It’s an age-old idea that what we eat affects our health and well-being. More and more evidence supports the idea that our environment and diet are also important factors in health and disease. It is also becoming clear that nutritional related diseases, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes are increasingly common among people of all ages.

As humans, 99.9% of our DNA is identical to one another. You may think that doesn’t leave a lot of room for individuality, but a quick glance around the room will prove you quite wrong. Everyone’s body is unique. But what’s less intuitive is this extends to inside our bodies as well as out. This means that we all absorb, metabolise and transport nutrients differently based on variations in our DNA. Different lifestyle factors can cause changes in gene expression, in other words whether the gene is turned on or off, which may affect your risk of disease. Making healthy lifestyle choices is one way in which we can work to lower our risk of developing a range of diseases and conditions, even if we may be genetically predisposed. This is the aim of nutrigenomics – to investigate the relationships between health, diet, and genetics with the view of preventing disease and improving health. To help you explore these relationships, Randox Health is introducing a new test, Nutrition and Lifestyle DNA.

What’s Included:

In the Nutrition and Lifestyle DNA package, we test for variations in your genetic code that influence your response to nutrition, exercise, and other lifestyle factors as well as your predisposition to certain nutritional diseases. Remember, carrying a risk variant does not necessarily mean that you will develop a disease, you may just be at higher risk of developing the disease. Some of the common deficiencies and intolerance included are:

For the sports fans out there, we also assess gene variants associated with areas of athletic performance such as muscle mass, composition, and recovery as well as caffeine metabolism. To complete this package, we test your risk for several conditions including obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and familial hypercholesterolemia, as well as genes associated with your sleep and mental health.

Your Nutrition and Lifestyle Test Results

We take the utmost pride in the reports we use to provide you with the results of your test. In your personalised report you’ll find your DNA analysis with details on elements which may affect your nutrition and health. With this knowledge you can personalise your nutrition and/or training based on your genetics, helping you to get the most out of your diet and exercise.

In your report, the names of analysed genes are given along with an ‘rs’ number for each variant analysed in that gene. The ‘rs’ number is simply a unique ID number given to a genetic variant. Variants are represented by 2 letters (e.g. A/A) which represent the base pair present at the analysed location of the gene.

A visual scale is included to help you gauge your results and we provide a detailed description of your results and the potential implications of them. Finally, we provide a glossary of all the terms you may come across in the report to make sure you fully understand the information your provided with.

What do I need to do?

It’s simple! Head to our website & book your appointment for a time and date that suits you. We’ll take blood sample at one of our convenient clinics and you’ll receive your results within 4-6 weeks.

Soon, we’ll also be providing this service from the comfort of your own home. So, watch this space! To understand more about how your nutrition and lifestyle is affecting your health, get in touch with us and book today. We’re always happy to hear from you and our highly skilled team will be able to answer any questions you might have.