1.3) Why Genetic Testing is More Important Now Than Ever
Our bodies are designed to live up to 120 years (Bortz II, 2007). However, for the first time in the past 100 years, our lifespans are shortening, not lengthening (Murphy, 2017). Why is that? Chronic disease is impacting our lifespan (WHO, 2018). And lifestyle is at the core.
While your genetic code gives your body a roadmap, it is your lifestyle that steers the course. Lifestyle tells your DNA how to express itself. By knowing your roadmap, you increase your ability to live a long, healthy life. It allows you to navigate safely so that you avoid the roads and potholes where you could put undue stress on your vehicle (body). This puts less wear and tear on you and reduces your likelihood of illness or poor health that could impact your ability to reach your destination of staying healthy and living well.
Lifestyle and epigenetics
What are the lifestyle factors that impact your health? Lifestyle factors include diet, exercise, stress, sleep, toxins and more. It is how you interact with your world. These factors all play an important role in how your DNA is ultimately expressed.
While you are born with your DNA and it does not change, your environment, day-to-day choices and habits play a crucial role in your overall wellness. The formal name for this is epigenetics. Epigenetics is how your behaviors and environment affect the way your genes function and show up in your life. Unlike DNA code which does not change, epigenetics is affected by your lifestyle.
Some of the lifestyle or epigenetic factors are in your control and some are less in your control. Those in your control include diet, exercise, sleep and stress. Some of those less in your control include the quality of the soil, water and environmental toxins you are exposed to. Each of these areas can contribute to good health and poor health. This is making DNA testing more important than ever — putting more personalized information in your hands so you can take control over areas where you may be at greatest risk.
Because environment affects DNA, epigenetics plays a crucial role in the development of disease. Where your genes are weak, you are more likely to have issues over time. An unhealthy lifestyle is likely to result in unwanted gene mutations and poor genetic expression which leads to disease. However, a healthy lifestyle will help prevent gene mutations and lead to positive genetic expression.
We all want to live healthy lives free of disease. Understanding your genes through DNA testing can provide knowledge on how to make the best personal health decisions that provide a major advantage in living a healthy, disease-free life.
Epigenetics: The study of how behavior and environment affect the way your genes function. Changes in gene function that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence and are “on top of” or “in addition to” the traditional genetic basis for inheritance.
The global epidemic of chronic disease
Chronic disease generally doesn’t just appear. It tends to creep up slowly over time. The reason it is difficult to treat is because there are often many root causes that decrease the strength and immunity of the body over time. These issues tend to emerge where you have weaker genes.
Chronic disease is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. It is one of the biggest threats to longevity (WHO, 2018). The current modern lifestyle has become a major contributor to the global epidemic of chronic disease.
Every year, seven out of ten deaths are attributable to chronic disease, and this number is growing. The most common chronic diseases are stroke, heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, and diabetes; collectively causing 70% of worldwide deaths (WHO, 2018). The graph below shows the top 10 global causes of death in 2016.
Figure 1-1 Top 10 global causes of deaths, 2016 WHO.
While there are some direct causal links to genetics, the major culprit is the indirect impact of epigenetics. Even with weak genetics, our body tries to be healthy. This epidemic of disease is related to a lack of attention to the factors that affect our environment and lifestyle.
Among adults, for almost the first time in history, the lifespan is shortening 6.5 to 13.7 years due to illness (Kitahara et al., 2014). On average, most people will be ill during the last 10 years of their lives, collectively living sicker and shorter lives (Murphy, 2017). Even more worrying is among children, there has been a doubling and tripling of obesity and diabetes rates (CDC, 2021).
In addition to chronic disease, there are alarming rates of people experiencing allergies, gut issues, chronic pain, fatigue and autoimmune conditions.
As a fitness professional, you are often in the business of helping people to avoid, manage, suppress, reduce or eliminate chronic disease by encouraging healthy habits including an active lifestyle. In many cases, your clients may be well on their way to chronic disease by the time they reach you. Understanding the causes can help you serve your client better.
Poor diet is a leading contributor to chronic disease
The Standard American Diet (SAD) is contributing to the increase in chronic disease globally. This modern diet is characterized by processed, pre-packaged foods containing unhealthy fat and oil, sugar, and refined grains. This diet tends to be heavy in animal products, especially red meat, processed meats and dairy which can be sources of high cholesterol and saturated fat. This type of diet also tends to be limited in whole fruits and vegetables.
A report from the National Cancer Institute published in 2010 on the status of the American diet found that three out of four Americans don’t eat a single piece of fruit in a given day, and nearly nine out of ten don’t reach the minimum recommended daily intake of vegetables.
This shift in diet towards processed, packaged and fast nutrient-deficient foods high in fat, salt and calories and low in fresh ingredients and fiber leaves individuals lacking the nutrients the body needs to stay healthy. This makes people susceptible to chronic diseases like stroke, heart disease and diabetes. These types of diets cause plaques to form in the arteries which can lead to cardiovascular risk and provoke insulin resistance and obesity leading to type-2 diabetes.
We have a population lacking nutrients in their diet which is creating an increasingly sick society. You are what you eat. Diet DNA testing is one way to show people where they have weak genes that may make them more susceptible to epigenetic influenced health issues and why eating healthy is so important to their long-term health.
Figure 1-2 The Standard American Diet (SAD) is high in processed foods, animal products and low in fruits and vegetables.
The problem is even deeper
The decrease in health due to the increase of unhealthy food has connections to deeper factors that are useful to understand: large scale industrial food production, nutrient depletion in soil, water depletion and contamination, and environmental and lifestyle toxins. The food chain and the environment are in a state of crisis, negatively impacting human health.
Industrial food production
The shift to large scale industrial food production has resulted in decreased nutrients and increased presence of chemicals in food.
A genetically modified organism (GMO) is an animal, plant, or microbe whose DNA has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The heavy use of GMOs causes a decrease in nutritional content in our food as well as an increase in exposure to toxins. Today, approximately 90 percent of the corn, soybeans, and sugar beets on the market are GMOs (National Geographic). This means that today’s food, even healthy produce, is much less nutrient dense than food farmed before the introduction of GMO’s.
Genetically modified organism (GMO): An animal, plant, or microbe whose DNA has been altered using genetic engineering techniques.
Distance from food source also plays a determining factor in the quality of our food. Because we buy food from grocery stores, transported from thousands of miles away instead of our backyards, there is a large amount of time between when food is harvested and when it is eaten. From the time your food is picked to the time it arrives on your plate, it will have lost 30-90% of its nutritional value (Eng, 2013).
Ensuring your food’s maximum nutritional content would involve picking food from your backyard, or at least food grown locally, which in this day and age, is not practical or possible for everyone. This large decrease in nutritional value calls for action to be taken in revisiting the industrial food production model. At a minimum, it is worth understanding that it means more care and attention to eating organic, local and healthy is important to getting the nutrition a person needs. This supports healthy expression of our DNA and our health.
Soil quality
Soil quality, which determines the quality and nutritional value of our food, has continued to decline steadily since the emergence of modern agricultural practices. Current farming processes cause rapid turnover of soil to increase crop growth and pest-resistance. The use of pesticides and herbicides has dramatically altered the soil, killing important microbes that used to become part of what was grown and helped to digest food. These methods result in significant decreases of healthy minerals, vitamins and microbes in our food.
Modern industrial agriculture has depleted soil on a global scale. The combination of stripping nutrients from the soil and genetically modifying food has resulted in nutrient poor food, lacking 15-80% of nutrients when compared to 50 years ago. In addition to this, each successive generation of larger, fast-growing, and pest resistant crops has less nutrients than the previous year. For example, estimations show that the magnesium content of food over the past 70 years has declined between 25-80%. These nutrient deficiencies in food due to soil depletion can lead to DNA mutations, eventually resulting in chronic disease or cancer. Ideally, our soil should be rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, producing crops rich in the same nutrients. (Davis, Epp and Riordan, 2004)
Water quality
Humans consume water on a daily basis, and it is essential for survival. However, the very thing that we need the most, is simultaneously harming us. Drinking water worldwide is depleted of essential minerals as a result of modern production and contamination. Chlorine and fluoride are two of the leading contaminants in drinking water. These chemicals are intended to kill waterborne microorganisms and pathogens from our tap water to protect humans from illness. However, the side effects of this can be far reaching.
Chlorine can be poisonous to humans, even in the smallest of amounts. The presence of chlorine in drinking water can impact brain function and development, cause cell and tissue damage, and increase risk of disease (Hrudey, 2009). The presence of fluoride in drinking water can lead to reproductive issues, high blood pressure, and bone disease (Health Effects of Ingested Fluoride, 1993). These risks may be deemed necessary to provide clean drinking water. However, it can be toxic to many over the course of decades. Becoming aware of how your water is treated and how it affects your health can help you make decisions on the water source and options to purify your drinking water to reduce the chemicals you consume.
Toxins
You are exposed to toxins in your everyday life. Toxins are present everywhere around you – in your food, water, homes, body care, cleaning products, factories, transportation and more. Many foods contain chemicals which are certified safe. The same is true for clothing, packaging, furniture, carpets and everyday items. However, many have been proven to have the ability to disrupt normal brain function or to accumulate slowly in the body and organs over time. Toxins can overload your body resulting in poorer health.
Products used daily by many such as alcohol, caffeine, soda pop, artificial sweeteners, cigarettes, vapes, personal care products and household cleaning products all contain toxins that undermine bodily functions by damaging enzymes. Having constant exposure to such toxins requires higher than average nutrient levels to flush them out of our bodies. This causes the body and liver to go into detox overdrive, rapidly depleting nutrients. This tends to happen over a long period of time, so it is difficult to understand where the illness comes from.
Enzyme: A substance that helps initiate a particular biochemical reaction, often breaking things down (e.g. protease enzymes break down proteins).
Being aware that your environment has many hidden toxins can remind you to take extra care in making every day consumption choices to reduce the stress on your body and genes. Knowing your genetics can show if you have weaker detoxification genes that may need support.
Sedentary lifestyle is contributing to chronic disease
As you may remember from your Personal Fitness Trainer Manual, among the many reasons for the high and still rising costs of health care services is that one in four adults lead sedentary lifestyles and more than an estimated sixty percent of adult Americans do not exercise on a regular basis (NIH, 1996).
The prevalence of physical inactivity increases with age. According to the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994, American adult physical inactivity rates averaged 26% for ages 45- 64, 27% at ages 65-74, and 46% at ages over 75 (Christmas & Anderson, 2000). Research on aging has revealed that while one-third of the aging process is due to heredity and biological factors, two-thirds are based on lifestyle behaviors and choices (Kane et al., 2013).
Studies also show that exercise stimulates brain function (Ratey, 2008). It boosts endorphins to help people feel better. It burns off stress and reduces muscle tension. It builds muscle, conditions the heart and lungs, detoxes the body and builds the brain. All of these factors make exercise an essential contributor to reducing chronic disease in our society.
By learning your fitness genes, you can see what type of exercise works best with your body, where there are areas to focus and if there are areas with genetic health risk to be aware of.
Chronic stress is negatively impacting health
With the competitive, go-go focus of our society, the barrage of social media, and the pressure of our day-to-day lives, stress has never been higher. Chronic stress can affect your health at a deep level – your epigenetics.
Studies show that exposure to chronic stress, specifically stress that sets off a person’s fight-or-flight response, can change the way genes are activated in immune cells. Excessive stress fires up cells to fight off an infection that doesn’t really exist, which results in the increased expression of genes that lead to inflammation. Inflammation raises the risk for all sorts of health conditions, such as heart disease, obesity and diabetes. Our state of mind can have a dramatic impact on our health. Research on how what we think impacts our health is continuing to show the importance of our mental health to our physical health. (Powell et al., 2013)
There are easy ways to combat stress and achieve a calmer, more peaceful state of mind such as a regular yoga, walking, mindfulness or meditation practice. This calms your nervous system and provides greater control of your genes.
Learning your DNA is another one of those ways. DNA can show if you have genetic variations related to cortisol – the stress hormone. If you do, there are key changes you can learn to make to support your genes versus work against them.
Sleep is important to good health
Sleep is essential to provide time for the body and brain to do its housecleaning. For many, skipping sleep to get caught up on life or to try to get ahead is the norm. Research is showing that sleep helps repair damaged DNA in neurons. The study shows that chromosomes are constantly changing shape to allow the cells’ natural repair mechanisms to mend DNA damage at different points. When awake, the repair work cannot keep up with the rate at which damage builds up. But in the calm hours of sleep, the repair mechanisms have a chance to get on top of the job. (Zada, 2019)
Getting good quality sleep for 7-8 hours each night gives your body time to repair and reduces stress levels. This is yet another important contributor to good DNA health.
Use genetics and epigenetics to your advantage
We are overloading our bodies. Genetics and epigenetics hold valuable keys to health.
With this multitude of influences in our environment impacting our health, many that are out of our control, it is up to us to be proactive in managing the parts of our life that are in our control. Learning more about our unique body and health is one way to do that.
While it is desirable to live a healthy, clean lifestyle all of the time, it can be hard in this modern age of industrialized food and environmental toxins. The benefit of DNA lifestyle information is you can get a window into your body to see where your genes are most likely to have challenges. That enables you to focus your energy where it is likely to make the most difference to be healthy. This allows you to use both genetics and epigenetics to stay healthy for a lifetime.