How do I navigate my Living DNA portal? – Support Center | Living DNA

We’re delighted to introduce our newly redesigned Living DNA portal!

This refresh brings a modern look and feel, alongside some exciting improvements to usability, making it easier than ever to explore your DNA insights.

Your Ancestry and Health profiles are now united in one seamless experience. You can move easily between the two, with everything accessible in one place.

Let’s take a guided tour of the new layout.

In this article, we’ll cover:

The new Dashboard
The New Menu
Ancestry Results
Health Results
- How to view your blood test results (UK based customers only)
- How to view your genetic health results
- How to view your wellbeing results
How to purchase more tests, upgrades, and merchandise
How to get help with the Living DNA portal

The Dashboard

Your Dashboard provides a quick overview of your DNA results and activity.

The first card is your Profile information. From here, you can see the status of each test you’ve purchased within your profile, update your profile details, or add a new profile

Next, you’ll find your Recent Ancestry section, featuring an interactive map. You can zoom in, scroll around, and explore the regions identified in your results. Click View Full Breakdown to see your complete ancestry insights.

If you’ve tested with us, you’ll then see one or two cards displaying your maternal and paternal haplogroups, depending on your genetic sex. If you have tested elsewhere and uploaded your data to us, the motherline and fatherline information will not be available to you.

If you have tested directly with us and are genetically female, you’ll see just your Motherline haplogroup.

If you’re genetically male, you’ll see both Motherline and Fatherline haplogroups

Clicking on these cards takes you to the full results.

If you’ve opted into Family Matching, you’ll find a summary here, showing your total number of matches, recent matches, and unread messages.

Under Your Metrics, you can view and update your age, weight, height, and BMI. Simply click View Details to make changes.

The Recommendations section highlights your selected health goals and suggests relevant tests you might find useful.

The Genetics card provides a snapshot of your results from any genetic health tests you’ve taken. This includes a count of favourable, typical, or less favourable responses. You can click on any category - such as Nutrigenomics or Sleep - to jump straight to those results.

If you’re based in the UK and have taken one of our blood tests, you’ll see an overview of your Health Screening Bloods. This card shows how many of your biomarkers are within or outside the normal range.

Finally, the Wellbeing card gives you a snapshot of selected traits, such as whether your genes suggest typical vitamin D absorption or increased oxygen flow—traits that may be relevant for fitness and energy levels.

The Menu

If you're using a larger screen - such as a desktop or laptop - the main menu appears across the top of the page. Click on any of the headings to open a sub-menu and explore further.

On smaller or portrait-oriented screens, the menu is accessed via a button: a blue square with three horizontal lines, located next to your profile picture at the top right of the screen.

We have brought ancestry and health under the same portal, making it even easier to browse all of your results in the same place. From the menu, you can decide whether you’d like to see your Ancestry results, or your Health results (now including Wellbeing).

The menu will always show you what section you’re viewing with larger blue letters, rather than the smaller black ones.

Ancestry Results

Recent Ancestry

To explore your recent ancestry, open the main menu - either from the top of the screen or by clicking the blue menu button on smaller devices - and select Recent Ancestry. Then click Load Your Ancestry Results.

Your interactive map will load here. Click on any region or sub-region to view more detailed information about that specific area.

Motherline and Fatherline

You can access your Motherline and Fatherline results directly from the main menu. These sections both follow the same layout.

Motherline

When you open your Motherline results, you’ll start with the Overview. This explains what mitochondrial DNA is and introduces you to your specific Motherline result.

The History section provides background on your mitochondrial haplogroup - covering where it’s commonly found, what is known about its migration patterns, and the populations it has historically been associated with. Here, you’ll also find your haplogroup and haplotype.

The Motherline Distribution Map, previously known as the Coverage Map, shows where people with your haplogroup are found today. We’ve renamed it to better reflect its purpose: illustrating global distribution rather than genetic inheritance.

Please note: this map does not show your mother’s ancestry percentages.

Your Motherline Migration Map outlines a proposed ancient migration route of your maternal ancestors out of Africa. As Homo sapiens moved across the globe, new haplogroups emerged from earlier ones. This map allows you to trace the haplogroups that led to yours and click on each to learn more.

Fatherline

If you carry a Y chromosome - typically meaning you’re genetically male - you’ll see your Fatherline results alongside your Motherline. The layout is nearly identical, showing you:

Your Y-DNA haplogroup and haplotype

Historical context and migration patterns

A global distribution map

A migration map tracing the development of your paternal line over thousands of years

Each section functions just like the Motherline view, helping you learn more about your ancient paternal ancestry.

Navigating Your Ancestry Upgrades

We have 3 different ancestry upgrades available, all focusing on a different period of history.

Viking

Open the menu and select Viking under Ancestry. You will see an introduction to the Viking Upgrade, and 2 options to view different results.

Discover your Viking results in detail by clicking on Load Your Result. This will take you to your Viking Index, with more information about what this means further down the page.

Your Viking map will show you the Viking population your DNA is most similar to, with information about how they arrived in the region and what they did there further down the page.

Neanderthal

Your Neanderthal results show how many DNA markers you share with Neanderthals and Denisovans - two ancient human species that interbred with early Homo sapiens.

Your Neanderthal score is based on how many of 7,980 possible genetic markers you share with Neanderthals. Most people from outside of Africa score between 250 and 400.

Your Denisovan score is based on a smaller set of 1,634 markers. A typical high score might reach around 400, although the full range is from 0 to 1,634.

Alongside your scores, you'll also see the estimated percentage of your genome that may have originated from each ancient population.

Each score includes a visual percentile bar, showing how your result compares to others in various global population groups. For example, if the bar is halfway across, your score sits around the middle of that group’s range.

Within your Neanderthal Results, click on the Traits tab to explore which traits may have been influenced by ancient DNA.

You’ll see a list including traits such as altitude adaptation, sleeping patterns, immune function, hair type, and skin pigmentation.

Click on any trait to view more detailed information about how it may relate to your Neanderthal or Denisovan ancestry.

Classical

The Classical Upgrade explores your genetic connection to three ancient civilisations: Greek, Roman, and Egyptian.

After selecting Classical from the menu, you’ll be taken to the All Classical page, which introduces the ideas behind the upgrade, and shows you a short summary of your result for each civilisation.

Each civilisation has its own dedicated section, made up of three key pages:

Overview

This page introduces the historical background of each civilisation.

You’ll see:

A main card with historical context for the three chosen civilisations.
A summary card for each civilisation, with a snapshot of your result and a link to explore it further.

Your Result

This page presents your Index and Percentile, showing how closely your DNA matches ancient samples from that civilisation.

It follows a similar format to the Neanderthal and Viking upgrades.

Your Map

Your personalised map highlights:

The ancient DNA sample your own results most closely resemble (marked in green)
Other archaeological sites used in the upgrade
Additional areas significant to each civilisation’s history

Remember to scroll down below the map to read more about your closest sample, its location, and the time period that individual lived in.

Use the tabs to move between civilisations and explore each result in more detail.

Navigating Family Networks

To receive matches, you’ll first need to opt in to Family Networks from your Profile (click your name in the menu). After opting in, please allow up to three weeks for matches to appear.

How to View Your Matches

From your Dashboard, select Ancestry then Family Matching from the menu.

Your matches will be listed here.

You can click on ‘View Profile’ next to each match to explore further details about them, including:

Messaging a match directly, and view your Shared Matches – other users you both match with.

See how you might be related to your match based on your shared DNA

Write Private Notes – add notes for your reference (only visible to you)

See your Shared Map – if the match has enabled this feature, see where your Recent Ancestry regions overlap

Browse your Shared DNA – view a two-person chromosome browser showing the DNA segments you share with this match (distinct from Multiview Browser, which compares more than two people)

Health Results

Blood test results

Blood testing is currently only available for UK based customers.

To view your blood results, please log in to your Living DNA account and click on Health in the menu, then Blood Tests.

The list here will show you all of the tests you have completed as a general overview. In the example above, Felix Helix has had two blood tests with results. You can view the full details of any test by clicking on it.

You can click the ‘Order Next Test’ to track your levels from this screen, or book a consultation appointment with our doctor by clicking on ‘book a consultation.’

Clicking on a test on the left will show you all of the markers we have analysed, and your result. In Range means that your levels aren’t too high or too low - they’re just right. If they’re Out Of Range, you may need to keep an eye on them.

EG - Inflammation shows one marker (C Reactive Protein (high sensitivity)) that may be higher during or after an infection, or due to a long term health concern such as diabetes or an autoimmune condition.

The results you see will depend on the tests you have purchased.

Clicking on ‘Find Out More’ for each marker will show you more information about it, such as what that particular marker does within your body (eg. Transferrin is a protein found in the blood that is used to transport iron, or C-reactive protein (CRP) can be measured to give an indication of inflammation levels in your body.)

Potential symptoms for a high or low level, outside of the range considered ‘normal,’ will be listed next.

Further down this page you will find suggestions for optimising a particular biomarker, and more information about what could cause your levels to change over time.

It is recommended that you take the same blood test several times, over a period of time, so you can track your levels as you make changes to your lifestyle.

Genetic Health Results

To view your blood results, please log in to your Living DNA account and click on Health in the menu, then Genetics.

To get a general overview of a report, click on ‘Category’ then ‘Sub Category.’ This will show you each test you’ve purchased, sorted into whether you have a ‘good,’ ‘typical,’ or ‘poor’ result.

Selecting a category at the top of the page will take you to the detailed results.

Clicking ‘Explore More’ on each sub-category will take you to a new page, with information specific to that trait.

For example, ‘Snacking pattern’ show you your score, what it means, any symptoms that may occur, and tips and tricks that can help you develop healthy snacking habits.

Scrolling further down this page will take you to a section explaining how we determine your result - the number of genetic markers we have used, and information about the reference papers we used.

We also include information about the limitations of the test, as it’s important to remember that your Genetic Health results present information on genetic predispositions and do not necessarily reflect current conditions or characteristics.

Wellbeing Results

We’ve moved your Wellbeing results from the Ancestry section to the Health section, as they sit more naturally alongside our other health insights than with ancestry information.

To find them, click on Health in the menu, then Wellbeing.

This will take you to view all of your Wellbeing traits.

At the bottom of this page is an overview of the Wellbeing report, showing you each trait examined, and your result for it.

Using the menu on the left, you can filter the traits by your goal - for example, improving your stamina.

Clicking on the arrow at the bottom of a trait will take you to a page detailing your result, and what it means for your body. Your Oxygen Flow, for example.

Scrolling further down will provide you with personalised tips on how to use your result in your everyday life, in order to improve your wellbeing.

At the bottom of each trait, you will see more information about the markers we’ve examined. By clicking on Explore the Science, you can see even more information about exactly how your genetics influence your body’s day-to-day activity.

The Store

To access the Living DNA store within your portal, simply click the option in the top menu.

The available upgrades will be listed here for you to purchase.

If you have already purchased an upgrade, it will be removed from the store, so you cannot purchase the same upgrade twice on the same profile.