Does DNA testing hold the key to the perfect diet? The results

Content by: Tania Flack

Episode #8

By Guy Lawrence

This is  just one of the questions we ask leading naturopath and nutritionist Tania Flack as we go over our results from our DNA test.

If you have no idea what the DNA testing is, listen to this podcast first: The ultimate blueprint for better health. I’ve time coded the bullet points so can you jump straight to the bits that interest you most in the video if you’re short on time.

For more information on getting the DNA test. Click here.

Download or subscribe to us on iTunes here.

In this weeks episode:-

  • What is DNA testing
  • Who would benefit from this [03:10]
  • Even if you eat well, it could be wrong for your body type [05:38]
  • Why it’s 50% harder for me to lose body fat than Stu [07:05]
  • How it can help sports performance [09:50]
  • Looking at risk factors around metabolic conditions [18:30]
  • and much more…
You can view all Health Session episodes here.

Transcript

Guy Lawrence: Let me just check. Yep! Recording.

Hey, this is Guy Lawrence and I am joined today with no other than Stuart Cooke and the lovely Tania Flack. Welcome, guys.

Stuart Cooke: Hello! How are you.

Tania Flack: Hi.

Guy Lawrence: Fantastic. Fantastic.

Anyway, Tania, thanks for dropping in. I really appreciate it. And I thought, just to get the ball rolling, if anyone happened to be listening to a prior podcast, because we covered gut health last time.

Could you just tell us a little bit about yourself for the viewers that are watching or listening to this?

DNA_TestingTania Flack: Sure. I’m a naturopath and I work in a clinic in Edgecliff in a medical centre. And I specialize in quite a few different areas. I guess I have special interest in hormone health, gut health, autoimmune conditions, and DNA testing. So, I’ve got a broad range of interests.

Guy Lawrence: Well, we certainly know about the gut health and now the DNA testing as well. And what we thought, as well, is with the DNA testing, again, for anyone that’s not familiar, what we’ve been putting ourselves through the last month or so, could you just explain a little bit about the DNA testing and its purpose as well?

Tania Flack: Sure. Well, it’s a really exciting for us in practice, and it’s fantastic that the general public has not got access to this. The type of DNA testing that we do in practice, it’s physiognomics or nutrigenomic testing. And basically we look at the pathways in the body in our genes involved in those pathways. So, we look at things like your diabetic risk factor, we include cardiovascular health, blood pressure, look at your detoxification pathways, inflammation, estrogen metabolism. We’ve got this amazing range of genes that we can look at now to see what your tendencies are towards certain conditions. And we collect that information using salivary. . .

Stuart Cooke: Yeah, it’s a pretty simple test, isn’t it?

Tania Flack: A pretty simple test, and all it really involves is spitting into a tube. It’s not very glamorous, but there you go. And we get your DNA information from that and it gets processed in a lab by a geneticist and then we get the report back. The practitioner gets a 70-page report. And both of you have seen your reports so you know how extensive they are.

Guy Lawrence: We’ve got them.

Stuart Cooke: It is huge.

Tania Flack: That’s right. Very huge.

Guy Lawrence: It’s made great bedtime reading.

Stuart Cooke: So who, in your eyes, Tania, would benefit from this?

Tania Flack: You know, this information, every single person can benefit from this information. It’s something that you can refer back to over the course of your life. And fundamentally what we do is we look; it’s not the genes themselves that dictate your health. It’s your diet and lifestyle and environment in combination with your own individual genetic profile that really dictate your health now and into the future.

And the beautiful thing is that the geneticist prepares this extensive report for us and I get to go over the report with the geneticist and write up my own recommendations in terms of what I know about your current diet and lifestyle and the way you live your life and how that’s really gonna suit you genetically on a long-term basis.

Stuart Cooke: Almost like an action plan.

Tania Flack: It’s an action plan for life, really. I mean, you cannot get any more individualized preventative health care plan. This is absolutely the gold standard. And it’s amazing, because we know in practice that some people will respond to, say, for example, a certain dietary intervention. Some people will respond beautifully to that. Whereas other people that present with a similar thing, you put them on that same dietary intervention and it won’t suit them. They won’t have that same response. But now we’ve got access to this information so we know exactly what is gonna suit people, and it’s just; it’s very exciting. As a practitioner, it’s just such an exciting time to be a practitioner and be able to offer this to people.

Stuart Cooke: We’ve been describing it as a road map for the rest of your life. And I think when we’ve said that phrase, people have become very excited and just aware that they’re open to information that can really change the way they age, I guess. Gracefully.

Tania Flack: Absolutely. I mean, you know, we put all of this effort into our diet and lifestyle. Doesn’t it make sense to just get that little bit of extra information so that you know what you’re doing is the best possible choices for you individually.

And you can’t put a one-size-fits-all. There’s no fad diet. There’s no particular way of living that’s going to suit absolutely everyone. Everybody’s slightly different, and it’s really interesting doing the two of you and comparing the two of you together, because we’ll see from the results that, you know, despite the fact that you both have beautiful diet and lifestyles, so, really, obviously, I commend you there. But there are certain things that you need to do that will suit one of you more than it will suit the other.

Even people like you who have put all that effort in, there are still things we can improve on.

Stuart Cooke: Well, that’s right. I guess if you’re putting all the effort in you want to make sure that you’re putting the effort into the right places. Because we may not know.

Guy Lawrence: So what we thought we’d do is, obviously, use ourselves as, I guess, a little bit of Guinea pigs for this video. So, we’re obviously not going to cover this 76-page report, because I’m still getting through it now, but at least take snippets out and how then what results we’ve had and how we compare; how they differ for the both of us. And then if somebody else is watching this, it would benefit them, if that makes sense.

So, where would you like to start, Tania?

Tania Flack: I think a good place to start, because I know the both of you have put in so much dedication, time, and effort into sports and exercise, body composition, training diet. Thank you, Stuart. We can certainly start there. And, you know, I think you have a beautiful diet. Absolutely gorgeous diet. And I know the way you train, so that’s fantastic. But you’re quite different, you know. Your genetic profile indicates that you’re quite different. And I want to make clear these are things that you instinctively probably already picked up and you’ve altered what you’re doing already because, you know, some things don’t suit you as well. So, we’ll just do a little recap; a little overview of what’s come up for the both of you looking at your body composition, exercise, and training diets.

I’ll start off with Guy. So, Guy has got a much greater tendency toward weight retention than Stuart, probably about 50 percent more genetic.

Guy Lawrence: Fifty. Yeah, right.

Tania Flack: So, we don’t like Stuart right now.

So, in terms, for you to shift body fat, it’s about 50 percent more difficult than what it is for Stuart. Stuart has got some really fast metabolism. And you’re very sensitive; Guy is very sensitive to highly processed carbohydrates. So, if you were your average Australian having toast and cereal for breakfast and you eat a high-carbohydrate diet, you’d probably struggle with your weight even if you’re exercising.

Guy Lawrence: I can believe that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tania Flack: It might still be a problem for you. And, you know, long-term over the course of your life, that was your diet and lifestyle choices; you would be at a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Guy Lawrence: Yeah. Right.

Stuart Cooke: That’s interesting.

Tania Flack: That might come up somewhere in your family history, so you’ve got that sensitivity towards carbohydrates and, particularly, highly processed carbs.

Stuart Cooke: We kind of get that as well, don’t we, when Guy and myself, we work together and we eat together a lot of the times, and if we do ever have a wrap or even a sandwich, to some degree, you, Guy, feel it immediately, right?

Guy Lawrence: Oh, I hate it. I hate it. Absolutely.

Stuart Cooke: It’s almost like you’ve been hit by a sledgehammer, whereas me, I won’t say cast-iron stomach, but I’m generally find.

Tania Flack: And your energy requirements are totally different than Guy’s. Like, for the type of training that you do, you know, your energy requirements are entirely different. You are at entirely two different degrees of the scale, really.
Guy Lawrence: I was interested as well because I think I’m 20 odd kilos heavier than Stew, with our body frame, yet he eats more food than me, easily.

Stuart Cooke: I probably eat 20 more kilos more than you a day. I’m not joking.

Tania Flack: There’s a 50 percent difference in your metabolism. It’s like Stuart’s burning it. He’s burning it so much more quickly than Guy. However, looking at your sports performance, Guy is really well-suited to explosive kind of power sprint events, so that’s your real strength there. But for Guy, his recovery from sports is nowhere near as good as Stuart’s. And Stuart, you’re really more suited to endurance. Both of you’ve got great sports and exercise panels; your genes are great, both of you. But, Stuart, you’re really more suited to that great VO2 max fantastic endurance and you’d have a little bit of capacity to sprint at the end.

So, if I was looking at you, you know, looking at your genes, I would pick you as, say, a cyclist or, say, someone who’s a middle-distance runner. You’d be fantastic at that.

Stuart Cooke: That’s interesting.

Tania Flack: As far as something short, explosive, needs more support in sports recovery. Because with both of you, Guy more than Stuart, will have a slow lactic acid removal, so you need some support around that. But particularly for Guy, your recovery from exercise will be a lot slower than Stuart’s.

Guy Lawrence: Yeah, right. And would, as well, for anyone, would you be better off then exercising to your gene expression more so than going against it?

Tania Flack: I don’t think it means you can’t go against it. But I think you get more results going with it. And it will be easier and feel more natural for you to go with it. So, for Guy, you’re more the high-intensity, like, you know, the HITT training is better for you. But for Stuart, he can get into that zone and really, you’ve got some real distance there. So, you know, you can still do the same types of things but you just have to tailor them slightly to suit your strengths, I think.

Stuart Cooke: So, do you think that if you ever wanted to be, you know, if you had aspirations to be an elite athlete in something that you weren’t genetically suited to, it would, for want of a better word, be almost impossible to excel in that because it’s just not in your makeup.

Tania Flack: Look, I’m sure there’s athletes out there that are genetically in their wrong sport, but I think they probably have to put in a lot more effort into getting that final edge. They’re always going to be behind the eight ball, I’d say.

Stuart Cooke: Right. Wow. It’s fascinating.

Tania Flack: Yeah. And it’s interesting, Stew, with your sort of sensitivity around carbohydrates, you do have some sensitivity there, not as much as Guy, but, you know, ultimately, if you were going to train without some type of carbohydrates, and it can be like a paleo choice, so it can be vegetable-based carbs. Fundamentally, you’re just gonna lose a lot of weight.

Stuart Cooke: Yes.

Tania Flack: If you’re training without them. Whereas Guy, Guy could train in ketosis and probably be fine. Whereas you, it wouldn’t suit you at all.

Guy Lawrence: We’ve kind of got to that conclusion, haven’t we, really, through what we do daily, you know, the more we play around with it.

Stuart Cooke: That’s right. Yeah.

Tania Flack: And it’s been interesting, too, touching on Stuart again, that you’ve got this endurance picture. You have got some sensitivity to carbohydrates but you need carbs to continue on with what you’re doing. But interestingly you’ve got a real sensitivity there around cortisol, and your HPA axis, and we’ll talk about that a bit later on. But it does mean, for someone like you, pairing together those genes and an endurance event, that you have a potential for overtraining that you’d want to watch. So, your lead-up to events, depending on what you’re doing, would have to be fairly well-controlled. You’d have to have that tapering off and you’d have to have good recovery with that as well.

Stuart Cooke: Wow. I’ll take it easy before events then, I guess.

Guy Lawrence: If we can get you in one.

Tania Flack: You build up and you need to have that tapering off and you need to have those days pre-event, whatever you’re doing, where you’re crawling out of your skin ready to go, and then that will fine. But if you train hard right up until straight into events, I think that would be a potential for overtraining there.

Stuart Cooke: So, for any athlete that’s watching or listening to this and is thinking, “Should I do this test or shouldn’t I?” If they were to do it, they could then, essentially, tailor their program a little bit more around their DNA. So, like, for instance, with me I know I need more recovery, so if I start pushing it too hard, I’m not gonna get the best results even though I think other people are training that way. Would that be fair to say?

Tania Flack: Yeah. Absolutely. It certainly helps, particularly if you’ve got exercise recovery issues, like, for you, for example, you know, Guy’s got a lower glutathione activity than Stew, so it makes a lot of sense to find these things out in terms of just, you know, if you’re dedicating your life to your sport or if you’re putting a lot of effort in with your sport, it makes a lot of sense to know what you’re doing and protect yourself against things like overtraining. Make sure you’ve got good sports and exercise recovery.

Stuart Cooke: Yeah. Could you then. . .

Tania Flack: Just on that; just with that.

Stuart Cooke: Could you then tell us, say, certain natural supplementation and things like that to then support these things that are missing?

Tania Flack: Yeah. Absolutely. We know, in terms of Stuart, we know that making sure that cortisol levels are supported and overtraining doesn’t happen and that you’ve got good-quality carbohydrates and your lead-up to events and event preparation as well.

But for you, Guy, we know that your glutathione support is really crucial for you. It would make a big difference with your sports and exercise recovery. And also, to a certain extent, like, if we’re looking at supplements, whey protein isolate (wpi), ironically, is one of the best things we can do to support glutathione production. So, and I know you do that anyway, so that’s a bonus, really.

But also, you know, we’ve got things like turmeric, St. Mary’s thistle, and to a certain extent vitamin D levels all play a role in glutathione. So, there’s lots of things that we can put in there that will support that production.

The other thing is, for Guy, has shown up with some tendencies towards inflammation, which can slow down your post-event recovery, I guess. So, we’d be looking at things like high omega-3s, essential fatty acids, so high EPA formulas would be good for you.

Guy Lawrence: I can believe that, too, because I take a lot of high strength fish oil as well and I make sure they have all the broad-range of fatty acids in them, and yet, if I run out and I don’t top up, I start to feel it. I really do.

So, would that be fair to say, then, that I should be avoiding foods that inflame the body as well?

Tania Flack: Yeah, and I think inflammatory foods are not going to suit you, for sure, and carrying any kind of condition, I don’t know, we talked about gut testing in the past, but, like, you know, a leaky gut or a high dysbiosis for you is really gonna slow down your recovery time a lot, because you need to support that to get optimal recovery and if you’ve got a lot of dysbiosis going on, then that low-grade inflammation is only going to contribute to that and slow down recovery.

Stuart Cooke: Yeah, right.

Guy Lawrence: Interesting. Fantastic.

Tania Flack: That’s just talking about. . .

Guy Lawrence: So, that’s just the exercise.

Stuart Cooke: That’s perfect.

So, Guy, next time we compete in the national tiddlywinks competition, keep that in mind. Because you’re an elite athlete. You’re going places.

Guy Lawrence: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

Tania Flack: You’ll have to carb-load for that, too, Stuart.

Stuart Cooke: Exactly. That’s excellent.

Guy Lawrence: All right. So, what’s next on the list outside of the exercise camp?

Tania Flack: Well, outside of that, we’re kind of looking at your general metabolic health, and this goes into a great deal of detail in that 70-page report and it covers things like your cholesterol, metabolism, your diabetes risk, your blood pressure risk, and inflammation in general. So, all the things that can contribute towards cardiovascular disease, obesity, that type of thing. So important.

And, as young people, we probably don’t pay enough attention to the impact that that will have in our lives. That, you know, cardiovascular disease is so important. You know? So, we looked at both of you with your risk factors around all those metabolic conditions and both of you, the good news is, both of you come up as a very neutral cholesterol profile. So, you know, you’re lumped in with about 55 to 60 percent of the population. You know, not a particularly high risk of cholesterol. And I know that’s a hot topic at the moment.

Guy Lawrence: Yeah, very hot.

Tania Flack: And I think, with the information that we’re given with the DNA results, really, they draw a lot of their recommendations from epidemiological studies that have already been done. So, they talk a lot about the Mediterranean diet and that type of thing. I think with your following a paleo lifestyle, and this is your genetic profile, you are fine. We really don’t need to worry about that.

So, the whole controversy about cholesterol, statins, particularly, something I’m not going to go into in a great deal today. I mean, there is this; out of this remain at least three groups, genetic profile groups, of cholesterol. And one of them is of particular concern. It’s not very common but it’s something that we’d look into. Otherwise, I think the paleo lifestyle is preventative to cardiovascular health. Cardiovascular risk factors and. . . I’m fine with that.

So, both of you have got that neutral cholesterol profile. Guy, we know, is very, very sensitive to refined carbohydrates and would be at risk of Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome if he had a poor diet and lifestyle. Stew’s somewhat sensitive to refined carbohydrates. However, you’ll never be an overweight person, Stew. I think you really try hard. I think it would be fairly difficult for you.

Stuart Cooke: Yeah. And I have tried hard, physically, from the other side of the camp. You know, some people struggle with weight and I’m one of those; I’m in that camp. And I have tried and it just doesn’t happen.

Tania Flack: However, you do have some sensitivity there. So, if, for example, you were to have a complete opposite lifestyle to what you do have now, there would be a small potential there for you to develop some hormone resistance. But, you know, you’d never be the overweight picture of Type 2 diabetes. You’d be more sort of that skinny Type 2 diabetic that’s just had a . . . typical diet. But that’s what it would take, and I think there’s very little risk of that to happen to you.

And, so, interesting, both of you have a gene that’s to do with blood pressure and it’s really; it’s an evolutionary adaptation towards survival, I guess. But under periods of stress you can have a sharp spike in blood pressure, and it’s something that we look at for people who get white coat syndrome. So, if we were to take your blood pressure in clinic, you would be one of those people who would have a one-off high blood rating just due to the stress of somebody coming at you to take your blood pressure.

Stuart Cooke: And I’ve had that. Absolutely.

Tania Flack: Yeah. So, you definitely both have that. I mean, really, you’re more prone to a maladaptive stress response, sharp survival instinct. But it can manifest itself in that white coat syndrome.

Stuart Cooke: OK. Fantastic.

Tania Flack: Yeah, with Guy, he’s more prone towards that inflammation in the system. We’ve talked about that. And also, for Guy, a higher tendency toward homocysteine levels, which is very important to cardiovascular health. Much more important than your overall cholesterol load, I would imagine. And homocysteine is something that you can have tested in a blood test. And you’ve got some genetic tendency there. Your homocysteine pathways are a little bit challenged, so I would recommend that you have a blood test for your homocysteine, and then once every five years just check in and see how that’s going.

Guy Lawrence: OK.

Tania Flack: That’s important for Guy. So, that’s really looking at your metabolic risk factors. So, both of you are prone, really, the sensitivity to processed carbohydrates but I think you’re doing really well there, so that’s good news.

Guy Lawrence: So, would it be fair to say, then, like, especially if somebody in Stuart’s case, even though he can pretty much eat anything and not put an ounce of fat on, that just because he has that gene and he can do that he still can be susceptible to illness?

Tania Flack: Absolutely. Absolutely. Just because you’re not that type of person to put on a lot of weight, you can still really have blood sugar issues.

Guy Lawrence: And I think that’s an important message.

Tania Flack: It’s important to keep in mind that if you’re a very light person and not prone to being overweight you can still have metabolic issues.

Guy Lawrence: It doesn’t give you the green light to say, “I can eat anything and live any lifestyle I want.”

Stuart Cooke: And I know a few people that do that.

Guy Lawrence: Oh, absolutely.

Stuart Cooke: “Look at me. I’m fine.”

Tania Cooke: Yes. Absolutely. And that’s really probably more to do with genetics. People like that, that’s more to do with genetics than to do with anything else. So, you know, it doesn’t protect you entirely. And, you know, that is definitely not saying that you shouldn’t be mindful and careful of your health by having a great diet and lifestyle.

Guy Lawrence: Yeah. I’m kind of glad I can put on weight easy, because it keeps me honest.

Stuart Cooke: He says that. You don’t mean that at all.

Guy Lawrence: Fair enough.

Tania Flack: And, look, the other parts of the test, and it is quite extensive, but it does touch on your brain and, really, mood, I guess. And that’s really interesting, too, because you’re both quite different there as well. And I think you’ll. . .

Guy Lawrence: I’d love to hear this one.

Tania Flack: Sorry?

Guy Lawrence: I’d love to hear a bit on this one; on the mood.

Stuart Cooke: But just don’t upset him, Tania, because he gets very moody. Something to do with the Homer Simpson level in his blood. Carry on.

Tania Flack: OK. So, in terms of you two, you’re both quite different in terms of that HPA axis. So when we’re looking at the genes around this, we look at your hypothalamus pituitary adrenal access, so basically your stress response… is that a Meerkat impersonation Stu?

Stuart Cooke: Oh, no. I was just thinking how I would spell that when we transcribed it.

Tania Flack: If you just put HPA, basically it’s your stress response in the body. You know, again, these have developed as evolutionary changes, I guess. Evolutionary variations to improve our chances of survival, which is all very well and good, except in the modern world we often don’t need it to be some finally tuned.

So, if we were looking at stress response, Stuart, you definitely have some interesting genetics around that. Fascinating. So, you’ve got some variations with your COMT gene that’s associated with; it’s really interesting: a higher cognitive flexibility, so just smart, fast-thinking, mentally very agile. But along with that you have this heightened anxiety response. So, you know, you’ve got more of a tendency towards a faster stress response than Guy would have, for example.

There is some link with that gene variation to pain threshold, and IBS and migraine can often come up with that.

Stuart Cooke: Interesting.

Tania Flack: Yeah. And it’s really; it’s important for the metabolism of neurotransmitters and it plays an important role in mood. And, often, we often call that COMT gene variation the worrier-slash-warrior. So, they worry but there’s a lot of that survival instinct as well. So, it’s interesting. And it does mean that you need a little bit more support for your detoxification pathways as well. That plays an important role there, too.

There’s also a gene, it’s a neuropeptide gene. And we like to call it the knockout gene, which just means that there’s some hypervigilance going on there. So, these are people that, if they walk into a room, they’re always checking out. They’re hypervigilant. They’re hyperaware. They know what’s going on around them at any given time. And while Guy’s smiling over there, he can’t smile too much because he has the slight variation on this gene but Stew has got the. . .

Stuart Cooke: The full-blown gene.

Tania Flack: You’re hyperaware and your reaction time is fast. And your stress and anxiety reactions have been fairly fast, I would imagine. And sensitive to repeated stress. You wouldn’t normalize very well after lots of repeated stress. So, clearly support around adrenal function is important for you. And that, then again, goes back to a potential for overtraining. That, too.

Guy Lawrence: Right. So, does that mean, as well, that different people, depending on the genes, can handle stress better than other people, if they were in the same circumstance?

Tania Flack: Everybody will respond a bit differently, so, for example, for you, we know that you would have good genes around short-term stress. So, you know, you’d be fine for public speaking. It’s quick, over and done with, you know, that type of thing is fine for you. However, your; because of sort of the changes that we’ve seen in your methylation pathways, you’d be more; if you were exposed to repeated stress over a long period of time then that would potentially get to you quite a bit. And there’d be more of an issue, perhaps a sleep disturbance, if you’re under repeated stress. And maybe feeling a bit down if you’re under repeated stress as well.

So, you both have slightly different genes around that. And we know in terms of brain health in general that Guy has a gene variation that means that you bind to heavy metals a lot more than Stuart would. And we’ve done a metals analysis, I think, with Guy in the past. And that was quite high for you, and I think that your genes around that are a little bit more sensitive. Heavy metals are not your friend. You’ll be more sensitive than, say, Stuart would be.

Guy Lawrence: Yeah, and that showed up in the tests in the past as well, didn’t it?

Tania Flack: Yeah. Absolutely.

Guy Lawrence: OK.

Tania Flack: I guess; and that leads us to detoxification. And there’s a lot to this so I’ll just keep it really brief, but we know, for example, we’ve got this variation with the COMT gene that makes you agile, highly aware type of person. Mentally agile. But it has a major role in detoxification that’s quite important in your detoxification pathways.

And also there’s a variation in one of your Cytochrome P450 enzymes that is very important with the way your body handles lots of toxins, but particularly hormonal toxins like estrogen. Or, really, chemicals that can mimic hormone activity in the body. And so we’re talking about things like Bisphenol A, all those, you know, estrogen-type chemicals. So, you’re very sensitive to those because you’ve got variations on both those genes in combination. So, if you were a women, we’d be really looking at your long-term hormone health and really looking at things like whether oral contraception would ever suit you.

But because you’re a guy, any of the suggestions that we talk about for you, is to minimize your exposure to plastics and pesticides that you potentially might have difficulty processing and looking at protective things for hormone health for men like lycopene and sources of lycopene in the diet. And putting them in early so it’s never going to become a problem.

So, we’ll definitely be looking at, yeah, for Stuart, and for Guy, you’ve got this higher tendency toward metal binding, and we’ve seen that in the past. And also methylation pathways that are really important. And, ironically, they have a connection and they lower the production of your body’s natural glutathione, which is also an issue for you. So, in terms of our recommendation of what we’ll be working on, is to support those methylation pathways, which really are important for processing your neurotransmitters as well and looking at your glutathione and how they connect together. So, just be very protective about heavy metals exposure for you.

So, as you can see from that, both of you are quite different and have quite different needs. But then, if you came to see me, I’d said, well, you know, here’s a guy, for both of you, in their mid- to late-30s, healthy, very fit, great diet. You know, would I treat you the same if I didn’t know any better? Perhaps I would. But we can see from this that you are very, very different in the way we support you; every aspect of that would be entirely different now we have that information. So, it’s very exciting.

Stuart Cooke: It’s stunning, really.

So, the outcome of the test, then, would be that we get this very complex report but then you break that down into everyday language and would you then be advising, perhaps, you know, a particular diet and supplementation just to assist us along our way with the information that we’ve got from there?

Tania Flack: Absolutely. Well, how we do it is people come in to see me. First we have a half an hour appointment. Prior to that they fill out lots of information so I know all about their current state of health, their current diet, lifestyle, exercise. I know what they’re already doing and do that fact-finding mission beforehand and after that appointment they get their salivary test kit and send them away. It can take up to six weeks to get the results back and sometimes we do have to wait but sometimes it can be faster than that. The geneticist will review the results and write this enormous document; report.

And then I have a meeting with the geneticist and we go over everybody’s results and I put together my recommendations based on what I know about what people are doing in their current diet and lifestyle. So, I confirm that they’re doing certain things right and I give them information on how they can change other things to sort of suit their genetic profile. So then that information is formalized so you have it to go on with.

Guy Lawrence: Perfect. It’s so valuable. Now, if I’m listening to this knowing that in Edgecliff in New South Wales and I live in Darwin, can I still contact you and get this done?

Tania Flack: Yes. Absolutely. As we’re talking about the gut now, I do gut consultations for people and we still stick to the same type of appointment times and we still need to gather all of that information beforehand. But it runs like we’re doing; exactly how we’re talking now; the same type of thing. And they’ll get the recommendations and a full report.

Guy Lawrence: Fantastic.

Tania Flack: There may be some for people that still want to do face to face that would like this done so we can, so we can do this as well as skype.

Stuart Cooke: Of course. It’s just made so easy now with the Internet.

Guy Lawrence: Absolutely. Well, what we can do as well, we can put; add your email and contact details below this video anyway if anyone wants to get in touch and find out a bit more about it.

And I know myself and Stewie have still got to come in and finish the report.

Stuart Cooke: Receive our action plans.

Guy Lawrence: Absolutely. But it’s been fantastic, Tania, and we really appreciate the time you’ve taken to be here and explain to us and our audience as well a little bit more about this DNA testing. And, yeah. I’m sure we’ll keep things updated through Facebook as well, as we go.

Stuart Cooke: Fantastic. OK. Thank you so much, Tania.

Guy Lawrence: Awesome.

Tania Flack: Thank you.

Guy Lawrence: Thank you. Bye.

Stuart Cooke: Speak to you soon.

 

Tania Flack

Tania Flack is a leading Naturopath who has a special interest in endocrine, reproductive, digestive and metabolic health. She specialises in gut microbiome and DNA testing and designs innovative health care programs to help people achieve optimal health. She believes in an integrated approach to healthcare, including the use of... Read More
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4 Replies to “Does DNA testing hold the key to the perfect diet? The results”
Louise says:

Sounds really interesting. How can I go about getting the tests?

180nps says:

Hi Louise,

We’d recommend contacting Tania directly as she can assist you:

http://www.taniaflack.com/health-assessments/test-page/

Cheers – Guy

Chris says:

Love your work guys

180nps says:

Thanks Chris… Hope you’re kicking goals since we met in Melbourne 🙂

Comments are closed.