24 Jan Genetic Testing Helped Me Help My Son
Today I’d like to share a personal story and share with you how getting genetic testing can help with overall health.
Companies like 23andme.com allow you to get basic genetic testing done and with the help of a physician, you can interpret some of the data they provide to help you take your health to the next level.
My personal story starts with my son, Andrew, when he was about a year-and-a-half old. He started having some major irritability issues. I had a very hard time soothing him and he wasn’t sleeping through the night. He seemed agitated and irritated most of the time. He was experiencing rashes, eczema and difficulty digesting his food.
This was about the same time that 23andme and other companies made genetic testing readily available. In my research to help my son, I did genetic testing on him and found quite a few things that once addressed, helped Andrew’s situation quite a bit.
First of all, I learned that he had a vitamin D receptor abnormality that made him prone to very low vitamin D. I tested his vitamin D levels and found they were indeed low, so I supplemented appropriately. That had a huge impact on his immunity. His eczema decreased and he started to become less irritable. I learned something even more incredible from the genetic testing on his genes that control methylation.
Methylation is as key to life as drinking water. It’s a metabolic process at the cellular level that helps you process toxins, make things that you need and regenerate your DNA. It’s an essential biochemical process that we all have in common.
My son had issues with efficiencies in this process. Specifically, he had issues utilizing some of the vitamins that were needed for this process. One of the vitamins was B12 and another was B9, which is also called folate. By utilizing this information, I was able to give him a more user-friendly form of those vitamins. Within a few days, Andrew became more easily soothed and much happier. His food allergies subsided and his digestion improved.
As a mother trying to sooth my child and help him, I would have been missing the boat without understanding his genetics.
I hope my story encourages you to investigate more – to learn the science and heal yourself (as well as those you love) with the help of a doctor who practices DNA-informed precision medicine.
Mary Caire MD empowers the world to create a culture of optimized health guided by DNA and epigenetics.