DNA testing kits are becoming increasingly popular as a way to learn more about your ancestry and genetic makeup. With the introduction of services such as AncestryDNA and 23andMe, users can gain insight into their unique genetic history. Both companies offer comprehensive DNA testing services, allowing customers to discover their family history, living relatives, and health information. But which one is better? In this article, we’ll do a detailed review and comparison of AncestryDNA vs 23andMe.
23andMe is a personal genomics company founded in 2006 in California.
The company has sold more than 12.5 million DNA kits to date.
23andMe’s mission is to help people access, understand, and benefit from the information present in the human genome.
23andMe offers four kinds of personal genetic services.
Health + Ancestry – Opting for this service will help you access more than 150 reports in the following categories.
Did You Know? You can use your AncestryDNA test data to get up to 11 additional health and wellness reports from as low as $30. No new DNA test required. Reports within 24 hours.
AncestryDNA is a part of Ancestry LLC, founded in 1996. The parent company is based out of Utah.
As of date, the company has sold 26 million testing kits.
AncestryDNA focuses exclusively on a person’s ancestral traits and origin. You can order two kinds of testing services from the Ancestry website.
Privacy is always a concern when you let any company access your personal information.
As a user, you need to be aware of what information these companies collect and store and what they share with third parties.
When you compare privacy promises between the two companies, both have similar terms and conditions.
AncestryDNA stores DNA details and samples without using your name or other personal details.
You can choose to download or delete the reports anytime you want.
The company will not share your information with third parties unless you opt for it.
With 23andMe, the privacy terms are very similar too. You can choose to save your samples or destroy them after use.
Unless you choose to participate in their sharing features, 23andMe will not share your information with third parties.
You can also delete your account permanently anytime you wish to.
Note: Recently, 23andMe faced a massive hack that put the data of millions of people in jeopardy. Please review their policy in detail and talk to the customer care representatives for more clarity.
To get your 23andMe raw data, follow the instructions in this video:
To access your AncestryDNA account, follow the instructions on this page:
How To Login To Your Ancestry DNA Account + Get Health Reports At 70% Off!
Due to the larger database, AncestryDNA’s ancestry results are more accurate. For health information, 23andMe is better. The latter also has a better layout.
Ancestry results can vary between the two companies. This is because each company uses its own reference database and algorithm for report generation. Further, the populations included in each service can also affect your results.
It was briefly discontinued to focus more on its ancestry services. However, they have been reintroduced as AncestryDNA Traits.
Both AncestryDNA and 23andMe come with their strengths.
The choice between them depends on what you want from genetic testing.
If you are interested in learning more about your ancestry, lineage, and possible family connections, then Ancestry may have a larger data pool to compare your DNA.
If you want to understand health risks or carrier status data, 23andMe will offer detailed reports that may help.
Cost-wise, both companies may charge you similarly depending on your chosen service.
Explore the available packages and see which fits your requirements better before making a choice.
LifeDNA was founded in 2017 by Steve Markowitz. Headquartered in Hawaii, USA, LifeDNA specializes in DNA-based health and wellness services.
Image: LifeDNA Home
LifeDNA’s primary offering is its reports on nutrition, health, and wellness.
LifeDNA has 3 offerings:
This service covers 40 unique traits about your nutritional profile and vitamin needs.
Everything in Diet And Wellness Pack +
Everything in the Wellness Report Bundle +
A typical LifeDNA report contains:
The nutrition report contains information on about 18 traits, which includes:
Gives you information on 26 vitamins and other micronutrients. The recommendations included tell you whether to maintain normal intake or increase/decrease it.
You May Also Be Interested In Xcode Life’s Gene Nutrition Report – 48 traits – $40
The LifeDNA Fitness report includes a genetic analysis of 19 fitness-related traits:
You May Also Be Interested In Xcode Life’s Gene Fitness Report – 27 traits – $30
The LifeDNA wellness report includes 16 traits concerning your wellbeing:
You May Also Be Interested In Xcode Life’s Gene Health Report – 48 traits – $50
The Personality and Cognition report provides information about how your genetic makeup is likely to affect your personality and cognition. Includes 27 traits.
You May Also Be Interested In Xcode Life’s Traits and Personality Report – 25+ traits – $30
The Skincare Report contains genetic information and active recommendations on 15 skin-related traits such as:
You May Also Be Interested In Xcode Life’s Gene Skin Report – 24 traits – $30
How To Download Your Raw Data From FTDNA
Download Your Raw Data From AncestryDNA
How To Download Your Raw Data From 23andMe
Download Raw Data From MyHeritage DNA
LifeDNA claims 100% security and privacy of data. According to LifeDNA, they do not hold any ownership of raw data upon upload. Instead, ownership remains 100% with the client.
LifeDNA does not share or leak genetic data without the permission of the client. In addition, LifeDNA guarantees the protection and safety of genetic data through encryption.
Even for utilization of genetic data for research, LifeDNA leaves the choice to the clients.
Clients may choose to delete data at any point in time.
They can do this by just writing a mail to the company’s support team.
Clients are given a choice between deleting genetic data (though their LifeDNA account remains active) or deleting the entire account along with genetic data permanently.
For more information on LifeDNA’s privacy policy, click here.
In April 2020, LifeDNA joined the University of Hawai’i to study why COVID-19 hits specific populations harder than others.
In January 2021, LifeDNA launched its DNA test kits, in collab with Health First Network, across 130 stores in Canada.
knowyourDNA reviews LifeDNA as a $99 pricey testing that generates in-depth reports about nutrition and beauty.
Trustpilot reviews on LifeDNA have an average of 4 out of 5 stars
**Please Note: All the images included in this review articles were sourced from LifeDNA’s website. LifeDNA doesn’t provide sample reports anymore.
| LifeDNA | Xcode Life | |
| Type of genetic testing | DNA kit and analysis | DNA raw data analysis |
| Health report | Nit offered | Offered |
| Pharmacogenomic report | Not offered | Offered |
| Raw data upload | Available but only from 23andMe, MyHeritage, Living DNA, Ancestry, and Family Tree DNA | DNA raw data from all major providers accepted. Comprehensive list |
| Number of traits analyzed | 150+ | 850+ |
| Report updates | No | Yes |
| Price | $59-$199 | Reports: $30-$50 Bundles: $110-$149 Price details |
| Sample reports | Unavailable | Available as detailed report walkthrough videos |
It is always interesting to know more about your own history and ancestors. Learning about your past can be a fascinating and soul-stirring journey.
Your geographical origin pertaining to specific populations is referred to as ethnicity.
AncestryDNA offers an in-depth analysis of your DNA and helps you understand more about your family tree, and origins or find lost relatives.
So far, ancestry DNA has limited samples that have helped people determine where they belong.
In the latest update, AncestryDNA has announced its ethnicity update and added new regions in Asia, Africa, and Oceania.
Their vast collection of family trees also helps improve results with family histories spanning various regions worldwide.
This makes ancestry DNA’s ethnicity tests more precise.
This is for people who already have an AncestryDNA kit. This feature allows you to explore your family history using all features that are included in the subscription.
After two weeks, you will be charged a monthly fee according to the plan you have chosen:
Asia
Europe
Did You Know? You can use your AncestryDNA test data to get up to 11 additional health and wellness reports from as low as $30. No new DNA test required. Reports within 24 hours.
According to the AncestryDNA website, “Storymaker Studio is a collection of tools to help you create, share, enhance, and preserve audio, images, and family stories.” It includes the following tools:
Here’s what changed with AncestryDNA’s August 2022 update:
By adding more regions in Asia and Africa and splitting Oceania into Eastern Polynesia and New Zealand Maori, eight new areas were added, namely:
At AncestryDNA, their goal is to represent the world as fairly as possible.
Since people have always been and continue to move from one place to another, representing ethnic regions becomes crucial to determining where your ancestors lived and belonged.
AncestryDNA has divided the Oceana region into Eastern Polynesia and New Zealand Maori regions to make ethnicity results more accurate and precise.
These two regions were made to provide more precise results of both the Hawaiian and New Zealand Maori heritages.
However, it is essential to remember that since Eastern Polynesian indigenous populations (who descended from West Polynesia), people with Hawaiin and Maori heritage have some percentage of other East Polynesian regions in their results.
This update aims to increase precision and provide information about different ethnicities.
The update saw more addition of samples to the reference panel to expand the number and diversity of populations for comparing users’ DNA.
Further, AncestryDNA updated the DNA algorithm to provide more precise ethnicity estimate results.
This can result in new regions or changes in your percentages.
AncestryDNA’s latest update has added more unique profiles and different regions of the world to differentiate neighboring regions better and improve existing ones.
With the latest update, people with Indigenous roots in Cuba, Haiti, or the Dominican Republic will notice more improvements.
Similar improvements will also be seen in people from the following regions:
Source: AncestryDNA YouTube Channel
Disclaimer: We are not affiliated with AncestryDNA and do not have partnerships with them of any nature. This article is intended for informational purposes only.
Existing customers who already have their AncestryDNA ethnicity profiles may see changes or updates in their ethnicity percentage with this new update.
This is because their recent update expands the number and diversity of populations they compare your DNA to during the test.
To login to your 23andMe account, follow the steps given below:
To get access to your raw DNA file, you first need to log in to your 23andMe account.
Head over to the 23andMe website, and look for the sign-in button on the top right corner, as shown below.
After you click that button, you should be redirected to the 23andMe login page.
Once you get to the login page, you can enter the email and password that you used to set up your 23andMe account.
Once you enter that information, you will gain access to your account and your 23andMe dashboard.
If you’ve forgotten your password, you can request a reset by clicking “Forgot your Password?”
You will need to enter the email you used to set up your 23andMe account.
Then, instructions will be sent to your email that will provide you with a guide on how to reset your password.
From there, you can follow the instructions, head back to the 23andMe login page, and input your email and password to access your account.
If you are unable to access your account this way, 23andMe now allows you to sign in via Google or Apple even if you haven’t originally registered this way.
Did You Know?
Your 23andMe raw data (v5 chip) contains around 650,000 genetic markers? Ancestry reports only use 0.01% of this information. Your raw data has details your health, nutrition, fitness, allergy, methylation, and specific genes like COMT and APOE. After discovering your ancestry information on the 23andMe site, you can download your raw data and use it to learn more about yourself.
Useful and easy to understand health reports from DNA data
I received my xlife reports within the timeframe promised using my 23andme data and got useful new information from the reports to inform nutrition and supplemental strategies. Thank you!
– Ash Goodwin
To sign out of your 23andMe account, follow the steps given below:
1: Move your cursor to the top right-hand corner of the screen, where you can see your username.
2: Click on the drop-down arrow
3: From the drop-down menu, choose “Sign out”
You have now successfully logged out of your 23andMe account
23andMe has a mobile application available both on Android and iOS devices. It can be downloaded from the Google Play Store/ App Store.
Once you download the app, you can sign in to your account using the same way as you did for the website.
If your 23andMe account is linked to Google, you can choose the “Sign in with Google” option and enter your Google email and password to access your account.
To update your email/password, open your account menu and click on Settings.
You can edit your email here and your password here.
Please note that for security purposes, you’ll be asked to enter your date of birth to proceed – it must match the one you entered during account registration for successful verification.
Upload the file to Xcode Life for insights into 3000+ health-related traits at a 55% discount!
Imagine this: You’ve been regularly going to the gym, pushing yourself, and attempting to gain lean muscle mass. Along the way, you’ve heard about the advantages of using creatine supplements, including
Excited to try it out, you dive into the world of creatine, only to be met with concerns about bloating. But does creatine make you bloated?
Let’s unravel the truth behind this common question and explore effective strategies to minimize any potential bloating.
Creatine, an amino acid found in our muscles, is a powerful energy generator during high-intensity exercise.
Its primary role is to help regenerate ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate), the body’s major energy source, allowing you to perform at your best throughout heavy workouts.
This amino acid is available in various forms:
You can also consume it by taking creatine-rich foods, such as:
Creatine supplementation can improve athletic performance and has several benefits, including:
Now, onto the burning question – does creatine make you bloated?
A phenomenon known as creatine bloating can often occur while adopting creatine supplements, especially during the early loading phase.
Taking a more significant dose of creatine, usually 20–25 grams, to saturate the muscles is required during this period, which lasts for about 5-7 days on average.
Temporary bloating may result at this time due to an increase in creatine intake and increased water consumption.
Thus, it is important to note the bloating felt during the loading period is temporary and usually goes away within a few weeks.
This is not the same as bloating caused by digestive issues or excess gas.
Creatine helps generate energy by increasing the concentration of creatine phosphate in the muscles.
As a result, the muscles hold onto extra water, which helps rise in body weight.
It’s important to understand that this water retention is intramuscular, meaning it stays within the muscle cells and not in the spaces between cells or organs.
The water retention associated with creatine usage may make you feel slightly heavier or fuller, but it is not the same as bloating caused by digestive problems.
True bloating often involves discomfort, distention, and excessive gas.
With creatine-related water retention, you may notice a subtle increase in body weight and muscle fullness, but it should not cause significant discomfort.
Creatine bloating is temporary and should stop within a few days to a couple of weeks – this can be avoided by taking a lower dosage.
Did You Know?
Your genes influence important aspects of fitness like your endurance potential, injury risk, premature fatigue, motivation to work out, etc. Unlocking this information using your ancestry test DNA data can help you achieve your fitness goals seamlessly.
Creatine significantly influences people who engage in high-intensity, short-duration activities.
For example, weightlifting, running, and boxing athletes often see a significant performance boost with creatine supplementation.
However, even if you are not a top athlete, creatine can enhance your fitness journey by helping you gain strength, stamina, and total muscle development.
While creatine is usually safe for most people, certain groups should use caution or avoid supplementation.
For example, individuals with kidney disease, high blood pressure, liver disease, or a history of kidney stones shouldn’t use creatine.
If you are breastfeeding or pregnant, it is advisable to avoid creatine.
Making informed decisions about supplements and prioritizing your health is important.
If you experience water retention or perceived bloating from creatine, there are effective strategies to minimize these effects:
Yes, the water retention associated with creatine usage will gradually subside once you stop taking the supplement.
However, it’s important to remember that this temporary water weight is unrelated to body fat or actual bloating, and it should not be a cause for long-term concern.
If you discontinue creatine, your body’s water balance will normalize.
Aim to consume an additional 8-16 ounces (240-480 ml) of water daily to support the benefits of creatine supplementation and maintain maximum hydration.*
This helps to flush out waste products, support muscle function, and promote overall well-being.
Remember, hydration is key to unlocking your full fitness potential.
If you’re concerned about water retention and potential bloating, stick with creatine monohydrate.**
This form of creatine is widely recognized as safe and effective, with numerous scientific studies backing its benefits.
Avoid experimental or lesser-known forms of creatine that lack sufficient evidence or may have undesirable side effects.
By choosing creatine monohydrate from a reputable brand, you can maximize the advantages of creatine while minimizing any temporary water retention.
*overhydration can also lead to digestive issues like nausea or vomiting.
**Please consult a doctor for advice on the best supplement for your body’s needs
Taking creatine can cause temporary muscle hydration that leads to bloating, but it’s not permanent. When you stop taking creatine, the bloating will disappear, and your body will return to normal rather than digestive issues or excess gas.
By following a balanced diet, and selecting a reputable creatine monohydrate supplement, you can enjoy the benefits of creatine while minimizing any temporary water weight.
Before beginning creatine supplementation, seek advice from a healthcare professional to ensure it suits your needs and health status, just like any other dietary supplement.
MTHFR stands for methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, the infamous enzyme whose incorrect shape can make you predisposed to a long list of conditions.
MTHFR is a very important enzyme that converts folate into a more usable form called methylfolate in all the cells of the body. Methylfolate is responsible for the production of two important compounds.
First is a class of biochemicals called neurotransmitters. They are a class of chemicals that help you think, emote, and perform all sorts of physical activities.
Non-functional MTHFR enzyme that results from single nucleotide changes in your DNA will lead to low levels of neurotransmitters that, in turn, have consequences like insomnia, anxiety, depression, and ADHD, among others.
The second important compound that methylfolate helps to make is called S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe).
SAMe helps to regulate more than 200 enzymes in the body.
Without SAMe your body is predisposed to conditions like infertility, thrombosis, miscarriage, autism and certain forms of cancer.
An MTHFR genetic test does not require a medical recommendation.
You can simply download your raw DNA data and upload it to a third-party service provider to get your results.
Genetic reports are generated after the analysis of different polymorphisms in the MTHFR gene and tell you which variants you carry and if you are homozygous or heterozygous for those variations.
Now that you know the importance of being aware of your MTHFR polymorphisms, let’s compare two popular tools that provide you with your MTHFR status. These two third-party tools provide you with a comprehensive MTHFR status report from your raw data from companies like 23andme, AncestryDNA, Family Tree DNA (FTDNA), and other companies.
Genetic Genie test is a DNA raw data analysis from a 23andme ancestry test. The results are free.
The website performs an interpretation of your DNA raw data for only your methylation and detox profile.
The detox profile looks at gene SNPs of the cytochrome P450 detox enzymes, amongst others.
It is important to look at this specific information because certain genetic polymorphisms have been shown to impair the detoxification of drugs, hormones, environmental toxins, xenobiotics, and more.
The results column indicates whether you have a favorable, unfavorable, or intermediate genotype
Your result is not determined solely by any single entry, but a cumulative effect of all the genes and variations listed.
Image showing a section of the methylation report from Genetic Genie
To use Genetic Genie, you need to download your raw data file from the 23andMe website and upload it to the website.
Before you upload to the tool to test your MTHFR status it is advisable to go through the privacy policy of the website.
If you want to see a sample of how the test results look, you download the dummy raw data file that is available on the website and upload it right away.
According to the website, the DNA you upload for the free report is not stored anywhere. Further, the data is encrypted with an HTTPS connection.
So, there’s little to no risk of DNA data misuse, making Genetic Genie a very safe platform.
However, it is recommended to read their privacy policy in detail before using their services.
Xcode Life test results are expert-curated from several large and high scientific authority databases, including UK biobank, Clinvar, OMIM, SNPedia, and leading scientific journals to name a few, to curate the variant annotations.
Once you upload your raw data to Xcode Life, you will get your test results within 24 hours. And you can simply download your test results and take it to your next routine health test check-up.
Images showing snippets of the MTHFR and Methylation report from Xcode Life
Xcode’s MTHFR reports are easily readable, understandable, and implementable.
The core philosophy of Xcode reports is to empower the user with actionable genetic information that they can use to enhance health and well-being.
The report not only comes with a number of genetic variants in the MTHFR, MTRR, MTHFD, and other genes but also has detailed and practical recommendations on compensating for MTHFR deficiency.
| Xcode Life | Genetic Genie | |
| No. of variations analyzed | 69 | 21 |
| Results interpretation | Provided | Not provided |
| Bar graph result representation | Present | Not present |
| Recommendations | Included | Not included |
| Post-test one-on-one chat assistance | Available on request | Not available |
| Price | $30 | Free |
