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Comment by foxhop | Hacker News Reader

It matters at least for your choices of diet which regulates your health.

I never used any of these tests, it freaks me out a bit to be in some database. That said, My family of origin did too and had a similar experience.

It's all a scam there are YouTube videos of identical twins taking tests from the major players.

The data science was flawed because there is no science or regulations. All these startups are winging it, it seems.

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If we don't have the data science to even know what peoples' distant ancestry is, how do you know it matters for choice of diet?

Maybe your ancestry per se is not so important, but your genotypes can reveal predisposition towards vitamin deficiencies.

For example, see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5801754/

> Overall, the data analyzed suggests that ethnic-specific associations are involved in the genetic determination of vitamin B12 concentrations.

Disclaimer: I am a biology dilettante

Considering most of the population doesn’t eat very healthy and rates of B12 deficiency are only ~6% I can’t imagine it would make much difference what your genetics are. Especially since many cases of deficiency will be the result of medical problems.

> I never used any of these tests, it freaks me out a bit to be in some database

Use a fake name.

You do realize that a sample of your DNA could be traced back to you pretty easily, right? If a sibling or close relative was in the database it wouldn't take much to de-anonymize you

If a sibling is in the database, it is almost immaterial whether or not you directly participate.

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