Don't Forget about Life Style Choices

For most of us, avoiding these is just as important as the genes we inherit.

As someone who studies genes, I tend to give the environment short shrift. I have to watch out for that because it can cause a blind spot in how I think about biology. And how I live my life.

As readers of this blog might remember, I was recently diagnosed with metabolic syndrome just as I was undergoing DNA testing. This was a wake up call in a couple of different ways.

First off, it confirmed my belief that we can’t get a lot out of genetic testing for complicated diseases right now. I couldn’t look at my DNA and predict that I would end up with high cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose levels. We just don’t know enough yet about our genes to be able to figure this out from any available DNA test.

But I could have guessed this might be a problem from my lifestyle and family history. All four of my grandparents developed Type 2 diabetes which put me at a pretty high risk. Of course I thought I could beat the odds and so lived a life filled with couch sitting, Haagen Dazs, and Double Western Bacon Cheeseburgers (cue Homer Simpson drool). Until my diagnosis.

Then I decided to see if all this talk of diet and exercise actually can have a significant impact on me. Or was I destined to high cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose levels because of the genes I got from my parents.

The doctor told me to lose weight, exercise more and eat better. So I did.

I lost 30 pounds by changing my diet and walking 30 minutes a day. This dropped my body mass index (BMI) from overweight (27.8) to normal (23.5).

I also stopped eating most sweets, and cut my saturated fats down to 15 grams per day. And the effects on my blood work have been amazing.

Here are a few of the stats:

	Desired	9/21/2009	11/16/2009
Total Cholesterol	<200	205(H)	115
Cholesterol/HDL	<5	5.4(H)	2.5
Triglycerides	<150	351(H)	85
Fasting Glucose	70-100	122(H)	104(H)

As you can see, everything is now in the normal range except for glucose which is still a bit worrisome. Now I just need to maintain this regimen which, in America, won’t be easy.

I probably panicked and went overboard anyway. I should have tried to just add exercise and see if that was good enough. If not, then cut back on sweets and saturated fats. I did bad science on myself by changing too many variables at once.

I think what I can conclude is that my set of genes makes me particularly susceptible to my lifestyle choices. Some lucky people are born with genes that let them get away with poor diet and no exercise.

I am not one of those lucky ones. Although perhaps more lucky than those people who make these changes and still have these health issues.

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