A sweeping review of research studies of aspartame has announced that there is no evidence that the non nutritive sweetener, aspartame, causes cancer, neurological damage or other health problems in humans.

Well I tend to disagree.  One of my abiding memories when I took my genetics degree way back in the (ahem) mid 1980’s, is a class experiment on how carcinogenic aspartame was.  That was the time when diet products such as diet cola and diet yogurt were hitting the supermarket shelves.  The results were spectacular - 100% confirmation aspartame was carcinogenic. Since then I have rarely knowingly eaten artificial sweeteners. Also it was that experiment that really fired me up for the whole subject of genetics, that’s why I remember it so well after all these years.

The study looked at more than 500 reports, including toxicological, clinical and epidemiological studies dating from 1970’s preclinical work to the latest studies on the high-intensity sweetener, along with use levels and regulations data, an international expert panel from 10 universities and medical schools evaluated the safety of aspartame for people of all ages and with a variety of health conditions.

Nope, all that peer review still won’t get me to eat aspartame … I saw the results with my own eyes!

Penny Harrington

b5 media Genetics and Health correspondent

My vacation has thus far not included a spa visit, but if I ever do make it to one again in my lifetime, I might be tempted to find one that offers DNA testing. More in the New York Times:

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.

My previous post about DNA Tests at Beauty Spas.

HT: Linda

On March 1, Senators Gordon Smith and Edward Kennedy introduced to the Senate the Laboratory Test Improvement Act (S. 736) which will ask that direct-to-consumer DNA tests go through FDA assessment for accuracy and reliability. A public database is proposed that would contain information on FDA approval, laboratory certification, and whether the test has any clinical validity to diagnose or screen diseases or conditions and whether it can be used to make decisions about medical care.

Some of the concerns raised about at-home genetic testing:

• More is UNknown about genes and their function than IS known. But I would counter that to say that for genes, such as BRCA for breast and ovarian, we know enough to predict a person’s risk fairly accurately. Is it fair to lump all genes together?
• No one-on-one counseling is available for direct-to-consumer tests. This service varies between companies so if you’re uncomfortable not having access to a trained genetics professional, only purchase tests that give you a toll-free access number or email. Or if strict privacy isn’t a concern, you could always take the results to your private physician or genetics counselor and ask for help interpreting them. Keep in mind that not all physicians are trained in clinical genetics.
• Medical privacy may be violated when results are posted online. A moot point when we’re moving towards electronic medical records (EMR) and so many of us purchase products online with credit cards.
• No oversight. I have to agree that this one is a true concern. Almost anyone can create a genetic testing company as long as they have a laboratory that can perform the tests. This is why it’s important to do your research as well as keep in mind that if a company is doing a hard-sell for you to purchase supplements or other “accessories” for your health, there’s an ulterior motive to report your genome as having deleterious mutations.

As with all medical services, there are good apples and bad apples. And even though we’re calling all at-home DNA tests “apples,” there are actually many different varieties. Nutrigenomic testing and paternity testing cannot and should not be likened to disease or susceptibility testing.

Read more

Nutrigenomics hasn’t been on my radar much lately until today when I discovered the Suracell Inc. Blog written by COO/CIO Derek Hornby. Suracell offers a 3-part program:

1. Science - DNA analysis
2. Repair - nutraceutical formulations
3. Core Nutrition - AM/PM nutrition formulas

Both the formulations and formulas are vitamin supplements. The formulations target specific organ systems such as heart & vascular health, bone & joint health, and blood sugar and body fat control while the “nutrition formula” is a horse pill* made-up of over 70 vitamins, minerals and enzymes - one for the morning, one for the evening. Can’t say I’m too keen on taking so many vitamins on a daily basis given recent data published in JAMA from a meta-analysis of 68 studies that showed vitamin supplements to be ineffective at best, deadly at worst.

The idea of using DNA information to personalize nutrition and diet recommendations is controversial to say the least. In July 2007, Representative Gordon Smith of the Senate Special Committee on Aging called the nutritional genomics industry, “a fradulent mutation” of genetic science. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in their report that home DNA tests are unreliable and misleading.

When considering the landscape of unqualified health products available, I’m not sure nutrigenetic testing is any more misleading than all the other crazy fitness and diet stuff you see on TV. I don’t see the Senate kicking up a fuss about Sole Detox Pads for cleansing your body of harmful toxins or the Vibro Power Belt for slimming. Granted, the idea of collecting DNA causes more anxiety considering issues of genetic privacy. I hope consumers of nutrigenomic tests realize the risk when they apply buccal brush to cheek. (Although you could simply order a test anonymously.)

Read more

According to Dr. Jim Kaput at Nutrigenomics: The New Science of Genes, Nutrition, and Health Symposium.

1. Improper diets are risk factors for diseases
2. Dietary chemicals alter gene expression and/or genome structure
3. Influence of diet on health depends upon an individual’s genetic makeup
4. Genes regulated by diet play a role in chronic diseases
5. “Individualized nutrition” - diets based upon genotype, nutritional requirements and status - prevents and mitigates chronic disease.”

He believes that nutrigenomic products will be developed that will make everyone healthier, reduce their need for medical care, and thus save consumers money. He stopped short of saying, “Invest in my company.”*

*Just kidding.

PR Newswire, February 13, 2007
Photo: eschipul

Tags: jim kaput, nutrigenomics, nutritional genetics, nutrigenetics, genetics, genes, genome, dna, diseases, illness, health, diet

Following in the footsteps of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), Dr. Paula Saukko at Exeter University will be conducting a study funded by the Wellcome Trust to see how nutrigenomic tests are marketed and come up with some recommendations as to how these tests should be regulated.

Dr Paula Saukko:

In the USA there are claims you can make your children more intelligent by tailoring their diet according to their genetic make-up. There is also the ‘DNA diet’, which claims you can lose weight, tone up and even live longer by following advice based on analysis of your DNA. These tests are available over the internet so there’s nothing to stop the British public from buying them also.

Nothing to stop people except common sense and logic. If you’ve got the spare cash lying around for a nutrigenetic test, why not? Just treat it with as much skepticism as you would any other vitamin supplement or magazine quiz on health.

More at Guardian Unlimited.

Tags: nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics, nutritional genetics, genetic testing, dna tests, wellcome trust, paula saukko, genetics, genes, dna, diet

Don’t you just love how celebrities can be worked into every conversation?

In this case, The DNA Diet: The Weight Plan That Works Best For Your Genes shares space with stories on the Confessions of a Man-Eater and Ultra-Pretty Dresses (One Will Fit You Perfectly) on the front cover of ELLE’s January issue. Does this mean genetics has made it into mainstream consciousness that usually doesn’t care about anything but the Spring fashion preview?

So I exaggerate because I enjoy reading Vogue and one of my favorite reads is eBeautyDaily. And I’m happy to see that beauty and fashion magazines are paying attention to the new market, which targets DNA for everything imaginable including nutrition and skin care.

In Maggie Bullock’s Analyze This (no link available yet), she asks, ” Will nutrition and DNA-repairing creams change my genetic destiny?” And after undergoing several nutrigenomic tests and trying a few DNA repair skin creams, she concludes: No. Luckily for her, she didn’t have the shell out the $$$ herself to figure that out.

This is the key point of the entire article. Quoting Jose M. Ordovas, PhD, director of the Nutrition and Genomics Laboraty at the USDA HNRCA-Tufts University:

1. Nutrients can’t fix gene defects
2. We are a long way off from understanding how–or if–they actually can prevent disease.

Here are some of the companies and products mentioned:

Read more

How was your last dentist visit? I’m guessing that a visit to a beauty day spa would be much more enjoyable. And guess what? DNA tests may be available at both places.

The Essence MedSpa in Medway, Massachusettes is offering “wellness profiling” by DNA.

Dr. Cela Doppelt, owner and gynecologist:

This is probably going to be the cutting edge for medicine in the future. It’s not just guesswork. We can say you are at risk for these conditions, you aren’t at risk for these conditions and this is what you can do to improve your health.

Interesting when a medical professional gets involved in the vending of direct-to-consumer nutrigenomic tests. Does that give the DNA tests more credibility?

MetroWest Daily News, December 4, 2006

Technorati Tags: nutrigenomics, nutrigenetics, nutritional genetics, genetics, genes, dna, diseases, illness, health, essence medspa

Biljana Mihailovic has lost 18 pounds on the “DNA diet,” a diet developed for her after a nutritional genetic test. She learned that her “optimal foods” are spinach, broccoli, citrus fruits, and whole grains.

Wonder if anyone’s DNA test results determined their optimal foods to be fried chicken, cheesecake, and nachos?

Photo credit: obliquez

Technorati Tags: nutrigenomics, nutrigenetics, nutritional genetics, genetic testing, genes, dna, genetics, diet, dna diet

Toronto Star Life writer David Graham recently had one of the most thorough medical check-ups a person can undergo at Scienta Health. And, of course, it included genetic analysis performed by Genosense Diagnostics.

Genosense, says [Dr. Elaine] Chin, is one of the most comprehensive providers of preventive genetic analysis in the world. I will learn what bad genes I have and, perhaps more importantly, I will learn how my genes metabolize food and medications.

She says the results will also reveal “nutrigenomics — the interaction of nutrition and one’s genes, and pharmocogenitics, the interaction of drugs, its effectiveness and toxicity risks with medications and hormones.”
…
The science offers pure data that can be a motivator for change. It’s the precision of this information that allows doctors to tell patients why one person can’t drink coffee while another can or one person needs more exercise than another.

David Graham shares the results of his tests next week. I’m very curious to see how he reacts. So far, I picture him as a wide-eyed lamb.

Toronto Star, September 29, 2006

Technorati Tags: genetics, genes, dna, genetic testing, health, scienta health, scienta, genosense