The power of personalized health
The alarm goes off and, with a fog clouding your brain, you remember that today you can’t have breakfast. What a pain: not only do you have to go in fasting, but it also really annoys you that they’re going to prick you… it’s time for another blood test. You assume it will tell you the usual things: blood sugar is fine, but watch your triglycerides. Have your transaminase levels gone down? Who knows why they were so high last time…
When we go for a blood test, this is the kind of information we expect to find: high and low levels that rarely mean much to us. Ranges of numbers in parentheses that hardly make you reflect on how to change your habits.
What you probably don’t imagine is that, in that single needle prick, we can see more—much more. We can learn about our genomics, proteomics, our levels of gene expression, and even the types of microorganisms that live with us. In short, we can obtain information from many of the components that make up who we are.
A system made up of genetic information in interaction with our lifestyle habits, which ultimately determines how our metabolism behaves. A vast number of variables acting together to shape who we are and define how we are at any given moment.
Your DNA – Who you are
All of us come with an instruction manual written in four letters: ATGC. This is our DNA, and it accompanies us from the moment we are born. To a large extent, it defines who we are: our DNA encodes the instructions that give us a beating heart and a thinking brain; skin that protects us, a liver that helps detoxify, and an intestine that absorbs nutrients.
But our DNA also encodes information that determines whether that absorption or detoxification is more or less efficient. Those four letters also contain our predisposition to certain diseases or to metabolize specific foods better or worse.
This is our source code. It comes factory-installed, it is static information, and there is very little we can do to change it.
Your metabolic parameters – How you are
Then there are your metabolic parameters: the quantities of different molecules that allow us to analyze, at a molecular level, how we are doing. These are the classic biochemical tests—cholesterol levels, white blood cell counts, vitamin D levels.
These parameters are dynamic. They can change over the course of life, depending on our habits at any given time.
If every day I go all-in on pepperoni pizzas for dinner, it’s no surprise that the fats circulating in my blood will reflect that.
But here’s the key: blood test values don’t depend only on habits—they also depend on our DNA, on the instructions written in our genome.
If, for example, I have low intestinal absorption of vitamin B12, the “recommended daily intake” levels won’t be enough for me. I’ll need higher intakes of vitamin B12 to ensure proper absorption by my cells.
Likewise, a blood test may show that my cholesterol levels are high. Why? Is it enough to follow a low-fat diet? To answer that, I need to look at my instructions. If I have an altered cholesterol receptor gene, I may be consuming little cholesterol, but it isn’t entering my cells properly.
In that case, dietary changes alone won’t be enough. I may need external support for that receptor, for example with medications such as statins… unless I have a very specific mutation in the cholesterol receptor gene that makes statins toxic for my body.
And that’s where we begin to see the importance of personalized health.
Although there are general recommendations that always improve health—such as getting enough sleep, staying hydrated, or eating fruits and vegetables—each of us responds very differently to specific habits.
Just as you don’t necessarily respond to the same stomach pain treatment as your neighbor, why should you respond the same way to a diet or an exercise routine?
Only by knowing who you are—through your genetic instructions—and how you are—by measuring your molecular parameters—can you truly understand yourself and take better care of your health.
Welcome to the paradigm of personalized health.
