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Gene traits from vitagen


rsab

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I completed a health and ancestry assessment from vitagene. I have a question about the traits and If they are what I am born with or changed through expression. SNP rs340874 gene name PROX1 which is the trait for carbohydrate metabolism. Mine came up as slow. Trait for fat metabolism and body weight came back fast. My question is, are my traits this way because I have adapted a ketogenic diet for the last 3 years? (High fat, low carb) have my Gene's changed or is this how I was born?

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A) genes are not affected by lifestyle, they are acquired from parents.

B) the interpretation of PROX1 is not correct. If that is what they told you, I would be generally highly suspicious of the quality of information they give you. While I am not familiar with the entire literate on these gene, its involvement in certain diseases (specifically diabetes) are based on association studies. I.e. it is not clear whether they actually cause metabolic alterations as indicated. What is known is that PROX1 encodes a transcription factor that is predominantly involved in developmental processes and mostly known for its involvement in lymphatic vessel development. There are also a wide range of other functions but simply stating that a specific allele is clearly going to have a given metabolic phenotype seems like a massive overreach to me.

C) AFAIK no DNA testing companies have been successfully vetted for medical use or information, with the sole exception of a specific aspect (certain genes associated with breast cancer) and also only in limited fashion. 23andme had to remove medical recommendations for the reason that much of it was based on association studies which are not validated for diagnostic value.

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Yes your reading is not wrong, but their interpretation is an overreach. As the that (and a few other papers) imply is that in screenings certain alleles were found more commonly associated with a given condition (in this case I believe it was reduced insulin secretion). The issue with these types of studies are that they basically suggest an association. However, it takes far more analyses to first validate these associations and then (which is even trickier) to assess their impact on physiology. Now I will say that the specific allele in question (rs340874) has shown up in quite few studies as a potential susceptibility factor. Nonetheless forming a diagnostic interpretation out of that data has been traditionally the bottleneck. AFAIK the mechanism is still unknown (so another factor could actually be driving the risk that just coincides with this allele, for example.

As such, I would be wary of taking suggestions from those test with the same level as approved medical tests (were the interpretation generally has been more streamlined). That all being said reducing the intake of carbohydrates as a whole is typically a good thing.

 

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