GETTING PERSONAL

Just when you thought our obsession with micro-planning couldn’t get any more feverish, the era of DNA testing in the health space is upon us, with DIY profiling kits taking wellness personalisation up a notch. From blood samples to saliva swabs, companies such as EASYDNA are giving us an inside scoop on our insides and putting us in the driver’s seat of our health, predicting diseases we might be predetermined to as well as learning how our bodies respond to different foods and exercise.

While discovering that your slow-twitch muscle fibres never destined you to be a sprinter might steer you towards a barre studio, experts warn that DNA testing isn’t a crystal ball into every facet of your health. “A lot of people want that promise to be realised before the evidence is really there to show the utility,” says Dr Paul Lacaze, head of the Public Health Genomics program at Monash University. “So in the medical world, we’re going through a really important phase of generating that evidence to find out which genetic factors do play an important role and which genetic factors can be used to improve health and medicine. As far as nutrition goes, there’s potential value in identifying food allergies by your genes, but it’s not that straightforward.”

With DNA testing slated to become the future of health mapping, nailing those summerbody goals and making sciencebased New Year’s resolutions (that you can stick to) has never been a more achievable reality. DNA testing is the future, and if you’re open to it, having a deeper understanding of your body can help you make better health decisions right now.