Your genes are your genes. But which ones are expressing, contributing to your symptoms—and why?
You were born with your genes. They haven’t suddenly changed because you turned 42, got COVID, went through a stressful year, were exposed to mold, or started perimenopause.
So why can you feel perfectly fine for years—and then suddenly not?
That’s where it gets interesting.
Having a genetic variant doesn’t necessarily mean it’s causing a problem. But our genetics can make some of us more vulnerable in certain areas—how well we detoxify, manage inflammation, process histamine, make and use certain nutrients, produce energy, metabolize hormones, or respond to oxidative stress.
Most of the time, your body may compensate beautifully.
Until something changes.
Maybe it’s an illness. Chronic stress. Mold or another environmental exposure. Hormonal changes. Gut issues. Nutrient deficiencies. Poor sleep.
Or, more often, a combination of things.
And suddenly the body that used to keep up just… doesn’t.
Why Now?
This is the part I find fascinating.
Why can two people get the same virus and one bounces back in a week while the other doesn’t feel like herself six months later?
Why does one woman sail through perimenopause while another suddenly has anxiety, brain fog, fatigue, heart palpitations and can’t sleep?
Why does someone who has exercised her entire life suddenly stand up and her heart starts racing?
I know what that feels like because it happened to me.
After COVID, followed by the flu and then a GI virus that seemed to go on forever, I went from being incredibly active to barely functioning. I was short of breath, exhausted and dizzy, my heart was doing things it had never done before, and at one point I couldn’t even drive my kids to school.
So I did what I do for other people. I started looking deeper.
I went back to my own genetics, ran an Organic Acids Test, and started looking at what my body might be struggling with and why. That became the beginning of what I jokingly call my own self-resurrection.
Because sometimes it’s not about finding the one thing that’s “wrong.”
It’s about understanding what your body was already genetically predisposed to struggle with—and what may have finally pushed that system too far.
And This Is Where POTS Gets Interesting
POTS is a great example.
It can seem like it came out of nowhere.
You may suddenly have a racing heart when you stand up, dizziness, exercise intolerance, brain fog, fatigue, temperature issues or that strange feeling that your body just isn’t regulating itself the way it used to.
For some people it shows up after COVID or another infection. For others, symptoms become more noticeable around hormonal changes, prolonged stress or other health challenges.
There isn’t one “POTS gene.”
And genetics certainly aren’t the whole story.
But looking at someone’s individual genetics alongside their symptoms and history can sometimes give us clues.
Maybe we see vulnerabilities involving histamine. Methylation. Inflammation. Mitochondrial function and energy production. Oxidative stress. Neurotransmitters.
Then the question becomes:
What else is going on that may be putting pressure on those pathways?
That’s the piece I care about.
Your Genetic Report Isn’t Your Diagnosis
I don’t believe in looking at a genetic report and chasing every red SNP on the page.
That’s not the point.
The point is to take the genetics and put them next to you.
Your symptoms. Your history. Your hormones. Your nutrition. Your environment. Your exposures. Your other testing.
Then we start looking for patterns.
Because your genes may help explain your vulnerabilities.
But they don’t necessarily determine your outcome.
Genes load the gun. The environment pulls the trigger.
The real question is figuring out what may be pulling yours.
