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A Dietitian’s Personal Experience with Genetic Testing: Part III

Genetic testing is driving the future of personalized healthcare. The detailed nutrigenomics reports offered through Scylex give a lot of great insight into the best dietary choices for disease prevention and disease management. In this article, Part III of my personal experience with genetic testing, I’ll discuss more of the nutrigenomic testing results. This includes panels for allergies, vitamins, and minerals.

As a recap, Part I of this series, I discussed the pain, psychiatric, and statin panels, all part of the pharmacogenetic testing options. In Part II I discussed the weight management, fitness, and macronutrient panels. Be sure to check out those articles for more insights if you haven’t already.

Insights into the Nutrigenomic Reports

Allergies and Sensitivities Report

This panel starts with an overview of all of the “mini-reports”: peanut allergy, milk allergy, lactose intolerance, alcohol sensitivity, and caffeine sensitivity. It also includes an assessment of one’s sensitivity to everyday chemicals like PCBs, PCAs, and phthalates.

My personal testing reveals that I carry the high-risk variant for a milk allergy, paired with being at medium risk for lactose intolerance. This rings true, as I tend to avoid most dairy due to digestive and inflammatory issues that arise when I consume it regularly. There are recommendations about how to manage these allergies or sensitivities, as well as ideas for other foods to include as a source of calcium.

Most of my chemical sensitivities came back as low and medium, indicating a possible sensitivity due to variants in genes that control the metabolism of these chemicals. PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) are found in the environment, with exposure happening through inhalation, ingestion (contaminated fish is one route), or skin contact. Phthalates are another chemical used in plastics, food packaging, and personal care products. PFAS (per - and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are used in food packaging, cookware, and carpets and tend to cause health issues, especially in those who show a higher genetic susceptibility, as indicated in this report.

These sensitivity reports can provide guidance to clients on what foods they may want to trial eliminate if they are having particular health concerns that may be related to food. The chemical sensitivity panels may help identify areas of concern for those struggling with issues like fertility or PCOS or other hormonal imbalances.

Vitamins Report

This gives a thorough analysis of one's risk for deficiency in several vitamins, including vitamin A, several B vitamins, vitamin E, choline, vitamin K, vitamin D, CoQ10, and more. Many of the reasons someone may show up as being at high risk are due to absorption issues, issues with transport, conversion, or binding.

Each vitamin mini-report provides recommendations for which foods to include to improve access to those vitamins, along with a list of conditions that are linked to these deficiencies.

My results show that I express high-risk variants associated with Vitamin K status. This indicates that I may have higher vitamin K needs and need to pay close attention to the dosing of anticoagulants should I need them at some point in the future.

My Vitamin D deficiency risk is also high, indicated by variants that impact the activity of the vitamin D receptor, leading to less absorption. Recommendations include ways to properly supplement with vitamin D and to regularly check blood levels.

This vitamin report is comprehensive, lending information about one’s genetic predispositions for deficiencies in many vitamins. This can be useful as a screening tool to find out which blood tests should be administered to check for deficiencies. It can also be helpful for determining the cause of certain health concerns. For instance, a high risk for vitamin D deficiency can also predispose someone to insulin resistance and diabetes.

Minerals

This report assesses the risk for deficiencies in the following minerals: calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, selenium, potassium, zinc, iodine, and more.

Starting with calcium, my genes indicate that I have a higher risk for urinary calcium excretion. This information, paired with the fact that, as I mentioned above, I mostly avoid dairy, is helpful. It indicates the need to prioritize finding alternative sources of calcium or choosing to supplement. It may also indicate a need for bone density screening to continue to assess my bone health related to possible calcium deficiencies.

My genes related to selenium also show a medium risk for deficiency. When we look at this in context with my high risk of deficiency in iodine and the fact that I have Hashimoto’s hypothyroid, this may indicate a need to really focus on increasing food sources of selenium and iodine or choosing to supplement.

For the iron deficiency risk, there are several genetic variants that could indicate a higher risk for deficiency related to poor absorption. Recommendations are provided on how to manage this including food, supplements, and regular blood testing.

The salt sensitivity assessment would be very helpful for those patients with hypertension. A high risk for this test would indicate the need to advise the client on how their genes are impacting their health in respect to the sodium in their diet and its link to high blood pressure. This could serve as motivation to stick to a low sodium diet, knowing that it could show significant benefits.

Application for Healthcare Professionals

These nutrigeonimc reports can be used by health care professionals to put together a complete picture for your clients considering their health concerns and complaints alongside their genetic risks, dietary habits, and lab results. This will help fine-tune treatment to ensure that the underlying issues are identified and tackled to manage their disease or reduce the risk altogether.

Choose a few key genetic results to focus on at a time. Discuss these genetic concerns with your patient, providing a summary and linking it to any of their current health concerns. Then, provide actionable steps they can take to make a difference in their outcomes.

The detailed reports on food sensitivities, vitamins, and minerals can be used to empower your patients to make changes. Once they see these genetic risk factors, it will give them the motivation they need to make the necessary changes to improve their overall health.

Summary

These nutrigenomic reports give us more information on how genes play a role in food allergies, sensitivities, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Gaining insight into risk factors for nutrient deficiencies can help paint a more complete picture of one’s overall health. We can use this information to identify all of the puzzle pieces that lead to various diseases and start to make changes to improve overall health.

This three-part series was meant to give a closer look at what is included in the Scylex reports and how we might use that information as healthcare providers to provide the best care.

Scylex Labs offers comprehensive genetic testing services that analyze genetic variations affecting medication responses and nutritional needs. These insights enable healthcare providers to tailor treatments and dietary recommendations to each patient's unique genetic makeup.

Vanessa Imus, MS, RDN