Some strive to be skinny while others just want to be healthy. We try all sorts of crash diets and extreme exercise programs. Spend outrageous amounts of money on surgeries, fat camps and wizard-potions. None of them seem to have lasting results, yet we keep trying.
We hear standing on our heads drinking soy sauce helped our neighbor’s cousin’s son’s school teacher’s wife, so we rush out to buy a comfortable mat and a low-sodium bottle of soy sauce. Not only do we have a headache and feel bloated afterwards, although we nearly choked to death while trying. And we haven’t lost any weight, at least none that will stay off.
So maybe we’re over thinking this whole weight loss thing.
We keep searching for the latest and greatest while straying further and further from the basics.
But, what if the key to lasting weight loss lies in our most basic form, our cells?
I would argue that genetics are the basis of our health. They guide our weight gain and weight loss, they can tell us which foods work for us and against us, and which exercises are the most and least effective for us. But I don’t look at it from a perspective of “us”, I look at individuals’ genetic make up on a one-on-one basis.
I like to compare genes to jeans, not all jeans fit the same way and not all genes metabolize food or react to certain exercises the same way. We’re all different, we’re all individuals with a very specific make-up. By understanding our bodies at the cellular level, we can make better choices for ourselves, based on facts and data, rather than fads and shiny-diets.
Through rounds of thorough research, my team has identified more than a dozen genetic indicators that have a major impact on weight loss and weight gain. An Ivy League school conducted a comparable study to my company, GenoVive, and found similar results.
For instance, both entities used a breakdown of four diets, and their results varied by one to four percent, which beats all of the drugs on the market today. Further, It has been proven that there must be medical intervention follow-up of patients who lose weight, because not everyone who loses weight, lowers their bad cholesterol, blood pressure or other disease states, due to genetic variability.
This means, we can lose weight and still need to focus on our health. This is a step in the right direction, fitting our genes into our jeans, comfortably.
Victor (Vic) Castellon, PharmD, is the founder and CEO of GenoVive, the first comprehensive personalized weight management solution based on genetics sciences. Headquartered just outside of New Orleans in Harahan, Louisiana, the company has concentrated operations in Brazil, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Phillipines. Victor holds a Doctor of Pharmacy from Xavier University of Louisiana. You can learn more about vic by going to http://www.genoviveusa.com.
