I've seen in the past DNA tests available to help you determine how your body best reacts to nutrition, activities and recovery. I've seen more athletes using this to help with their programming, more recently I noticed Eddie Hall mention it more often, and a few Olympic athletes. They seem to range in cost from £100 upward to a few hundred for the more detailed tests. With the problems I've had, I wondered about doing one of these to see if I can optimise my training regime. They cover how your body reacts to various nutrition, whether your body is better with power/endurance, max vo2, recovery rate and your susceptibility to injury. Has anyone looked into these and what are your thoughts on their validity? Part of me thought is that may not be useful information if you already spent decades finding the information out in your own journey of trial and error.
I've been reading a bit about human microbiome recently. Seeing as 90% of your cells are not human, DNA testing will be missing out a large portion of relevant information. Here's an interesting study into blood sugar levels and gut microbiome: Blood sugar levels in response to foods are highly individual More information on human microbiome: The Human Microbiome: Our Second Genome Sorry if this is a bit OT, but it's been on my mind recently and seems tangentially relevant.
I just Googled around and found this: Field of Genes: An Investigation of Sports-Related Genetic Testing I'm gonna read it later, (just on way out) but thought I'd share it first!
Stan efferding was asked about this recently he said its really not very useful as what we actually know about DNA profiling and it's effect in the body is in its infancy, it's a money spinner, take care of diet and sleep first and foremost and those two will have the biggest impact on progression for 99% of athletes especially recreational athletes Now looking at blood work is a different thing, but as recreational athletes the basics will make more difference than expensive testing
Nice find, Interesting investigation, and seems to conclude much to what I was suspicious of about it. Good to see your input on this, it seems that maybe it could help elite athletes if the DNA profiling becomes better in the future, but I got the impression that there was a lot of assumption work as part of the process in exchange for a large slice of people's wage. It probably sells well to people who want to throw money around instead of resting and eating properly
It reminds me a bit of the supplement industry billions made from it, loads of bias research done by the companies themselves and only really a handful (2 or 3maybe) have been proved to work and those bcaas, creative and protein can all be gained from eating correctly, as can the vast majority of the minerals and vitamins you need