Is Gary Brecka’s 10X Health Test Worth It?

Gary Brecka deserves credit.

With his recent appearance on Joe Rogan’s immensely popular podcast where he discussed the MTHFR gene, he did something really important to the field of medicine—he caused a massive shift in the way people perceive healthcare:

He brought personalized medicine into the public eye.

Because that’s what MTHFR symbolizes. MTHFR symbolizes the transition from the old, conventional style of medicine—which is often clunky, impersonal, and sometimes inefficient due to its lack of awareness of your genetic makeup—to the new, growing field of personalized medicine—which is agile, highly personal, and much more efficient in getting to the right treatments at the right time, because it takes into account your genetic makeup.

And Gary Brecka helped make the public aware of that.

But, of course, this is nothing new. People have been getting MTHFR tests (and plenty of other genetic tests) done for years. Testing for COMT, MTR, MTRR, etc. is not really a new thing. It’s just that Gary Brecka helped make so many more people aware of that.

And for that he deserves credit.

But what about the genetic testing he offers—the 10X Health Test? Is it actually worth it? Does it live up to the high standards offered by personalized medicine? Is it a worthy harbinger of the field?

Is Gary Brecka’s 10X Genetic Test Worth It?

Let’s look into this in a little more depth.

At the time of the writing of this article, Gary Brecka’s 10X test looks at five important gene SNPs—MTHFR, MTR, MTRR, COMT, and AHCY. The first three of these genes (MTHFR, MTHR, and MTRR) are extremely important, highly actionable genes involved in methylation. Deficiencies in any of these enzymes can lead to major reductions in your body’s ability to recycle homocysteine back into methionine, then SAMe, the body’s master methylator. These three are all highly actionable—meaning that there is a lot of benefit in knowing what your polymorphisms are, because you can affect them with diet and supplements.

COMT is also highly important. While it’s not directly involved in the recycling of homocysteine into methionine, it is affected by certain methylation-related products and intermediates, which is why it’s often included in tests like this one. COMT is involved in breaking down dopamine, excess estrogens, and other endogenous compounds, making it highly consequential when it comes to psychiatric states like focus, anxiety, obsessiveness, etc. as well as risk for things like breast cancer. It is also highly actionable, just like the three methylation genes included in Gary Brecka’s 10X Health test.

Read more about what you can do about your slow COMT “mutation” here, here, and, most importantly, here,

Also, check out my new The Slow COMT Cheat Sheet.

AHCY encodes an enzyme involved in the funneling of methionine to cysteine and ultimately into cysteine. It’s not as actionable as the genes above, but it’s still useful as it can help you understand your predisposition to lower levels of cysteine and its downstream products (glutathione, taurine, etc.).

Important Gene SNPs Missing From the 10X Health Test

However, Gary Brecka’s 10X test unfortunately misses out on the many other genes involved in folate and B12 metabolism, like MTHFD, MTHFS, TCN1/2, etc. (Our tests do check these genes, for what it’s worth).

These genes work in tandem with the genes we just mentioned (the ones that Gary Brecka’s test does test) to activate folate, activate B12, recycle homocysteine, etc. They are all extremely important genes. It’s not just one or two—or five, for that matter—that are important. They’re all important.

And the problem is: If you have a problem in any of these genes, you can end up with the same problem that, for example, an MTHFR polymorphism would give you, but you wouldn’t know it if you just got the 10X test!

In other words, just because Gary Brecka’s 10X Health test came back all fine for you, it does not mean that your body is methylating fine. You could still have a problem with activating folate, but you just wouldn’t know it.

That’s a major drawback.

It’s Not Addressing the Problems You Care About

Keep in mind: Methylation is just one aspect of health.

The 10X Health test is specifically focused on just methylation. But health consists of much more than that.

For example: For some people, chronic inflammation is the real issue, and a methylation test just wouldn’t be the best way to address that.

Check out this article for how to address chronic inflammation through genetics, or check out our just-released LIFETIME Panel.

Your health is worth $600, no doubt about that. But you could get a lot more information for the same cost, or less.

Our test kits look at all of the major genes involved in methylation, and your report comes with a simple, easy-to-understand action plan, which I write for you personally, based on your specific genetic makeup.

And if you’d like to work with me one-on-one (and live in one of the US states in which I am licensed), feel free to reach out.

If you’re interested in helping support my work, the best thing you can do is help share my website. Consider linking my blog posts on your social media pages, reddit forums, etc. (and feel free to @ me on your posts). It’s not easy competing with multimillion-dollar healthcare behemoths, so your help in amplifying a relatively small voice really goes a long way. Thank you :)

~Dr. Malek