Genetic Testing

Optimize Your Diet For Your Genetics

You are unique

Book a Free Call Today

Genetic Testing for Finding Your Optimal Diet

If you’ve heard about genetic testing in the past decade, it’s probably been through the marketing of ancestry companies. There’s the allure of finding out where you came from (or uncovering family secrets!), and at-home kits provided by these companies have shown everyday people how easy it is to test their DNA. 

But unfortunately, due to the popularity and widespread marketing of ancestry tests, most people aren’t aware of the other benefits genetic testing can provide. While ancestry testing simply tells you where your family came from, genetic testing for health and wellness can lead you to a whole array of actionable insights into optimizing your eating, exercise, lifestyle choices, and more in order to achieve better health. 

As we’ve been utilizing genetic testing with our patients at Empowered Nutrition, here are a few ways genetic testing can inform your health and wellness…

Personalized Care 

A lot of approaches to health and wellness these days focus on a one-size-fits-all approach, prescribing the same diet, exercise, and lifestyle choices to everyone. But everyone is unique — so shouldn’t healthcare be tailored to you as a unique individual? Genetic testing uncovers a person’s genetic variants, which give us insight into how that person’s cells and systems function, show the impact of the types of food you eat and the environment around you, and more. 

Disease at the Root 

In addition to the one-size-fits-all approach to health, many times practitioners are helping their patients simply combat symptoms of chronic illness. But constantly treating symptoms can be timely and costly, and never really addresses the root issues anyway. Since genetic testing reveals how your body works at the cellular level, it can point towards the root causes of illnesses that are generating those symptoms. That way, diseases can be treated at the source. 

Losing Weight 

Those who have struggled to lose weight may spend time, energy, and money seeking new ways to get healthy and lose weight when their genes are able to give them all the insight they need. Genes are able to give insight into what types of exercise are best for your body, whether it be more endurance exercises or power exercises. They can also show how your body stores fat, which nutrients it absorbs best to inform which foods to eat, and other insights that can form a more targeted recommendation plan. 

Metabolism 

Your genes can also tell you more about your metabolism. We know that metabolism has a connection with energy and vibrancy, yet many of us have a “sluggish” metabolism we’re not sure how to correct. Knowing your genes can give you insights into how your metabolism is affected by what you eat, how you burn energy, how you store fat, and more. 

The Right Exercise 

What if you’ve been hitting the gym and trying to get fit, but you’ve been doing the wrong exercises all this time? Getting insights into your genes can actually show you whether your body is more suited for endurance activities, like running or bicycling, or whether your body is more suited for power activities like sprinting or weight lifting. Knowing more about how your body works means being able to choose the right activities for you. 

Caffeine Intake 

We’re all affected by caffeine in various ways — some people can drink coffee right up until bedtime, when others have to cut themselves off mid-morning! But do we know why? Our genes can tell us! Our genes are responsible for how quickly we metabolize caffeine, so we can know whether to have that extra cup or not. 

Better Daily Choices 

As you can see, knowing your genes and how they affect your body can give you insights into many different aspects of your health and wellness so that you can make better choices each day about actions that affect you. For example, did you know that your genes can determine how well your body eliminates toxins, which can help you make choices about what environments to be in? Your genes can also give you insight into your stress levels, and flag if you’re not getting enough sleep at night. 

Bethany’s Story 

We’ve had the opportunity to help our patients discover more than just their ancestry by taking a genetic test, like Bethany, who came to us to get support with infertility, anxiety, and acne. Using genetic testing, we found that Bethany needed targeted dietary changes, in combination with some targeted supplementation of methylated B vitamins and fat-soluble vitamins (she didn’t activate these nutrients well herself due her genetics). These changes resulted Bethany’s complexion clearing of acne, her anxiety resolving, and in her achieving a healthy pregnancy.

Your Choice of Genetic Test is Important 

A good genetic test should offer a personalized plan. This plan should give you insights that help you understand your health better, with clear and actionable recommendations to help you improve your quality of life. For this reason, we use 3×4 Genetics.

It’s also critical to have an experienced practitioner who can help you navigate your report, interpret the meaning, partner with you for making a plan, and help you to implement it. That’s what we do, and usually with insurance coverage.

Why the 3X4 Genetic Blueprint? Your genes are unique. They tell the story of you, and only you; no one else has ever had the same genetic makeup. That’s awesome, because instead of having to do what works okay for most, you can do what works best for you.

The Value of Genetic Testing 

Here’s just some of the value you will get with your 3X4 Blueprint:

• Healthy heart – find out how your genes are supporting your heart health and how you can support your cardiovascular system;
• Weight Loss – your genes have a big role to play in how your body manages weight, find out insights to help you manage your weight intelligently;
• Hormones – find out how well your hormones work and get insights about whether you should be avoiding taking hormones, such as the contraceptive pill or testosterone;
• Immunity – how well are your genes working to fight off viruses, knowing how healthy your immune system is and what you can do to build a strong immune system are important in these times;
• Exercise– find out what training works best for you, how to get fit and avoid injury by training smarter;
• Brain health – what you can do to optimize cognition as you get older;
• Optimal Diet – Find out how well you process nutrients such as gluten, vitamin D, caffeine and many more.

The 3X4 Blueprint is completely unique in the fact that every insight has a clear action plan, find out how to work with your genes so that you can live a longer, healthier and better life. With us, you’ll also have the added support from an experienced practitioner to interpret, create, and implement your plan.

If you want to know what the 3X4 Blueprint looks like, see the Sample Report HERE.

More Than Ancestry 

Knowing your genes can reveal a lot more to you than just what’s stated above. Additionally, as our knowledge continues to increase around how genes work and how they impact our bodies, the blueprint that genetic testing provides for your optimal health will only become more detailed, allowing you to build the perfect life of health and wellness suitable to you. 

Ready to start your personalized health journey?  

Get in touch to learn about how you can get started with testing AND the professional support that you need to implement it. Most of our clients have our appointments covered by their insurance! Contact us HERE.

An Overview of Our Results-Driven Process

Get started with optimizing your digestive health today!  Book a free chemistry call with us to discuss how we can help.

Nutrition Professionals You Can Trust

Many claim to be a nutritionist. However, only a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) meets rigorous academic requirements. This includes: Extensive clinical training, a nutrition degree from an accredited university, passing a rigorous board exam, and meeting continuing education requirements. Further, we are Licensed Registered Dietitians (LDNs) in the state of North Carolina. Additionally, we are credentialed in Integrative and Functional Nutrition. By staying informed of guidelines set by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, we’re therefore able to provide our patients with expert nutrition counseling.

Learn More