# Methylation genetics

A one-time upload of a methylation genetic test: genes like MTHFR, COMT, MTR, MTRR and AHCY, and which variants you carry.

## Genetics is a moderator, not a metric

This is the important framing, and it is why methylation is handled differently from everything else in the platform.

Your genotype does not change. There is no trend to plot and no streak to maintain. What it does is **explain mechanisms and predict which things are worth watching** — why you respond the way you do to caffeine, stress, B-vitamins or a particular supplement, and which biomarkers your variants suggest keeping an eye on.

So it enters analysis as a **prior**, not as a variable. It generates hypotheses; your bloodwork and your daily data test them.

## Uploading

Upload the PDF from the methylation view. As with [bloodwork](/docs/labs), text extraction happens in your browser and only the extracted text is sent for parsing into structured gene and variant records.

You do this once, ever.

## What you get

**A pathway overview.** Your variants organized by the pathway they sit in, rather than as an alphabetical gene list — which is how they actually interact.

**Clusters.** Where several variants in the same pathway compound each other. A single heterozygous variant is usually unremarkable; three in the same pathway is a different statement.

**Watch markers.** Bloodwork markers your genotype suggests monitoring, cross-linked to your actual [lab results](/docs/labs) where you have them. This is the most directly actionable output: a specific, testable list rather than general interest.

**Genetic priors.** Expectations about how you are likely to respond to particular inputs, which the correlation engine then treats as hypotheses to test rather than conclusions to report.

**Validation.** Where your own data supports or contradicts what the genotype predicted. A contradiction is not an error — it means something downstream is compensating, and that is worth knowing.

## Asking about it

`get_methylation_data` returns the full pathway overview with watch markers and priors, or a single gene. Ask the coach about a gene, about why you respond a certain way to something, or about which bloodwork your genes suggest tracking.

## Limits worth being clear about

**Genotype is not destiny.** A variant describes a tendency in enzyme activity, not an outcome. Expression, diet, environment and everything else you do sit between the gene and the result. That is the whole reason the platform treats it as a prior to be tested rather than a fact to be acted on.

**This is not clinical genetic testing.** Consumer methylation panels are not diagnostic instruments and this platform is not a clinician. Nothing here should drive a medical decision without a professional involved.

**Be skeptical of confident genetic advice generally.** The field is noisier than its marketing suggests. The platform's approach — generate a hypothesis, then check it against your own bloodwork and behaviour — is deliberately more conservative than telling you what your genes mean.

## Related

- [Bloodwork](/docs/labs) — the markers these predictions get tested against
- [Analytics](/docs/analytics) — how priors enter the correlation engine
- [Security and privacy](/docs/security) — how genetic data is stored