Skip to main content

23andMe Signs Agreement with Big Pharma, Offers Health App

GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world's largest drug makers, recently bought a $300 million stake in 23 and Me, a genetic testing company. The two also signed an agreement giving GlaxoSmithKline exclusive rights to customer data. The data is de-identified, aggregate customer information.

23andMe recently rolled out Lark, an health app specially geared to your genetics. I was curious what kind of diet advice Lark gave, since 23andMe advised me a year or so ago to limit saturated fat. Here's a screen grab from their video suggesting the new app is programmed with diet advice from the 90s:

"Lark Chat: Personal Weight Loss Coach & 24-Hour Nutritionist" by ourLark on Youtube.  Uploaded April 27, 2015.
Think about it, though--why SHOULD a company with a relationship to big pharma tell you to put down the bread when doing so may reduce your need for beta blockers (which lower blood pressure), nasal steroids and bronchial drugs, all of which GlaxoSmithKline makes?

* * * * *

I wrote a few days ago that I felt better than I have in a long time. When I moved to Indianapolis a few years ago, I had a hard time shoveling the sidewalk--I live on a corner lot, so there was a lot more to shovel than there was at my old place that was on lot thirty-eight feet wide. Today, though, I shoveled a path through seven inches of snow not only along both sidewalks, but the path to the sidewalk, the path to the garage, the whole driveway, the south perimeter of the house, and the back porch. It felt great! My improved fitness isn't from exercise--I rarely do anything physical this time of year except go for a walk at lunch. Before I shoveled the snow this morning, I drank a glass of water with electrolyte powder; maybe that helped. In any case, it's good to feel 45 again.

Biggs, newly arrived about a year ago.

Labels:

Comments

Lowcarb team member said…
That sounds a lot of snow! Well done for making a pathway through.
Sweet picture of Biggs.

All the best Jan
January 14, 2019
Lori Miller said…
Thanks, Jan. I'd rather have snow than freezing rain.
January 14, 2019
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Long-Term Experience Eating Safe (and Other) Starches

Years ago, before the Perfect Health Diet came out, I followed a program that involved eating quite a bit "safe starch." It was called Body for Life. It involved eating six small servings of carbohydrate along with six small servings of protein, plus two servings of fibrous vegetables per day. (A serving was the size of your fist or the palm of your hand.) There were six workouts a week (three weightlifting, three cardio) and one free day every week where you ate whatever you wanted and didn't exercise. In all fairness, these two programs are different: BFL allows certain grains, legumes and low-fat dairy and discourages fat. It doesn't call for a wheelbarrow full of vegetation. Nevertheless, my experience eating lots of fruit and lots of starch is relevant to the PHD because the amount and type of digestible carbohydrates are similar, and for the first few years, I didn't eat wheat except on free days. At first on BFL, I felt great. Before, I was continually...
17 comments
Read more

Blog Lineup Change

Bye-bye, Fathead. I've enjoyed the blog, but can't endorse the high-fat, high-carb Perfect Health Diet that somehow makes so much sense to some otherwise bright people. An astrophysicist makes some rookie mistakes on a LC diet, misdiagnoses them, makes up "glucose deficiency," and creates a diet that's been shown in intervention studies to increase small LDL, which can lead to heart disease. A computer programmer believes in the diet and doesn't seem eager to refute it because, perhaps, scientists are freakin' liars and while he's good at spotting logical inconsistencies, lacks some intermediate knowledge of human biology. To Tom's credit, he says it's not the right diet for everyone, but given the truckload of food that has to be prepared and eaten, impracticality of following it while traveling (or even not traveling), and unsuitability for FODMAPs sufferers, diabetics and anyone prone to heart disease (i.e., much of the population), I'm...
24 comments
Read more

Carrageenan: A Sickening Thickener. Is it a Migraine Menace?

Let me tell you about my ride in an ambulance last night. I woke up at six o'clock from a nap with a mild headache. I ate dinner and took my vitamins, along with a couple of extra magnesium pills. Since magnesium helps my TMJ flare-ups, I thought it might help my headache. Then I went to see my mother. A few hours later, I had a severe headache, sinus pain and nausea. During a brief respite from the pain, I left for home, but less than a mile later, I got out of my car and threw up. A cop, Officer Fisher, pulled up behind me and asked if I was okay. He believed me when he said I hadn't been drinking, but he said I seemed lethargic and he wanted the paramedics to see me. (Later he mentioned that a man he'd recently stopped was having a stroke.) Thinking I had a migraine headache, the paramedics wanted to take me to the hospital. But since I knew that doctors don't know what causes migraine headaches, and I didn't know what effect their medicine would have on m...
15 comments
Read more