Archive for April, 2009

Ancestry Testing Gives You More Than Genealogy Testing

Saturday, April 25th, 2009 at 9:21 am  
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There is a great misunderstanding about genealogy testing and the discovery of ancestry origin. Furthermore, there is a huge problem with inaccuracy in the field of genealogy. Luckily, for those who are in search of their genetic roots there is ancestry testing.

Get Your Ancestry Test Here

Ancestry testing goes further than the average genealogy work. Ancestry testing takes genealogy to a whole new level with the introduction of DNA collection and its use for more accurate results. Typically, when a person says they have traced their origins back to a certain country, this assumption is based upon a limited look into their ancestry.

To trace a person’s ancestry back 8 generations involves 256 great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents. These ancestors could have come from 256 different countries. While that is highly unlikely, you can easily see that it involves a lot of work to accurately trace someone’s roots back to one single country. Common methods of genealogy just do not have the ability to reach that level of accuracy.

Ancestry testing is able to go the distance needed because it involves taking your DNA and figuring out where in the world your DNA profile would have most likely originated. Instead of just narrowing your roots down to a single country, you get a look at the whole world. Ancestral Origins is a test that allows for refined results, which means more accurate results than you would get through simple genealogy testing.

Ancestry testing compares your DNA profile to populations and regions around the world. The information that your profile is compared to has been scientifically collected and verified to be accurate and valid. During the comparisons, your profile is measured to see how likely it would be that you match to certain populations or regions. The results are mapped out so that you can easily see what areas in the world your ancestors most likely originated from.

Ancestral Origins ancestry testing uses many scientific sources to derive the population and regional information used in the comparison process. The data used has been put together from sources such as Forensic Science International and organizations such as the Yale School of Medicine. All of the information compiled forms the Focused GeoGenetic Database.

Your final report contains three sections. The “population matches” section shows how your DNA profile compares with populations. You will see how well matched you are with various populations around the world. In the “Native Regions matches” section you will learn which anthropological native regions you are best matched with. The “strength indicators” section gives you a nice overall look at which population or region your DNA was best matched with. This detailed report gives you a lot of information in an easy to understand format.

Ancestry testing with Ancestral Origins will give you a very in depth look into your ancestral roots. You should be able to walk away with a good idea of which populations and regions your ancestors originated from. This is something you simply can not get with other common methods of genealogy testing.

© 2009 www.LifeMapDNA.com

Have You Got Lead Poisoning?

Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 5:10 pm  
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Lead Poisoning is matter of grave concern because of its dire consequences. Being able to promptly test or screen for exposure soon after the incident can be a matter of life or death. There are many ways that children get exposed to lead; the most common is household dust from lead based paint.  Lead was commonly used as an additive in household paint before the mid-1970’s, and over time that paint has chipped or was scrapped off during renovation work.  These disturbances have made the lead in the paint available to children.

Lead can also be found in some of the paint used on imported toys, in lead pipes that supplies water to homes, in some natural supplements and in lead contaminated soils.  Soils are contaminated either by their proximity to scrapped paint or to exhaust from vehicles that driven using leaded gasoline. Children’s exposure to lead can be via ingestion or inhalation with early symptoms of chronic lead poisoning being misleading and misdiagnosed.

Signs and Symptoms of Lead Poisoning

Children exposed to lead poisoning exhibit a variety of symptoms such as fatigue, weight loss, lack of appetite, sleeplessness, constipation and hyperactivity. These symptoms can be easily ignored or attributed to other causes. Acute and chronic lead exposure in children affects every organ and system in the body and can have fatal results. The long term effects can lead to brain damage, organ damage, and behavior and learning disabilities. It is therefore imperative for parents to determine if their child has been exposed to lead.

Testing For Lead Exposure

Health care providers routinely ask questions to determine if a child is at risk for lead exposure.  Some countries routinely test children’s blood for lead. A trip to the health provider’s office to take the lead blood test is one way to determine if a child was exposed to lead. Another way to test for lead exposure is the new LeadConfirm testing kit. This test is the only lead test that is saliva based, making it less invasive, so it is pain free.

All that is required is a simple swab (found inside the kit) of the inside of the mouth to collect the saliva sample. The sample is then shipped off to a CLIA Accredited Laboratory where the sample is tested using liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) to determine the amount of lead in the saliva sample.  However, the question that arises from this method is whether the blood levels of lead correlate with the saliva levels of lead or more simply, how accurate is this test?

Which Test is More Accurate - Lead in Saliva or Lead in Blood?

Different studies have been conducted to evaluate the correlation between blood lead levels and saliva lead levels. In one study, conducted at Western Slopes Laboratory (Troy, Michigan, USA), 100 children had their saliva tested using the Confirm technology and at the same time had their blood tested by the US Department of Health in North Carolina. When the two results were compared it showed that both methods effectively established body lead levels.  The LeadConfirm testing kit provides a virtually pain-free reliable indication of lead levels in the human body enabling medical treatment to be started as soon as possible.

© 2009 www.LifeMapDNA.com