Gene testing - about time !
The announcement that gene testing is now available to the general public is brilliant news! A simple gene test that will cut billions off the health budget of nations is now within the financial reach of many.
I was asked to comment by the Welcome Foundation as part of a committee in 2010 about the worth and benefits of gene testing. I was all for it. I have written about the test throughout my book (Live Longer, Live Younger), and I am even more for it now that it has become affordable.
Gene testing of this type is not about finding whether you have any incurable disease and living your life with the Sword of Damocles hanging over your head, it is about recognising any health problems that might exist so that you can act upon them.
What the detractors of such testing fail to take into account or recognise is that we can alter the behaviour of our genes. Genes react to their environment so what we eat, drink, how we exercise and the stress hormones we produce can all influence our gene behaviour. We can change this behaviour with what is known as up-regulating and down-regulating.
The test can tell us if we are at risk of heart and arterial disease, nerve and neurological problems, or if we are at risk of bone density or immune system issues (which increase our chances of getting cancer). The test does not tell us bad luck , you are going to get cancer, Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis etc, - far from it, the test allows us to adjust our lifestyle and diet and take remedial action to markedly reduce our risks.
Even drug prescribing can be governed by understanding our genes. We can assess if the drug will be useful or harmful by looking at our gene profile and I absolutely believe it is only a matter of time before we will be individualising medication based on a person's genomic make up. That is if the pharmaceutical industry does not block the path. Big Pharma will not be happy about this as it will reduce sales of drugs.
We fail to train GPs and doctors in the interpretation of such tests (which is an indictment of medical training at this time) and they are no doubt fearful of patients walking in frightened by words such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cancer. These words may appear on the reports but simple training in how to make life style changes and what nutrients and supplements to take, will now, I hope, become part of health care.
This is good news for Health Care which will alter for the better. Money that has been misspent treating illness can be redirected to prevention programmes and therapies. Integrated doctors (those trained in both conventional and natural therapies) have been using gene/genomic testing for the last 5 years or more and many nutritionists (not dieticians) also tend to have a broad understanding of interpretation. We are here for you and can guide you through reports and enhance your well-being and life span.
