19/06/2026
Would you like to find about more about your genes ?
🧬 Reactivity levels to pharmaceuticals or abreactions.
🧬Designing an individualised clear protocol for nutritional supplements.
🧬Tracing the data to find symptom causation and aggravations.
The possibilities are endless
I’m thinking of training in this area, obviously observing strict confidentiality ethics with your data.
Am interested to find out if there is a potential market.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a mental illness that involves the inability to regulate emotions. There is a variety of symptoms, including:
~ Fear of abandonment
~ Pattern of unstable and violent relationships
~ Splitting, or seeing things/people as all good or all bad
~ Emotional lability
~ Impulsivity
Genetics plays a role in BPD, but genes alone do not cause it. Instead, it is a combination of genetic susceptibility, epigenetic changes, and an environmental trigger.
Twin and family studies estimate the heritability of borderline personality disorder to be around 40-60% (genetics, epigenetics), with the rest being environmental.
Genetic pathways involved in BPD:
The following genetic susceptibility pathways have been identified in studies as increasing the relative risk of borderline personality disorder.
Oxytocin receptor (OXTR gene): Oxytocin is a hormone involved in mother-child bonding as well as social bonding and empathy. People with BPD, on average, show lower oxytocin expression. Studies on patients with BPD show that changes in the oxytocin receptor gene that reduce expression are likely to cause someone with BPD to feel more psychological pain and be more affected by childhood maltreatment.
Inflammatory cytokines: Multiple studies show that people with BPD have increased oxidative stress, increased inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α and IL-6), and decreased BDNF.
Inflammatory cytokines interfere with the synthesis and reuptake of key neurotransmitters, especially serotonin. Serotonin disruption may contribute to the severe mood swings and emotional instability characteristic of BPD. Cytokines also decrease the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is important for neuroplasticity.
Antioxidant enzymes: Two recent studies looked at the levels of antioxidant enzymes, including CAT, GPx, and SOD, and found that they were lower in people with BPD than in a healthy age-matched control group.
Oxidative stress can trigger a cycle of inflammation through the activation of pathways like nuclear factor-kappa B (NFκB), causing neuroinflammation. This affects brain areas implicated in BPD symptoms, such as those involved in stress response, emotional processing, and behavioral control.
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This is just a short excerpt from my in-depth article on borderline personality disorder. Here is the link to my full article: www.geneticlifehacks.com/borderline-personality-disorder-how-genes-trauma-and-inflammation-interact/
With a Genetic Lifehacks membership, you can use your genetic raw data (from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, etc) to see your genotypes in over 400 articles, including my article on BPD. You will see research-backed solutions in the lifehacks section to help determine what pathway to target -- all based on your genetic variants. Personalize your health!
