NUTRIGENETICS

Future Outlook 

As we know, two people who have similar lifestyles and environmental exposures can have very different health outcomes. Research suggests our individual genetic composition influences our health outcome in response to lifestyle and environmental factors. Researchers are making progress to understand the complex relationships among genes, diet, and disease risk. Personalized nutrition based on genetic composition isn’t widely practiced in healthcare, but individuals seeking personalized nutrition beyond what their primary care provider offers can contact companies that sell cheek swab kits to collect DNA, which is sequenced for specific SNPs. Depending on their genotype for these SNPs, they can purchase specific dietary recommendations. 

For personalized nutrition to become cost-effective for widespread use, more of the genetic associations linked with diets and disease must be determined. Moreover, computer software must be developed to help dietitians provide personalized dietary recommendations based on thousands of polymorphisms for a single individual. Education and support programs that will help people adhere to the dietary recommendations are needed as well.

At present, personalized nutrition isn’t widely practiced since genotyping doesn’t occur routinely for polygenic diseases due to its lack of cost-effectiveness. A few private companies offer genotyping and personalized nutrition recommendations based on a handful of genetic variations, but whether this is effective in promoting health and preventing chronic disease hasn’t been determined.

OLIGOLAB a new innovative metabolic software is now available to determine whether a patient needs to do DNA testing or not to cover such cost-effective problem, providing at the same time and in seconds a clinical report based on molecular cellular readings -tissue spectroscopy- using minerals and trace elements as tissue biomarkers (www.oligolab.org)

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DNA