Understanding Your Body Through Nutrigenomics
- Gemma Westfold
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
I’m excited to share that I have completed advanced training with Lifecode Gx and am now a certified Nutrigenomics Practitioner.
This adds another layer to how I support clients, allowing nutrition and lifestyle recommendations to become even more personalised, precise and relevant to the individual.
What is nutrigenomics?
Nutrigenomics looks at how your genes influence the way your body responds to food, nutrients, lifestyle and environment. It helps explain why people can respond so differently, even when doing seemingly similar things. It can help answer questions such as:
Why does eating in a certain way leave one person energised but make another feel sluggish or unwell?
Why do some people seem to do well without supplements, while others genuinely benefit from targeted support?
Why are some people naturally early risers while others are more productive late into the evening, influenced by their circadian or clock genes?
Why are some people lactose intolerant while others digest dairy very well?
Who may be more genetically predisposed to coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity?
It can also give insight into why one person may need more support with inflammation, blood sugar regulation, detoxification or vitamin D status than another.
Rather than guess, we can use this information to personalise support more intelligently.
A helpful way to think about it
Imagine preparing for a holiday. If you know where you are going, it is much easier to pack well. You know what to prepare for and what is likely to support you once you arrive.
Without that information, you are guessing.
Understanding your genetics is similar. It gives us more insight into how your body may be likely to respond, so it is easier to know how to prepare and support it well. It does not
determine your health, but it can help inform how best to support it.
How is this different from medical genetic testing?
It's really important to understand that this is very different from genetic testing that requires counselling and may identify serious inherited disease risk.
Nutrigenomics focuses on common functional variations related to things we can act on through nutrition and lifestyle. It is not about uncovering alarming diagnoses. It is about uncovering useful information.
As I often say, I only test what we can do something with.
Why might someone choose to do this?
People often explore this when they want to move beyond general advice. Perhaps they feel they are doing everything right but still not getting results. Perhaps they want a more personalised approach, or clarity instead of trial and error. Perhaps they simply want to optimise health and prevent problems before they arise.
This kind of testing can be incredibly helpful in all of those situations.
Starting with Nutrient Core
I often see the Nutrient Core report as the ideal place to begin because it gives such a broad and practical overview of how your body may be wired to respond, and it is incredibly valuable information to have about yourself. The beauty of these tests are that you only need to do them once because your genes will never change.
The Nutrient Core looks at three major areas: food response, nutrient need and metabolism.
That means insight into things like gluten and lactose tolerance, microbiome diversity, caffeine metabolism, folate and B12 pathways, vitamin D transport and receptor activity, vitamin K recycling, glutathione production and detoxification capacity. It also looks at appetite regulation, blood sugar tendencies, inflammation, essential fat metabolism, blood pressure and even your circadian rhythm or chronotype.
These are not abstract genetic findings. They can help explain real-life patterns people often wonder about, like:
Why one person may need more support with methylation or B12.
Why someone may benefit from higher vitamin D levels than standard recommendations.
Why caffeine may energise one person and disrupt sleep in another.
Why blood sugar stability may require more attention for some than others.
Why someone may have tendencies around inflammation, satiety or detoxification that are worth supporting proactively.
This is where nutrigenomics becomes so useful. It helps move from broad advice to more personalised strategy. It can help fine tune nutrition, prioritise supplements more intelligently, and often explain why some things may or may not have been working.
Practical insights. Real-world application.
And perhaps one of the biggest advantages is this:
You only need to do this test once.
Your genes do not change.
Once you have this information, it becomes a lifelong blueprint that can inform nutrition and health decisions for years to come, and can be revisited at different stages of life as priorities change.
That is part of what makes it such a worthwhile investment. It is not about finding what is wrong. It is about understanding yourself better.
And once you know more, you can support yourself better.
Going deeper with other reports
Nutrient Core is often the starting point, but there are also opportunities to deep dive into other areas depending on someone’s goals.
The Detoxification report looks at how well the body may process and eliminate toxins, chemicals, hormones and oxidative stress.
Histamine Intolerance explores genetic tendencies related to histamine breakdown and how this may relate to headaches, skin symptoms, sinus issues or food reactions.
Hormones looks at patterns around hormone metabolism, stress response, oestrogen balance and areas relevant to PMS, menopause and metabolic health.
Metabolics provides deeper insight into blood sugar regulation, weight tendencies, fat metabolism and cardiometabolic resilience.
Metals and Minerals explores tendencies around mineral utilisation, transport, retention and how the body may handle heavy metals.
Methylation takes a deeper look at pathways involved in detoxification, neurotransmitters, energy production, cardiovascular health and nutrient activation.
Thyroid looks at genes involved in thyroid function, conversion, autoimmunity tendencies and nutrients relevant to thyroid support.
Nervous System explores areas related to stress resilience, neurotransmitters, sleep, focus, caffeine response and nervous system balance.
These reports allow us to go much deeper where appropriate and make recommendations even more specific.
What this adds to my practice
These are practical insights that can shape real recommendations. Not diagnosis. Direction. For me, this strengthens the personalised work I already do. It helps me fine tune nutrition recommendations, guide supplement choices more thoughtfully and understand why certain patterns may be showing up.
It allows support to become even more targeted and preventative. It does not replace nutritional therapy.
It enriches it.
The bigger picture
Genes are not destiny. They are information.
Extremely useful information.
And often the more we understand about how someone is likely to respond, the better we can personalise support. That is what makes nutrigenomics so exciting. It helps move us from general recommendations towards truly individual nutrition.
If you are curious whether this kind of testing could be helpful for you, I would be very happy to discuss this with you over a free Health Review
If you simply want a Functional Medicine overview of your current health and priorities, including a comprehensive blood test, I also offer a one-off Wellness Check consultation.
Small changes, applied consistently and appropriately for your body, can have far-reaching effects.
Comments