FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Who is suitable for the my Life Programme? The greatest benefit lies with adults between 30 and 75 years. However, we also have families with children in our programme. In such cases, the nutritional programme can be perfectly coordinated within the family. Due to the fact that it is possible and ideal to lay the foundations for a long and healthy life at a young age, a gene test for determining the gene nutrition profile makes particular sense for children. It may be an advantage for young women to know which form of contraception is the most effective and the most gentle, or whether a preventative injection into the uterus is required. It is of equal importance for men and women, regardless of their profession or their own family history.
Is there a special family programme? Yes, even though all family members are closely related, there are still major genetic differences. This will be taken into account in the my Life Programme and the greatest common denominator, for example with respect to the family’s diet, will be developed. This makes it so much easier for the family to implement the programme. We use a similar approach for couple concepts.
Which criteria will be taken into account for preparing the my Life Programme? Naturally the focus is first on the genotype and then of the phenotype of our customers. In addition, we take the latest chronobiological knowledge into account, the so-called three basic cycles referred to as infradian, circadian and ultradian rhythms. These decide which period is most effective for certain nutrients, vitamins and activities. In this way, we can always provide our customers with the right advice, at the right time, and with the right objective, as our body has its own clock, which regulates mental, physical and emotional functions at different times.
What else plays a part? Naturally, apart from a person’s age, his or her gender also plays a part, and not only because of different genetic dispositions. Men and women also react very gender-specifically to medication, vitamins, exercise, diets and the reduction of stress. In order to do justice to this, we take the latest research knowledge in so-called gender-specific medicine into account. In doing so, we achieve the maximum effect on health – equally for women and men. Hence, it is not sufficient just to pay attention to the different genes; one must also take a person’s current state of health, his or her age and of course gender into account.
Do I really want to know my gene profile, our would that make me feel insecure? On the contrary. Only someone who knows his or her genes and who has the perfectly attuned lifestyle programme can afford not to worry about health issues. A wrong diet resulting from lack of knowledge is a thing of the past. The body only gets what is good for it and what it needs.
Does prevention really make a difference? In recent years, prevention measures, which have been developed on the basis of reliable evidencebased facts, have significantly increased. In particular the Charité Health Care Centre for Prevention and Integrative Medicine in Berlin, and also other renowned institutions, have openly come out in its favour and regard personalised prevention as the greatest chance of a long and
healthy life.
Do general recommendations, such as healthy eating and plenty of exercise work at all? This question must be answered with a clear No. Healthy eating means something different for each person. The genes decide what is healthy. When people eat the same thing, one might gain weight whilst the other loses it. One person falls ill because of eating meat, whilst it is a healthy option for the other one.
What about diet supplements? Here too general advice is not what is needed. A person’s genetic disposition, for example, decides whether an Omega 3 fatty acid supplement is useful or whether it would cause harm. The same applies to other vitamins. Whether and how many diet supplements are needed can be determined by a gene test and a laboratory examination. Standard vitamin preparations are either of no use or they might even be a health hazard. Depending on a person’s genetic disposition, hormones can either trigger wellbeing or increase the risk of cancer.
Is it at all possible to generalise health related issues? Not in general – one person, who has smoked all his life lives to a 100, another person, who has only been a passive smoker on occasions develops cancer. Whilst a medical drug works for one person, it has no effect on the other; even worse, the latter suffers side effects.
But exercise and little stress is good for everyone, isn’t it? Of course, but the genetic disposition and the initial state of the body determine the type of exercise, its duration and its intensity. Many people do exercises in spite of a vague inner resistance and are of course not successful. The same applies to mental relaxation techniques; not everybody reacts positively to yoga.
But we are living longer and longer – doesn’t that mean that we are healthier than the generations before us? We live longer because medicine has made such unbelievable progress, which enables us to achieve significantly more healing success. That, however, cannot take away that fact that we have never had as many people suffering from geriatric illnesses, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis and obesity as we have today. In particular dementia is about to take epidemic proportions.
How do we benefit from increased life expectancy? That is indeed the decisive question. It is not the healthy phase in life, which is longer, but the phase in which we are old and suffering from illness. We are living in a “sick phase” for longer – with all the negative consequences for our own quality of life. And that of course has an impact on society in general.
What is therefore the solution for a long and healthy life? Personalised prevention. This means implementing measures for maintaining health which have been developed on the basis of our own genes and laboratory data in the areas of diet, vitamins and exercise. This is far less time-consuming and much easier to implement than some of the regimes that health-conscious people impose on themselves, based on the suspicion that they might otherwise “catch” something.
What is the basis of a personalised health maintenance strategy? First, a gene test for determining the health risks for which one has a protective mechanism, and where it is lacking. Which diet affects my metabolism and which doesn’t. Secondly, we need a large laboratory for determining your state of health, amongst other things to examine the cell level and the molecular level. In some cases we have to carry out a comprehensive check-up including stress and mental check.
Is the gene test not sufficient? The gene diagnosis determines the protective mechanisms against diseases and their lack of it. These have been determined at birth and do not change. Whether this receptiveness had been activated by your lifestyle in your current life, cannot be read from the genes. This requires detailed laboratory values.
What is the probability of also becoming ill due to a lack of genetic protective mechanisms? This genetic receptiveness is basically disabled. It is the wrong lifestyle that activates the possibility of falling ill. It is our responsibility, to copy the missing genetic protection with appropriate lifestyle measures. In doing so, we achieve maximum protection against illness by using natural methods.
Hence, it is very advisable to know about ones genetic disposition?! Of course, adjusting one’s lifestyle to copy the missing genetic protection is only possible on the basis of this knowledge. When you buy a car, you also want to know whether you have to fill its tank with diesel or petrol. In contrast with this simple requirement, however, the human organism has hundreds of variants on what to “fill the tank with” to make it run smoothly.
Can you give us an example of copying a missing genetic preventive mechanism by natural lifestyle measures? If you carry the gene polymorphism Cyp 1A1, you are missing the protection against certain types of cancer. You can compensate for this by regularly eating all types of cabbage, parsley, broccoli and watercress. Women, who carry a certain variant of this gene, should avoid hormone replacement.
Are the so-called genetic polymorphisms sufficient? No, we know so much more today. In particular, epigenetics have taught us in no uncertain terms that there is a kind of interaction between genes and lifestyle. It is not only the genes that determine how we function. We can also greatly influence the condition of the genes in this case of gene packaging, by adjusting our lifestyle. For better or worse, we are able to significantly influence how long we remain healthy and how long we will live. Here is a related example: in the case of chronic lung disease, a certain gene for enzyme formation is not activated. We can, however, trigger this activation by eating broccoli, for example. The inflammation will recede as a result of the increased enzyme formation. Alternatively, the consumption of Resvaratrol, a red wine polyphenol, can activate a so-called longevity gene. Added to this are transcriptome and proteome analyses.
What do you think of internet gene analyses? These do not fulfil our criteria for a substantial and sustainable health consultation. Genes alone are diagnostically less conclusive. Quite often people feel very insecure afterwards; in particular some US laboratories examine some DNA with doubtful insight. Successful health advice is more than just a gene analysis. For us, a gene analysis is only one of many methods which we use and firmly integrate in our 7 Step model. Without a gene analysis, however, it is impossible to carry out any health consultation to a high standard.
Is it not too early for gene tests? No, we already know so much today; it therefore makes sense to make specific use of this knowledge, which is already available at this stage. Of course, we don’t know everything and to be honest, we never will. But it would be a fatal decision to just sit there and wait, running the risk of triggering illnesses due to an incorrect lifestyle.
What are the risks? Carrying out a gene test is completely harmless. All data must be stored in a certain form and must of course never be made available to third parties. To guarantee this, the German Government passed a new Law on Genetic Testing with Humans in March 2009. This not only regulates the storage and dissemination of genetic data, but also the fact that only molecular biologists and practitioners with comprehensive gene laboratory training will be permitted to order gene tests. EGGP of course fulfils all EU regulations and quality directives as well as the specific stipulations of the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland.
Is the whole enterprise not only a way to make money and are a balanced diet and a bit of exercise not sufficient? The differences between individual people with a socalled general healthy lifestyle and a lifestyle lived on the basis of a person’s own genetic profile are quite tremendous. They are objectively recorded using the GYX score system. This is greatly appreciated by our customers. Any money spent on this is an excellent investment.
How long am I bound to a contract? You can terminate your contract at the end of each year. The test laboratory will automatically remind you of the contract’s expiry date. It is entirely up to you whether or not you want to extend the contract.
What additional costs do I have to expect? The preventive examinations recommended by us are normally paid for by private health insurances and in some cases also by statutory health insurances. If you agree, we can also take on the laboratory part, which costs Euro 550. Normally, micronutrients and hormone deficiencies have to be compensated for during the first few months. This might incur costs of ca. Euro 500 for the first year.
How often do I have to deal with the test laboratory? Normally once a year. If the deficiencies are very large, it can happen that we measure certain values several times in order to interpret the laboratory results. In future we will make increasing use of new technologies and use more saliva to determine your results. In some cases, this produces significantly precise values. What is more, the customer no longer has to have his blood taken; he can now take his saliva sample at home and send it to us.