These days it’s hard to get by in life without feeling some sort of anxiety on a daily basis. For some, that anxiety may be profound and diagnosed by a doctor, for others anxiety is something that is just passed over as another “stressful day”. But even for someone who wouldn’t describe themselves as having anxiety, those little moments of stress add up and can be the underlying reason for many chronic health issues later on in life.
With hectic lives and an increased need to multitask through out the day, stress has become a feeling that is more commonplace. We tend to ignore it as a symptom of anything because paying attention to it would just be another thing to add to the list. Many have turned to meditation, yoga, etc. to alleviate stress, but are these forms of relaxation really addressing the cause of our anxiety or just acting as a band-aid on a bullet wound? Most of the time, there is a deeper reason to stress and anxiety than just a crying child, a bad day at work, or an obnoxious traffic jam. In order to truly solve the problem, we literally have to look inside of ourselves and understand how our body is functioning. The answer to a calmer, healthy lifestyle lies in our DNA.
Our genes make us who we are, but they aren’t necessarily stagnant. They interact with the environment in very different ways, varying from person to person. It’s a classic case of genotype and phenotype (for all those biologist out there!). Two people could have the exact same genotype or set of DNA, but if they’re put into two different environments, their genes will react with that environment to give an entirely different phenotype. To put it simpler, you could have two identical twins with the exact same DNA, but if one lives in an environment where they never exercise and always eat cookies, cake & ice cream while the other twin exercises regularly and eats a balanced diet, one will be unhealthy and possibly overweight while the other will be happy and healthy. That’s why it’s important to understand our genes, because while we can’t alter them, we can alter how they affect us.
We’ll use Genetic Direction CEO George Digianni as an example. With his GxSlim genetic test results, he discovered he wasn’t absorbing vitamin B12 as much as the average person. So, he began supplementing his diet with more B12 and realized he felt more energized and noticed a significant decrease in his daily anxiety. Similarly, after getting my own GxSlim results, I found out that my genes inhibit me from properly absorbing the B vitamin folate. Lack of folate can be a contributor to high blood pressure, something that I had recently been struggling with as a fit twenty-two year old. Since understanding how my genes can better interact with my environment, I have started taking folate supplements daily and have noticed a decrease in my blood pressure. Ultimately, genetic testing allows you to create an individualized healthy lifestyle that alleviates stress, anxiety, and even sets the groundwork for daily fitness and rapid weight loss.
Of course, there are daily things we can be doing to alleviate stress as well. One of the biggest culprits of anxiety is the dreaded screen. Phones and laptops have essentially become a part of us, but when we go extended periods of time without putting the phone down, we allow our bodies to create a stress response with every email, text, tweet we receive. While we may not even notice it, this type of stress rollercoaster adds up over time. We see a similar response with spikes in blood sugar. Not eating right, multitasking with our phone, drinking copious amounts of coffee, it’s little things like this that decrease our fitness via anxiety and lead us to a future full of chronic health issues. Rapid weight loss or simply a fit healthy lifestyle can never be achieved without actively removing stressors like these from our lives. It’s all about a stressful lifestyle in moderation. Even still, being healthy always comes back to our DNA. It’s who we are, so we should always look to it for the answer.
