Ever since I first started practicing yoga at the age of 18, I’ve always been interested in non-mainstream ways to be healthier and feel better. I have explored Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, nutraceuticals, food, movement, mindset, spirituality, and therapy, to name the broad brushstrokes.
As some of you know, my perimenopausal time and now menopause have felt extra challenging to me. Over the past few years, I have cobbled together supplements, therapies, and prescriptions to help me sleep and have a decent+ quality of life, but I still don’t feel as good as I want to, as good as I had before.
And while I fully admit that sometimes you just have to accept what comes and move on, I wasn’t ready to give up on this one. I missed my steady energy and easy optimism. I still have those sometimes, but I really have to work hard for what used to just come naturally.
My husband and I learned about the DNA company from a coach we follow on Instagram. We discussed it and decided to try it out. The initial investment is around $500 and that gets you a saliva DNA test kit that you send in. You then get 12 different reports on different aspects of your DNA. They do not sell your data to third parties.
I wasn’t sure what to expect. The description of the test results includes learning not only what genes you have, but also how they work together and affect your physical and mental systems. Also included are suggestions for movement, diet, and supplements. All of this was very intriguing because it was a personalized approach, based on my own genetics.
Honestly, a lot of the things in the health and wellness world are people telling other people about what worked for them, which is great but it disregards in many ways the fact that we are all individuals and react to our environments and inputs in very different ways.
My report reaffirms some things I’ve always known about myself. Here are a couple of direct quotes:
"Emotional intelligence may come intuitively to you, so you naturally build stronger emotional connections and relationships with friends and family. You intuitively pick up on body language and facial cues more than the average individual. You are more likely to be influenced by and remember negative emotional events, such as arguments or fights, than the average individual. You don’t often let your mood dictate your interactions with various relationships."
“ You are more likely to engage and emotional or binge eating behaviors. You are more likely to use food as a coping mechanism for managing stress or negativity.”
I have to say, they nailed it. As I tell my clients, the reason I coach emotional eating and mindset is because I had to learn it myself in order to be comfortable in this world. I cannot count the number of times (seriously, it's in the thousands) that I have asked myself, "WHY am I so sensitive?" It turns out that it's in my genes.
The biggest surprise for me was that I am androgen-dominant. What this means is that my basic physicality is driven more by testosterone than estrogen. This is in direct opposition to what I’ve been told by healthcare practitioners all my life, the ones that look at my body type and test my current hormones. I suspected that this confusion and my experience not mirroring my genetics might be a piece of the menopause discomfort puzzle, so I started digging deeper.
I listened to a bunch of the DNA Company's podcasts, read blogs, and watched webinars. It turns out that, while my testosterone faucet is on, once that testosterone is in my system I don’t bind it cellularly and use it efficiently. Added to that, my testosterone drain is wide open so it washes through and then gets transformed into different types of estrogen, most of which aren’t that great. One more piece of the puzzle is that I don’t detox estrogen well. Actually, I don’t detox anything well, but in the case of the extra estrogen, all of that above leads to estrogen toxicity, which means high levels of the wrong types of estrogen in my body which is what created this faux estrogen dominant experience I’ve had ever since puberty.
All of this kind of blew my mind. Intrigued, I made an appointment with the very informative salesman for the DNA Company's coaching and learned that there were ways I could bind my testosterone better and detox my estrogen more efficiently, and that it would probably increase my quality of life.
Kashif Kahn, one of the company's founders, says that many people can get their reports, make minor adjustments to their routine and supplements, and gain benefits. Some people like me, who have underlying genetic markers that don’t play well with each other, can benefit from a deeper dive with a coach. This podcast is a good place to begin if you are interested in learning more.
I am still in the process of being paired with my coach. I will write another report in a month or two to let you know how all of this unfolds. For the first time in years, I am feeling very optimistic about my health.
Please feel free to ask questions, and I will answer them to the best of my ability.
Sending love,
Sarah
PS: Remember, even during the holidays, to stay aware of your own needs and treat yourself with the same kindness/ empathy/ forbearance (patient self-control; restraint and tolerance)/ grace you give to others.