Why genetic Testing is about more than just your Ancestry...

 If you've heard about genetic testing in the past decade, it's probably been through the marketing of ancestry companies. There's the allure of finding out where you came from (or uncovering family secrets!), and at-home kits provided by these companies have shown everyday people how easy it is to test their DNA. 

But unfortunately, due to the popularity and widespread marketing of ancestry tests, most people aren't aware of the other benefits genetic testing can provide. While ancestry testing simply tells you where your family came from, genetic testing for health and wellness can lead you to a whole array of actionable insights into optimizing your eating, exercise, lifestyle choices, and more in order to achieve better health. 

As we’ve been utilizing genetic testing with our patients at Natural Health Haven LLC,  here are a few ways genetic testing can inform your health and wellness. 

  Personalized Care 

A lot of approaches to health and wellness these days focus on a one-size-fits-all approach, prescribing the same diet, exercise, and lifestyle choices to everyone. But everyone is unique — so shouldn't healthcare be tailored to that unique individual? Genetic testing uncovers a person's genetic variants, which give us insight into how that person’s cells and systems function, show the impact of the types of food you eat and the environment around you, and more. 

  Disease at the Root 

In addition to the one-size-fits-all approach to health, many times practitioners are helping their patients simply combat symptoms of chronic illness. But constantly treating symptoms can be timely and costly, and never really addresses the root issues anyway. Since genetic testing reveals how your body works at the cellular level, it can point towards the root causes of illnesses that are generating those symptoms. That way, diseases can be treated at the source. 

  Losing Weight 

Those who have struggled to lose weight may spend time, energy, and money seeking new ways to get healthy and lose weight when their genes are able to give them all the insight they need. Genes are able to give insight into what types of exercise are best for your body, whether it be more endurance exercises or power exercises. They can also show how your body stores fat, which nutrients it absorbs best to inform which foods to eat, and other insights that can form a more targeted recommendation plan. 

  Metabolism 

Your genes can also tell you more about your metabolism. We know that metabolism has a connection with energy and vibrancy, yet many of us have a "sluggish" metabolism we're not sure how to correct. Knowing your genes can give you insights into how your metabolism is affected by what you eat, how you burn energy, how you store fat, and more. 

  The Right Exercise 

What if you've been hitting the gym and trying to get fit, but you've been doing the wrong exercises all this time? Getting insights into your genes can actually show you whether your body is more suited for endurance activities, like running or bicycling, or whether your body is more suited for power activities like sprinting or weight lifting. Knowing more about how your body works means being able to choose the right activities for you. 

  Caffeine Intake 

We're all affected by caffeine in various ways — some people can drink coffee right up until bedtime, when others have to cut themselves off mid-morning! But do we know why? Our genes can tell us! Our genes are responsible for how quickly we metabolize caffeine, so we can know whether to have that extra cup or not. 

  Better Daily Choices 

As you can see, knowing your genes and how they affect your body can give you insights into many different aspects of your health and wellness so that you can make better choices each day about actions that affect you. For example, did you know that your genes can determine how well your body eliminates toxins, which can help you make choices about what environments to be in? Your genes can also give you insight into your stress levels, and flag if you're not getting enough sleep at night. 

   More Than Ancestry 

Knowing your genes can reveal a lot more to you than just what's stated above. Additionally, as our knowledge continues to increase around how genes work and how they impact our bodies, the blueprint that genetic testing provides for your optimal health will only become more detailed, allowing you to build the perfect life of health and wellness suitable to you. 

 Ready to start your personalized health journey?  

Let's talk..... Email us today at naturalhealthhaven@gmail.com

Need more information, here's a short video on the 3x4 genetic testing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9VJ_0_n6-E

HOW SAFE ARE YOU FROM EMF RADIATION IN YOUR ELECTRIC CAR?

 

Is Your Electric Car Zapping You With EMF Radiation?

By ANH-USAOn 01/24/2023 https://anh-usa.org/is-your-electric-car-zapping-you-with-emf-radiation/

Electric cars are becoming more popular, but do they come with new risks?

Electric cars are on the rise. Their share of new vehicle sales almost doubled in the first nine months of 2022. The number of Tesla vehicles on the road rose 33 percent in 2022. Many automakers are planning to switch to electric in the coming years. This may have benefits for the environment, but what, if any, are the human health implications? Concerns about cars as a source of exposure to electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation are well-founded, but these concerns are not exclusive to electric cars.

There are, of course, many different types of cars on the road—different manufacturers, different models, years, gas-powered, diesel, hybrids, and electric. Due to the variety of different cars that are available, the EMF dangers also vary. 

With that said, electric cars can have elevated EMF levels for a number of reasons. They operate on large AC batteries that are generally placed much closer to where people sit; in Teslas, they are placed directly underneath the floor of the car cabin. These batteries emit extremely low frequency (ELF) EMF radiation, and the closer you are to them, the more radiation you are exposed to. Additionally, charging electric cars creates substantial amounts of dirty electricity. Dirty electricity, or electrical pollution, is a form of EMF that is generated by electronic devices that, when they operate, convert AC power to DC, creating high-frequency voltage spikes that flow back into the power grid, piggy-back on existing electrical wiring, and radiate into the environment. It is yet another route of exposure to harmful EMF that has been linked to a variety of negative health outcomes. Studies have shown that taking steps to reduce dirty electricity (by installing filters that short out high frequencies and reduce transients on electrical wiring) reduced headaches, general weakness, asthma, depression, anxiety, and skin irritation.

But almost all cars, including gas powered vehicles, contain EMF-emitting components. Many cars are now equipped with Bluetooth connections for phones, radars for crash prevention, back up cameras, and provide WiFi hot spots, to name just a few examples. All of these components emit EMF. In fact, some informal testing of EMF levels from cars found that gas-powered cars registered EMF readings just as high as electric cars. Consumer Reports also did some testing back in 2010 and found that the Chevy Cobalt, a gas-powered car, emitted far more EMF radiation than the Toyota Prius, a hybrid. Given that nearly all cars are sources of EMF radiation, it is important to look at cars individually, rather than by category, in weighing the risks.

Should we be concerned about the level of EMF emitted by cars? Digging into the details is not reassuring. The FCC set limits for maximum permissible exposure to EMF radiation in 1996. These levels were designed to protect against thermal effects as a result of short-term exposure to EMF radiation—that is, the potential of EMF radiation to heat body tissue like a microwave. 

As we all know, a lot has changed since 1996, and our daily exposure to EMF radiation has increased dramatically. The changing technological landscape spurred scientists to issue an appeal to the World Health Organization, warning of “serious concerns regarding the ubiquitous and increasing exposure to EMF generated by electric and wireless devices.” They go on to explain that “numerous recent scientific publications have shown that EMF affects living organisms at levels well below most international and national guidelines.” These health effects include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in free radicals, genetic damage, changes in the reproductive system, neurological disorders, and more. These concerns were echoed in an October 2022 paper published in Environmental Health, which flatly stated: “Exposure limits for RF radiation are based on numerous assumptions; however, research studies published over the past 25 years show that most of those assumptions are not supported by scientific evidence.” This all means that our current safety standards are woefully inadequate to protect us from the dangers of constant EMF exposure. 

As we noted with our coverage of cell phone dangers, the problem is that many health and safety studies on EMF, particularly with regard to cell phones, are bought and paid for by the telecoms industry. For example, an analysis of safety studies on cell phone use concluded industry-funded studies were two and a half times less likely than independent studies to find a biological effect from cell phone radiation. 

So, should we be concerned? Experts in the field seem to think so, but their voices are likely to be drowned out by industry-funded studies that conveniently and predictably find no evidence of harm, providing the government cover to keep EMF safety standards rooted in a time when flip phones were revolutionary technology. With the rapid rollout of 5G technology, with its dense network of EMF-emitting “small cells,” this problem is poised to get even worse.

There are ways to lower your EMF exposure in your car. Choose standard options that limit the wireless bells and whistles. You could also opt for used older cars that do not have many of these components. If possible, turn off Bluetooth, though in newer car models this may not be an option. Remember, too, that we need to think about EMF exposure as a whole, so we need to look at our homes (hard wiring computers instead of using WiFi, avoiding smart meters if possible), our cell phone use (using speaker phone whenever possible, avoiding Bluetooth headphones), and our work environment, in addition to our cars, to try to limit our exposure to EMF.