Men’s Health

As we age, the production of sex hormones naturally declines in both men and women. In men, testosterone levels start to decline from the age of 30 by around 1% per year, however, the rate of decline can be affected by lifestyle and genetic variances. Obesity, thyroid dysfunction, and poor sleep patterns can also play their part. Knowing your genetic tendencies to all these elements, and optimising your lifestyle and nutrition appropriately, can help to reduce your declining levels but can also make sure the testosterone you have is being utilised appropriately. It is all too easy to be told that you can easily replace testosterone, a route many men go down, embarking on a lifetime of expensive treatment unnecessarily. You should also remember that the underlying causes of the symptoms you have been experiencing will likely also be affecting your general health, so treating the root cause will also optimise your general health and aid healthy ageing.

Sadly, approximately 15% of couples struggle with infertility and the causes and risk factors are multiple, and the quality of your sperm is likely to be having an impact. The head structure of sperm can be abnormal and motility can be poor, and a process called methylation plays a huge role in optimising both these factors. Other than optimal methylation, nutrition and lifestyle can also play their part. Having the correct nutrients available in the body and knowing whether your genetic tendencies mean that you might need higher levels can make a huge difference. Knowledge is powerful and knowing which areas of your health could optimise your sperm quality and ultimately your general health can be lifechanging.

BPH is a relatively common condition which often runs in families and by the age of 80 years, 20-30% of men will have symptoms requiring some sort of treatment. The prostate gland is enlarged in BPH meaning it can make it difficult to pass urine or cause some end-of-stream dribbling. As we age, all risk factors and genetic tendencies that we have can become more prevalent and it is considered that general inflammation, dysregulation of blood sugar, and a tendency to metabolise testosterone down a less favourable pathway can all cause the prostate to become enlarged. Once we know what our genetic tendencies are, we can optimise the situation with appropriate nutrition and lifestyle choices. Any of the processes that could be affecting the prostate gland are also likely to be having far-reaching consequences on your general health so making appropriate changes will likely improve more than just your prostate symptoms.

By understanding our genetic makeup we can help you make a personalised training plan which is best suited to your own body composition. Genes are involved in the way our bodies respond to cardiovascular exercise and strength training, and the way that we recover from exercise, and genes give useful information on how we can best fuel ourselves. By knowing any variances you might have on the genes related to exercise, we can support any weak spots with nutrition, supplements if necessary, and lifestyle changes. This will allow you to target areas which need greater attention and help you achieve your goals to the best of your genetic ability.

Acne can hugely affect people’s self-esteem and cause long term scarring. It can be triggered by hormone imbalances, stress, diet and certain medications. It often presents for the first time in puberty but can also occur at other times in life when there are hormonal fluctuations including the peri/menopausal years in women.

The body works hard to try to keep all our hormones working in harmony but an imbalance in any one of them, sex hormones, cortisol, insulin or adrenaline can affect the others. Specific gene tendencies that directly cause higher circulating cortisol levels or more potent testosterone levels have been linked to acne, but we must remember that cortisol levels can also be affected by stress, blood sugar and anxiety. Consequently, an accumulation of these factors in some people can make their acne more severe and difficult to treat. Knowing which elements of your biochemistry you need to focus on, giving you direction as to which nutritional and lifestyle changes you can focus on will be empowering and could prevent years of unnecessary anguish.

There is not one known singular cause of eczema, but the biggest association is family history and hence the obvious consideration is that genes are playing a part in your tendency to suffer with eczema. The skin offers a protective barrier so any breaks in that barrier with dryness and cracking will then make you more vulnerable to environmental toxins or products that you may have previously tolerated. Disturbances in the gut microbiome often flares skin conditions and Vitamins A, B’s, C & D are all necessary for healthy skin, aiding repair, and the synthesis of new skin cells. Histamine overload can aggravate skin and there are various reasons that this could be happening, including issues with a process called Methylation or an enzyme called DAO found in the gut wall. Stress can play a huge part in eczema, as can hormonal imbalances, explaining why individuals often struggle at puberty. Often it is a combination of factors but by knowing your DNA tendencies you can optimise your nutrition and lifestyle to your situation. As well as improving your eczema, addressing these fundamental issues will also optimise your general wellbeing.

Psoriasis is an autoimmune condition and as such there are many genes which we can look into to help support the body and improve the condition or prevent it from occurring. Although we don’t test for specific psoriasis genes, we test for several genes involved in the immune system function and inflammation, variants on these genes increase the risk of developing autoimmune conditions including psoriasis. Autoimmune disease occurs when the body’s immune system becomes over active and starts to launch an immune cascade against itself. In the case of psoriasis, this shows up as an increase in the speed of skin turnover which causes thick plaques, itching and flaking.

It is so important to reduce body inflammation in people suffering with psoriasis and one of the first places to start is the gut and making sure that the microbiome is optimised as well as making sure that the strength of our gut lining is strong to stop any further gut imbalances. We also need to make sure that the foods we are eating aren’t adding to our body inflammation, dairy and gluten can both be inflammatory, we test for intolerances to both of these. Cortisol can lead to inflammation, so managing stress levels and blood glucose levels (both of which can lead to high cortisol) is so important.

If you have any genetic predispositions to inflammation, it is even more important that the body is able to perform to the best of its ability to counteract this, by making it’s own antioxidants and has good supplies of the necessary vitamins. The fat soluble vitamins and Omega 3 are also important to help keep the skin moisturised. Good bile flow is needed to absorb Vit A, K &D, so knowing if you have cholesterol predispositions is important.If you are vegetarian, you might not be able to convert plant based Vit A into the form needed to be used in the body.

Genetic testing can make sure that you have all of these functions working well, any weaknesses can then be supported through diet and lifestyle. Working alongside your predispositions in these areas can make a huge difference not only to your psoriasis but to your general health - Knowledge in powerful.

Genetics can play a major role in our susceptibility to low energy levels. This susceptibly can also be exacerbated further following infections including COVID. A process called Methylation is needed for so many aspects of healthy life: it produces products that support our mitochondria which make energy, it helps us sleep, it is responsible for making serotonin, it supports detoxification and aids metabolism. If this process isn’t working efficiently, it can mean we may struggle to produce optimal energy levels, can be more sensitive to pain, and more vulnerable to stress.

Inflammatory tendencies and cytokines play a huge role in our predisposition to, and the severity of, the low energy states we experience including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Long COVID or Fibromyalgia.

Genetic variances in our Nervous System can also make us more sensitive to pain, along with pre-dispositions to low mood, energy, and fatigue. We can look at your gene tendencies and teach you how you can support these genes through diet, lifestyle and potentially supplements when we know where the weak spots are.

If you feel well then it is likely to be a suitable diet for you. The body is pretty good at telling us if things aren’t right. However, we see lots of people who don’t feel themselves for one reason or the other and look at making lifestyle changes including changes to their diet. They often decide to follow the latest advice that plant-based diets are best, and often it can worsen their symptoms, albeit they don’t realise that this is the reason.

Most people following a vegan/vegetarian diet know they should supplement with B12 and iron, as these nutrients are more difficult to get in the required amounts from this diet. However, they are less aware that genetic variants could mean that they may also struggle to get enough Vitamin A which is vital for immunity, appropriate anti-inflammatory responses, eye health and for the thyroid to function efficiently.

A process called Methylation is needed for so many aspects of healthy life, it produces products that support our mitochondria which makes energy, it helps us sleep, is responsible for making serotonin, it supports detoxification and aids metabolism. If this process isn’t working efficiently, it can mean we may struggle to produce optimal energy levels, can be more sensitive to pain and more vulnerable to stress. For people who have genetic variants affecting methylation, the lack of choline in their bodies from a vegetarian/vegan diet can have profound effects, causing amongst other things brain fog, poor mucus membranes, reduced energy levels and anxiety. Methylation naturally slows with age, but more so in men and some menopausal women, so knowing how efficient you are at methylating, will also allow you to choose the correct diet or most appropriate supplements to optimise your health.

The nutrient core report gives a really good overview of your genetic tendencies with regard to lots of vitamins, which will allow you to make a more informed choice about the diet you choose to follow or how you can appropriately supplement.

Fasting diets can take many forms – fasting for whole days out of the week, to time restricted windows within a 24 hour period, often fasting for 16 hours + Fasting gives our bodies a rest from processing foods allowing it to renew and rebuild itself through a process called autophagy. At the same time we are eating less calories, which can in itself lead to weight loss.

Not every fad diet works well for everyone. A person who is highly stressed, or who is highly sensitive to stress, could do more harm than good by putting their body under the extra pressure of not eating over extended periods of time. However, fasting may work well for you if you are genetically slower at breaking down fats, as it increases this process – meaning more fat burning and greater weight loss. It can also help to improve insulin sensitivity and increase metabolism in some people. By testing your genetics, we can work out whether a fasting diet may be a good fit for you and which foods your body requires to work at it’s optimum.

The wonder of nutrigenomics is that we can tailor make specific diets based on our own individual genetics.

Most people will benefit from a ketogenic diet some of the time, as it puts the body into repair mode. The ketogenic (keto) diet, otherwise known as a ‘fasting mimicking diet’, involves eating a very low carbohydrate ( <5%) and high fat (>70%) diet the remainder being protein and fibre. The idea of the diet is to induce a process called ketogenesis in the body. Ketogenesis is when the body starts to burn fat stores to produce energy which can also mean quick weight loss for some people. Aside from weight loss, a keto diet can offer brain clarity, energy, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits. It works by supporting the power packs of our cells, the mitochondria and also by signalling longevity pathways. It’s health benefits are known to help neurological conditions, prevention and support during treatment of cancer and healthy ageing. Ketogenic diets maybe a good idea if you are more genetically prone to be insulin resistant as it improves insulin sensitivity. However, it’s not suitable for everybody all of the time.

Knowing your genetic tendencies and therefore finding out how easy it would be for you to achieve ketosis, or indeed what you would need to do to achieve it, could allow you to repair your body. Ultimately giving you more energy and improving longevity.

This is the ultimate health MOT. Your DNA is your bodies instruction booklet, your lifestyle, diet and the environment around you, can all influence these instructions. Being able to choose a diet and lifestyle to suit your DNA can help prevent problems before they appear.

Don’t worry, we know this is a financial investment and we are more than happy to give advice. You can complete a Discovery Questionnaire, and should you proceed with any of our suggested reports within 3 months, we will deduct half of this cost (£100) from your order.