
The future of medicine is here! Personalized diet, nutrition, lifestyle and supplementation based on your genetics. The ability to efficiently detoxify hormones such as estrogen, chemicals such as scents and pesticides and microbiology byproducts such as mycotoxins can be affected by your genes.
Genetics and Nutrition
Do you get migraines? Respond poorly to alcohol or caffeine? What about weight gain, hair loss, body swelling, insomnia and skin issues? These can be explained by defaults with complex detoxification processes in the liver. If you have researched this before, terms such as MTHFR, COMT, CBS and PONS might be familiar. These are what we call genetic variants (or SNPs) that some people carry.Checking Your Genetics
The most comprehensive (and the least expensive) way to look at your genetic variants is a two step process. First, go online and order a test kit from 23andMe, which will cost $250 unless you are watching for sales that go as low as $125 about twice per year (Black Friday, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day). The report that follows in roughly 4-6 weeks is a lot of fun to read. One section covers ancestry and the other has the genetic traits such as ability to roll your tongue, dislike for the spice cilantro, average or higher than average risk of diabetes and higher risk of tendon ruptures. Genes that have to do with body fat composition, athletic ability, general inflammation are coded too. You can choose to opt out of learning if you carry a breast cancer gene or are a carrier for diseases of the elderly.Interpreting the Genetics Report
Next, what we want is the raw data from the report. This is the sequencing of your genes in a zip file. Once downloaded, the office staff can instruct you how to upload into a secure medical genetics program (cost $160). The practitioner report is created for interpretation and a specialized treatment plan is created to support deficiencies and bodily processes that are found to have weaker variants. The generated document is over 30 pages long, filled with genetic details and how this may impact the ability to detoxify as one of many areas.Effects of Genes
Some genetic variants can cause a higher than average requirement for important nutrients and dietary consumption. Examples of the information extracted from the report includes:- Vitamin D and Vitamin A processing and transport abilities
- Metabolic traits such as higher than average requirement for protein or difficulties with glucose metabolism
- Ability to use Vitamin B12 and folic acid for detoxification
- A shift in gut flora which would benefit from regular probiotics
- Difficulties processing estrogen which could suggest prescribing resveratol, glutathione and/or DIM
- Higher requirement for dietary fibre to prevent elevated cholesterol or hormone imbalance prone to muscle injuries which can be supported with strengthening, stretching, protein and nutrients