Genetic Risk Analysis for Longevity: An Interview with Self-Decode Founder Joe Cohen
Do Genetics Determine Longevity?
The simple answer is ‘No’. Genetics do not determine longevity.
Longevity is a determined by a multitude of factors, including your environment, socio-economic status, risk appetite and of course diet, sleep & exercise.
However, they do very much influence longevity.
And when it comes to your personal longevity strategy - the simple answer of ‘No it’s not genetics that will determine your lifespan’ misses this key point.
Perhaps most importantly, noting that genetics do not determine longevity ignores a very important point. Namely that in planning ahead for a long and healthy future - you as an individual are not a statistic.
So, How Much Do Genetics Affect Longevity?
Genetics could have a lot to say about your longevity as an individual in many cases.
We can point to several illustrations.
Do you carry the APOE4 gene that significantly increases risk for Alzheimers? What about the BRCA genetic variants that influence breast cancer (as well prostate cancer)?
What about Lp(a)? Do you carry the genes which lead to elevated levels of this nasty little lipoprotein? If so, your risk of heart attack at a young age is significantly elevated.
To answer the question, ‘do genetics affect (influence) longevity?’ - you need to look past the mainstream articles written to appeal to a wide audience.
They are borne from high level statistical analysis.
Does it it really matter to you what the genetics of countless others determine on average?
Of course not. As an individual it matters what YOUR genes say. And if you carry any of the genes we just mentioned, you’re at elevated risk of early onset age-related diseases.
That means genes could very much influence your longevity in a significant way.
What to do about it? Read on.
What Genetic Factors Determine Longevity?
Once again, searching the internet for this answer will bring you to a bulleted list of ‘major’ genetic factors that may influence healthspan and lifespan.
Big deal! Eye roll.
Why? Because these articles once again miss the point - you need to zoom in on your individual genetic risk profile to know what risk factors you carry.
Thankfully, on this personalised assessment front, there is welcome news.
Progress in genetic testing and genetic analytics has moved incredibly quickly over the past decade.
Perhaps most importantly these advancements have been in both cost (genetic sequencing is getting cheaper) and importantly the algorithms that can connect scientific studies about specific genetic variants to disease risk.
And not just any old risk - your risk.
These technological advancements are now able to get quite specific about that.
Let’s talk about ‘the how’.
How reliable is genetic testing in predicting disease risk?
If you haven’t been paying close attention to this space, your knowledge on the topic is likely quite dated.
The answer this this question, just a few years ago was bleak - simply put, genetic testing was not very good predicting disease risk.
However, the rate of innovation with genetic analysis has been particularly quick over the past few years, and through technologies like artificial intelligence, it’s picking up the pace.
Self-Decode’s DNA test kit is mind-bogglingly cheap, at only $90. We’ll learn how they use an advanced machine learning process call ‘imputation’ to analyse your genome in a very targeted way, to keep costs down, while delivering a very deep analysis.
If we want to understand how reliable genetic testing can be for assessing disease risk (and thereby your longevity) we need to get past the dated & mainstream and up to the front of the pack.
Onward, to the forefront of genetic analytics!
This takes us to the exceptionally impressive data science, genetics and science team at Self-Decode.
They have recently developed some remarkable capabilities for genetic testing (low cost & accurate) and analytics (years ahead of the competition).
Most importantly, they’ve also built a successful platform for delivering personalised insights about your longevity risks AND what you can do about your risks.
How have they done it? We’re glad you asked…
Next Generation Genetic Analytics: An Interview with Self-Decode Founder Joe Cohen
In order to better understand Self-Decode’s mission and the capabilities of their team, we interviewed their Founder and CEO Joe Cohen.
Joe Cohen is the Founder and CEO at Self-Decode. He is an avid biohacker and self-experimenter, as well as a respected entrepreneur.
You may be aware of Joe’s earlier work on the website ‘Self-Hacked’, which is one of the most widely used and thoroughly cited biohacking websites on the internet.
When we interviewed Joe, asking specifically questions about longevity and genetics, we were very impressed with the capabilities they’d developed.
Perhaps most interesting was Joe’s announcement of the arrival of a ‘2nd generation’ of genetic analytics.
This 2nd generation is powered by artificial intelligence and advanced data science, which has recently become capable of providing a level of insight health enthusiasts, biohackers and longevity junkies (like you) have been left wanting to date.
Namely - what should I be doing to manage my personalised risk?
Personalised Genetics Insights with Actionable Information? Finally!
As we said at the opening - simply put, early stage genetic analytics have been fairly disappointing.
Direct to consumer genetic analytics really hasn’t really proven all that useful for the everyday wellness warrior and longevity enthusiast.
However, at Longevity Blog, we believe we are entering a new era of test at home genetic kits.
We’ll help highlight why this is the case through our discussion with Joe and in upcoming posts which dive into Self-Decode’s online genetics reporting and analysis platform.
When we’re through, we expect you’ll feel confident that Self-Decode genetic reports can become part of your personalised longevity strategy.
We’ll also take a look at their LabTestAnalyzer platform, including insights from a self-experiment run by our Founder Nick to radically reduce his LDL-C cholesterol levels.
Let’s get onto that interview!
This interview was conducted over Zoom during August 2021. It has been edited for brevity, conciseness and correctness.
Longevity Blog (LB): Joe, to kick things off, tell us about SelfDecode, its mission and purpose as a company, and what is your team's united behind? What's your mission?
Joe Cohen (JC): Our mission is to improve people's health. That's really what it comes down to in a very small nutshell. The real question is: what is the best way to do that? We think it is through personalized health strategies, looking at DNA and lab tests, and giving more precise recommendations.
One defining aspect of Self-Decode is the incredible scientific & data engineering team they’ve built. With 85 people in the company nearly 70 are dedicated to making their genetic testing & analytics better every day! Meet the team here.
LB: A core part of the offering from SelfDecode is genetic testing. In several recent interviews, you've been discussing the arrival of ‘a second generation of genetic analytics’.
In these interviews you specifically discussed the involvement of artificial intelligence. Introduce us this ‘second generation’ concept - in particular, how SelfDecode’s offering differs from other apparently similar services.
JC: Most companies that are doing genomics are not actually doing personalised health. Actually, none of them are, really. In order to do the analysis right, it takes a lot of very specialized skills that are hard to come by.
Very few companies are actually doing this and no B2C (direct to consumer) companies are doing genetic analysis correctly. 23andMe may be one company that's doing the analysis correctly, but they're not giving precision health recommendations.
In order to do genetic analysis correctly, you need to look at millions of variants. Whereas most companies are only looking at a handful of variants, and then making conclusions based on that.
Number one is they're not doing the analysis correctly. Number two is not giving precision health recommendations.
In order to do these both well, you do need to use AI and deal with large amounts of data. That's a big computational challenge and a major reason why companies are not doing this.
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms
“In order to do genetic analysis correctly, you need to look at millions of variants.”
LB: One of these challenges and points of contrast is the analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, and the limitations of looking at individual SNPs.
Second generation analytics is looking at much more than a single SNP - it is instead looking at many, many points in the genome. Can you explain how that's important for creating that personalised guidance you're describing?
JC: First, looking at many points is more important for genetic risk for a disease. If you're only looking at one SNP - it's like looking at one letter in a book, right? Not even one word, just one letter.
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms refer to a single location in the genome which may vary from individual to individual. Most genetics analysis test kits look at single SNPs to provide limited insight.
Self-Decode is different. They look at many thousands to millions of SNPs to provide you with personalised guidance.
Sometimes if you look at a few key variants, you might be able to spell a whole word, and that may give you some insights. But more or less, looking at a few letters and coming up with broad conclusions means you’re missing tons of information.
The future of genetics is with AI. But using AI means you need to build an entire data analysis pipeline to look at the holistic picture for risk.
Then after that, if you want to provide personalized information, you can use labs and environmental risks to get a more of a whole picture. That's what Self-Decode does.
Combining Genetic Analytics with Blood Tests
LB: In terms of that actionable, personalised guidance, you have just mentioned analyzing labs in conjunction with genetic risk factors. Your platform then goes on to recommend supplements and lifestyle changes based on those results. Could you provide an overview on how that works?
JC: Users can upload lab results that they get from a doctor using our LabTestAnalyzer and then receive information about the optimal ranges for each blood marker. We then provide recommendations on how to get these markers into the normal or the optimal ranges.
We're working on combining the labs, the environment and genetics in order to create a more holistic picture about what is going on in the individual. And then provide them with the best recommendations to get them into being optimally healthy.
Self-Decode’s Deep Scientific Expertise
“We have a team of 85 people with about 65 to 70 in the science, engineering and development space”
LB: One of the things that SelfDecode has accomplished which is quite unique in this space is assembling a very capable and diverse team of scientists, engineers and software developers to do this type of work. Can you tell us a little bit about your team? What does this team look like? What are they doing?
JC: We have a team of 85 people with about 65 to 70 in the science, engineering and development space. We need a large data engineering team, because we are dealing with lots of data. We also have bioinformatics scientists and genomic scientists, as well as software developers who have to become familiar with these topics.
Our team of software developers, over a couple years, have become more like ‘genomics developers’ really. Many of the data scientists are experts in machine learning and AI.
LB: That team sounds quite diverse and capable. This depth and diversity is one of the reasons Self-Decode has come out with such a high quality product.
Innovating on Genetic Testing Kit Price
Self-Decodes’s genetic test kit is far and way the best value for this market category.
Through the process of ‘imputation’ to scale up your genetic sample, they can offer a low price kit ($100USD) with the equivalent deep dive genetic analysis of kits which are many times more expensive ($500-$1000USD).
LB: One thing we’d like to ask you about is the cost. The price point for entry is pretty attractive, at around only $100.
Using your genetic testing kit, you’re able to directly test on the order of 700 - 800,000 points in the genome. But then you use some fancy AI techniques to scale this up to 83 million locations.
This process of ‘imputation’ is used to fill out the genomic data with a high level of accuracy. Explain this process to our readers.
JC: We have an imputations team that are working on creating more accurate predictions of SNPs not directly sampled.
We use AI to predict based on the patterns that we see. There are actually pretty good prediction methods for this that enable us to predict 83 million SNPs from the 700,000, which is basically all the snips that you have with 99.7% accuracy.
LB: Using this imputation process, you’re able to produce some impressive level of detailed recommendations.
That team, the algorithms and the product have enabled SelfDecode to move beyond a simple genetic risk score style approach (typical for the genetic testing industry) and onto specifically guiding users on what disease risks will be present for them in the future and how they can minimise those risks.
Genetic Reports with Personalised Guidance
Self-Decode’s Cardiovascular Disease Report can reveal much about your risk factors for developing cardiovascular disease.
LB: You present this information to the user in a series of customised reports, each dedicated to a specific category. Could you walk us through some specific aspects of your reports?
In particular, our audience is very interested in longevity. You have reports on cardiovascular disease and cancer, as well as diabetes and metabolic disease. Tell us more.
JC: We have a bunch of different topics. And you know, topics like cardiovascular disease are very important for longevity. Blood sugar is very important for longevity. Every report looks at a different number of variants - usually around 1 million.
Then we also have to look at your ancestry as well, that's something that we're working on. We have an entire team that's working on ancestry, because your ethnicity plays a very big role in your risk.
For example, if a study is done on a Japanese population, it may not have applicability to you (if you’re not of Asian descent). A study done on a different ethnicity doesn't have a good chance of being applicable to you.
The report then gives a prioritized list of recommendations that change based on your genetics. So we do a very deep dive into the interactions between genes and specific health recommendations. We also give the supporting evidence behind those recommendations - everything's referenced.
LB: Take for example your cardiovascular disease risk report, it reviews different types of cardiovascular disease risk from strokes to vascular complications to congestive heart failure.
The report, using the genetic information we just discussed, then provides specific personalised guidance for the use. One thing we love about these recommendations is that they go beyond the typical “exercise and eat well” guidance and get much more specific.
For example, the cardiovascular report for our Founder Nick recommended quercetin and calcium supplementation.
Personalised recommendation delivered to our Founder Nick after he ran his cardiovascular disease report on Self-Decode.
Self-Decode Delivers Priority Ranked Personalised Recommendations
LB: What can users expect when they complete the genomic testing kit and access their reports. We assume that the recommendations are different for everyone?
Self-Decode have a dedicated longevity report which details personalised risks in the aging process. You can review it here.
JC: Yes. These are priority listed, meaning the top recommendations go up and down the list based on an individual's genetics.
LB: Right - that's the real winner there, a key differentiator. It is personalised guidance, we like that!
One of the reports is actually dedicated to longevity specifically. It reports a personalized risk profile for oxidative stress, inflammation, cardiovascular disease, and DNA repair.
For users interested in assessing risks to their longevity and optimising their healthspan, how can the Self-Decode platform help them optimise? What do you think, Joe?
JC: I would certainly look at the recommendations in the longevity report and then implement those recommendations. They're a bit different with everyone.
Joe’s Personal Longevity Strategy
LB: In terms of thinking further about this topic of risk and longevity and using Self-Decode, let’s talk a bit more about your own health optimisation journey.
Your original work was on the website Self-Hacked, before going on to found SelfDecode, and was largely inspired by your own personal biohacking journey. Share with us how the Self-Decode platform helps you make decisions on your own personal longevity and wellness optimization?
JC: The platform is quite useful to explore the many different topics I am interested in. I'll look at the report recommendations, and then I'll look at which genes are involved. Then I go ahead and try out the recommendations. Every report can be used to add new things to your personal health regimen.
I also look at my labs (on Lab Test Analyzer). For example, if I have high blood sugar genetic risks, I look at my labs and track that. The same can be done with high cardiovascular risk, where I look at triglycerides, HDL and LDL.
“The more you are learning about aging, your health - you’re just going to be more healthy”
Some things are for longevity, and then there's things for more the short term. For example, the mood report. That's a big thing I'm looking at. What are the things that I could do to improve my mood? I’ll take the report recommendations and start implementing them.
It gives me more motivation to continue with my personal journey.
LB: Could you share a specific example? Perhaps a specific example of something that you were recommended where you tried it and it helped?
Joe’s Self-Decode Mood Report steered him toward 5-HTP. A great example of how personalised guidance can improved overall wellness more effectively than flying blind.
JC: Definitely. 5-HTP was a big thing for mood, because of the various serotonin genes. And that came up on my reports, and I implemented that, it had a positive impact and so I have been taking it ever since.
LB: This type of wellness feedback loop is one of the things we think your platform is most powerful for.
As we wrap up the interview, let’s talk a bit more about you. We ask all of our interviewees to share part of their own personal longevity strategy.
What is your strategy for maintaining your health in your 60s, 70s and beyond?
To Be Healthier, Make Learning about Health Your Hobby
JC: For me, it is very much about the motivation to be healthy. It’s like exercise. Everybody knows they should exercise, but not everybody does it as much as they need. I think you need to find motivation to do it.
This is where health education comes in. For example, like reading about your health - the more you are learning about aging, your health - you're just going to be more healthy. If you're reading health articles, reading your genetic reports, tracking your results - you're just going to be more healthy, because you're into it.
The other big thing is knowing what to do. Many people are lost, and they don't know where to start. What's the best thing for them? It's important to approach where that starting point is. Disease screening and the report recommendations give you something specific to try out and see which one works the best for you.
There's still some of that self experimentation. But our reports give you the things that you should be trying first.
LB: That's a great answer, Joe. We love that you hit on those longevity topics.
Thank you so much for your time today, Joe, we really appreciate you coming to tell us about SelfDecode. We think it's a fantastic platform for health optimization, and your answer about making health a hobby - SelfDecode enables that directly.
Thanks again Joe!
FDA & TGA DISCLAIMER
This information is intended for educational purposes only and is not meant to substitute for medical care or to prescribe treatment for any specific health condition. These blog posts are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, and only may become actionable through consultation with a medical professional.
