My Genetic Testing

While my husband and I were putting together our pregnancy plan we both agreed that we wanted to get genetic testing done for a few reasons; one to know our families background and where we came from and two to see if there were health concerns we needed to be on the outlook for with our baby.

I’ve heard the saying “It’s in my genes” or “It runs in my family” a lot as I have worked with clients. My thoughts were we can’t just be doomed to a set life of sickness because your mother or father were sick. As I dove deeper into Health and Wellness I learned that our health is not determined by our genetics but by our lifestyle. My mentor taught me that “Our genes are like a light switch; they can be turned on or off by our lifestyle.” To me this was amazing news! We had a choice in how we eat and live and a choice of wether we get sick or not.

Both Rob and I don’t have a lot of information on where our families came from but what we were both concerned about was our families health. For Rob his family didn’t have a great health record and when he was born he had a very high fever and the doctors told his mother that he probably wouldn’t make it and if he did he was probably going to be brain dead and don’t expect much from him. He was sickly, frail and anemic most of his young life.

For my family I wasn’t quite sure where we were originally from, my mother didn’t talk about it and she has since passed away. I don’t have a relationship with my biological father and my grandparents are also gone. As for their health, lets just say it definitely wasn’t the greatest; my mom struggled with so many health issues ranging from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, COPD, type 2 diabetes, depression, pain, obesity, pneumonia and was on around 18 medications each day. My mother ultimately ended passing away from a brain disease called CJD creutzfeldt-jakob disease, which is like a rapid alzheimers. The doctors weren’t sure which form of CJD my mother had, either the genetic kind or the kind you get by bad chance. My maternal grandparents both passed away from different forms of cancer. This had me really worried and I dove into research about Alzheimers the causes and how to prevent it because I didn’t want to get this disease and didn’t want my kids to get it either.

Rob and I decided to do the 23 and Me Family History and Genetic testing and doing this put us at ease and feel confident moving forward with our plan. For me I learned that my family came from Germany; I am 50% German and a mix of other european decents, which was awesome to know where I come from. We both learned that we do not have any cancer or disease genes to worry about, so combined with our healthy lifestyle we could rest assured. This also gave me the feeling that since I didn’t have the AOPE-4 gene than most likely my mother didn’t have it either and her diseases were caused by lifestyle and heavy medication usage.

Every part of my health journey has been hard but amazing in each day I am feeling better, each day I learn something new and get to share that knowledge with my clients and the people I know. I know that with this knowledge I get to keep my family healthy and thriving. I started this journey for better health and lifestyle because I lost my mother and I am thankful for everything I have learned and the people I have helped, and each day I wish I had started this journey sooner or known more so I might have been able to save my mother.

Thank you for following my journey, please leave a comment and share with your friends and family.