A PICTURE OF HEALTH
A personalised, preventative approach to combating disease is the eventual aim of taking a DNA snapshot of one’s genetic makeup
‘Avoid alcohol at all costs,” says Dr Heidi van Loggerenberg, when I go to have the results of my DNA mouth swab test deciphered for me. ‘‘Eat lots of greens like kale, reduce your dose of coffee to one cup a week. Whatever you do don’t smoke or even passive smoke, avoid bacon (full of cholesterol and fat) and take these . . . ”
She offers me a list of supplements that will help my body cope with the toxic environment in which I live. I need to take magnesium to help with my recurrent migraine problem; the Metagenics Health Balance pack (a multi-vitamin) to help my body deal with my stressful and excessive lifestyle; curcumin, an extract from tumeric — an antioxidant and anticarcinogen; and AdvaClear — a daily detoxification support.
That’s a lot of pills a day and I’ve heard people say that taking supplements every day just makes your pee expensive. But I’m aware that there’s a new buzzword on the forefront of the health industry. That word is ‘‘epigenetics” — and it’s making the health fraternity sit up and take notice.
PREVENTION
Epigenetics is the study of the biological mechanisms that switch genes on and off (genes in the body are either active or dormant). What we eat, the environment in which we live (pollution, stress, climate), who we interact with, when and how much we sleep, how we exercise, how we age — all of these can eventually cause chemical modifications around the genes that turn our genes on or off over time. In some chronic diseases, such as cancer or Alzheimer’s, various genes will be switched into the opposite state, away from the normal or healthy state.
Doctors haven’t fully understood exactly what makes cells mutate into an unhealthy state, so diminishing our propensity to contract these diseases has been, for the most part, a big guessing game. But some health practitioners are looking towards that age-old maxim: prevention is better than cure. People like Dr Van Loggerenberg and her partner Margie Doig-Gander believe epigenetics is the future of medicine. It’s a personalised, preventative approach to combating disease.
CANCER
The DNA we were born with makes us susceptible to certain things and dictates our individual propensity to contract cancer, or suffer from heart disease, for example. But if you have a road map of the journey that your genes are likely to travel over your lifetime, wouldn’t it be possible to take a detour to avoid a huge pothole? ‘‘When I got cancer at the age of 35, I was completely baffled. I was a practising homoeopath, living an ultrahealthy lifestyle, eating a raw vegan diet. I couldn’t understand how it ‘happened’ to me,” says Dr Van Loggerenberg. ‘‘I had no history of breast cancer or cancer in my family. Eventually epigenetics gave me the answer.”
Doig-Gander discovered that she, too, had ovarian cancer. ‘‘A visit to my gynae for a routine ovary scan turned into a dramatic emergency surgery for a full hysterectomy and I went into surgical menopause at the age of 36.” Doig-Gander credits her friend Dr Van Loggerenberg, who was researching how nutrition, environmental, and lifestyle choices had led to both of them developing cancer, with awakening her interest in epigenetics.
‘‘Determined to find the cause of her cancer, in the absence of a family history, Heidi had a DNA test which proved the need to embark on an estrogen detox,” says Doig-Gander.
Dr Bruce Lipton, an American developmental biologist best known for promoting the controversial idea that genes and DNA can be manipulated by a person’s beliefs, says: ‘‘Epigenetics reveals that we are not the ‘victims’ of our genes, but the ‘masters’ of our genes.”
Dr Van Loggerenberg and DoigGander started a company called Join Circles — an online store and information portal that includes, among other lifestyle products, athome genetic testing kits.
The tests are quite difficult to decipher if you’re not an expert, so it really helped to have Dr Van Loggerenberg meticulously explain the results to me.
While my metabolism is good and I don’t have a weight problem, I discovered that I have inefficiencies in oestrogen detoxification — which means that my body may not be able to excrete excess oestrogen, which could lead to a build-up and possible disease. I also have issues with methylation — alterations of DNA methylation have been recognised as a component of cancer development. She suggests how I can change some of my lifestyle choices to help my body deal with these issues.
BASIC LIFESTYLE ADVICE
While this kind of personalised DNA testing is gaining popularity around the world, some genomic medicine practitioners say that there isn’t enough evidence that it actually works. Bill Newman, chairman of the British Society of Genetic Medicine, says that while genetic-testing kits could potentially provide data in the future, right now, they lack “clinical utility” — they look at genetic variants that, individually, have a very low chance of predicting specific health risks, as there are just too many variables.
And Margaret McCartney, a GP and author of The Patient Paradox, says: ‘‘I can give good advice without seeing a single test result: be active, have lots of social networks, do work you enjoy, try not to smoke or drink too much, don’t be overweight or underweight, eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. Nobody needs to get tests done to get that kind of basic lifestyle advice.”
While the jury is out on whether everybody should be doing a home DNA test to help them live longer and healthier lives, the information gained certainly can’t hurt and made me more determined than ever to maintain the healthy practices that protect rather than damage my body.