Rapid innovation in DNA testing methods is creating exciting opportunities for spas when it comes to prescribing everything from exercise to diet and treatments.

In the last issue of Spa Business, we examined Nobel Prize-winning research into telomere testing which is enabling spas to prescribe lifestyle change and prove its efficacy (see sb13/1 p54).

In this issue, we go on to examine the use of DNA testing in enabling exercise scientists to identify the existence of non-responders – people who fail to gain the expected benefits from physical activity due to their physiological make-up (see page 82). In fact it appears there are rare instances of people who actually experience a deterioration in fitness as a result of exercise.

The important message to emerge from this research is not that exercise is a waste of time for non-responders, but that it must be prescribed very carefully in these cases, because the areas of ‘non-response’ are typically very specific and non-responders can expect to experience positive change in other areas of fitness.

DNA tests today can be done from a mouth swab in just half an hour and at a very reasonable cost, putting them within reach of spas as a diagnostic tool and meaning that it will be possible in future to customise a wide variety of different parts of the spa experience.

Evolution makes us different from each other to ensure we don’t all succumb to the same threat, so treating everyone in exactly the same way is a crude way to operate. Objective knowledge of our fundamental differences enables all interventions to be far more effective.

But it’s important the industry is highly credible in the use of things like DNA and telomere tests – it’s not acceptable for them to be used simply to sell products and packages without any scientific basis for test result analysis. Such activity would undermine our credibility as an industry at a time when we’re seeking to build a reputation for provable outcomes and sound science.

There are also big issues surrounding the storing and security of DNA, with experts predicting DNA hacking will be part of a new wave of bio crime.

So before we even think about taking DNA samples, we need to ensure we have people trained to deal with it, protocols for the storage and destruction of DNA samples we take from clients and most importantly, that we have the knowledge, skill and training to be able to accurately analyse what we find and give sound advice.