DALLAS — Margot George is aging the way many of us hope to: at 62, she is fit, active and super health-conscious.
"Am I doing the right things? Am I taking the right vitamins? Do I need more of some and less of the others?" George said, laying out her personal inquiries.
Part of her proactive approach to healthy living includes a close look at family history.
"My father passed away from Parkinson's [Disease] so that does come top of mind to me," George said.
It's why she is taking a micronutrient test, which is a blood test that examines dozens of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and amino acids.
There are several companies that offer micronutrient testing.
"I'm kind of like, do I want to know? Then am I going to worry about stuff?" questioned George. "But this level of testing is more about your health and nutrition than it is about other things, so it's not that scary to me."
The idea, according to McClendon, is to pinpoint any deficiencies early enough to make a change through diet and supplements.
The company that makes these tests say micronutrient testing could help people to early detect or even prevent diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune disorders, arthritis and even cancer.
"Diagnoses are not simple. You can't just do a test and say I've got it," said Dr. Theo Ross, Director of U.T. Southwestern's Cancer Genetics program.
"The desire to know what the future will be and how I might be able to make it better is a good thing," Ross added with a caveat. "They should be able to give you the data that supports what they are asserting their test is going to do for you."
"Although various genetic and metabolic changes can affect a person's health as well as their risk of developing future disease, more study is required to confirm the benefit of micronutrient testing," Fowler said in a statement.
"I do trust this test because so far, I've had no reason not to trust it, so I'm excited about it, and I want to see what the results are," George said.