DNA testing is becoming increasingly popular these days, and for the most part that’s to uncover interesting aspects about our family’s history.
We are all interested in the weird and wonderful stories our ancestry can tell, but a DNA test can tell us much more, and important information about our health at that.
DNA testing is more accessible than ever before with some of the best DNA test kits available online and providing results in just a few weeks.
But what can they tell us to improve our health?
You Can Find Out About Any Genetic Illnesses
Perhaps most importantly you can find out about any illnesses[1] that run in the family or that carry genes that can be passed on.
Hereditary illness is very common and there are dozens of diseases that can be passed on down generations.
It can be really important to recognise what you may be at risk from earlier and check whether you’re a carrier, or whether there’s a chance you could develop an illness in later life.
You’ll be able to uncover common denominators in the deaths of family members, and while that isn’t as fun as discovering your grandmother was once named Illinois’ Best Baker, it is much more useful information.
You Can Adapt Your Diet Accordingly
That’s because you can then adapt accordingly, whether that be beginning to take medication to prevent illness or changing your diet to avoid heart problems, which could potentially run in the family.
By doing this early, you can not only avoid problems in pewter life but generally develop a diet that will make you fitter, healthier and contribute to a longer life regardless of hereditary problems.
Of course, we should all live healthy lifestyles in reality anyway, but it is often the wake-up call many of us need to make that happen.
You Can Tailor Your Fitness Plans To Suit Your Genetic Profile
If you’re a fitness buff you can also build more effective plans based upon your genetic build too.
Many athletes use this process to understand how their body’s will react to varying degrees of workout, figuring out whether they are more suited to endurance sports, power sports or have a natural ability for aerobic exercises.
On top of that you can also figure out how quickly your body will take to recover from that exercise.
This all helps into building the perfect training plan to suit your goals, whether that be beating personal bests or losing weight. You can under the right amount of recovery time, the right intensity workouts and much more, all from a cheap DNA test and a bit of research.
You Can Improve The Health Of The Next Generation Too
A DNA test can help to boost the health of the future generation.shutterstock.com
It isn’t just your own health that can see improvements based upon your DNA test however. Of course, you can put the whole family on your diet based upon the results, which won’t cause any harm, but you can also understand if you’re a carrier, which could affect your children and their children.
Discovering a run of health issues in a family can help you prepare and educate future generations early in their life, so they can do the right things to avoid suffering like family members before[2].
This can then begin a cycle in which education can be in place for generations to come and help prevent, and even over time eliminate the possibility of future disease further down the bloodline.
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And that all comes from just one DNA test. It can be a serious step into improving your health and the results can be the proof you need to make the changes.
They can be the catalyst to not only help yourself, but many generations of your family down the line. And that certainly isn’t something to ignore.
