A Couple’s Personalized-Care Intervention for Weight-Loss and Diabetes based on DNA and Gut Biome Profiles: A Case Study.
The global prevalence of obesity has reached epidemic proportions. Given the negative strain that obesity and associated chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, put on the healthcare system and the economy, disease management has begun evolving to help individuals change their behaviors. Obesity is often difficult to treat and even harder to maintain. Past studies have failed to show
weight loss maintenance over long periods after interventions. To overcome the complexity of obesity, a multifaceted precision care treatment approach should be adopted.
Obesity is a multifactorial disease arising from an at-risk genetic profile, and environmental risk factors, such as physical inactivity, insufficient sleep, excessive caloric intake, medications, socioeconomic status, endocrine disruptors and the gastrointestinal microbiome. Some emerging strategies to help individuals successfully change their health behaviors include using personalized
health programs that incorporate one’s physiological information and lifestyle coaching.
Involving partners in behavior change interventions and encouraging partners to lose weight together may help improve health outcomes. Having couples adopt healthy behaviors together may be a promising approach, especially when weight gain is not a consequence of medications or comorbid conditions. Having positive reinforcement from a partner or spouse is invaluable when tackling obesity and weight loss.
Personalized integrative nutrition,23 such as the personalized plan from Digbi Health, is important because no two human beings have the same genetic code. An individual’s genes not only determine how one looks, height, skin type, but also influences disease risk, obesity risk, as well as one’s energy and immunity levels.
Obes Res Open J. 2019; 6(2): 25-34. doi: 10.17140/OROJ-6-139
