OSU Research Matters is a bi-weekly look inside the work of Oklahoma State University school, employees and college students.
Did you recognize that who you might be can impression the manner your physique makes use of what you eat? Your DNA — which encodes for the genes that make you very uniquely who you might be — also can affect how your physique responds to your dietary decisions.
In this episode, Meghan Robinson speaks with Dr. McKale Montgomery to find out how the analysis she is conducting may at some point be used to permit physicians and dietitians to make individualized dietary prescriptions to guard towards illness danger and optimize well being outcomes.
TRANSCRIPT:
MONTGOMERY: When I inform individuals I do diet analysis, we largely suppose, it is possibly centered on how what we eat influences our well being and wellness and that that is a part of it. But my analysis is exclusive as a result of I actually concentrate on how the individual, as a person, how that influences the manner they reply to what they eat. So, what’s it that is distinctive to an individual that makes them reply to a distinct sort of diet than another person?
ROBINSON: Montgomery is an avid runner and has raced in over 30 marathons. Knowing her diet may have an effect on her efficiency led her to analysis in diet.
MONTGOMERY: Once I bought into college and began actually understanding the analysis course of, I noticed there’s not a single diet that is simply the finest diet for everybody. And then I began asking, why is that? Well, it is as a result of every individual responds in a different way to various kinds of dietary interventions. So that is been the focus of my analysis. What makes somebody reply to a sure diet higher than another person?
ROBINSON:When you say reply to it, that is completely different from individuals who have celiac illness or dairy allergic reactions.
MONTGOMERY: Right. So if we are saying response, we may speak about for weight reduction — some individuals shed extra pounds very well on a ketogenic diet and some do not, and some runners carry out effectively on a excessive carbohydrate diet and some prefer to have a decrease carbohydrate diet. And so, you recognize, why is that? Is it desire? Some of it is private desire, however a few of it actually is about the manner our genetic make-up influences that.
ROBINSON: Montgomery says at-home genetic testing kits are a method for individuals to find how genes impression their diet. However, medical doctors start learning the correlation at delivery.
MONTGOMERY: When infants are born, certainly one of the first issues we do is we prick their heel, and we draw that blood, and we test their genetic make-up and say, do we have to put them on a particular diet straight away? Because when you do not do this at delivery, it will possibly affect their wellbeing for the remainder of their lives. So, that is a stark instance. That’s a stark instance, you probably have a genetic mutation, and you do not make an intervention at delivery, it is gonna have a lifetime impression. But we’re studying now, even on a not so dramatic degree, that there are little single modifications in your DNA that makes the manner you metabolize a nutrient completely different from the manner I do. And that is, what’s creating this buzzword of precision diet, and we’re not there but, however we’re getting in that path.
ROBINSON: How do you do the sort of analysis? Is it blood samples?
MONTGOMERY: So, proper now we’re actually specializing in a few of these extra dramatic DNA mutations, the ones that we select. I began my profession right here at OSU, genetic mutations in tumors and how these affect the manner that the cells inside the tumor metabolize vitamins, and can we exploit that data? And there are specific sorts of genetic predispositions that improve your probability of getting ailments like Alzheimer’s, which is one other factor we’re and how dietary interventions that you might maybe look into you probably have that predisposition. The price of doing that for the lots is coming down and all the way down to the level the place it’s turning into extra reasonably priced. It’s actually simply taking the time to study it separately when there are 20,000 genes that encode for proteins and 6 billion individuals on the earth.
ROBINSON: Ultimately, Montgomery would really like her analysis to develop into so widespread it will possibly research everybody’s genetics. The long-term objective is to have the ability to decide the optimum dietary patterns for people and enhance their well-being.
Dr. Montgomery will likely be talking extra in depth on diet at ‘Research On Tap’ — Monday, August 15 at Iron Monk Brewery in Stillwater. The casual dialogue is open to the public and begins at 5:30 p.m.
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