When 23&me provides reports on your Health Predispositions, it issues this disclaimer: “Keep in mind that these reports do not include all possible genetic variants that could affect these conditions.”
In fact, both the CFH and ARMS2 genes have multiple variants that interact with each other in complex ways. For them to say you have a variant is misleading. They make it sound ominous. Some variants increase the risk and some variants lower it. Likewise, for them to say you don’t have a certain variant means nothing. The genes have other variants that they didn’t consider. In other words, the reports are superficial, prone to error, and shouldn’t be taken seriously.
If you’d like to look deeper, 23&Me will let you, for a price, download the raw data from your genetic profile, with the following caveat: “The data from 23andMe’s Browse Raw Data feature is suitable only for informational use and not for medical, diagnostic or other use. Consult with a healthcare professional before making any major lifestyle changes.”
This warning is a bit overstated because the data dump does provide some useful information, including your genotype, which is the pair of variants at each rsID location. One way to learn what the the variants do is to download your raw data to Notepad, and then use the Cntrl + F keys to search for the rsID numbers listed in the table below. From there, you’ll be able to see your genotype–the variant pairs for each location, one from each parent.
The table shows that the AA variant at the CFH:rs1061170 location would be fairly high risk, while a TT or some other pair would be probably be lower. I say “probably” because genes are like a thermostat whose setting can be influenced by a host of other factors, such as diet, history, and the other variants in your profile.
If you do pay for the raw data from 23&Me, you should read the IVOS paper I downloaded. It has a lot of context. If you think you can benefit from the zinc-free versions of AREDS2, read the arcane papers that S_Sutherling downloaded.
