YOUR GENES LOAD THE GUN
BUT YOUR LIFESTYLE
PULLS THE TRIGGER
Advances in easily accessible genetic testing could affect the way your clients train – and live their lives.
WORDS: PETA CARIGE
enetics, epigenetics, nutrigenomics, copy numbers,
single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs (pronounced
‘snips’)… are these the latest buzz words in the nutrition
world? Or are we about to enter the start of what will become a truly
individualised health service?
Hopefully it is the latter, as genetics currently lies safely in the
hands of health professionals and is yet to be picked up by café
owners. We always knew genetic testing was a possibility, but
finally it has become less invasive for patients and cheap enough
to be accessible by the masses. In addition to genetic testing being
affordable, it has also accumulated the evidence to support nutrition
and lifestyle interventions around specific genes.
This last point is a very important one, as there are literally
thousands of genes that we can now test for. As a sports dietitian,
however, I have aligned myself with a company that ethically has
decided to do the following:
a) Only test genes that can be altered by diet and or lifestyle
b) Only test genes whose diet and lifestyle interventions are
supported by evidence.
G
make changes to help them achieve their personal goals. Or in the
case of the gene I’m specifically discussing, to get results faster and
figure out the type and timing of foods that are best for your body.
You’re with Amy. Lucky?
So let’s get technical. One of the simplest tests on the market currently
is the genetic testing for Amy-1 CN, or the Amylase – 1 gene, copy
number variation. This specific gene (Amy-1) can have many different
copy numbers (CN), from one to 20 to be exact. A copy number
variation is when the gene is literally multiplied, i.e. CN 2 means that
the gene is multiplied twice. The number of copy numbers has been
found to correlate with a person’s ability to produce Amylase in the
whole body (mostly found in saliva but also found in a large number
of organs throughout the body).
Put simply, we can test for a variation in a specific gene that is
linearly correlated with the amount of Amylase the body produces.
So what does this mean in terms of physiology, activity and
lifestyle?
No information without action
The reason these points are so important is because I work mostly with
athletes and active clients who, if presented with a picture representation
of their genetic make up, will immediately ask ‘so what?’
Athletes hate doing tests that do not result in them being provided
with an ‘action’ plan that can then help their performance. The same
thinking applies to clients. If they are testing their genetic makeup it
seems logical that it is to obtain some answers as to how they can
NETWORK WINTER 2017 | 31