Personalised Genetic Interventions To Redefine Wellness In India
Diagnosing one’s genetic predisposition (susceptibility to certain diseases) and personalising wellness management plan are all set to weed a lot of potentially harmful fads out of the prevailing health and wellness trends. In fact, a lot of recent wellness pursuit disasters leading to death could have been prevented had personalisation been the overarching wellness theme.
The wellness trend which is prevalent in our country is majorly driven by short-lived craze devoid of personalised approach. The social media trend called fitspiration or #fitspo perceived to motivate people to follow a fit and healthy lifestyle has turned out to be a misadventure. It forces individuals to set extreme fitness goals disregarding the adverse impact on health and wellness while chasing those. What is quite alarming for the wealth and wellness experts is the brazen indifference to the ill-effects of unhealthy fast-tracked pursuit of weight loss and body transformation.
Having said that, the pandemic impact has made people aware of the benefits of preventive wellness and that mindfulness creates a conducive environment to introduce the concept of personalised lifestyle modifications based on scientific research to keep diseases – lifestyle or otherwise – at bay.
The fundamentals of personalised preventive wellness are essentially based on personal genomics – the sequencing of the human genome to derive genomic information. When Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc. paid a whopping $100,000 to have his DNA sequenced to understand the potential risks of contracting diseases, personal genomics was exclusive to certain groups of high-net worth individuals who could spend a large amount of money for preventive wellness. However, things have changed since then. Personal genomics has progressed further in terms of technology advancements. As it has become affordable with time, the use of personal genomics has become widespread across the world, helping in identifying vulnerability to certain types of diseases, detecting the genetic mutations responsible for heightening risk of illness and ascertaining genetic variants which could cause genetic disease in a later phase of life.
For instance, breast cancer has a low survival rate if detected late. Chances of developing breast cancer can be negated if personal genomics is deployed to assess if a woman has BRCA1 gene, as BRCA1 gene mutations lead to breast cancer. An early detection can help a woman with a higher risk of developing breast cancer to go for preventive surgery, mastectomy to get rid of breast tissue.
In addition, the majority of the lifestyle diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, etc. are genetic and hereditary in nature. Thanks to personal genomics, predisposition to such conditions can be done and people can decide the future course of action in terms of lifestyle modifications to prevent the onset of those diseases. The idea is to optimise life and actively manage wellness to maintain peak performance – mentally and physically throughout life. Personal genetic interventions actually customise diet-gene interface and work out-gene interface as per the genetic requirements of an individual.
There is a deeper correlation between genes and human health. Personalised genetic interventions powered by personal genomics aim to create synergy between the lifestyle and genes to enhance the outcome of the preventive wellness measures.
