Genetic Testing: The Key To Predicting And Preventing Disease

Genetic Testing is the Most Powerful of Tests to Help Keep You Healthy and Prevent Disease from Ever Happening

About the Expert:

Alberto Pena, MD has worked with Sanoviv Medical Institute for years as a doctor and consultant. Through his work at Sanoviv, he has treated thousands of patients using the best of western medicine and the most advanced complementary therapies from around the world. At the core of Dr. Pena’s philosophy is the belief that the body has the power to heal itself when provided with the proper environment and is relieved of its accumulated toxic burden. It's a remarkable approach that challenges conventional medicine, all the while respecting science and the wisdom of the human body. This is from a recent interview regarding “How to Predict and Prevent Disease.”

Interviewer: Dr. Pena, let’s begin by talking about where you recommend someone should start if they want to live a disease-free lifestyle and live as long as possible.

Dr. Pena: These days, in addition to looking for cures to diseases, we want to learn how to prevent disease from ever appearing. The sooner we can play an active role in prevention, the better our quality of life will be. One test that I’m very excited about is what we call genetic testing. With genetic testing, we’re able to predict what a person’s genetic predispositions are for diseases and by knowing that, we can create changes in our lifestyle and our environment, so that we can prevent that disease from ever appearing. Although we can have a genetic predisposition, much of the time, that predisposition contributes to about 20% to 30% of the development of a disease whereas our environment, our nutrition, our lifestyle is what will determine the other 70%.

Interviewer: So, if I have genetic testing done, I’ll be able to tell what my probability is of having heart disease, obesity, diabetes, etc.? I’ll be able to find out what kinds of things may trigger disease and either avoid them or strengthen my body in certain ways to essentially prevent the possibility of that happening?

Dr. Pena: Right. I think you’ve hit on a very important point there. Despite all that we hear on eating a healthy diet, we see people eating worse every year. Let me put it to you this way: what if I could take you into the future and see you getting a heart attack, suffering, and perhaps dying from it, or getting a stroke, winding up having half of your body paralyzed and not being able to speak. For many people, if they knew with somer certainty what lay ahead of them, this would really motivate them to change their diet and lifestyle.

Genetic testing is like going into the future and predicting our fate – a lot of the “guess work” is taken out – if you know you’re at hig-risk for heart disease before it happens and the guy sitting next to you has no genetic indicators for heart disease, then you will be much more likely to make lifestyle modifications. Also, these tests help physicians know what to emphasize with regards to patient treatment. We can design a custom program for the a patient proactively according to their genetics rather than just waiting to have destiny play out and severely hamper a patient’s quality of life when it’s too late to make a real difference. For example if someone is at risk for developing asthma or an allergy or lupus, then we want to really let them know and integrate changes so that these diseases never appear.

Interviewer: Okay. That makes a lot of sense. Let’s talk about what’s involved in getting a genetic test. I know they’re available at Sanoviv right now and I know that in the states, you can pay about $5,000 and Sanoviv is significantly less expensive for a number of reasons.

Dr. Pena: Correct. We have a package of four different tests which cover most of the major illnesses that people suffer or die from today. The package is around $1,500. What do you need to be able to do a genetic test? All you need is a simple blood draw, and that is sent to a specialized lab that does the genetic testing, and then Sanoviv receives the results. Then we have a consultation with the patient and we counsel them about what they need to do to keep a healthy lifestyle and maintain their health.

Interviewer: Do I have to go to Sanoviv to get this done, or can I do this by mail?

Dr. Pena: We send you a kit and then you go to a lab that can draw the blood. Once the blood is drawn, it is then sent in a package overnight to the laboratory in a special kit,—the results are then sent to us a couple of weeks later. This can be done over the phone, but the best thing is to have the testing done before you come to Sanoviv for the Complete Health Assessment (CHA) if you haven’t had this done already – with the results of the CHA and the genetic testing we can create a very powerful profile of your current state of health as well as make some very informed predictions about your future state of health.

Interviewer: What do you do with this information?

Dr. Pena: Once we receive the results from your genetic testing, a conference call with a Sanoviv MD will be scheduled to review the results. We’ll be taking a look at what we call, single and nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which is your genetic individuality – how you differ in comparison to the general population.

Some of the genetic tests give us information on how well your body is able to eliminate certain environmental toxins. So, perhaps one of the findings is an SNP in the way you would process charbroiled food – the SNP might indicate that if you eat a lot of charbroiled food, you will have a higher risk of colon, rectal, and gastric cancer. So, I’m able to tell you that you’ve inherited an SNP which makes you process charbroiled foods in a way that creates toxic compounds that, with time, will increase your risk of cancer.

Interviewer: Will you be able to tell me all the foods that I probably should avoid? How about things that my body is better at using, too?

Dr. Pena: It’s not really about the foods to avoid, but how to cook them. We wouldn’t suggest that you never eat barbeque again in your life. We would be more likely to recommend that, even though you have this SNP, you would want to consider eating higher amount of cruciferous vegetables, more green, leafy vegetables, fresh fruits, antioxidants and supplements with Vitamin C. Green tea, for example, is known to alter that enzyme that is coded by that gene.

Interviewer: So the bottom line is, I can counteract my natural predisposition.

Dr. Pena: You can counteract…Exactly. What we want to know is what you need to do on a daily basis. We receive so many mixed messages from the media that it’s confusing. These tests help you decipher which recommendations are right for you and your particular body and genetic composition, which lifestyle modifications will give you the best chance of leading a long and healthy life and reach your genetic potential for age and die when you’re cells run out of energy, not when your genetic predispositions are activated by an unhealthy lifestyle.

The rest of this article is available in it's entirety along with a 90 minute audio interview:

Sanoviv Medical Institute is a fully accredited, leading edge medical facility that provides holistic, alternative medicine & complementary therapies. If you've been diagnosed with a degenerative disease or know something could be wrong with you but aren't finding answers, Sanoviv can give you hope. www.Sanoviv.com

Article Source: http://www.wellnessarticlelibrary.com

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