LET'S GET GENETICAL
It is possible to get many things at the Four Seasons Hotel in
Westlake Village, Calif., but a blood-and-urine panel that
analyzes the condition of your DNA is a relatively new
development. The panel, offered through the California WellBeing
Institute as part of several luxury-lifestyle packages, including
a $2,800 executive physical, is boomingly popular: about 50
people signed up in January, the first month it was available.
Four years out from the sequencing of the human genome, DNA has
become like the rain forest. Rummage around enough, one
suspects, and you can eventually find the source of anything, be
it heart-disease risk or unflattering frown lines. But even as
research scientists struggle to catalog this elaborate
ecosystem, companies selling the promise of genetically
customized treatments have rolled out the tent and set up shop.
. . .
There is little proof that such personalized products can make a
difference for your health. But it makes sense that they might.
Indeed, the general idea ¡Ö that thousands of subtle variations
in our genetic functions affect both our health and how we age ¡Ö
is broadly accepted. And while some of these variables may be
innate ¡Ö about half of us carry a minor permutation that hampers
our ability to metabolize folic acid, for instance ¡Ö others are
simple wear and tear: the result of years of exposure to all the
things that can cause DNA to break down, a long list that
includes, but isn't limited to, cigarette smoke, sunburn, weed
killer, coffee, antibiotics, neoprene and charcoal-grilled
steak.
In theory, knowing how these changes in genetic production
affect our overall health could enable us to correct for them.
