The Strategy of StrateGene

Trevor Hess
Dec 27, 2020
8 min read

You're no doubt familiar with the vast array of companies offering DNA testing nowadays. Whether it be for the purpose of discovering your ancestry or to see how your current lifestyle factors are impacting your health, each company offers their own unique data by leveraging your DNA. However, there's one product in particular that has taken DNA testing to the next level — StrateGene.

StrateGene is a DNA test, founded by Dr. Ben Lynch and his company, Seeking Health, that implements a comprehensive holistic approach by integrating genetics and epigenetics. In addition, unlike traditional DNA tests that usually just determine your susceptibility to certain nutrient deficiencies or diseases, StrateGene takes a different approach by attempting to fix the root causes of those nutrient deficiencies and diseases so they don't occur in the first place.

Now, before we continue, let me say that if you've already purchased other DNA tests in the past, specifically from either 23andMe or Ancestry, you can actually upload your raw data file from those tests into StrateGene to get the report for a discounted price! In fact, I actually uploaded my Ancestry raw data file to get my StrateGene report, as you'll see shortly. However, one thing I should mention is neither 23andMe nor Ancestry raw data files provide all the SNPs you need to get a full StrateGene report, but they do get fairly close. So if you truly want all the data the StrateGene report has to offer, what you should do instead is either upload a raw data file from both companies or simply just purchase the actual StrateGene testing kit straight from the Seeking Health website.

Okay, so what makes StrateGene different from other DNA tests anyway? Well, StrateGene focuses on our so called "dirty genes," which are specific gene variants that directly affect important neurotransmitter and metabolic functions. So, by understanding which genes are actually dirty, which subsequently depends on the activity of those genes, future diseases that one may be predisposed to can be prevented altogether by rebalancing their activity. To rebalance dirty genes, StrateGene recommends specific strategies for the user to implement that directly affect the activity of the genes through either promoting downregulation or upregulation of them.

Biochemical Pathways

Now, let's take a step back real quick. By tackling predispositions at their root causes, you must first look at the overall biochemical pathways that encompass these dirty genes so that you understand the gene-to-gene interactions that are at play. Fortunately, StrateGene does this as well. Specifically, the test provides the user with an overview of seven major biochemical pathways in the human body which include:

Folate Pathway
Methionine Pathway
Methylation Cycle (combined Folate and Methionine Pathways)
Serotonin and Melatonin Pathway
Dopamine, Norepinephrine and Epinephrine Pathway
Biopterin Pathway
Histamine Pathway

"Super Seven" Dirty Genes

Okay, so now that you understand which pathways the test includes, what about the dirty genes? Well, the main ones that StrateGene focuses on, which are known as the "Super Seven" include:

MTHFR — supports methylation, a crucial process involved in more than two hundred of your body's vital functions
GST/GPX — both regulate your body's energy levels and glutathione levels, subsequently impacting your natural antioxidant responses as well
COMT — affects the metabolism of dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine, thus regulating your mood, energy levels, and ability to calm down, sleep, and focus
DAO — affects your body's response to histamines from food and bacteria, thus impacting your vulnerability to food allergies and intolerances
MAOA — affects your relationship to dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, thus governing your mood, energy, sugar cravings, and ability to sleep
NOS3 — affects your circulation, nitric oxide levels, as well as helps determine your cardiovascular health and vulnerability to heart attacks, circulatory issues, and stroke
PEMT — affects your cell walls, brain, and liver, impacting a range of health issues such as gallstones, fatty liver disease, gut problems, as well as attention and focus deficits

As you can see, these specific genes have significant influence in the human body, which also means they likely have the largest influence on the biochemical pathways as a whole. So, by providing the user with the knowledge to "fix" their dirty genes, StrateGene thus enables one to improve their overall biochemical pathways. Neat, huh?

Interpreting Your Results

Okay, you understand the importance of biochemical pathways and the genes that comprise them. But, let's now take a look at how to interpret your results so you can ultimately improve your health. Now, given the large quantity of data that is contained within a StrateGene report, I'm only going to cover a few significant results from my report, starting with my MTHFR gene.

As we begin searching for information on the MTHFR gene within my report, you'll first notice that you're given a general overview of all the SNPs that are covered, which includes additional bonus SNPs beyond the major dirty genes — I'll cover these bonus SNPs later. And if you look even closer, you'll notice that the result of one of my MTHFR variations is shaded yellow, indicating that it's heterozygous, as opposed to red, indicating homozygous, or green, indicating wild type. Now, just because a gene is heterozygous, homozygous, or wild type, doesn't mean that the gene is inherently problematic, as you'll see with the examples we cover.

Unfortunately, in the case of this particular MTHFR variation, it actually is problematic for me. However, in order to know this, you must scroll down further into the report to look at the in-depth details regarding the particular gene — and we'll do just that.

As you begin to scroll down further, you'll notice you'll stumble upon the biochemical pathway diagram for the folate cycle, which contains the MTHFR gene. If you look close enough at the MTHFR gene in the diagram, you'll see there are symbols interacting with the gene. As a quick summary, the black arrows illustrate cofactors, the purple "T" illustrates factors that can decrease the activity of the gene, and the yellow "T" illustrates factors that can increase the activity of the gene.

I understand this diagram can be overwhelming at first. But the main takeaway is to pay attention to the factors that influence the activity of problematic dirty genes. Now, the chart does give you some of the factors that impact the activity of a particular gene, but let's scroll down a little bit more in the report so we can get to the full details regarding the MTHFR gene.

Okay, once you get to the full details of a particular gene in the report, the first thing you should look at is the activity status of your gene. So, if you look up above at the information regarding my MTHFR, you'll notice that my MTHFR A1298C variant is downregulated by 20%. Like I said earlier, this isn't inherently bad, so you need to look further at the details that explain the impact of that activity of the gene.

So again, if you look at the figure above, you'll see that downregulation of this MTHFR variant puts me at risk for neural tube defects, Alzheimer's disease, and schizophrenia. Now, this just means I simply have a higher predisposition to these conditions. But this also means that unless I take action, I do have a greater chance of developing these conditions.

So what can I do to take action? If you look a little farther up in the figure, you'll see factors influencing MTHFR activity. Any factors following the "down arrow" will ultimately decrease the activity of the MTHFR variant, whereas any factors following the "up arrow" will increase the activity of the variant.

This is where interpreting your results is important. You simply can't implement all the factors given in the report. Instead, you first have to realize whether a particular gene is underactive or overactive. As with the case of my MTHFR variant, we already discovered that it was downregulated, or underactive. Thus, I need to focus on incorporating factors that will promote upregulation of the gene. So if we take one final look at the figure, you can see I should be focusing on incorporating more DHA and ALA while following a lower methionine diet. And if you take a look back at the folate cycle diagram, you'll find those exact same recommendations as factors that increase the activity of the MTHFR variant.

Okay, so you've now seen how to take action on a downregulated, or underactive, dirty gene, but what are some other scenarios you might come across? The obvious one would simply be an overactive gene, which you'd attempt to fix by implementing factors that decrease the activity the gene. But, let's take a look at my COMT gene for one other unique scenario.

First, looking back up at the first figure, you'll see both of my COMT variants, like one of my MTHFR variants, is heterozygous as indicated by the yellow shading. However, again, we don't know yet whether this is harmful or not. So, we continue scrolling down, eventually reaching the Biopterin pathway containing the COMT gene, as illustrated above. As you look closer at the figure, you'll see that there are few factors that impact the activity of the COMT gene.

However, if we scroll down a little bit more to the full details of the COMT gene, as shown above, you'll see there are actually far more factors that influence the activity of the gene. Now, for the scenario I wanted to illustrate, I want to focus on the specific H62H variant of the COMT gene. When you take a look at this variant, you'll notice that like my MTHFR variant, this variant is also downregulated as indicated by the "down arrow." However, what makes this scenario different is the information describing the impact of the gene being underactive. Specifically, the report states that this CT genotype, which downregulates this COMT variant, is actually found to be protective against schizophrenia and has significantly better outcomes in low back pain that the CC or TT types.

So what am I trying to show here? Simply put, just because a gene is overactive or underactive doesn't mean either case is inherently problematic. In fact, it can be quite the contrary, since my downregulated COMT variant is actually more beneficial that the other possible outcomes. As a result, I'd say it's not necessary to implement any factors that would affect the activity of the gene. Why? Well, we don't really know what decreasing the activity of the gene even more would do, and on top of that, we already know I'm better off with this COMT variant being slightly downregulated.

Finally, at the beginning of this article, I mentioned that the StrateGene report also includes bonus SNPs beyond the major dirty genes. So what does this bonus SNP section look like? Well, let's take a look at one of my additional SNPs — the FADS1 gene.

Now, unfortunately, the bonus SNP section isn't as in-depth as the rest of the report. But as with the case of the FADS1 gene details in the figure above, what the section does provide is the activity status of the bonus SNPs as well as recommendations to improve the health of the genes.

Specifically, you can first see that the red coloring indicates that this particular FADS1 variant is homozygous. Again, this isn't inherently bad. Next, you can see that this variant is upregulated as indicated by the "up arrow." But the real bulk of the information is in the bullet points that follow. From reading the information, you can see that the upregulation of this FADS1 variant puts me at a greater risk of having higher levels of arachidonic acid (AA) and total cholesterol due to upregulated elongation of omega-6 PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids) to pro-inflammatory compounds. So to counteract this predisposition, the report recommends that I limit dietary sources of omega-6 PUFAs, which includes foods like nuts, seeds, and seed oils.

Summary

So there you have it, you now understand the importance of being able to interpret information in your StrateGene report, or any health report for that matter. By being able to interpret your information, you're able to alter the activity of your "broken" dirty genes, subsequently improving your health. So my advice — figure out which dirty genes and other bonus SNPs are most problematic for you, then slowly incorporate the appropriate recommended factors for those genes depending on the activity of the genes. And as you begin to adjust the activity of your dirty genes in the right direction, you'll be well on your away towards optimizing your health to it's greatest potential. Finally, if you're interested in checking out the remaining data in my StrateGene report, feel free to download my full report down below. Happy testing!

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