an increase)
3) DNA and VDR tests - 100 to 200 dollars $100 to $250
4) PTH bottoms out ( shows that parathyroid cells are getting Vitamin d)
Genes are good, have enough Magnesium, etc.
5) Back Pain
probably want at least 2 clues before taking adding vitamin D, Omega-3, Magnesium, Resveratrol, etc- The founder of VitaminDWiki took action with clues #3&5
23andMe and Vitamin D – May 2019Printer Friendly Follow this page for updates963 visitors, last modified 16 May, 2019, This page is in the following categories (# of items in each category) - Vitamin D Binding Protein = GC has