What To Do With Your DNA Test Results

Examples of how The DNA Company provides actionable health insights

A Vitamin D Breakthrough – Personalizing Health

Like many blood serum tests, vitamin D has an "optimal" range that is nearly universally applied to the population. Yet, under the surface of that recommendation is a continuing and fierce debate about what the healthy cutoff actually should be. At The DNA Company, we're less concerned with the exact cutoff for what should be considered healthy and much more concerned with what the optimal level of vitamin D is for you.

Instead of a simple number indicating the presence of vitamin D in your blood, our DNA 360 Reports provide information on your body's ability to activate, transport, and uptake vitamin D by looking at your CYP2R1 gene, VDBP/GC gene, and VDR gene.

CYP2R1 converts the vitamin D2 that you absorb from the sun or from plant sources into its active vitamin D3 form. VDBP/GC transports vitamin D from its point of activation to its site of action, where it binds with the vitamin D receptor. And the VDR gene influences how efficiently vitamin D binds and activates its influence on the body at the receptor site.

So, if you had blood serum levels of vitamin D that were close to or just inside the optimal range, but suboptimal ability to activate, transport, and uptake vitamin D, would you still consider that to be optimal? Your doctor would likely ignore the result, but with your DNA 360 Report in hand, you have the chance to optimize your health.

Learning to Handle Frustration

The DNA 360 Reports also include an Irritation and Frustration report in the Mood and Behavior section. Those of you who find you have suboptimal versions of the genes involved in your predisposition toward increased feelings of irritation or frustration probably won't be surprised.

Most likely, you have a suboptimal 5-HTTLPR, so you are more likely to have a dysregulated serotonin response. You also might have the GG version of both BDNF and TPH2, which gives you poor function in both genes and a predisposition toward feelings of irritation or frustration.

You already knew you were cranky, but now you know you're genetically predisposed to be cranky. What you really need to know is what you can do about it. Fortunately, throughout all 38 reports, there are recommendations on what to do and what not to do to optimize your lifestyle in line with your genes.

What if I have a DNA Report from 23andMe or Ancestry?

If you already have a 23andMe report, don't worry. We can reprocess the information in those reports and find some actionable insights for you. All you need to do is download The DNA Way app (click here for the iOS app and here for Android) and then follow the instructions for uploading a third-party report.

Once your DNA report is completed, you will see how comprehensive it is.

How to Read Your DNA 360 Results

Your results have been organized into seven sub-categories. Within each report,

• Mood & Behavior
• Diet & Nutrition
• Sleep
• Hormones
• Fitness & Body Type
• Anti-Inflammatory Profile
• Cardiovascular
• Longevity

is a breakdown of your unique genetic blueprint along with actionable recommendations for living the best life possible!

Give yourself plenty of time to go through your entire report; there's a lot of information to take in! You may notice some of those recommendations appearing more than once; in fact, you may notice some of the genes appearing more than once.

That's because your body is complex, and your genes don't work independently of each other - or in only one area of your body. Recognizing that complexity and tracing how your genes work throughout different systems is what The DNA Company is all about.

Your DNA 360 report deciphers your genetic blueprint. The recommendations and insights it contains are the building blocks you will need to put everything together.