It seems there a million different ways to lose weight. What it all comes down to, though, is a balance of carbohydrates, fats and proteins -- the building blocks of nutrition. We are constantly confused, however, by the shifting advice from experts, from low-fat and low-carb to high-protein and low-calorie plans. But what if a DNA test could make the decision for you and tell you the best diet to follow with just a simple cotton swab inside your cheek?

For the past two months, Inherent Health has been offering a DNA Weight Management test at a cost of $150. I recently took one to determine what diet is best for me.

The test examines six of your different genes. These genes determine digestion and metabolism rate, and some studies have shown a correlation between them. By analyzing the genes' interactions, Inherent Health places you in one of six categories that reflect the food intake and exercise levels that your body will best respond to:

• Balance of fat and carbs and responsive to moderate intensity exercise
• Responsive to fat restriction and responsive to moderate Intensity exercise
• Responsive to carb restriction and responsive to moderate Intensity exercise
• Balance of fat and carbs and responsive to high Intensity exercise
• Responsive to fat restriction and responsive to high Intensity exercise
• Responsive to carb restriction and responsive to high Intensity exercise

My results put me in the last category, which, as far as I'm concerned, is the worst one!

Photo: Toby Otter, Flickr

There's no question about it. American waistlines are getting bigger every year. With a whopping two-thirds of the population overweight, there has to be a logical explanation, right?

According to one report, blame your parents. The New York Times recently ran an article debunking the fact that healthy diets, exercise and willpower may not be enough to stay slim. Claiming that "body composition is dictated by DNA and monitored by the brain," some researchers think we cannot "will" our way out of obesity.

"Scientists now believe that each individual has a genetically determined weight range spanning perhaps 30 pounds." The Times goes on to state, "The temptations of our environment -- the sedentary living, the ready supply of rich food -- may not be entirely to blame for rising obesity rates. In fact, new research suggests that the environment that most strongly influences body composition may be the very first one anybody experiences: the womb."

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Forget anti-aging creams, plastic surgery, and time machines. The only thing you need to live like you're 10 years younger is exercise.

Studies show that the most physically active folks show signs of being as much as 10 years younger on a cellular level. How can this be? Well, exercise keeps telomeres long and healthy. Telomeres are the caps on your DNA in all of your cells. Over time, they shorten, stop regenerating, and eventually die. Shortened telomeres cause us to age, and they also leave chromosomes vulnerable to damage, which can lead to diseases such as cancer. Exercise and you'll keep these buggers fit for a young life.

Pretty basic stuff. Exercise = healthy telomeres = younger cells = younger you. Got the formula? Good.

Here, more tips on how to keep your telomeres alive and well.

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Are you a couch potato? If so, it turns out that laziness isn't just a bad habit -- it may actually be coded in your genes.

A research team from the University of North Carolina has conducted preliminary studies on mice that suggest our genetic makeup may predispose us to being lazy. The team indicated different genomic areas that regulate activity levels. The research team is gearing up to do a human-based study of a similar nature.

The researchers indicate that genetics account for roughly 50% of the differences in activity. If the same genetic traits prove to be valid in humans, it's certainly an interesting concept. Exercise and activity has by and large been considered a healthy choice to make. And, while even if genes play a role, it still is ultimately a choice -- a genetic difference would show that certain people have a larger natural drive to be active.

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For several days now, I've been writing an ongoing series of diet and fitness posts titled "Why the Pounds Are Sticking Around," which are a collection of tips sourced from the health magazine Self. Since the response has been so positive, I decided to forge ahead with an idea I had for a series of healthy living posts. Since exercise and training are more my forte, I sought out information from an outside source -- Men's Health magazine. To that end, I found ten great health and wellness tips that I thought would be perfect for pieces on healthy living.

So, just as I have been doing with the diet and fitness posts, I will also be posting one healthy living tip per day as part of a series I think I'm going to call "Living Well." I think you'll find these tips to be as interesting and as helpful as I did.

Healthy Tip #1 - Tea for two

A body of research suggests that drinking hot tea has numerous health benefits; from reduced risk of heart disease, to improving spatial cognition and mental acuity. Most recently, a study published in the International Journal of Cancer revealed that hot tea can lower your risk of kidney cancer by as much as 15 percent. The folks at Men's Health suggest trying pu-erh tea, a lesser known kind that is more effective at preventing DNA damage than black or green tea.

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Ever since scientists have had access to the human genome, they've been discovering all kinds of new biological secrets. For example, we've heard from centenarians before who claimed to have the answer for long life. It could have cold showers for this guy, or maybe getting married has something to do with it!

But a new study is saying a large part of it may be due to the fact that some people living extraordinary long lives have mutated genes. The claim is interesting: researchers say a genetic glitch actually disrupts their normal body's growth process. This makes sense in some ways. If a gene is causing centenarians' cells to generate differently, then certainly this would affect their longevity.

They discovered the same link in animals who had really long lives. And the gene variations supposedly halt the aging process! Sounds like science fiction, but I wonder how long it will be before these "genetic glitches" are clinically produced for people seeking the fountain of youth. Now that's a page out of a sci-fi novel right there!

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What if you could get a home kit for testing your DNA: all you had to do was spit into a vial and send it off. The results would be posted on the Internet for your own viewing pleasure. Would you pay $1,000 to do this? Well it's not just hypothetical -- a company called 23andme based out of San Francisco is doing just that by using only people's saliva.

The company likes to brag that "genetics just got personal," and if you haven't made the connection yet, the name comes from the number of chromosome pairs humans have. After sending in your saliva sample, they conduct dozens of tests to assess your risk factor for just about anything. Breast cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, even heart attacks are addressed using this method.

But critics think getting potentially disheartening news about your health right off the Internet at home could be doing the consumer injustice. They say because there's no doctor there to talk you through it, or because saliva was the only thing tested, the accuracy may not be as reliable. That's not stopping some people, however. Even an executive at Pixar took the plunge. If the thought of grappling this kind of news sounds scary, there's always the traditional doctor's office. For others wanting a new way to engage their medical information, this proves how personal the Internet is making every facet of our lives.

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Nature versus nurture: this is the classic comparison between the way we are genetically made, and the way we were raised in our environment. Now the same mentality is coming to a voting booth near you. Is there a possibility that political leanings are genetically acquired, as opposed to being taught?

This is a question that researchers are trying to answer. Scientists are not necessarily saying that there's a Republican gene powering the McCain supporters or a Democratic one backing the Obama campaign. They do think, however, that DNA composition could play a role in how we approach the polls.

In fact, our genetic makeup could influence whether we even vote or not at all! A study tracked certain voters, and they discovered people with a certain variation of one gene were 60 percent more likely to hit the polls than those people without that version. But that doesn't explain how people vote (ie: their political beliefs). Researchers know that we make judgments on these kind of issues by complex processing in our brain. They think the way our brains process political judgments could be hard-wired from birth! Not 100 percent, of course, but at least on a basic level. Pretty interesting theory given the upcoming election. Read on for more information if you're curious.

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Were you to survey 100 people, asking them what natural remedies they've tried to battle the common cold, you'd probably get many of the same answers. In Family Feud style, we'll say Survey Says:

• Zinc
• Echinacea
• Vitamin C

But, just as it always happens during the game show, there would still be one or two more answers left on the board. If you were lucky enough to have researchers from Pepperdine University on your team, you would know that the answer to at least one of them is quercetin.

Quercetin is an antioxidant found in apple skins, red wine, tea, and onions. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals that are produced naturally during metabolism. Free radicals are highly reactive chemicals that can damage cell membranes, break down DNA and, as you might have guessed, depress immunity.

So, the next time you're feeling the symptoms of a cold coming on, you may want to try adding quercetin to your cold-fighting arsenal.

University of California researchers said this week that they have identified a 'genetic switch' that regulates the human body's internal clock. You know -- that one that gets many of us up every morning in lieu of an alarm clock?

The discovery could lead to newer sleep disorder drugs and associated problems, according to the researchers.

In the research, changing a single amino acid in the BMAL1 protein was found to activate certain processes involved with circadian rhythms, otherwise known as the body's internal clock.

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Recent research out this past week shed a genetic light on why high-carbohydrate diets have always been connected to extra weight.

The research discovered that a gene in the liver -- SCD-1 -- is actually a large mediator that governs weight gain induced by extra carbs in that diet.

The gene was found to encodes the enzyme SCD in the research that was published. The SCD enzyme's job in the liver is to synthesize fatty acids that are a major component of fat. Ah-ha! D you think extra weight gain is a result?

When mice were given a high-carb diet -- who who lacked this particular enzyme -- the carbs were broken down instead of stored as fat. Now, if we could all just get that pesky SCD-1 out of our livers...

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After a gene therapy study was halted recently due to an arthritic patient's death, the study has resumed under some different conditions. Mainly, those who end up developing infections with this particular study won't get injections to help them combat possible infections.

Although the recent patient death was deemed unrelated to the study directly, a fungal infection internal bleeding were said to be blamed for the death. It's unclear how the gene therapy injections (targeted at inflammatory arthritis) were connected with any infection in Jolee Mohr's death.

Still, the gene therapy's maker -- Targeted Genetics Corp. -- looks to be cautious as it resumes the arthritis study soon.

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Right now you can find almost anybody in the world using the internet, whether it's through paying a high-tech online service or simply "Googling" names and seeing what pops up. But what if, in searching for long lost relatives in particular, there was an enormous online DNA database you could check? Now that would be cool. Creepy, sure. But cool.

Well we're one step closer (practically there, actually) to that possibility with Ancestry.com. You can order a DNA kit, swab yourself, and send it in to their system where they'll check you against all the other DNA in their system. If a match is found they'll notify both parties and if everyone agrees, contact information is exchanged.

Interesting idea, and it's all supposedly private and anonymous, but I'm skeptical to say the least.


Via Book of Joe

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I've read some research recently that suggested genetic predisposition to obesity, which I found quite interesting. A new piece of research this past week reiterated that stance, as it suggested chronic overeaters may indeed be driven to overeat by their genetic makeup.

The reasoning? Lower levels of the brain chemical dopamine may be found in many people as a result of DNA differences, and that is responsible for the rewarding feeling eating has. Hence, you have less of it, you feel less rewarded when you eat -- and you overeat as a result.

This may be partly to blame when overweight people fail to stop eating when they are physically full. Mentally, the process is not as rewarding as it is for many -- and that mental state (acquiring happiness from food) takes much longer to achieve, apparently.

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Genes are starting to show up in the medical news in abundance these days, and MIT researchers said this past week that a gene already associated with longer life span may also be linked to a lower cholesterol levels in the body as well.

The gene was connected to a pathway that clears cholesterol from the body, and the researchers stated that this finding could pave the way for more effective drugs that lower the risk of diseases like atherosclerosis (clogged arteries).

The identified gene, called SIRT1, causes 'good' cholesterol (the HDL kind) to actually flush away bad cholesterol buildup by using a 'cellular pathway' as the activating mechanism.

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