Network Magazine Winter 2017 | Page 31

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