By now, you all might understand my enthusiasm about my own personal genomics and I hope I can drag you with me into the intriguing world of social genomics. However you are skeptically asking me, how is it possible to talk about personalized genomics when we can only understand a few hundred features -remember, call them phenotypes- associated with readable genotype. How about the other 25 thousand plus genes, their protein products and the even more complex interaction of genes, 100 of thousands of gene functions and millions of individual variations among all of us living here on Gaia earth and ever have lived in our genomic history all embedded in the simple 3 billion letters.
No worry you are not alone as a skeptical amateur personal geneticist. Leading genetic professionals all over the world express their official public opinion against personal genetic testing. Against DTC, Direct to Consumer genetic testing. Well, they have all points of skepticism. In my opening blog I clearly quoted CDC warning that irresponsible genetic testing and false interpretation of our personal genome is very dangerous. It is very important however the communication, the most important as a matter of fact. If you join me, we are going to make this place a forum to talk about it. If you feel comfortable, share your genetic traits with us. If you don’t understand something, we will throw the question to the platform of powerful crowd knowledge. If it turns out that you might have some kind of genetic disease, than this forum will tell you immediately to turn to a doctor, to a specialist. In my personal opinion, it is always better to know it before than after. And remember the genetic test does not make you sick.
Ok, hope you are still with me. I hope, I would not scare you away from genetic testing. Lets try something for the light hearted amateur personal geneticist, for my beloved fellow EpiGeneBook readers. Nutrigenomics. Did you hear about this? Well, I am almost sure you care about what you eat and you care about your beloved style of exercise. For nutrition, I give you a free advise. Don’t eat too much fast food, no industrially ground meat at all, processed food is not healthy. If you are very hungry and if you have no time to prepare food or no money to take food from a decent restaurant, eat unsalted butter lightly spread on whole grain bread, eat nuts and honey. I am sure you have never heard this before. It is a quick fix fast food. Well don’t eat too much, because here we are talking about not just good calories, we are talking about lots of good calories. So, this first part of advise of EpiGeneBook is for the hungry. If you are not that hungry eat freshly cut vegetables with some cheese and yoghurt. Lots of green leaf vegetables, as a matter of fact all color type of fresh vegetables. Do you know that virtually all type of vegetables can be eaten as raw food. Lets call it fast food, sounds better? If you have a little more time, put some vegetable oil in a pot, braise anion and garlic for 3 minutes and put all kind of fresh cut vegetables in the pot, little salt and some black pepper on it, well, ok, choose your favorite spicing to add than cover it and cook for another 5-10 minutes. And this is gourmet food, I guarantee it. Don’t eat a lot of meat, always freshly cut meat, newer ground meat, unless you grind it at home. I have been eating like this for about 7 years, I started it when I turned 50. Plus I eat a lot of beans and beetroot. Beetroot so much that my skin turned purple-pink, just kidding, but sure, I love beetroot, it certainly gives me a complex nutritional experience.
If you are a truly good business person and you believe that every product worth as much as it costs, than you will not take my free advice. Sure, you are part of a multi-billion dollar nutrition-fitness industry. You are willingly and happily pay the gym, pool, fitness club fees and you might even do a weight watcher program. Hey, me too, I pay for an expensive bike, I pay for the climbing gym, I pay for the swimming pool and the spinning classes in the winter time, for the last one California does not apply. Well, I am not “watching” weight. When I eat the chocolate part of my otherwise healthy diet, or drink the beer –we are taking about empty calories here- that also should not belong to my healthy diet, or oh boy I like the baked ham with the crispy-red-hardened cover of it or the properly cooked duck which is uniquely tasty and nutritious, the next day I see the extra layer of swimming belt on my tummy. Really, no kidding, oh my genes, oh my FTO, my appetite gene. Yes, my own free nutrition-fitness advice was not good enough even for me. I wanted to know more. I did the nutrigenomics-fitness test.
They tested the total of 78 SNP’s of 53 genes. They tested my genes associated with metabolism and accumulation of lipids in my body. There are 13 lipid genes on my list, 15 SNP’s tested. My central PPARG gene SNP shows that I can get excessively higher BMI (Body Mass Index) when I consume higher amount of saturated fats. You know I am the type of person who gets obese from just breathing clean air. My BMI is 26.1 even though I eat relatively healthy and actively exercise. Maybe my occasional indulgence for baked ham and duck is the reason for the higher than normal BMI. PPARG gene is a central regulator for many cellular actions and it is included in several diseases like obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and cancer. So, I stop here before any conclusion, I don’t really understand what my PPARG SNP means, but hey, if they say that I must decrease my saturated fat intake in order to be more healthy, I will do it. I paid for this information. I became part of the multi-billion dollar weight watching industry. I am a brand new customer. I joined the best program, the nutrigenomics program, for sure.
Most of my other SNP’s for fat metabolism are average or favorable, but I want to explore with you 3 of my SNP’s which represent higher risk factors for me. I have an SNP in CETP gene, coding for cholesteryl ester transfer protein that is participating in good cholesterol (HDL) and bad cholesterol (LDL) transfer metabolism in an unfavorable way for me. Also, I have an SNP in PCSK1 gene, pro-protein convertase-1 that is the first enzyme in the insulin processing pathway and in my case my particular genotype is associated with increased risk of obesity. One more gene in my lipid panel I am in trouble with is GNB3, the gene coding for the guanine nucleotide-binding protein which is associated with hypertension and obesity. This is too much for me to listen.
Four of my genes associated with the metabolism of glucose and regulation of insulin were also tested, one of them is not favorable. They found an SNP in my CDKN2A gene. I am carrying the TT genotype of the SNP called rs10811661 that exhibit an increased risk for impaired glucose tolerance. Again, this information is good enough for me to feel comfortable reducing my chocolate intake without suffering from the withdrawal effect. Three other variations are very favorable for my health, the good news is that based on my TCF7L2 and PLIN genotype I can actually increase complex carbohydrate intake and still beneficial on my BMI plus improves my overall health. Thank you my genes, at least something is good, I don’t like fatty food anyway, but I love pasta, rice and most of all the favorite every day food for me is bread.
Analyzing three of my genes ACE, ACTN3 and AMPD1 they declare that sport activities which include a combination of both aerobic and anaerobic muscle function are most probable suitable for me with my genetic profile. My potential for both muscle strength and endurance is high. I love my genes. I love my good sport potential. I love doing all kind of sport all in my life, since I was 3 years young all the way through to my more advanced age when I am still participating in age group triathlon. I never became a first class athlete, even though I had a high potential, I never trained for that, I never wanted to be a first class athlete, you can call it an environmental factor. So, genotype is only a potential that is given to you, you make it better or worse through all in your life, the way you live, the path you choose.
And oh my FTO! My appetite gene. FTO is strongly associated with the accumulation of fat mass and with obesity. FTO gene is expressed in my brain where my hunger and satiation feeling is located. Appetite and desire, well let’s just talk about the food for now. FTO mechanism of action is believed to be associated with the feeling of appetite. People with A variant thought to have more trouble controlling themselves for the amount of food they eat. Thank god I am AT and not AA. I am already having trouble controlling myself. When I was very young, I mean really, like 5 years young, I was able to eat 7 chicken drumsticks. I was eating every time, every meal, as a little boy, my mother told me, as I was starving from ultimate hunger and as I would never be eating again. This was my personality, they told me, I know now it is the A variant in my FTO gene. And in this particular case, there was no environmental factor, only pure genes. I grew up in my father’s rural veterinarian household where my mother had a full time job to feed me. No shortage of food, we ate every day as other people on a wedding party. I was a very active child, as I am today, playing and working hard all the time and doing the daily exercise for sure. If I am on vacation without much physical activity, lots of all-you-can-eat food, in three weeks I can gain 6-8 pounds, no kidding, and I am only AT by my FTO. Thank good vacation is over and thank god I love biking.
All in all, I learned about my potential of fat metabolism, glucose metabolism and general fitness. The best part is that I received a full cook book. They recommend me what to eat, what supplements I should take, what my ultimate goal for calorie intake is. And they have a good taste, man, yummy, I love nutrigenomics diet.
Tibor Gyuris
Personal Genomics Blogger
2013. October 8
“Knowledge is always good and certainly always better than ignorance.”–Sergey Brin
“Possideo genes ergo sum”—Anonymous Roman Philosopher
….stay tuned for a provocative proposal, I need your help….
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