Most people still live by trial and error. For 30 years, so did I.
We try a diet, a workout, the latest wellness trend, and hope something sticks. The answers were in my own body the whole time. I just had no way to read them.
Thirty years of trial and error
I have had eczema since I was 12. Most nights I could not sleep well. Most days I chose clothes to hide my skin.
I managed it the way most people manage a chronic condition: creams, medicines and a long list of things that did not work. It was bearable. Then I made it much worse.
A big mistake in Bali
In 2018, on a trip to Bali, I met a man who said the secret to good health was drinking baking soda water every day. He had testimonials. So I listened.
Big mistake.
The baking soda water wrecked my gut. My eczema exploded, and within a year it covered up to 60% of my body, my face included. I could not sleep. I could not go out. Some days I could not look at myself in the mirror.
I had worked in healthcare for more than 20 years, and I went to some of the best doctors in Singapore. What I came home with was medicine for the symptoms.
The relief was always temporary. I wanted an answer.
One clue from a DNA test
In 2019 a DNA test flagged that I was genetically sensitive to gluten.
It made no sense to me. Gluten was in most of what I ate: bread, noodles, even drinks. I had grown up on them without a problem, and I loved them.
Still, I could not prove the report wrong. So I ran the experiment on myself and cut gluten out completely.
For a food lover it was miserable. Everything tasted stale and boring, and I could not stand it. But the eczema hurt more, so I kept going, and slowly I got used to it.
Within two months of going gluten-free, my eczema cleared. For the first time in decades I slept through the night. No more scratching.
Why did it work?
My best understanding is that my genes had been sensitive to gluten all along. For years my gut protected me well enough that I only had mild eczema. When the baking soda water damaged my gut, that protection gave way, and gluten could do far more harm than before.
Taking gluten out gave my gut time to recover. One change to my diet, guided by my own DNA, did what years of prescriptions had not.
This is one person’s story. Eczema has many causes, and anyone living with it should talk to a doctor before changing their diet. What it taught me was that my own biology had been trying to tell me something for 30 years, and I had never been given the means to listen.
Why was ConnectingDNA built?
What surprised me most was that no one in my industry was talking about it. DNA reports were being sold, read once and filed away, while people like me kept guessing.
I had spent over 20 years in healthtech, design, digital transformation and business innovation, from startups to Abbott and Samsung. I had brought CO₂ insufflators into radiology across Asia, introduced life-saving biologics to hospitals and worked with governments on digital health systems. I had even launched Singapore’s first trading card game, in 2006. None of it had helped my own skin. A single line in a DNA report had.
So in 2021 I founded ConnectingDNA, to change the way people understand themselves, and to connect them to health and wellness providers they can trust.
I also began telling these stories on LinkedIn as the DNA Storyteller, on stage and on radio, because the science only helps once people can follow it.
What we are building
We call it DNA-Wellness: your genes used as one layer of personal context for how you eat, move, sleep, recover and live. The aim is to help people live by design, not by default.
- The Bio-Profile reads a compatible consumer DNA report and organises its traits into something you can use every day, with Bio-Profile AI to answer questions grounded in your genome.
- Bio-Plans are three- to six-month programmes delivered by DNA-Trained Partners, for people who want a professional beside them.
- Wellness brands and providers build on the same foundation to personalise what they offer.
Your DNA belongs to you. We help you use it as a compass, and we protect it with the care that something permanent deserves. You can read how we handle your data.
The hard part
A new category is slow to explain. Many people still hear “DNA” and think of disease or destiny. Others have a report sitting in an inbox that they have never understood, because it was written for scientists.
Genetic data also asks for a level of security most young companies never have to think about, and we hold ourselves to it. We are a small team, building in a field where most of the industry stops at the report.
Why we keep going
Because I know what life on the other side of trial and error feels like, and I want everyone who has been guessing to feel it too.
We believe DNA isn’t your destiny. It works as a multiplier on everything you do. Personalised wellness should be within everyone’s reach, and you should own your data and use it to run your own life.
It started with my skin. Today it is carried by a team who believe the same thing, and who show up every week to build it.
The future of wellness is already in your DNA. We are here to help you read it.
If you run a wellness business, invest in health, or simply want to live smarter and healthier, talk to us.
What DNA-Wellness means
DNA-Wellness uses insights from your DNA to help personalise how you eat, exercise, sleep, recover and live. Understand what makes your body different, make smarter wellness choices, and discover what may work better for you.
