Business of Well-being

The DNA of Wellness: A Snapshot of Ancestry

If we are to promote - and protect - the ideal of corporate wellness, we must first change our approach to history. We must go from a mostly reactive system, where symptoms are predominant, rather than a system that enables people to change their lives for the better. A system where we know everything (or almost everything) about treatments, but fail to prescribe a plan to treat ourselves to the power of wisdom. A system where ignorance about one's personal history is the rule rather than the exception.


If we are to improve this situation, we must become students of history. We must learn more about our genetic history, so we may understand who are we -- so we may know whence we come and where we choose to go. A simple way to get that information is through a DNA test. A service like FreeDNAtest.com is, aside from its self-explanatory cost, an even easier way to know about our respective ancestors and the individual stories that constitute the nation's collective narrative.


A free DNA test is also, to the reader of history, in keeping with the best of American history. It grants each citizen access to what each person alone possesses: biological data, similar to a degree, but otherwise dissimilar in some many ways. Similar in structure because of its unique construction as a universal sign of life, but dissimilar in the information it contains. Similar in shape, because of the double helix, but dissimilar once you unravel (and unlock) the strands behind one of life's greatest of mysteries.

We have a right to know this history. It is ethically sound - and educationally just - for us to have access to this history. How else can we know, say, what unites us, when we do not know about our ancestors' contributions to these United States? How else can we prioritize the best within us, if we do not make our intelligence a top priority? How else can we chart a blueprint for living together, if we do not translate the very blueprint of life? The answers to these questions come with the results of a free DNA test.


This is a test no one can fail. But we risk failing our forebears; I fear if we do not connect the past with the present; if we do not see the long continuity of America's ancestry across the vale of years, which is the living embodiment of this nation's creed: "Out of many, one." The DNA we possess is, therefore, a link - one of millions - in a chain that emancipates us through what it reveals, in contrast to enslaving us with doubt and disbelief.


This content is indispensable to positioning ourselves in the arc of history, so we may fulfill the promise of America by being true to the rights of our fellow Americans. Proud of our ancestry, but smart enough not to become the prisoners of pride, we have the means to go forward as one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.


About the Author

Lewis Fein writes about a variety of health and wellness issues, in addition to pieces about technology, business, and management. Based in Southern California, you may email him at feinlewis@gmail.com

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