DNA Testing

Healthy Eating – Get your DNA Fitness and Nutrition Plan

Healthy Eating! Get your DNA based Fitness and Nutrition Plan because June is Fruit and Vegetables Month! 

A lot of people are trying to eat a more plant-based diet and moving away from the consumption of meat products.  There are a number of benefits to be gained from eating more fruits and vegetables:

  • Great source of fiber! Fiber is necessary for good digestion and gut health. Some great high-fiber choices are broccoli, cauliflower, raspberries, apples, and pumpkins. 
  • Packed full of vitamins and minerals! They are a great source of Vitamins A, C, and E, as well as magnesium, folic acid, and zinc. Sweet potatoes, avocados, prunes and bananas are a source for potassium which is an important mineral. 
  • Tend to be low-fat! Most fruits and vegetables are low in fat and calories.  So if you can avoid drowning them in creamy dressings and dips, you can eat a lot of them.
  • Zero cholesterol! Cholesterol is one of the biggest problems with a meat-based diet. If your doctor has told you to watch your cholesterol, you can eat all the fruit and vegetables you want!
  • Helps fight cancer! They contain phytochemicals that fight against cancer. Some particularly powerful vegetables are broccoli, collards, and cabbage.

If you have decided to eat a more healthy diet, but are confused by all the different choices out there.  So many fad diets and options. IPE Screening has a DNA-based fitness and nutrition plan available. This plan will be unique to you, based on your DNA. It will tell you what foods are best for you to eat and which ones to avoid to achieve optimal results with your eating plan.  No appointment necessary.  Drop by today and get started on the road to more healthy eating.

Eating healthy can get expensive.  Fresh fruits and vegetables tend to have a pretty short shelf life.  Here are a few tips to help make your fresh produce last just a bit longer.

  • Do not store your fruits and vegetables together.  Fruits give off a chemical that causes vegetables to ripen quicker when they are stored together.  If there are two crisper bins in your refrigerator, put veggies in one and fruit in the other.  
  • The exception to this rule is potatoes.  If you store an apple in with your potatoes, it will prevent the potatoes from sprouting those annoying roots and make them last longer.
  • If you cut up your celery and carrots into sticks and put them in a mason jar full of water in the fridge, they will last up to two weeks.
  • You can loosely wrap washed collards in a tea towel and store in the refrigerator. This will keep them crisp for longer.
  • You can revive limp Kale by cutting off the ends of the stalk and putting them in a glass or jar of cold water, like flowers.
  • Washing fresh strawberries with diluted white vinegar will prolong their life by at least a week.

In addition to the DNA-based fitness and nutrition plan, IPE Screening has a number of tests available to help you monitor your progress toward a healthier lifestyle with your dietary changes.  There are tests to monitor sugar levels. Especially helpful if diabetes runs in your family or you have been told you are pre-diabetic. 

Tests are available to monitor various important bodily functions like your heart, liver, and kidneys.  

Drop by the office today to discuss how IPE Screening can help you improve your health by providing you with the knowledge of how your body is functioning or responding to changes you have made.  No doctors, insurance, or appointments are required!

Sexual Assault Awareness Month

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.  Sexual assault is a crime that has no age limit on its victims.  Youngest reported is just over a week old. Even women in their 90s aren’t off-limits. People with developmental disabilities have an increased risk of being abused. Some of these predators are complete strangers who just randomly select someone off the streets.  Wrong place, wrong time.  

According to statistics published by the National Sexual Violence Research Center, shockingly, 80% of the time, the victim knew the attacker.  With children and teenagers, often it is a family member or trusted authority figure in the role of predator.  They are rarely isolated incidents. In many instances, the assaults continue, sometimes for years. Leading to mental health issues, understandably. Adult women often report having been intimate with their attacker before the incident. 

It doesn’t help that there is still a high Neanderthal quotient hanging around in society spouting such gems as “Rape can’t cause pregnancy”. A stupid notion first popularized in the 13th century by British legislators. The fact is that about 5% of rapes do result in pregnancy. In America, approximately 32,100 pregnancies occur as a result of sexual assault. 

Many of the women didn’t discover the pregnancy until the second trimester.  Of those, only 38% of the pregnancies are carried to term, with 6% of those being surrendered for adoption. 50% were terminated with an abortion.  12% resulted in a spontaneous abortion.  

For all the parents whose daughters are getting ready to go to college, 1 in 5 women is sexually assaulted while in college.  Arm them with the knowledge of how to protect themselves and avoid potentially dangerous situations. 

  • Buddy system. When going out, it is best to be in a group, and stay with your people.
  • Keep doors and windows locked in your apartment. Don’t be in the laundry room at night alone.
  • Avoid alcohol and drugs.  A lot of bad decisions are made when alcohol and drugs are involved. This is a big curiosity for a lot of students being away from home and having unexpected freedom for the first time. They don’t know their limits.
  • Trust your instincts. If you have a bad feeling about a person or situation, listen to it and get out.
  • If the worst happens and a situation that started out as fun gets out of hand, fight back. If they are not listening to your verbal protests, get physical. Aim for between the legs or a good eye gouge should get their attention. 

I highly recommend you all read this article from the Charlotte, NC police department: https://police.charlotte.edu/safety/sexual-assault-prevention/reduce-risk-becoming-sexual-assault-victim 

Just in case you need a little push, at one University, 63% of the men attending the University who self-reported acts of rape or attempted rape, reported that they did it repeatedly. 

If you or a family member finds yourself in the group of the 38% of women who decided to carry the pregnancy to term, but you want justice as well, IPE Screening has a DNA Paternity test available that can be used in legal proceedings.  No appointment is necessary.  

2022 Diet Trends

We all have that one major goal we want to accomplish this year. Maybe it’s losing weight, getting more exercise, or just improving your sleep habits! But how do you choose a diet for yourself? There are plenty out there with their own set of rules and restrictions- but is this really what YOU need in order to reach those goals (and live happily)? 

We’re here at the beginning – resolutions ready…but willpower pumped up?! Gym membership secured!? 

It’s hard to keep up with the latest diet trends.

Fad diets come and go, but some of them stick around because they work or their followers are loyal. Some catch on due in part to books that instruct people on how best to utilize these formulas for weight loss while others gain popularity through celebrities pushing them forward. And then there are food pyramids–guidance based on health conditions suggesting what you should eat instead; proposals intended not only helping improve any number of ailments… But also giving hope where before one had none!

US News and World Report recently released its list of the 40 best diets for 2022. 

Here are a few of their top picks:

Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean Diet took the #1 slot for the fourth year in a row!  That is not surprising since there is a growing interest in eating more plant-based foods.  It is the portions of each type of food that make up the balanced meal.  It is a very different food pyramid than what most US schoolchildren learned.  Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, beans, nuts, and seeds make up the base of the food pyramid.  Next up are animal proteins from fish and seafood, followed by poultry.  Red meats, as well as sweets, are at the very top of the pyramid, with small, less frequent portions.

The Mediterranean Diet is high in plant-based foods and limits consumption of red meat, sugar, and saturated fats.  It is obviously very popular with its followers and, for some, just becomes a lifestyle change!  Some of its purported benefits other than weight loss are cancer and diabetes prevention/control, improved brain, and heart health.

DASH Diet

Coming in at #2 is the DASH Diet.  DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.  Hypertension is High Blood Pressure.  Wouldn’t it be nice if you could eat the proper foods and not have to take HBP medicines? The DASH Diet also concentrates on lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low-fat dairy, and lean proteins.  These foods are rich in calcium, protein, fiber, and potassium.  All of which helps to decrease blood pressure. Fatty meats, sugary beverages, sweets, and full-fat dairy are definitely on the “you don’t need me” list!  Maximum sodium intake per day starts at 2,300 milligrams per day but lowers to 1500 after you have been on the diet for a while. 

Following the DASH Diet can be a lifestyle choice rather than just a few-month diet program.  It can help lower your blood pressure, reduce the risk of cardiac events, help with Type 2 Diabetes, and reduce stroke risks.  All just from eating the right foods!

Mind Diet

The Mind Diet placed 4th overall.  It combines the best of Mediterranean with the best components of the DASH Diet to focus on the health of the brain.  MIND = Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay.  This might be a good diet for you or for your parents/grandparents.  The MIND diet has been studied and found to lower the risk of Alzheimer’s by 35-53%.  The closer you follow the diet, the better your results.

DNA Health Panel A.K.A. The DNA Diet

There are so many diets to choose from depending upon what results you desire.  If you have tried just about all the diets that are out there (I know it can feel that way sometimes), and are looking for another alternative, here at IPE Screening, we have a DNA health panel test that will identify the foods that your body does best on and does not deal with well.  Armed with the results from the health panel, you can map out a diet plan that includes the foods that are good for you, as well as avoid the foods that are bad for specifically YOUR body.  

After receiving your DNA results, you would have better information to figure out what diet plan will give you the best chance of success!  

A Healthy New You for 2022 – GX Slim DNA Test

A Healthy New You for 2022

Merry Christmas Eve! We truly hope you have a blessed Christmas Day with your family and close friends.  Try to keep moderation in mind while enjoying your Christmas feast with all its delicious temptations.  

New Year Resolutions?

During the week of “downtime” in between the holidays, a lot of people start contemplating the beginning of the new year and the tradition of making resolutions.  The never-ending pandemic restrictions have certainly had adverse effects on peoples’ health.  People have had to deal with the stresses of being unemployed or having to work from home while simultaneously home-schooling or being their own daycare, or the extended togetherness, or the isolation.  Whatever issues you have experienced in the last two years, we hope you found healthy ways to cope.  

Unfortunately, a lot of people chose unhealthy ways of coping with their stresses.  The cumulative effects of those unhealthy coping mechanisms really take their toll on your body.  Those 10 extra “pandemic pounds” have turned into 20, or 30, or more. Too much junk food, too much alcohol, too much Netflix and couch potato-ing, not enough exercise.  Now with the New Year just around the corner, it is time for a healthy new start!  

Optimize Your Health with the Help of the GX Slim DNA Test!

Rather than jumping on the bandwagon for the fad diet of 2022 (no clue what that is by the way), we have a better way!  We would like to highlight GX Slim.  It is a DNA-based diet and exercise program tailored to your genotype. The results of this DNA test will tell you what foods are best to eat and which you should avoid, and the best exercises for you to optimize your weight loss. It does take 2-3 weeks for the results to be returned, but it is worth the wait.  To find more details on the GX Slim program, click here and scroll to the bottom.

Get a Baseline Analysis Before you Start your Plan to Measure Results – Inside and Out!

If you already have your sights set on a different diet and exercise plan, we can help you establish your baselines to see how much work you need to do to reach your goals for your healthy new start.  We can do blood pressure, weight, check cholesterol levels, screen for diabetes or pre-diabetes, and iron and vitamin deficiencies, just to name a few. Depending on your health target, give us a call so we can discuss what tests we have that could give you the answers you need to make a plan for your healthy new start to 2022!  No Doctors, No Insurance, No Problem!  Our Tests are Affordable with Self Pay Options.

Maybe your food issues aren’t weight-related. Perhaps you have developed a food-based allergy.  We can develop allergies later in life. A number of people have discovered they have an adverse reaction to gluten.  Once this ingredient is removed from their diet, they start to feel better.  We have a Gluten Allergen test available to help you decide if removing gluten from your food choices would be a healthy new start for 2022.

No Doctors, No Insurance, No Problem!  Our Tests are Affordable with Self Pay Options. Give us a call today to see what answers we can give you to help you plan for a healthier you in 2022!

 

Father, You Make a Difference

Families come in all shapes and sizes nowadays. Historically, it was the woman’s job to raise the children while the man was off earning the money needed to provide for the family.  No one would argue that the bond between a mother and child is important to raising a well-adjusted child.  Single mothers are amazing and some of their accomplishments are nothing short of incredible!  However, the bond between a father and child is every bit as important. As society has evolved, fathers are getting more involved in all aspects of child-rearing, not just discipline and providing material things.  “Wait til your Father gets home!” is still a popular phrase, no doubt, but studies have shown just how great an impact an involved father can have on the healthy development of a child. 

According to the Child and Family Research Partnership of the University of Texas, (https://childandfamilyresearch.utexas.edu/5-things-you-should-know-about-importance-fathers) children who have a father involved in their life while growing up reap the following benefits, just to name a few:

  • They are twice as likely to attend college and find a good, stable job after graduating high school.  Lessening the likelihood that they will be moving back in with you when they are 30.  
  • They are 39% more likely to be good students, earning mostly A’s in their classes.  This will make getting into college much easier and, bonus, maybe even a scholarship!
  • The chance of them repeating a grade is reduced by 45%.
  • They will be much better behaved.  The chance of them being expelled from school for behavioral issues is reduced by 60%.
  • Teen pregnancy risk drops by an astounding 75%!
  • There is an 80% reduction in the risk of spending time in jail or prison.

With so many benefits available to your child by including the father who wants to be involved in his child’s life, it is worth whatever steps are necessary to legally identify all involved parties.  The first step in this process would be a DNA paternity test.  Regardless of the circumstances that led to the miracle of a new life coming into the world, that child deserves every advantage you can give them. Giving the father a chance to be involved in the child’s life would be a great gift to your child.

The process is quick, easy, and painless. A DNA paternity test can remove any lingering doubt from delicate situations.  A lot of men would step up and be great dads if they were given the chance.  True, some men are glad to walk away and not be burdened.  But a lot of men are not told and given a chance to step up. Life is hard enough. Children deserve every benefit we can give them.  If you think you may be a dad and want to be involved with the healthy development of your child, protect your rights to do so. Not being married to the child’s mother doesn’t mean you can’t be involved with your child’s life.  IPE Screening can help with a DNA paternity test if you live in the Springfield area.