health

I'm sure you've been to a museum where an ancient artifact caught your eye and inspired your imagination...

Let's start with an exercise... Close your eyes (after you read this sentence!) and remember a time when a parent or grandparent or other older relative told you a captivating story about your family's past...

While you may know of CRI Genetics as a DNA testing service, the company was founded with the goal to continue deepening mankind's understanding of the human genome. Today, we're excited and proud to share some of our latest findings on a fascinating aspect of DNA called ultra-conserved noncoding elements (UCNEs).

Privacy and security concerns continue to play a role within the DNA testing industry, especially, when it comes to buying behavior. We’d like to raise this questions for all DNA testing companies, but we’ll start with our most pressing question:  Can CRI Genetics be trusted?

While knights jousted their way through medieval Europe, the Swahili civilization was making a name for itself on the East African coast. In coral-stone towns, this unique society flourished and established vast trade networks across the Indian Ocean. But the question that has left experts debating for over a century is: who exactly were the Swahili people, and what role did outsiders play in shaping their civilization?

Ludwig van Beethoven’s relationship with his father has always been known to be far from perfect.

If you’re looking to uncover the secrets hidden inside your DNA, a DNA test kit from CRI Genetics can help. The insights you’ll discover are invaluable and timeless.  

Human history worldwide is very complicated.

Rosalind Franklin was a chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work led to multiple Nobel Prizes for other people...

This may be a surprising fun fact: 98-99% of all human DNA is "junk."

The rapid advancement of technology in DNA analysis has made it so more research is happening faster than regulators can even think to keep up with it.

Much is known about the genetic history of Scandinavia before the Viking Age of history...

Few things can fascinate history buffs more than ancient Greek cultures...

British ancestry is already a complicated affair...

The holidays are officially well-underway and so is the stress that comes with them...

It's no secret that height is an inheritable trait...

How can genetic health reports from CRI Genetics make you healthier?

Imagine you’ve just downed an entire hamburger (or veggie burger if you don’t subscribe to the carnivorous lifestyle). Your body immediately springs into action to break down your meal. Part of the burger you ate will be transformed into sugar (glucose), and this process is controlled in part by a hormone known as insulin.

Ah, yes… health DNA testing.

What do your eye color and your attractiveness to mosquitoes have in common? If you’re stumped, not to worry! Those two things appear to have absolutely nothing in common... However, this may be because the answer exists on a level that is invisible to the human eye.

When someone asks you to picture the future, do you picture the past as well?

Adversity is a part of life. No one reading this will be spared from the loss of a loved one. Nearly 90% of people will be involved in a life-threatening or traumatic event in their lifetime.1 The question is not how we can avoid hardship—but how we respond to it. Some gene variants influence how to respond to stress. Do we roll over and wallow, or start planning how to overcome it? One of the genes involved is the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CNR1).2 If ‘cannabinoid’ sounds familiar, you’ve made the right connection. One compound that binds to this receptor is THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis. But it does more than that—our cannabinoid receptors are important for regulating hunger, pain, mood, and memory.

With the rise of app-based wellness subscriptions, mindfulness may well be in its heyday. But you don’t need any technology or money to apply its ideas to daily life. In short, mindfulness is the idea that we can gain awareness of our thought patterns and change them for the better. People all over the world are using mindfulness meditation to think more clearly and reduce stress. There’s never been a better time to join them.

What is Psoriasis? Psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune condition that causes your body to produce a rapid buildup of excess skin cells. This increased skin cell production occurs in cycles of “flare ups'' and remission. Psoriasis flare ups may cause inflammation and itchy, dry patches on different areas of the body, most commonly the elbows, knees, trunk, and scalp.

We all know that diet and exercise contribute to your weight loss and fitness. But what about your genetics?

DNA translation: Everyone speaks a language. Animals speak a language. Computers speak a language. Even your cells speak a language. And like any language, we need to understand the basic rules before we can read and write with it.

First, we should ask the question: What is personalized medicine?

In the biological and psychological sciences, there’s an ongoing debate. This debate centers around the idea of “nature versus nurture.” In other words, what impacts someone’s development more? Their genetics or the environment they grew up in?

Quick! When I say mutations, what do you think of?

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word “carrier?” Do you think of an aircraft carrier? Maybe the helicarrier from the Avengers movie series?

Summer is a great time for many people. People from countries around the world like to take vacations in the summer, and many children are out of school during this time of year. The sun shines bright, and the days are long.

A four letter-word should be really easy to define, right? After all, the dictionary definition is only about a sentence long.

DNA is an abbreviation for “Deoxyribonucleic Acid.” The name alone means a lot to people with biochemistry Ph.D’s, but what does it really mean?

A common concern that often holds people back from learning more about their genetic makeup is the cost of a DNA test, especially when they haven’t looked at all of the options. There are differences between DNA tests, as there a different degrees of DNA testing and uses for the results.

Have you experienced the instant attraction with someone you just met? Or talked to someone for weeks online, then turn out not to be interested once you meet? They were the whole package! Interesting, funny, intelligent, and good-looking, but something was just missing…. that spark… that desire… that chemistry. It turns out, you may be right.

Your genetics are your body's blueprint. They determine how you look and how your body works from the start (then your lifestyle may take over). If you remember your biology lessons in high school, you may already know that you inherited 23 gene-carrying chromosomes from your mother and another 23 from your father. These chromosomes make up your genotype. How they get expressed, what you see in the mirror, is your phenotype.