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Spit in a tube to get a personalized health regimen based on your genes

Andy Boxall
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Unlocking the solution to losing weight, or coming up with a cracking diet to help maintain a healthy lifestyle, can seem like a mystery. We’re often beguiled by quick fixes, potions, and workarounds to make it happen. Now there’s a new app to set us on the road to health, and it makes its suggestions not from a basic physical examination, but from our actual DNA.

It’s called the Pathway Fit test, and it’s yours for the (steep) price of $100 through the newly launched Pathway Genomics iOS app. It’s a promotional deal to celebrate the launch. We want to complain about the price, but we’re told the test would normally be $600 — potentially making it a bargain, if the data it provides is potentially life-changing information.

How it works: You request a test kit through the app, ready for your sample. You don’t have to do anything too gross, just provide some saliva in the supplied tube, and send it back. Pathway then analyzes your DNA to come up with the diet, lifestyle, exercise, and nutritional needs that best suit your body. It takes into account body type, weight, eating behavior, and metabolic factors to come up with a genetic profile.

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Pathway uses genetic markers to give broad suggestions on the best type of diet and exercise for you personally, and adds in nutrition and metabolic guidelines. For example, it suggests whether you’re predisposed to high cholesterol or high blood pressure, what vitamins your body needs more of, and details on what your should choose to eat and when. Put together, the data provided gives a good picture of how to beneficially adjust your lifestyle.

While the results are generated using an established, but general, set of genetic markers related to health — they will be absolutely personal to you, and this will make the results not only potentially helpful, but also fascinating. Want to know if your body may respond better to a particular type of diet more than another? Pathway Fit will tell you.

The Pathway Fit app is currently only available for the iPhone, and can be downloaded through the App Store. Once you pay your $100 and send back the test kit, it’ll be about two weeks before you get the results. Sadly, the offer is only for U.S. residents at the moment.

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