When it comes to wellness and disease and, of course, many other aspects of life — one thing is certain: Your Genes Matter.
A single gene mutation can cause some conditions, like sickle cell anemia and cystic fibrosis but more often, it's multiple genes that are involved in disease development, and they act in concert with non-genetic factors, like diet or exercise, to affect wellness potential or disease risk.
You can think of your genes as sensors that are constantly scanning and processing your environment.
Imagine your genes as a dimmer light switch.
They can be "turned on," "turned off," "turned down," or "turned up" based on environmental factors that influence our internal terrain to either promote health and wellness or dysfunction and disease progression.
Some of these factors include:
🧠 Stress levels
🌬 How we breathe
❤️🩹 Trauma / Abuse / Fear / Suppressed Emotions
💭 Thoughts
☀️ Sunlight
🍎 Food
💧 Hydration
🍺 Alcohol
🏃♂️ Movement
💊 Drugs
🏭 Industrial chemicals / pesticides / herbicides
☠️ Heavy metals
🦠 Infectious bacteria/virus
🍄 Mycotoxins/mold
👫 Social Connection
70-90% of Ill health/disease risk is due to the interaction between our genes and environmental exposures. When you look at the list above did you also note how many things we can actually choose to control for favourable outcomes?
To feel empowered in your health and have knowledge in choices that will support the journey, not just the destination is a beautiful way to live!
When working with clients to either optimise health and well being outcomes or reverse ill health I often recommend a myDNA comprehensive health report because your sequence of DNA does not change.
This is a test you only have to do ONCE in your life but it will provide the foundational protocol forever.
This is hugely beneficial, as let's be honest there is a massive amount of information available to us in the world on health and well-being now and its easy to get swayed by the latest celebrity or sport star or just good marketing on why you should be buying that new supplement or going on that specific 'diet'. This approach of 'test not guess' cuts through a lot of the noise and helps you understand your genetic strengths and weaknesses and how to optimally support well-being long-term.
To make this clearer I'm going to share some insights I gleaned from my test as examples of how it has refined the choices I make for optimal health.
Firstly, the test is completed at your home by you via an inside mouth cheek swab.
This is what the myDNA comphensive health report covers: An extensive 92 genes, and 113 SNP’s across the following categories:
Under each category the results appear like the below:
As you can see it shows for me it shows that I need to emphasis Vitamin A sources from animal based foods to meet my requirements. If I was following a vegan diet I might be struggling with one or a few of the many things Vitamin A is required for. Supplementation may be necessary but I love that food sources are given as first option along with a shopping list at the end of the report taking into account your results as a whole.
Cruciferous vegetables came up over and over again for me throughout the report where as phytonutrients like Lycopene or Resveratrol were only an average need. This helps me decide easily which foods to buy more of on the grocery list and also what supplements to not bother spending money on.
I always knew I needed more sleep that the average bear to function well and the myDNA test really cemented for me why I need to prioritize sleep and what I can take to support neural repair. It's easy to compare yourself to others and think if they can do it why cant I but when your results show your DNA just needs it it becomes a lot easier to prioritize specifics as non negotiable routines so you can function your best.
Basically pages of this detailed information are then summarised into your Genetic strengths and weaknesses and then to simplify it all you are given an easy to print Shopping list.
The start of mine looks like....
Then it follows up with personalised blood work recommendation. These results are generated based on a combination of gene variants unique to you. These biomarkers may not be out of range based on
your diet and lifestyle habits, but they may be the ones for you to monitor to ensure you are making the right choices based on your genetic results (your predispositions).
For example, if vitamin D comes up in this section, it does not mean that your current levels of vitamin D are actually low. What it is saying is that based on a variety of genetic factors, your variants could make it more difficult to obtain recommended levels of circulating Vitamin D, so it might be prudent to further monitor to ensure that you are taking the necessary steps to turn genetic weaknesses into
strengths and maintain correct levels.
So in Summary
Your DNA is a very important piece of your well-being puzzle that can really guide behaviour change and lifestyle decisions.
A comprehensive report like myDNA examines specific genetic markers offering a personalised insight to get to the root of health issues or as a proactive solution to optimize health and wellness.
Full Disclosure:
I have no affiliation with myDNA and serve to gain no money etc from sharing this information.
This is an unprompted personal experience with doing the test that I have chosen to share and is a test I have used with many clients over the years that I have found to be extremely helpful in supporting their wellness journey.
I have no experience with other DNA tests so cannot compare this one to another.
If you have any specific questions regarding this test please email me: laura@livewild.co.nz
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