"Knowing your genetics can help you personalise your treatment approach. Many of my patients are overwhelmed with health information from all directions and the internet can take you down a rabbit hole of articles touting the benefits of literally thousands of supplements. Knowing what your specific risks are and which nutrient requirements your body needs, can be hugely beneficial."
10 years ago, if someone had told me that I would be routinely having my patients sequence their genomes, I would have laughed. Yet here we are in the age where we can get vast amounts of extremely specific genetic information for an individual for a fraction of what it would have cost just a decade ago.
If there is one thing that I have learned in my years of practice is that what works for one person, doesn’t necessarily work for another. When two people come in with the same condition, why does one respond well to a certain supplement but the other does not? We know that the body is very individualised and that our genetics play a huge role in the body’s biochemistry.
For example, when our patients with raised homocysteine levels are placed on a mixture of very specific B vitamins, we know that within a few months the levels will normalise, dramatically reducing the person’s risk for cardiovascular disease and cancer. However, we noticed that while most people felt good on this supplement, some patients would complain of increased anxiety. This puzzled us for a long time, until we discovered that our patients who had a certain genetic variant needed to have a different form of nutrients to have both a positive effect and not develop the side effects.
Knowing your genetics can help you personalise your treatment approach. Many of my patients are overwhelmed with health information from all directions and the internet can take you down a rabbit hole of articles touting the benefits of literally thousands of supplements. Knowing what your specific risks are and which nutrient requirements your body needs, can be hugely beneficial.
The future lies in personalised medicine. In understanding your genetic weaknesses and strengths and getting extremely specific about where you focus your energy. Having this information can help you understand your body so much better.
One of the objections people often have is the fear of finding genes that are linked to an increased in health conditions such as breast cancer. Most people though, prefer to have control over their health and destiny and knowing where your weaknesses lie, means that you can focus your prevention efforts in those areas.
For example, in the past, many of our patients in our cognitive clinic did not want to know their genetic status for developing Alzheimer’s disease. Now that we have proven prevention strategies in place, most people prefer to know so that they can take preventative steps that will protect them from this devastating illness.
For me personally, my own genome information opened up so much understanding of my own body and helped me to get really specific in how I looked after myself. For example, my reports showed that I have a lactose intolerance and a tendency for folate deficiency, both of which I could easily address. It also helped me understand why I had insomnia and anxiety despite doing all the “right” things to deal with those issues. By identifying the responsible genetic variant, I then knew how to successfully treat these things for myself.
One very lucky thing we found for my daughter very early on in her life was that she lacked the enzyme that converts beta carotene to vitamin A. We couldn’t understand why her hair and skin was so affected despite a very healthy diet prior to getting her tested. Having her genome information helped us immediately identify the problem and a low dose of vitamin A resolved the issues in a short space of time.
There’s so much to gain from understanding your body better.
I will be offering a special package which includes DNA testing and a 90 minute consultation to personalise your treatment strategy for £280 (usually £350). You will receive reports on many areas of health including fitness, vitamins, minerals, sleep, migraine, COMT, MTHFR, cardiovascular, cognitive health, mood, gut and thyroid health and more.