For kids with neurological issues, many people are recommending the 23andMe to see if there’s anything to explore further. However, after listening to all the discussion at Paleo f(x), I’m wondering if there’s any value to doing this at all. I don’t want to waste unnecessary money on labs that aren’t actionable. I pretty much know what you think about this stuff from having heard you talk about it, but would you make an exception with pediatrics and neurology, or would you go right to functional methylation tests?

Chris Kresser:  I still think that the genetics can be helpful in some situations, but as you know, Laura, and I’m just saying this for everyone else’s benefit, I don’t think they should ever be used in isolation, and that’s the problem. People are making supplement recommendations based on genetic test results alone without doing any of the functional testing, and that is highly problematic. But if you do the genetic testing and you see, for example, a homozygous mutation in MTHFR C677T, then you know that that child is actually more likely to suffer from a number of different neurological/cognitive/behavioral issues, and they’re more likely to have folate deficiency. And in that case, particularly if funds are limited or the parents need some convincing about what kind of tests should be done, you could make a better case to do the functional methylation tests in the first place. Also, if the parents know that the child has that mutation, then they may be more compliant with dietary recommendations that you make. They may be more aware of it on an ongoing basis. They just know that their kid has to get more active folate than maybe they would figure if they didn’t know about that mutation. So I think it’s still helpful, with those caveats.