I had mine tested about a year ago. I have also had my father tested.
Originally, I did it because I had done a number of genetics courses and was interested .I also to see just what sort of predisposition to T1 I might have ( I didn't get it until I was in my fifties)
That sort of detailed info you can't get directly from 23 and me but you can my looking at the research and also downloading your raw data to Promethease. Out of 40 'risk SNPs, I've looked at, I have 17 heterozygous susceptibility SNPs 7 homozygous susceptibility SNPs 5 Snps not tested.11 non risk..Does it tell me much, not really except that I have an increased risk but not the highest.
As for other conditions, I had no family history of breast cancer and was testing at an
age when I was unlikely have had the BRCA mutation (breast cancer) gene It was quite nice to know I don't have APOE 4 which puts you at a higher risk of azheimers and heart disease nor the tested SNPS for Parkinsons (though my mother died with it) But I also realise that these are just highly associated SNPs. and not having them doesn't mean I'm immune from any of those conditions .A high risk doesn't mean a lot if the disease itself has a low prevalence etc.
I did find out I was a non secretor which really does decrease the risk of getting Norovirus (but may increase the risk for T1)
Ethnicity wise, I'm what I would expect with about 60% British and Irish + some Scandinavian/French/ German which is exactly what I would suspect of someone with ancestors in central England. Interestingly, I got more Scandinavian from my mother than my father; all her 17C ancestors were from the bit that was in the Danelaw, my father has some Ancestors from the Western side of the country.
23 and me is an autosomal test. You inherit 50% of your DNA from each parent. As my father has been tested, I know that the half that isn't his was from my mother that means I can see which side of the family any matches relate to (my parents don't share any DNA so were not closely related)
However, because of the process of division, and recombination then each step an ancestor is removed from you cuts the amount of DNA shared by at least half. By a few generations back the segments shared with a genealogical ancestor may be little or none .
http://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA
http://www.theroot.com/articles/his...ness_how_much_dna_do_they_actually_share.html
If you have got a good paper trail though you may be able to find descendants of ancestor's siblings who crossed the Atlantic. and vice versa (a big brick wall for some people across the pond) I found one recently. We share a 5x great grandmother (the link was on the X chromosome which has a distinct pattern of transmission so we know it was her and not her husband). We were only able to do that because my 'relative' had traced his line back to a name I recognised.(he hadn't traced it back in the UK, I hadn't traced it forwards) My husband has also had his tested and has come across a totally unknown 2nd cousin
You have a far better chance of contacting relatives if you download your raw data to a site called Gedmatch. This takes data from 23 and me and Ancestry and FTDNA .
(noticed above response, cost from UK was £125 Statin myopathy, I have an increased risk for as I'm heterozygous on the tested SNP. When I did take them, I found no side effects and indeed was marathon training
(another essay,sorry! )
