Life savers: How genetic data will revolutionise your diagnosis and treatment
Greg Cubitt has not had an easy life. In his 61 years he’s escaped death at least three times, suffering several workplace accidents and one assault, plus he has an ongoing battle to control his heart disease and type 2 diabetes. A massive heart attack in 2012 was not his first nor his last. Both his father and uncle died in their 50s after several heart attacks.
But in Cubitt’s case, he’s had an ally who has brought him close to winning his battle with diabetes. Since he was 18, he’s been a patient of Dr William Ferguson, a GP in Kumeū, Auckland, who has been using genetic testing for clients whose health conditions defy standard treatment.
In 2016, Tokoroa-based Cubitt was doing his best to stick to a low-fat (for his heart), low-carb (diabetes) regime, but his blood glucose levels were out of control and by then he’d already had five heart attacks. Ferguson told him to get up to Auckland and prepared to give him “the big talk” about taking his meds.
Then Ferguson got the results back from a genetic test he’d ordered on Cubitt. He called him in and said whatever carb intake you’re on, halve it. Within a few weeks, Cubitt’s diabetes was under control and he stopped the drugs for that condition.
Ferguson couldn’t believe it. But the blood glucose results spoke for themselves – they were back within the normal range.
The genetic profiling also spelled good news for Cubitt’s cardiovascular health. Results showed he had a gene variant that impaired his ability to produce folate in its active form. Active folate has a protective role in the lining of blood vessels, so Ferguson put him on an active folate supplement.
Cubitt believes this intervention, on top of surgery, has lengthened the time between heart attacks, which used to happen every three years.
Tailored diets
Using our genetic make-up to guide medical treatment is known as precision medicine. It includes genomics – using an individual’s genetic information to predict susceptibility to disease and decide treatments; pharmacogenomics – determining which drugs you may have a reaction to based on your genetics (see A test helping Kiwis use their genetic data to avoid drug reactions is in the works); and nutrigenomics – understanding nutrient effects on your genetic make-up and tailoring diets to influence health.
For 14 years precision medicine has been Ferguson’s passion, teasing out genetic reasons for patients’ responses to treatment and finding solutions that include essential nutrients. He is a pioneer in the field, devoting thousands of hours to study and research and overseas conferences on the “omics”.
The GP of more than 40 years is inspired by seeing huge variations in genetic responses, such as the reactions shown by 800 people in a 2015 Israeli study to eating a slice of bread. For a few, their blood glucose level barely changed. For others, their levels went stratospheric within an hour or two.