Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo
What if the reason that genetic testing feels overwhelming isn't because genetics is complicated, but it's because you're looking at it not in the right way.
MTHFR, we hear all these words from these SNPs, MTHFR, APOE, COMT,… we see these SNPs on a piece of paper and red SNPs everywhere, and suddenly the protocol list gets longer, and the diet gets more restrictive, and there's more supplements, and the person in front of us gets anxious. Genetic testing was supposed to create clarity, but instead it often creates confusion.
Today, we're going to remedy that. And if you want to see the exact clinical framework we use to integrate SNPs, and labs, and diet in complex cases, I created a guide that walks you through it step by step. Go ahead to the show notes, and you'll find the link.
So now let's talk about how to think about nutrigenomics differently.
So today we're talking about how to actually use nutrigenomics in clinical decision making, not as decoration, not as overwhelm, not as biohacking trivia, not as a way to create a custom supplement protocol, but more of a systems map.
This is where many people go wrong.
They open a genetic report and immediately look for the red SNPs. Does this person have MTHFR, or APOE, or COMT, or NOS, or detox variants, and any of hundreds of thousands of others? And then they start building protocols around the individual genes. And just like labs work in clusters, so do genes. I see it happen all the time. Somebody gets a genetic report back and suddenly they're avoiding half the foods they used to eat.
They're taking a dozen new supplements, and they're more anxious about their health than they were before they ran the test. It's not supposed to be that way. That's not what I call precision healthcare. That's just confusion, and genetics should reduce the uncertainty, not amplify it.
A SNP is not a diagnosis. It's a variant. It's a variant in the genes that make one person different from another. A SNP is actually responsible for brown eyes versus blue eyes. It's not destiny, except in the eye color it usually is, but in the biochemical pathways it's not. And that SNP, the pathway coded by that SNP, is not necessarily active at this point.
Genes are blueprints, the expression is the story, and environmental factors determine which chapters get read. Instead of asking what SNP is red, ask what pathway is strained.
That shift changes everything in the way you look at it.
Let me give you a clinical perspective. Imagine you have somebody who shows up, and they have an APOE 4-4. They're not handling saturated fats well, and they have a higher risk of Alzheimer's, a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. They have a heterozygous MTHFR C677T, which affects their methylation capacity. They have NOS, nitric oxide synthase variants, which can affect their blood pressure, which affects their ability to heal the endothelial lining. And they have an elevated LP(a), lipoprotein little a on a lab test. This combination, high risk for cardiovascular and also elevated Lp(a).
If we react to each of the SNPs and look at their risk factor, we could create panic with them. You have cardiovascular risk, you have methylation dysfunction, you have detox impairment. Your nitric oxide is compromised, so your blood pressure might be high. Reacting to the variance doesn't create a strategy.
Let's pause for moment. Instead of asking which SNPs are red, zoom out. Ask a completely different question. What pathways are under pressure?
Now everything changes, because suddenly you're not reacting to individual variants. You're looking at it physiologically, you're looking at it biochemically, you're looking at the pathway conversion.
What about inflammation? What about endothelial signaling? What about methylation efficiency? Lipid transport dynamics, oxidative stress, all of these things are important. These are things we need as practitioners to be able to look at, and when we look at these things, we have things that are actionable. We ask, what is the body struggling to do?
Is the nitric oxide actually inefficient? Is their blood pressure high? Have they done a CIMT to look at their carotids, and they have what looks like endothelial dysfunction? We want to know, is it actually active? Is the oxidative stress overwhelming their oxidation capacity, their antioxidant capacity? Is insulin resistance amplifying vascular stress? That's a biggie that is often overlooked. Is methylation demand exceeding the nutrients available to supply those pathways?
That's what I call systems thinking, systems level thinking. We're not going to fix genes. You can't. You're going to support the physiology, you're going to support biochemistry, you're going to stabilize the blood sugar, you can support mineral deficiency, you can help to improve endothelial function through diet, and lifestyle, and herbs, and supplementation.
You support detox clearance, before trying to push detox. You will eliminate a lot of the exposures, before you try to put them on an extensive detox. That's leverage, and that's epigenetics in full action.
The saying goes genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger, and lifestyle writes the ending.
We're talking about mapping pathways instead of chasing red SNPs. So you might be thinking, well, I need an actual structured way to do this. That's why I created the clinical framework guide. You're welcome to download that. Go check out the show notes. It walks you through how we integrate SNPs, and labs, and diet into a coherent system instead of isolated protocols. When you understand all of this, how all this stuff goes together, genetics becomes empowering instead of paralyzing for you and for the client.
We stop telling people to eliminate foods out of fear, and we stop over supplementing based on individual SNPs. We stop reacting, and we start mapping. We start looking at it as a whole system thing, and sequencing becomes obvious when you look at all this. Priority sequencing, not just this is red, this is red, this is red. We look at the priorities based on their history, based on their symptoms, based on their labs, and of course based on their genetics.
If we have high levels of insulin resistance, either that they're expressing that, or it looks like that from their labs, we want to address that before getting too aggressive with the methylation, because that's important to address before anything. If their inflammation is elevated, we want to calm that before obsessing over their lipid sub-fractions.
If the mineral deficiency, mineral insufficiency, I don't like to use the word deficiency, is present, we want to correct that before pushing detox pathways that rely on those minerals.
This is metabolic readiness applied to genetics, and it's the level of thinking we train people inside of our NutriGenomics and Epigenetics Mastery course. Not how to memorize SNPs but how to think like an architect, a systems architect, a pathway architect.
That's the shift that separates protocol thinking from clinical strategy. I hate the word protocol, because it implies that a particular condition has a particular way to approach it, but in reality, it's going to be different from person to person. There's no one size fits all.
What we have explored today isn't about genetic mutations. I hate the word genetic mutations, as well. We're not mutated. We're just different. We have variants. Let's start calling the SNPs that we see on the genetic reports variants, not mutations, and let's help people to restore their capacity,
because that's important, too. How do we do that using the epigenetic levers? When we stop reacting to the red SNPs and start asking what the system needs at this moment in time, genetics stops being a list of problems to fix. It starts helping us shape the map, the roadmap of how we're going to help this person to become the best they can be, given their genetics.
It's a map where physiology may need support, biochemistry may need support, resilience may need rebuilding, and where the right lifestyle and nutrition strategies can completely change this person's trajectory of health.
If this conversation resonated with you, I invite you to reflect on one more question.
Are you chasing variants, or are you mapping systems?
If you'd like to see the clinical framework we use to bring SNPs and labs and diet together into coherent strategy, download the guide that's linked in the show notes. And if you're ready to go deeper into this level of clinical precision, visit our site at inemethod.com, and explore NutriGenomics and Epigenetics Mastery. Because this kind of thinking, real systems thinking, is what transforms practices.
It will transform your practice when you think differently. It will make life easier. And ultimately, that's what transforms people's lives. That's what we're here for, and that's why I'm dedicated to reinventing healthcare. Are you ready to join me? Until next time, shine on.
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