322-SYNCPodcast_Genetics
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Jenny Swisher: [00:00:00] Welcome [00:01:00] friends to this episode of The Sink Your Life Podcast. Today we’re diving into genetics. I say often here on the podcast that health is individual, and today I’m gonna go so far as to say that our genetics prove that no two of us are alike, just as no two snowflakes are alike. But unfortunately, due to diet, culture, and the ever present desire to do the things that other women are doing to see results, we’ve come so far from tapping into our bioindividuality.

Some of this, in my opinion, is the fault of women’s health. Not only do we not have a lot of research on the female body, but we also are never given the proactive approach that we need when it comes to our health. I believe that every woman should have a Dutch test every few years starting when they’re young.

I also believe that we should measure metabolic health through blood sugar markers and waist to hip ratio measurements over the scale. I also believe that genetic testing should be part of every woman. Well, really every human’s wellness plan. So quick story time. When I turned 40, I invested a few hundred dollars in a genetics test for myself.

I was adopted at [00:02:00] birth and I have no medical history, so I wanted to see exactly what my body was up to. What I learned was life changing, and I only wish that I had had it years sooner. Turns out I am M-T-H-F-R along with 44% of the population, and also com t. Meaning that I have both of these genetic SNPs that can make things like methylation and even hormone balance difficult.

Of course, the genes we have and the ones expressed can differ, but I seem to truly emulate the typical M-T-H-F-R com T prototype. M-T-H-F-R is an enzyme that plays a crucial role in processing amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. It’s particularly important in a biochemical process called methylation, which is essential for the synthesis of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine.

Mutations in the M-T-H-F-R gene can lead to reduced activity of this enzyme, potentially contributing to imbalances in the neurotransmitters, and then as a consequence affects mood anxiety, migraines, all of the things that I currently experience. [00:03:00] Calm T is another enzyme involved in the breakdown of dopamine.

It’s also involved in the breakdown of epinephrine and norepinephrine, which are neurotransmitters associated with mood regulation and stress response. A variation in the calm T gene can affect the speed at which these neurotransmitters are broken down. Calm T variants are linked to differences in stress, resilience, emotional processing, and even anxiety levels.

It turns out my body doesn’t tolerate folic acid due to these genetic SNPs, yet doctors never pose. Looking into M-T-H-F-R when I was paying thousands of dollars for infertility treatments and when I was consuming folic acid daily. It turns out that folic acid, which is part of most prenatals, could have been more harmful than good and certainly wasn’t serving me The same could be said for money wasted on B vitamin supplementation that was never methylated and therefore never utilized in my migraine treatments the way that they could have been.

Just this week, I received a voice message from a friend and fellow sync community member who told me that she too had recently undergone genetic testing. And she learned [00:04:00] similar things about her own body and what a game changer it’s turning out to be in her health.

Her unique bio individual supplementation, yes. But also in understanding herself and her body.

So how much of our health is genetic and how much is behavioral or lifestyle based? Well, it’s estimated that 10% of human disease can be tied to genetics, but 90% is reliant on our environment. That said, catering our genetic predispositions to our lifestyle practices that aid our genetics can be key.

Maybe it’s not, or maybe it’s, and for example, my M-T-H-F-R and COMT expressions equal a more high anxiety personality.