You’ve spit in the little tube, mailed it off to 23andMe or AncestryDNA, and finally, your results are available!

First things first – go download your data (here’s how). It is your data, and you should store it safely.

Next, start using that 23andMe or AncestryDNA raw data file to personalize nutrition and optimize lifestyle.

We are all unique – and information on weight loss, diet, disease risk, medications, and nutrition should be tailored to fit your genes.

Start right here for help with interpreting your 23andMe raw data:

There is a ton of free information on Genetic Lifehacks — all of it based on research studies.

Click the links in each article to access your 23andMe results on the 23andMe website. It’s that easy :-)

Use your genetic data to find out about:

Need more help? Check out the Genetic Lifehacks membership option which offers quick ways to view your genetic data for each topic (in a privacy-first format without needing to upload your data!)

I also offer a paid consultation report. This is an easy way to get a personalized look into the health topics you can learn about from your genetic raw data file.

Not finding what you need here? Read on for more places offering genetic reports….

Companies offering genetic health reports for 23andMe or AncestryDNA data:

Note that I am not endorsing these companies – nor am I profiting! – from these links.

Please be careful and read the privacy policy before uploading your data (giving your genome!) to a third-party. Privacy is so important when it comes to your genetic data.

Big Overview Genetic Report Reports:

Review of Promethease (www.promethease.com):

Overview: This website matches your 23andMe, AncestryDNA, or other genetic data to the information on the Snpedia.com website.

Price: $12 – $16

Privacy policy: States that “At no time is your DNA data shared – or sold – to any external party, period. We also do not sell any products like vitamins or supplements.” Promethease was bought out by MyHeritage.com and user data will be transferred to MyHeritage… MyHeritage privacy policy states: “By submitting DNA samples to us and/or DNA Results to the Website, you grant us a royalty-free, world-wide license to use your DNA samples, the DNA Results and the resulting DNA Reports,…” and “The voluntary Surveys on MyHeritage (the “Surveys”) collect, preserve and analyze self-reported information related to physical and other personal traits, demography, household, lifestyle, habits, preferences, hobbies and interests, opinions, family, occupation, health, psychological and cognitive traits and other similar information (collectively, the “Survey Research Information”).” Also, “If you voluntarily agreed to the DNA Informed Consent Agreement (the “Informed Consent”) we may use the Survey Research Information, the Health Family Tree Information, DNA Results, Health Questionnaire Information, the DNA Reports and other DNA information for the purposes of research as specified in the Informed Consent.”

Be sure to read through the MyHeritage privacy policy completely and make sure you are ok with it before using Promethease.

Review of Codegen (www.codegen.eu):

Overview: This website also matches your 23andMe raw data file to information on Snpedia. They have comments from other users which may be helpful if you like anecdotes.

Cost: Free

Privacy policy: “1. We will never share or sell your data 2. The service is designed to be anonymous (does not request your name). The most anonymous way to use this service is to upload your raw file”

Note that they are partnered with a company to sell you vitamins.

Free resources for digging into your genetic raw data file on your own:

If you are interested in learning about specific health topics from your genetic raw data file, there are many free tools that you can use to get started.

Review of SNPedia (www.snpedia.com):

Overview: This is a user-edited resource (like Wikipedia) with links to research papers on specific genetic variants. If you have a specific topic in mind, SNPedia.com is a good starting point.

Price: Free

Privacy policy: “ The general privacy policies associated with publishing in a wiki environment, such as those explained in great detail on the Wikipedia Privacy Policy page, apply to SNPedia as well.” SNPedia was sold to MyHeritage and the content is now owned by MyHeritage.

Pubmed.gov (www.pubmed.gov):

Overview: This is the National Institute of Health’s searchable database for medical research studies. The terminology in research papers can be daunting at first, but you have the whole internet at your fingertips. Just look up the words that you don’t know. Some of the articles only show the abstract, but many have links to the full study.

Price: Free

LitVar (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/CBBresearch/Lu/Demo/LitVar/)

This is a search engine for looking up research studies relevant to specific SNPs or genes. It is really handy because it searches by both rs id and by other ways that researchers reference a SNP.

DataPunk (https://www.datapunk.net/circuits/index.pl)

This is definitely on the geekier side of things. There are several tools available on this website that show how genes interact with each other as well as topics that are intertwined.

Price: Free

PharmGKB (https://www.pharmgkb.org/)

Overview: This is a database for clinicians and researchers to use containing information on how pharmaceutical drugs interact with genetic variants.

Price: Free

dbSNP (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/snp/)

Overview: Database of SNP information for researchers. If you have the rs id of a SNP you are interested in learning more about, plug it in here. This will give you information on the frequency in the population as well as links to all published research on that SNP.

Price: Free

Clue.io (https://clue.io/)

Overview: From the Broad institute, this tool allows you to input a gene name and find out which pharmaceuticals and other genes interact with that gene.

Price: Free

Paid reports on specific health topics:

Review of Found My Fitness (www.foundmyfitness.com/genetics):

Overview: Dr. Rhonda Patrick offers several different reports on genetics. Her podcasts are also excellent and very informative!

Price: $25 or $15/month for membership

Privacy policy: There is not a privacy policy! (uughh!), but the FAQ says ” If you register for an account, you can delete your report immediately after running it. If you skip registration, your report will be deleted after 30 days. We do not save data that are not used in the creation of reports.”

Review of StrateGene (www.strategene.org):

Overview: This is a color-coded report of your methylation cycle polymorphisms that is fairly comprehensive for that specific purpose. It uses 23andMe data. Strategene is part of Seeking Health, from Dr. Ben Lynch. StrateGene recommends hiring a physician to interpret the report since the report doesn’t really explain what each SNP means. There is also a Facebook group for people who have paid for a report.

Price: $45.

Privacy policy: While the rest of the Seeking Health website privacy policy is the usual stuff about how many ways they are tracking your usage, etc. their privacy policy for genetic data is fairly straight forward. “During processing, the SNP data needed for the StrateGene analysis is extracted, and the 23andme file is deleted completely. The extracted SNP data is not stored with any personally identifiable information, but may be retained for statistical analysis.”

Review of Dash Genomics (www.dashgenomics.com/):

Overview: This company takes your genomic data and personal information to compute your in-depth risk for Alzheimer’s disease. They chart out your risk and show you how it stacks up to the normal risk at various age points.

Cost: $149

Privacy policy: “DG may choose to partner with certain academic institutions, healthcare organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and other groups who are hoping to conduct novel research regarding genetics, health, and disease. As part of these efforts, to the extent permitted under applicable law, DG may share your information (including your Genetic Information) with such partners – provided that DG will not combine your name with any Genetic Information that is shared unless you have consented.”

Review of LiveWello (www.livewello.com):

Overview: When you upload your 23andMe data, you can see the major and minor alleles for a bunch of genetic variants. It also has links to snpedia.com and people’s questions or comments about that gene. There are links to practitioners who you can hire.

Price: $19.99

Privacy policy: Their privacy policy states “We will not sell, rent, or share your information (identified or de-identified) without your explicit consent, except we believes it is required to do so by law. You can completely delete your information at any time.”

Review of My Gene Food (www.mygenefood.com):

Overview: This website takes your genetic data from 23andMe or Ancestry.com and creates a custom diet plan for you based. They also have a section of recipes. While I may have personal reservations on this type of service due to limitations of research on diet/gene interaction, the blog articles and information on the MyGeneFood website seem to be solidly researched and very informative.

Price: $95

Privacy policy: Their policy doesn’t go into specifics on how they use your raw genetic data file. One ‘slippery slope’ with genetic information is that companies can take your name off the file and ‘de-identify it’. My Gene Food’s privacy policy does state “We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. ”

Review of Genetic Genie (www.geneticgenie.com) – (not recommended):

Overview: This popular website gives you a report on your methylation cycle related genes. A lot of the information is based on work from various clinicians’ websites and not based on research studies.

Price: $10 donation

Privacy policy: This website has a boilerplate privacy policy last updated in 2013 that doesn’t specifically state what happens to your genome file. It does claim that Genetic Genie is a 501(3)c non-profit organization.

Review of Impute.me (https://www.impute.me):

Overview: This website allows you to upload your genome and then run several ‘modules’ on it. Examples include modules on drug response and rare diseases. While not as user-friendly as other websites, Impute.me has in-depth information available on very specific topics.

Price: Free, (but a $5 donation is suggested)

Privacy policy: “All personally traceable genetic information, i.e. your input-data and the imputed genome data is deleted two weeks after imputation. All non-traceable information, i.e. derived calculations and disease risk-scores are deleted two years after imputation. The only right We reserve, is the future possibility to contact participants through provided email. This includes the possibility to ask users if they are interested in further academic research.”

Review of Orig3n.com (https://www.orig3n.com):

Overview: This company offers both genetic testing and reports on several different topics. They also offer an app, ways to share your data with other people and on social media, and community interaction.

Price: $149 (test included)

Privacy policy: In general, Orig3n states that they ask before sharing your genetic data with third parties. Be aware: “Your agreement to this Privacy Policy includes your consent to the transfer of your User Information, Sample and DNA to any entity that may acquire ORIG3N or its assets, either directly or indirectly, and to any affiliate of ORIG3N.” and “In order to provide the Services, we extract DNA from your Sample. We retain your DNA should you desire to purchase additional Services at any time. We reserve the right to retain or destroy your DNA in our discretion.”

If you have suggestions for other websites, please add them in the comments below. Comments removed for privacy and spam reasons. Please contact me via the contact page with suggestions.

Originally published 6/2015. Updated 8/2020