Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / DNA, Health, and Women

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DNA, Health, and Women · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm not going to Stephane.
0:07
Speaker 1: Never told your protection if I heart radio in this
0:18
Speaker 1: episode is gonna be a little different. Just so you know.
0:22
Speaker 1: This episode is sponsored by twenty three and Me And
0:25
Speaker 1: as always when it comes to companies and programs like these,
0:28
Speaker 1: make sure you're reading the fine print, know your options
0:31
Speaker 1: and your rights, and keep informed. Yes, definitely, I think
0:36
Speaker 1: it's a good take on all the things, as I'm
0:37
Speaker 1: signing many of papers right now for many other things.
0:41
Speaker 1: But yes, I know your rights and things do change,
0:43
Speaker 1: so understand your rights, keep informed and updated on all
0:48
Speaker 1: of it. Yes, that's the first morning. We also have
0:50
Speaker 1: a content morning mentions of childhood trauma and overall discussions
0:54
Speaker 1: of health and wellness. It's uh, we're not gonna go
0:57
Speaker 1: too deep into them, but yes, I'm getting really personal y'all.
1:00
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm ers, So thank you Annie for giving me
1:03
Speaker 1: the space. Oh no, thanks for being open with us.
1:06
Speaker 1: All right, here we go. Yeah, so it is a
1:08
Speaker 1: fairly special and uh, fairly personal episode. Again, this is
1:14
Speaker 1: what we do, right, I feel comfortable you can feel
1:17
Speaker 1: comfortable and sharing these things with our people's. Yes, perhaps
1:23
Speaker 1: too comfortable. Something we just let it all out and
1:27
Speaker 1: are still so patient with us, so thank you. But
1:30
Speaker 1: we are taking a moment to look into our own
1:32
Speaker 1: health traits and DNA specifically mine. But again, before we
1:36
Speaker 1: talk about some of the information, let's talk about how
1:39
Speaker 1: we got ready for this episode. And I say we
1:42
Speaker 1: because Annie was absolutely pivotal to me going should I
1:45
Speaker 1: do this? Do you think I'm mentally healthy enough to
1:48
Speaker 1: do this? And will you support me? Yes? Yes, I
1:51
Speaker 1: hope you know. Listeners, Smith and I are legit friends, um,
1:55
Speaker 1: and we do look out for each other and we
1:58
Speaker 1: do take that seriously because we know that, you know,
2:02
Speaker 1: you can really do yourself some harm in this kind
2:06
Speaker 1: of medium when you're you're being so open and you're
2:08
Speaker 1: digging up these things. Um. And our very first thing
2:12
Speaker 1: that we started out doing was this mini series on trauma, right,
2:15
Speaker 1: and we hadn't like our check ins and making sure
2:19
Speaker 1: like both of us are okay and that we're not
2:22
Speaker 1: doing ourselves harm um by being open with this. So
2:26
Speaker 1: this it was very important to me, and because I
2:28
Speaker 1: knew you were interested in it, and I know you'll
2:31
Speaker 1: talk about why uh in a minute, but it was
2:34
Speaker 1: very important to me to be like, okay, if you're
2:36
Speaker 1: gonna do this, What is our game plan, whatever we
2:38
Speaker 1: gonna do to make sure that this is going to
2:40
Speaker 1: be a healthy, non traumatizing experience for you. And yeah,
2:43
Speaker 1: as in fact, when I would take the test and
2:46
Speaker 1: send it off, we would do a check in with
2:47
Speaker 1: each other. When I got the results, we did a
2:50
Speaker 1: check in, and then you checked in again with me
2:52
Speaker 1: about a day later, like how are you. I don't
2:54
Speaker 1: even know what it was day later, like a few
2:56
Speaker 1: hours later, and how are you? And I think that's
2:58
Speaker 1: really important for us to talk about because many of
3:01
Speaker 1: you already know when it comes to my identity, I
3:04
Speaker 1: have a lot of trauma surrounding it. As in fact,
3:07
Speaker 1: that was part of my therapy session I had when
3:09
Speaker 1: we did our Trauma mini series when I started on
3:13
Speaker 1: this podcast. And it's not unusual for adoptees, especially transracial adoptees,
3:18
Speaker 1: to seek out more information of their biological family um
3:22
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of abandonment and attachment issues that
3:25
Speaker 1: come along with it. And with the advancements of these
3:27
Speaker 1: types of results and companies, people are able to dig
3:31
Speaker 1: a little bit for information when it comes to their ancestry,
3:34
Speaker 1: their family and possible health traits. We've talked about personal
3:38
Speaker 1: experiences previously when we talked with author Nicole Chung about
3:42
Speaker 1: her memoir all we can ever know, and for myself,
3:46
Speaker 1: a part of that journey has to include protecting my
3:50
Speaker 1: mental and emotional health. And uh, we all know therapy
3:56
Speaker 1: is something we talk about a lot on here and all,
4:00
Speaker 1: So to go ahead and put this cafaat therapy is
4:02
Speaker 1: a privilege, but it is important to see get out
4:05
Speaker 1: if you can, UM. And also finding a good therapist
4:08
Speaker 1: and finding a therapist that you specializes in what you
4:12
Speaker 1: need very very important, very important, UM. And I will
4:17
Speaker 1: tell you I did choose a therapist. If you all
4:19
Speaker 1: remember when we did our Trauma Many series, that was
4:22
Speaker 1: one of the big things that we started out with
4:23
Speaker 1: as well, that both Annie and I would have therapeutic
4:28
Speaker 1: sessions so that we could discuss the really heavy topics
4:31
Speaker 1: that we were talking about at that point in time.
4:33
Speaker 1: And Annie, I think you're still talking to that therapist, correct, M. Yes,
4:39
Speaker 1: we loved her, and uh I stepped back a little
4:42
Speaker 1: bit because I got too busy, I didn't have enough
4:45
Speaker 1: money all those things. So I came back, UM and
4:48
Speaker 1: researched a new therapist whom I found through the world
4:51
Speaker 1: of interwebs M, who is actually a transnational adoptee herself.
4:56
Speaker 1: So I'm very glad to hear this as she specializes
4:58
Speaker 1: in childhood trauma, is a woman of color. I believe
5:01
Speaker 1: she's Korean as well, so all of these check marks
5:04
Speaker 1: that I found. We had a beginning session and we
5:07
Speaker 1: had a phone conversation. Um, and everything is fit and aligned,
5:11
Speaker 1: and it was really nice and different to have a
5:13
Speaker 1: moment to be able to talk about my identity issues
5:16
Speaker 1: and her to fully understand and to kind of call
5:20
Speaker 1: it out because a lot of the times I've had
5:21
Speaker 1: many therapist who would be like, oh, man, that's hard,
5:24
Speaker 1: how did you react to that? Try to figure out
5:26
Speaker 1: how to respond to me? And because she kind of understood,
5:32
Speaker 1: she knew how to So it was really interesting or refreshing.
5:35
Speaker 1: And it's a whole new turn for me because I've
5:37
Speaker 1: not had uh an Asian woman being my therapists. I've
5:40
Speaker 1: had a black woman, and then I've had a lot
5:44
Speaker 1: of white women who are my therapist, and so this
5:46
Speaker 1: is this is definitely a different experience and UM, I'm
5:50
Speaker 1: interested to see how far we can go. But yeah,
5:52
Speaker 1: we're gonna be doing a lot of unpacking and trauma work.
5:56
Speaker 1: But I did also let her know the very beginning, Hey,
5:59
Speaker 1: I'm doing a thing with DNA reports, and I know
6:04
Speaker 1: this could be triggering for me because there's a lot
6:06
Speaker 1: of what ifs in my head that I've been able
6:10
Speaker 1: to kind of ignore, but with these I it gives
6:13
Speaker 1: me a way to research deeper. So we talked about
6:16
Speaker 1: that and why we're doing this. Yeah, I'm very curious,
6:20
Speaker 1: and I was very curious. But also with that, I
6:24
Speaker 1: knew that I had trauma and triggers and I needed
6:26
Speaker 1: to recognize those as well. And uh, and the reason
6:30
Speaker 1: we wanted to talk about this and you're the one
6:33
Speaker 1: who came to and I think sent me an article
6:35
Speaker 1: talking about how it can be traumatizing to discover new information. Yes,
6:40
Speaker 1: so that can come from this types of reports, and
6:43
Speaker 1: I was very grateful. It's like, oh dang, yeah, that's true.
6:48
Speaker 1: And so we wanted to talk about and highlight that
6:50
Speaker 1: it is important to put yourself in a good place
6:53
Speaker 1: m so that it doesn't break you down right right
6:58
Speaker 1: and where you know, as we and saying, we're very
7:00
Speaker 1: big proponents of that because I think for a lot
7:02
Speaker 1: of people they might not consider that aspects of of
7:08
Speaker 1: getting a DNA report. And it's not like more information
7:12
Speaker 1: is good, but just being prepared that there could be
7:15
Speaker 1: things that you find out or that possibly possibilities that
7:20
Speaker 1: you're made aware of that maybe you weren't prepared for
7:23
Speaker 1: and maybe it can be maybe it would be something
7:25
Speaker 1: that's sharing for you. So just like making sure, yes,
7:28
Speaker 1: you're in that good place where you've got a plan
7:29
Speaker 1: in place, you've got a friend to support you or
7:33
Speaker 1: have your back, um, because you know, we're all about
7:36
Speaker 1: supporting women, supporting women and being there for each other um.
7:41
Speaker 1: And we also are just very aware of like potential
7:45
Speaker 1: triggers and traumas. On the show, I feel like we
7:47
Speaker 1: talked about it quite often, right, and it's important because
7:50
Speaker 1: we've experienced it and sometimes having a name for what
7:53
Speaker 1: you're going through without realizing it is nice to be like,
7:56
Speaker 1: oh again because I do recognize my triggers. Um able
8:00
Speaker 1: to prepare so big events and discoveries can undo some
8:05
Speaker 1: things for me, and therefore being able to recognize, like
8:08
Speaker 1: the physical tills, it's really important to prepare. And I
8:13
Speaker 1: say prepare in a big ways, but yeah, information like
8:16
Speaker 1: this can give you a chance to take control of
8:19
Speaker 1: a few things, whether you're made aware of things, um,
8:23
Speaker 1: how you proceed with things, just overall life things. I
8:27
Speaker 1: guess for me specifically, um, and we're gonna talk a
8:30
Speaker 1: little more about it in a second. But I made
8:32
Speaker 1: some headway in discovering a little history about my past,
8:37
Speaker 1: including getting in contact with possible family members, distant relatives possibly,
8:42
Speaker 1: so a lot of things and that could be traumatizing,
8:45
Speaker 1: especially for me. Yes, yes, yes that's who we know.
8:50
Speaker 1: But yeah, so that's a way that I did want
8:52
Speaker 1: to prepare and would tell people who are doing these
8:56
Speaker 1: types of reports, uh to to be aware uh of
9:00
Speaker 1: triggers and and be having a plan in place, whether
9:04
Speaker 1: it's to go to a supportive friend, taking breaks, taking
9:07
Speaker 1: naps because I love naps and stuff like that is
9:10
Speaker 1: really important y'all. It's uh. I did get my report
9:27
Speaker 1: and going through it, it kind of made me laugh.
9:29
Speaker 1: Going through it kind of made me laugh again. Like
9:31
Speaker 1: I said, I've been interested to learn about my background,
9:34
Speaker 1: about digging into what can be emotionally taxing, but you know,
9:38
Speaker 1: I wanted to find out a little more, get some
9:40
Speaker 1: healthy information, um, and get a kind of a start
9:45
Speaker 1: of some of the things that I had no clue,
9:48
Speaker 1: so I have no access to you all know. I
9:51
Speaker 1: am a Korean adoptee. Came into the U S when
9:53
Speaker 1: I was seven, lived in an orphanage for two to
9:56
Speaker 1: three years. I don't have a lot of information other
9:59
Speaker 1: than the information that was brought with me and given
10:00
Speaker 1: to my parents. I can't even remember the orphanage I
10:03
Speaker 1: was in. I'm sure my parents have that information. I
10:06
Speaker 1: was adopted through Wholt International, and Whole International is the
10:10
Speaker 1: biggest adoption agency within Korea, as in fact, a majority
10:15
Speaker 1: of people probably were adopted through Holt International. And just
10:19
Speaker 1: for a little history on who hold International Services were,
10:22
Speaker 1: it was created by Bertha and Harry Holt, who actually
10:26
Speaker 1: adopted eight what they call war orphans themselves. So during
10:30
Speaker 1: this time, there are a lot of children out in
10:32
Speaker 1: the streets, as historically said, because they were by racial
10:37
Speaker 1: usually white soldiers with Korean women, and that brought a
10:41
Speaker 1: lot of shame. There was a lot of factors to
10:42
Speaker 1: this um and so you saw a lot of orphans,
10:45
Speaker 1: young kids, young children, and they adopted eight and from
10:49
Speaker 1: that kind of just grew into a large service that
10:53
Speaker 1: grew internationally. A huge amount of adoptees went to Norway,
10:57
Speaker 1: did Mark, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, and Germany and
11:01
Speaker 1: eventually into the US. We know, a lot of Western
11:04
Speaker 1: Christianity and religion kind of popped into play as well.
11:08
Speaker 1: And it was during this time up until I would
11:11
Speaker 1: say the nineteen nineties, that international adoption like that, trans
11:15
Speaker 1: racial adoption like that, was huge, and from what I gather,
11:18
Speaker 1: was a pretty big money market for South Korea. Of course,
11:22
Speaker 1: there's a lot of backlash now there's a bigger conversation
11:24
Speaker 1: about that and and the trauma that it has caused.
11:28
Speaker 1: There's also this idea that a majority of the adoptees
11:31
Speaker 1: were young girls or girls or baby girls because the
11:35
Speaker 1: lineage and um the patriarch essentially kind of Trump's matriarchal
11:41
Speaker 1: lines and apparently can't be as traced when it comes
11:45
Speaker 1: to legacies and inheritances and such, so hold all these things.
11:51
Speaker 1: Apparently there was this whole print in what was called
11:53
Speaker 1: the Pound Pup Legacy that was written in The Progressive,
11:56
Speaker 1: which was an article I think based in South Korea,
12:00
Speaker 1: talking about a lot of the effects and everything that happened,
12:03
Speaker 1: even talking about there was a city supply of healthy
12:06
Speaker 1: children being shipped to these different these different countries. There's
12:11
Speaker 1: also the same conversation and we've talked about it before
12:14
Speaker 1: when we talked about surrogacy, where women were told that
12:18
Speaker 1: they were just going to be cared for at these
12:20
Speaker 1: orphanages and then kind of tricked into signing over rights.
12:24
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of conversation. I know we've heard
12:26
Speaker 1: that with Nicole Chung. She had a little conversation about
12:29
Speaker 1: how not everyone was informed on what happened, and that
12:34
Speaker 1: happened a lot in in these kind of agencies. They're
12:37
Speaker 1: trying to do a lot more transparency when it comes
12:39
Speaker 1: to adoptions, but still a lot of questions, uh, and
12:42
Speaker 1: a lot of things that had happened in the past
12:44
Speaker 1: where people can't reconnect. I will say I believe Holt
12:47
Speaker 1: International had a service for adopted because who grow up
12:51
Speaker 1: and want to find out about their families and having
12:53
Speaker 1: them travel back to South Korea. I don't have a
12:55
Speaker 1: distinct memory when I was in the orphanage of an
12:58
Speaker 1: older woman, a young woman coming back with her adopted
13:01
Speaker 1: parents to visit the orphanage and kind of looking back
13:04
Speaker 1: on her history. So that was interesting. I have very
13:06
Speaker 1: little memories. I remember her showing up and everybody being
13:09
Speaker 1: very excited about that. Within that culture also was a
13:13
Speaker 1: really kind of sad uh which that I kind of
13:17
Speaker 1: believed is that whole like these girls, if they weren't adopted,
13:22
Speaker 1: they would go into prostitution. That was the immediate reaction.
13:25
Speaker 1: And so we were being saved from a world of prostitution.
13:27
Speaker 1: And not that that couldn't happen, but it was such
13:30
Speaker 1: a cautionary tale that was told to white Americans to
13:35
Speaker 1: save children that it became a whole persona And for me,
13:39
Speaker 1: I grew up hearing that, like, be grateful, be grateful
13:44
Speaker 1: because you could have lasted this way. And don't get
13:45
Speaker 1: me wrong, in that orphanage, I remember a lot of
13:48
Speaker 1: young girls who are aging out, kind of a lot
13:51
Speaker 1: like the foster system here in the US. They were
13:53
Speaker 1: just aging out and no one was helping them. The
13:55
Speaker 1: government wasn't helping them, the people were not connecting people
13:59
Speaker 1: with them. Of worse, it could be also that you know,
14:02
Speaker 1: these young kids have been traumatized in the system and
14:04
Speaker 1: just want to be out, and so they try to
14:06
Speaker 1: rush out. So it was very interesting to look at
14:09
Speaker 1: that history. But with that type of history. That also
14:12
Speaker 1: means things get lost in translation, so we would lose
14:15
Speaker 1: a lot of records. I was told that I did
14:17
Speaker 1: have chickenpox vaccine, that I actually did have measles at
14:21
Speaker 1: one point in time, um, and that that was about it,
14:25
Speaker 1: and like, and I was told that my parents were
14:29
Speaker 1: divorced um and I was not allowed to live with
14:33
Speaker 1: my stepfather, so they gave me to my grandmother because
14:38
Speaker 1: my stepfather, my real biological father, was not able to
14:41
Speaker 1: care for me. And then after that she took me
14:44
Speaker 1: to the orphanage because she couldn't care for me either.
14:46
Speaker 1: So those are the things that I remember distinctly as
14:50
Speaker 1: being told my history. But outside of that, I don't
14:52
Speaker 1: have anything. I don't know. I have a picture of
14:56
Speaker 1: what I thought was my brother, but again I have
14:58
Speaker 1: in and out dreams that are not necess necessarily true.
15:01
Speaker 1: All these things um that came with me. So having
15:04
Speaker 1: this kind of breakdown was interesting. So let me talk
15:06
Speaker 1: about that, because now that I've giving you the sad
15:09
Speaker 1: history of adoption in my life, and everybody wants to
15:13
Speaker 1: think about that. So according to my twenty three and
15:16
Speaker 1: me Ancestry Composition Report, I am one that Korean or
15:23
Speaker 1: at least very highly likely, and according to the rundown
15:28
Speaker 1: of the report, it really says Korean. So I don't
15:32
Speaker 1: know if you've been able to look at these reports
15:33
Speaker 1: or view these reports. It has kind of a color
15:36
Speaker 1: wheel and it tells you kind of be a breakdown
15:39
Speaker 1: of ancestry or DNA right down. Of course, it changes
15:43
Speaker 1: apparently with more and more people get reports or take
15:46
Speaker 1: on the twenty three and me and actually sitting in
15:49
Speaker 1: their kit um. So the overall breakdown was interesting and
15:51
Speaker 1: made me take a deeper look at my own history.
15:55
Speaker 1: So with the way it breaks down, it shows me
15:58
Speaker 1: the different administration of regions. So it says, quote, South
16:02
Speaker 1: Korea has sixteen administrative regions, and we found the strongest
16:06
Speaker 1: evidence of your ancestry in the following nine regions. So
16:09
Speaker 1: the top five is one is Soul, second is three
16:14
Speaker 1: is Jeli num Do, and then four is Bussan, and
16:17
Speaker 1: then and then five is So it's really interesting. I
16:22
Speaker 1: did like reading these and now I want to go
16:24
Speaker 1: and research it more because those regions are not so
16:28
Speaker 1: of course I know Soul. I also know Bussan. I
16:31
Speaker 1: was told Signam City and I think that's in the
16:33
Speaker 1: region of Soul. So I'm interested in seeing that to
16:37
Speaker 1: be able to see those regions um as well. And
16:40
Speaker 1: like I said, I did try to contact someone who's
16:43
Speaker 1: like fifth removed cousin because I found out they were
16:46
Speaker 1: adopted as well, and they live in the States. So
16:49
Speaker 1: there's a chunk of people that live in the States.
16:51
Speaker 1: And several of the people that I went through that
16:53
Speaker 1: had connections or it shows as possible relatives for me
16:57
Speaker 1: that has that list. Uh, several of them were adopted,
17:00
Speaker 1: so that says a lot to me, and I didn't
17:02
Speaker 1: understand the history behind that, and I want to learn
17:04
Speaker 1: more because I'm like, wow, uh, this seems to be
17:07
Speaker 1: so common. I wonder why. And so there's a whole breakdown.
17:11
Speaker 1: Of course, I also did my cyberstalking and went through
17:13
Speaker 1: like Facebook trying to find them. Instagram LinkedIn was a
17:18
Speaker 1: big one, um, but I just reached out to the
17:20
Speaker 1: one person because it turned out she and I had
17:22
Speaker 1: been adopted the same year, and I really kind of
17:25
Speaker 1: wanted to see if we could connect. Haven't made it
17:28
Speaker 1: beyond that other than we shared each other like as
17:31
Speaker 1: in like we confirmed and I guess you can friend them.
17:35
Speaker 1: It's the best way I can think of it as
17:36
Speaker 1: like in Facebook you can friend them and so I
17:39
Speaker 1: don't know, we'll see, but it's there and there's an
17:42
Speaker 1: option there, and it was nice to know that I
17:44
Speaker 1: had an option with that. So listeners, if I go beyond,
17:48
Speaker 1: I'll let you know, yes. But uh so, moving on,
17:54
Speaker 1: we want to talk about the help and Trades reports.
17:56
Speaker 1: And I didn't know it exactly to expect since my
18:00
Speaker 1: background and my ancestry is a big mystery for me.
18:03
Speaker 1: But looking through the reports, I was mildly surprised. Um
18:06
Speaker 1: And just for reference, in the in the reports, the
18:08
Speaker 1: way it's phrased, when you see it, it's it is
18:11
Speaker 1: quote variants not detected, typical likelihood, slightly increased risk, and
18:16
Speaker 1: increased likelihood. So that's kind of how they report it.
18:19
Speaker 1: So in my report, type two diabetes was at an
18:23
Speaker 1: increased likelihood with it being at range, so it gives
18:26
Speaker 1: you kind of a range of compared to others how likely,
18:31
Speaker 1: and also states with it that overall it can depend
18:35
Speaker 1: on different factors, which is always important to remember because
18:39
Speaker 1: for me, I get my yearly physical exam with the
18:43
Speaker 1: blood works. Of course that helps our insured stuff. Um,
18:46
Speaker 1: and I know that I'm in a good place right now,
18:49
Speaker 1: we will definitely have to keep a close watch on
18:51
Speaker 1: it because things change and your age and that all
18:54
Speaker 1: factors in as well. And it's also worth noting that
19:10
Speaker 1: according to the c d C, for women, quote, diabetes
19:14
Speaker 1: increases the risk of heart disease, the most common diabetes complication,
19:18
Speaker 1: by about four times, and women but only about two times.
19:22
Speaker 1: And men and women are also at a higher risk
19:25
Speaker 1: of other diabetes related complications such as blindness, kidney disease,
19:28
Speaker 1: and depression. Right. I didn't actually know those statistics until
19:32
Speaker 1: after I started my research. I was like, Okay, let's
19:34
Speaker 1: see what this is about. I wanted to dig deeper
19:37
Speaker 1: and just being able to get and attain this information
19:41
Speaker 1: as good and I was like, oh wow, I didn't
19:43
Speaker 1: I didn't know that women were higher risk. I feel
19:45
Speaker 1: like there's other factors that wouldn't talk about in that,
19:47
Speaker 1: but you know, we'll get to that later. Um. And again,
19:50
Speaker 1: it also says in the City City Report that it's
19:54
Speaker 1: quote different among women African American, Hispanic, Latina, American, Indian,
19:58
Speaker 1: Alaska Native, and Asian Pacific Islander women are more likely
20:02
Speaker 1: to have diabetes than white women, which, of course, being
20:05
Speaker 1: an Asian woman that's good for me to know. Yes, yes,
20:09
Speaker 1: indeed yeah. UM. Also in that increased likelihood category was
20:13
Speaker 1: coronary artery disease, which Minty has talked about before as
20:16
Speaker 1: it can present differently in women UM than men, but
20:20
Speaker 1: also started to remember according to the CDC quote, heart
20:23
Speaker 1: disease is sometimes thought of as a man's disease. Almost
20:26
Speaker 1: as many women as men die each year of heart
20:29
Speaker 1: disease in the United States. UM, and not knowing my history,
20:33
Speaker 1: that is something that I definitely want to keep in check.
20:35
Speaker 1: And I'm glad to know of this because at right
20:37
Speaker 1: now again, everything was great with my blood work this year,
20:41
Speaker 1: but things change swiftly, things change, and when it comes
20:45
Speaker 1: to health wise, so I want to know these things
20:49
Speaker 1: and so being able to be informed of that feels
20:53
Speaker 1: like I'm winning. I don't know, and for many the
20:59
Speaker 1: br C A one or the breast cancer gene and
21:02
Speaker 1: br C A two can be alarming as it stays
21:06
Speaker 1: on the twenty three Many reports UH specific genetic variants,
21:09
Speaker 1: and the br C A one and b r C
21:11
Speaker 1: A two genes are associated with increased risks of developing
21:15
Speaker 1: certain cancers, including breast cancer in women and men, and
21:19
Speaker 1: ovarian cancer. And also they do have a great disclaimer
21:23
Speaker 1: about this, and I don't I do want to read
21:24
Speaker 1: it off. The twenty three and me b r C
21:26
Speaker 1: A one and b r C A two Genetic Health
21:29
Speaker 1: Risk Report is intended for use in adults to report
21:32
Speaker 1: three genetic variants in the b r C A one
21:34
Speaker 1: and b r C A two genes associated with a
21:37
Speaker 1: higher risk of developing breasts, ovariant and prostate cancer. Report
21:42
Speaker 1: does not include variants and other genes linked to hereditary cancers.
21:46
Speaker 1: Not intendant to diagnose any disease or tell you about
21:49
Speaker 1: your overall risk of developing a disease. Not intended to
21:52
Speaker 1: be used to determine any treatments, and results should be
21:55
Speaker 1: confirmed in clinical settings before taking any medical action. And
21:59
Speaker 1: it's not a substitute for visits to healthcare professionals for
22:03
Speaker 1: recommended screens or appropriate follow up, which I think is
22:07
Speaker 1: really really crucial to know. Again, this is not a
22:11
Speaker 1: tool for you to just bank your decisions on, but
22:16
Speaker 1: just the way for you to be like, let me
22:18
Speaker 1: go check this out and get more information. I think
22:20
Speaker 1: it's smart for any and all of these traits being reported,
22:25
Speaker 1: even though it's a likelihood that yes, I still will
22:28
Speaker 1: go and check it out with a doctor, just as
22:30
Speaker 1: a reminder and for me myself. The report showed zero
22:34
Speaker 1: variants detected, but again a good reminder from the report. However,
22:38
Speaker 1: more than a thousand variants in the b r C
22:40
Speaker 1: A one and b r C A two genes are
22:42
Speaker 1: known to increase cancer risk, so you can still have
22:44
Speaker 1: a variant not included in this test. In addition, most
22:48
Speaker 1: cases of breast and A variant cancers are not caused
22:51
Speaker 1: by inherited variants, so women without a variant are still
22:54
Speaker 1: at risk of developing these cancers. It's important to continue
22:57
Speaker 1: with any cancer screenings your health care provider recommends. And yes,
23:01
Speaker 1: I will absolutely be going to my screenings. What it's
23:04
Speaker 1: time to squish the boobies, that's how I see it.
23:08
Speaker 1: If they say the technical term, I'm pretty sure yes.
23:12
Speaker 1: And as you said, I think, you know, being informed
23:16
Speaker 1: and getting that more information and being clear on what
23:20
Speaker 1: that information means is so key. My family does have
23:25
Speaker 1: a history of breast cancer, so the women in our
23:28
Speaker 1: family especially are always like make sure you get tested
23:31
Speaker 1: and make sure you do this, and make sure you
23:32
Speaker 1: check for this, and kind of having that in the
23:35
Speaker 1: back of my mind that it is something that I
23:38
Speaker 1: need to keep an eye on, and I think that
23:39
Speaker 1: is incredibly important right as we all should. So these
23:45
Speaker 1: were some of the hell things that we did want
23:46
Speaker 1: to talk about and that came up when I did
23:49
Speaker 1: get my report. But there's some other interesting things I
23:52
Speaker 1: note from this report, uh the wellness report in the
23:54
Speaker 1: case that I am likely to flush as an alcohol
23:57
Speaker 1: flush reaction. So, uh, this is not news to me,
24:03
Speaker 1: as I discovered this when I first started drinking, and
24:06
Speaker 1: I was like, whoa, what is happening? And I had
24:08
Speaker 1: to research about what was happening, and I was like,
24:10
Speaker 1: this is this is really mean of my genetics to
24:16
Speaker 1: tell on me. So I was like, okay, they okay,
24:21
Speaker 1: this one's okay. And then the next one was a
24:23
Speaker 1: muscle composition. So it's common an elite power athletes. I
24:28
Speaker 1: really wish someone would let my muscles know that this
24:30
Speaker 1: is supposedly something that is a trait. And the report
24:33
Speaker 1: states quote studies have found that almost all elite power athletes,
24:37
Speaker 1: including sprinters, throwers, and jumpers, have a specific genetic variant
24:41
Speaker 1: in a gene related to muscle composition. You have to
24:44
Speaker 1: say genetic variant as these athletes. That is not obvious
24:50
Speaker 1: to me, and I'm very sad that I can't say
24:52
Speaker 1: that's an obvious to me. I really wish it were,
24:55
Speaker 1: but I was like, I'm just gonna glow about it anyway,
24:58
Speaker 1: even though it's not physically seeing here. Um And according
25:04
Speaker 1: to the trade report, I am quite more likely to
25:06
Speaker 1: be able to match a musical pitch, more likely than
25:09
Speaker 1: average to have had a bunyan, more likely than average
25:12
Speaker 1: to be afraid of heights. It is very true, likely
25:16
Speaker 1: bitten by mosquitoes more often than others. This explains a
25:20
Speaker 1: lot between you and I any and likely to wake
25:22
Speaker 1: up around seven a m. I have not put that
25:25
Speaker 1: to the test, but I kind of want to check
25:27
Speaker 1: and see if I feel better for some reason. But
25:28
Speaker 1: you know whatever, I thought those are all very interesting.
25:31
Speaker 1: They're very specific, and I want to know more. And
25:34
Speaker 1: they all made me laugh a little bit and giggle
25:36
Speaker 1: a little bit. And also it makes me feel superior
25:39
Speaker 1: to have said I may have had a bunion more
25:41
Speaker 1: before you. It makes you feel you know what, So
25:48
Speaker 1: there you go. This has given me a lot to
25:50
Speaker 1: think about. It has been really interesting to read and
25:53
Speaker 1: has led me to do some more research for the
25:55
Speaker 1: sake of my health and my ancestry. And I'm glad
25:57
Speaker 1: to have had this information on hand. And yeah, yeah,
26:02
Speaker 1: I keep digging and as in fact, I got a
26:05
Speaker 1: new alert from twenty three and me and saying that, hey,
26:08
Speaker 1: here's another trait you might not know about. So it
26:10
Speaker 1: keeps updating, I believe, as it continues with other kids
26:15
Speaker 1: being sent in. So I'll keep you informed of anything new. Yes,
26:20
Speaker 1: please do. And thank you for sharing this with us,
26:25
Speaker 1: letting me oh so much love, so much love on
26:30
Speaker 1: this show. Well, listeners, if you have any thoughts about
26:34
Speaker 1: what we talked about today, you can always email us.
26:37
Speaker 1: You know we love to hear from you. Our email
26:38
Speaker 1: Stuff Media mom Stuff at i heeart video dot com.
26:41
Speaker 1: You can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast
26:43
Speaker 1: or on Instagram as stuff I Never Told You. Thanks
26:45
Speaker 1: as always to our super producer Christina. Thank you Christina,
26:48
Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening Stuff I Never Told You.
26:50
Speaker 1: Protection of I Heart Radio for more podcast on my
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