Can You Fight Your Genetics?

Your Next Personal Trainer May Be Located Deep Inside You.

- Jess Nicholson

MODERN GENOMICISTS SAY THE FUTURE IS PERSONAL. CLINICS ARE POPPING UP IN A NEIGHBOURHOOD NEAR YOU THAT WILL TEST YOUR GENES TO HELP YOU SHED KILOS, LIVE TO BE A HUNDRED, AND TAKE YOUR TALENT FOR SWIMMING BUTTERFLY TO THE PODIUM. ONE SWAB OF THE CHEEK, AND THEY’LL UNRAVEL YOUR DOUBLE HELIX AND REVEAL YOUR GENETIC POTENTIAL.

WE SENT THREE MEN’S HEALTH GUINEA PIGS – ALONG WITH BUNDLES OF RESEARCH, A FAIR AMOUNT OF CURIOSITY AND SOME HEALTHY SCEPTICISM – FOR THE ULTIMATE IN SELFIES: A GENE-BASED DIAGNOSIS OF WHERE THEIR POWER LIES.

When I asked fellow trail runner Genevieve Jardine how she was preparing for her next race, The Three Cranes – 100km through the Karkloof forests – I didn’t expect her to say she was having her genes tested. I was thinking kilometres covered and fartleks ticked off, rather than DNA.

But Gen says she wants to know how to train specifically for her own body. If she knows what genes she has she will know what to eat, what supplements to take, what injuries she might be prone to; and whether, continually running long distances, her body will cope or just curl up and sob on the side of the track.

With more knowledge about what makes her unique, she can live optimally; better and longer. And know how many doses of extreme fun to have along the way.

“In my family,” she says, “there’s cancer on one side and cardiovascular disease on the other. I suspect I’m not going to be a 95-year- old woman blowing out my birthday candles with the smoke from my Marlboro Light. So I want to do what I can.”