{"id":147341,"date":"2019-10-09T09:48:59","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T07:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/why-testing-my-dna-was-the-best-thing-i-ever-did\/"},"modified":"2019-10-09T09:48:59","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T07:48:59","slug":"why-testing-my-dna-was-the-best-thing-i-ever-did","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/why-testing-my-dna-was-the-best-thing-i-ever-did\/","title":{"rendered":"Why testing my DNA was the best thing I ever did"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why testing my DNA was the best thing I ever did<\/a>: <\/p>\n

I have no need to know where my ancestors come from, or whether they were vikings or celts. My lineage is of little interest to me. I\u2019m a South African living the melting pot society dream where we celebrate our uniqueness and our commonalities simultaneously.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is of interest to me however is my health! What is in my genes?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For the longest time, I was afraid of of getting diabetes. There is loads of it on my mom\u2019s side of the family. In fact I have grandmothers, great grandmothers and great aunts that died from this dreaded disease. Granted, some of it was in the days before there was a treatment. However, the point is that if it\u2019s coming for me, it\u2019s of a particularly nasty strain. My uncle has it and I don\u2019t envy him.<\/p>\n

It came as almost heaven sent information when I found out that, by testing your DNA, you can get an idea of what\u2019s waiting for you, in your genes. With a simple buccal swab in the mouth, you hand in your saliva sample, and you get the results two weeks later.<\/p>\n

The doctor that presented me with my results, Dr Christa North, was gentle, and thorough. She spent a lot of time explaining everything in great detail. I found out all sorts of things, including why I feel at my best in the afternoons, what I should and should not eat, what deficiencies I have, and why I never stop eating (true story!)<\/p>\n

When we got to the part about Diabetes, whadoyaknow\u2026.\u00a0 <\/span>there it was. I have the gene that indicates that my chances of getting it are real. Red, red and more red! My heart sank.<\/p>\n

And this is when things started to change. You see, the doctor explained\u2026 it\u2019s not about the fact that you have a chance of getting it, or that it\u2019s in your genes. It\u2019s about how you use this information to avoid it! DNA is a trigger and knowing what your DNA looks like enables you to work around it and prevent it being triggered.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks to a good friend who works in the pharmaceutical industry, I was able to get an appointment with one of they country\u2019s top endocrinologists.<\/p>\n

He gave me three very important steps to follow:<\/strong><\/p>\n