# Introduction {: .ui .center .pink .aligned .header}

In a study conducted by The New England Journal of Medicine, 50,000 adults who had a high genetic
risk for developing heart disease were asked about 4 essential lifestyle factors, whether they a)
exercised every week, b) ate a balanced diet, c) were obese and d) whether they smoked. When the
participants met at least three of the four lifestyle factors, their lifestyle was considered favorable.

The study showed that people, even with a high genetic risk for heart disease, could lower their risk for
heart disease by 45% if they lead a favorable lifestyle. In other words, even if you had ‘bad’ genes
passed on to you, you could beat the odds of having the disease by leading a healthy lifestyle. So
finding out about your genetic risk might just be what you need to structure a healthy lifestyle and
improve your chances of a disease free life.

An understanding of genetic susceptibility will help in tailoring prophylactic measures to likely lower the risk of certain conditions.

Some interesting facts about genes and health:

+ Studies conducted on twins have shown that 50-70% of the body mass index (BMI) variance may
be explained by genetics. One copy of the FTO allele increases the risk of developing type 2
diabetes by 25%, having two copies increases the risk by 50%.
+ People carrying one copy of the FTO allele have a 30% increased risk of being obese compared
to a person with no copies. However, a person carrying two copies of the allele has a 70%
increased risk of being obese, being on average 3 kg heavier than a similar person with no
copies.
+ According to WHO, the global prevalence of diabetes among people over 18 years is 8.5% (422
million adults). One third of people with diabetes do not know that they have diabetes.
+ Heritability studies have shown 30-70% risk for type 2 diabetes among families.
+ A large Nurses Health Study concluded that around 30% of the new cases of obesity and 43% of
type 2 diabetes could be prevented by adoption of a relatively active lifestyle. Lifestyle
intervention reduced risk for type 2 diabetes by 58% in a Finnish population, 67.4% in a Japanese
population and 28.5% in Indian population.

In this report, we profile genes that have been shown to influence risk of more than 45 health conditions.

We hope that this report will help you understand your body better and to align your lifestyle to your
genetics to reduce risk for diseases and live a healthy life.