You can teach an old dog new tricks 鈥� with help from genomics. A pioneering study has found that knowing your genetic risk for various diseases makes people switch to healthier lifestyles, and stick to them.
Consumer DNA analysis companies such as California-based 23andMe already offer advice on beneficial lifestyle changes聽after screening customers鈥� DNA for gene variants linked with disease. Estonia鈥檚 government has offered a similar service free of charge to 100,000 of its citizens. But no one has so far shown聽that such聽advice is enough to convince people to make real and lasting changes to how they live.
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Elisabeth Widen of the University of Helsinki and her colleagues have analysed data from more than 7300 people aged 45 to 65 in Finland. 鈥淲e wanted to study middle-aged people, as that鈥檚 the age when heart disease risks get elevated, but where lifestyle interventions such as quitting smoking are valuable,鈥� says Widen.
Each of these participants had their DNA analysed for 49,000 different genetic variants, some of which are associated with heart disease. Widen鈥檚 team compared this data with each person鈥檚 lifestyle and medical history, and then told each person their personal predicted risk for heart disease via online portals.
Lasting changes
today at the annual meeting of the European Society for Human Genetics, in Milan, Italy. The team found that a third of those with a 10 per cent risk of developing heart disease within a decade took action to reduce their risk. Almost a fifth of those at lower risk chose to make changes to their lifestyles too.
These changes weren鈥檛 fleeting 鈥� after 18 months, 17 per cent of smokers had quit. Nearly 14 per cent of participants had lost weight 鈥� on average, 3 kilograms.
鈥淭he most impressive outcome is that the changes in health behaviour last more than 18 months,鈥� says of the University of Tartu in Estonia.
Genomic information may add extra weight to health recommendations, making people more likely to take them seriously. 鈥淪ceptics often claim that changes in behaviour usually last less than 6 months, then people go back to their old habits,鈥� says Milani. 鈥淏ut it seems like including genetics in the risk assessment might be a stronger motivator for long-term change.鈥�
Read more: DNA-testing firms are cashing in on our genes. Should we get a cut?
