Real questions, in people's own words — answered by verified experts, with the most useful answer on top.
You got 50% of your DNA from each parent, but appearance is decided by a small subset of variants, and the random draw can hand you most of the looks-related ones from a single side.
Partly. Twin studies put the heritability of major depression at roughly 35 to 40 percent, which means genes explain part of the risk while life circumstances explain most of the rest.
For most people with no family history, a full clinical BRCA test is not the first step, but consumer BRCA screens only read a few variants, so a negative one does not rule out risk.
No, that is a half-truth. A major hair-loss variant does sit on the X chromosome that men inherit from their mothers, but more than 200 markers from both sides of the family contribute.
Yes. Because you share DNA with relatives, your test can make a relative partially identifiable through you, even if they never tested themselves.
No, but pay attention. A 95th-percentile score means your genetic risk is higher than 95 percent of people, not that you have a 95 percent chance of diabetes, and lifestyle can move the real outcome a lot.