DNA Results Are In - Watch Out For My Enhanced Hippocampus!

My 23andMe DNA information is being provided for the purpose of visitors learning the ancestry of me as a blogger. I think all bloggers should provide their ancestry information.

I've learned I'm a 99.8% mixture of Northwestern and Southern European heritage. My primary percentage of nationality is Iberian at 26.8%, which is from the Spain and Portugal regions. The second largest percentage is British & Irish at 21.6%.  I also have .01% of Sahara African heritage and .01 unassigned.

I don't have Neanderthal DNA, a bit of relief since that's a non-human extinct creature.

Other interesting information from my DNA health report obtained through third party sites is I have an "enhanced hippocampus" (see below) which gives me a bit more capacity for long term memories along with 5 teaspoons more of brain matter. Not that it helped much for my age, but if you look into your DNA at a younger age it could help understand more about your potential.

In order for me to obtain health data since 23andMe no longer offers all of their 131 reports from 2013 thanks to the FDA, I've used the following third party sites.

Here's my recent post on the 23andMe forum:

If you want a quick and easy way of running through your RAW data from 23andme for health genetics, this is a BETA site that's free I highly recommend: 

https://codegen.eu/#

If you want an overall more detailed information for $5.00

https://www.promethease.com

If you want a very helpful assemblage of information that's continually being updated with scientific research, it will cost a bit more. First $20 fee to get a few basic reports, then you will need to purchase their special app for more info, paid $6 per month. 

https://livewello.com

This "moderately enhanced hippocampal volume" DNA result explains why I can still recall birth dates of kids I attended elementary school with, I have an awesome long term memory. Short term not so much, that's why they call it short I guess.  I looked up a bit more and the data indicated I have "5 teaspoons more of brain matter" to meet the moderate standard. This could explain why my late sister had a high I.Q. based on brain architecture.  As far as my I.Q., it was never actually determined so I really don't know.

This DNA result showed I have the second gene that qualifies me for Hemochromatosis so I'll be looking out for high levels of iron in my blood.

I'd like to caution looking for bad things in your DNA report based on suspected symptoms, many medical professionals have told me it can actually trigger the latent DNA disease to manifest!  I've used my reports more as a means to tailor my lifestyle such as to get plenty of B12 and B6 absorbed into my small intestine because I have a gene that only provides 60% absorption rate.  Keep in mind these DNA results only mean something 20% of the time related to potential diseases. A lot more factors into why diseases actually manifest such as lifestyle, etc.

See:
www.23andMe.com