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.
Chronomics - Biological Age, DNA Methylation, Methylation Clocks
Biological Age - DNA Methylation, Methylation Clocks
One for now… One for later! Testing my epigenetic age with Chronomics.
In my previous post on biological age, I introduced you to three free online tools for estimating your biological age.
And while these tools are quite useful, they hardly represent the state of the art in biological age assessment.
To really sample biological age directly, we need to leverage the advent of methylation clocks, which track changes in methyl groups in the epigenome.
The epigenome is the system that controls how our genome is expressed. It’s an incredibly intricate system that goes so far as to actually program your stem cells on what type of cell they should become (e.g. blood cell vs. skin cell).
And while the expression of the genome by the epigenome works excellently when we are young, it is known to change as we age in detrimental ways. This makes managing, delaying or even reversing this age-related process of methylation a key pillar of any longevity strategy.
Quantification of Biological Age
My biological age is 22 years old. I’m 34. How are you doing? Learn how to estimate your biological age with a simple blood test.
This naturally leads us to the nature of quantifying (ie measuring) the amount and intensity of age-related DNA methylation which has occurred in one’s body to date.
This process is occurring as an unfortunate byproduct of your metabolism continually, but is also strongly modulated by environmental factors.
Alcohol, smoking (cigarettes), toxin exposure, stress and environmental pollutants all play a role in DNA methylation, and the science of connecting the dots as to why a given methylation pattern exists in a particular area of the genome is emerging rapidly.
In my view, there are two important capabilities emerging in the biological age testing space which utilise DNA methylation to estimate one’s biological age.
Emerging Capability #1 - Test your Biological Age at Home
The first is the ability to leverage a consumer testing kit to measure your DNA methylation. At my last count, I found six reputable companies who are offering a test which will provide you a biological age estimate through the methylation clock (i.e. Horvath).
They have a wide range of price points, utilise different technologies (blood vs saliva), and fit into a company’s offering in different ways.
Longevity Blog will be covering as many of these test kits as it can… if we can keep up! This space is moving quite fast, and it will be our aim to help you make informed choices.
Emerging Capability #2 - Determine What Aged You
The second capability is harder to find, but in my view is far more valuable as I expect it to provide actionable insights (a key theme of this blog).
This is the newly emerging capability to not just quantify the biological age, but to qualify it. By this I mean, to analyse the biological age and make attributions as to why one has aged.
In my review of the technology in this space, there is only one company who can provide us with this level of detail to date - and that is UK based Chronomics.
In an upcoming post, I’ll be interviewing CSO Dani Martín Herranz to dive a bit deeper into the how and the why beyond their incredible capability in this space. For now, let’s play biohacker guinea pig…
Testing Chronomics Testing Me
Chronomics is not a direct to consumer testing service, and in most cases one has to work with their partnership network in order to access their testing kits.
However, after hearing CEO Tom Stubbs interviewed at the Biohacker Summit in 2019, I knew I had to reach out and find a way to work together. Through our collaboration, Longevity Blog purchased two testing kits from Chronomics.
We will be using these test kits to not only review the company, process and results (sharing them with you of course!), but also to run a unique type of biological age experiment on yours truly (more on this in an upcoming post - be sure to subscribe not to miss it).
The Chronomics testing process involves a saliva sample - very generous volume I might add, which is provided in a test tube with stabilisation medium so that the sample can survive the long trip back to the UK.
From this sample, we’ll be given access to an online dashboard of 35+ different health metrics of which biological age is only part of the ‘health picture’ which will be represented there.
It is my expectation that the specific insights I gain from this process will highlight areas of my DNA methylation that might be ‘reversed’ (a not so subtle hint on what I plan to do with the 2x kits 🤔?)
Chronomics and Biological Age: Some Basics
As a part of our collaboration, I completed a personalised walk-through of their dashboard, I was able to ask a number of preliminary questions about the process, the science and what to expect in my results. Here’s what I asked, and what I found:
LB: Alright, give me some numbers, how much of my genome are we going to analyse?
Chronomics: We’ll be analysing more than 20 million positions in your epigenome using next-generation sequencing, the most comprehensive epigenetic snapshot to date. We’ll also be able to run a community inter-comparison across 1000s of other samples (all anonymous of course).
LB: Rad. Now what will it tell me about my biological age - can I get a number?
Chronomics: Yes, we’ll use those over 20 million positions in your DNA to give you a biological age estimate. We’ll also give you some insights on your age trajectory versus a supercentarian
LB: Love it. But what value will that information provide me. Age is just a number, after all. I need actionable insights.
Chronomics: We’ll use this analysis, along with a detailed personal survey to identify what lifestyle changes you could make to have the biggest impact on your epigenetic age. These include metabolic status, alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking.
LB: Uh oh. I was the guy known for building a two-story beer bong in graduate school. Perhaps that will finally catch up with me. Tell me a bit more about how this works?
Chronomics: It is a cumulative exposure measure, and was built through our internal research team of data scientists, engineers and academic partners. There is actually a specific methylation signature that occurs in the epigenome from this exposure overtime.
LB: Did I also mention I once built a wizard staff of 21 beer cans? Let’s move on… What about cigarette smoking. I’ve enjoyed my fair share of ‘party cigarettes’ and smoky bars - what will your test reveal?
Chronomics: Cigarettes contain certain toxins and heavy metals which are now known to methylate the genome in unique ways. Repeat exposure to chemicals known to be contained in tobacco will damage your DNA and we’ll be able to measure that.
LB: * Chuckles nervously *
Chronomics and Longevity Blog - What’s Next?
In upcoming posts, I’ll interview the team at Chronomics in more detail, review my personalised results and discuss my plans for making the insights actionable.
Follow me on Twitter for the latest #Longevity news!
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RT @rebeccavziegler: The cryonics payoff matrix. Choose wisely my friends. https://t.co/l1rzsmOC2w -
My rate of aging: 0.79 It’s the new street cred What you got? https://t.co/aHzWHAfCnD https://t.co/L3rZC4QFN2
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It’s official - I’m co-producing and hosting a new #longevity docuseries, and will begin shooting in a few months… https://t.co/wLGqRrBfbp
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“The #longevity segment opened my eyes to the groundbreaking advances in biotechnology, health, and wellness. The i… https://t.co/F8YB7PAeMW
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I’m completely mindblown by what AI has done over the past 3-6 months, and it continues to accelerate… https://t.co/hh0JslucRg
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Longevity legends take on many shapes and sizes https://t.co/X9vGa7gvOe
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RT @BradStanfieldMD: Avoid These Popular Supplements (shout out to Professor Matt Kaeberlein @mkaeberlein & Professor Brian Kennedy… https://t.co/cy9CXldgUS
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Who are influential persons in #longevity who are of Asian, African American or other “minority” group in the US?
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The AI powered future is here 🦾 Contrary to the narrative, you’re not going to be replaced in the workplace by AI… https://t.co/BojTzyfDzA
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I built and exited my first company today A big moment in my entrepreneur journey What’s next? All in on… https://t.co/5oTo3IjSyN
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I’m seeing tweets from accounts I follow that I have seldom seen over the past two years. Why? Locking your accou… https://t.co/dt21RnfRxT
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It’s 2023 and I’m using ChatGPT to brainstorm brand names for my next company Welcome to the future 🦾🤖
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93 year old Buzz Aldrin is a #longevity legend, and he’s at it again… The 2nd man to walk on the moon just married… https://t.co/IXZpfH2S3r
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In 2021 @ChromaDex tested 22x brands claiming to be NMN The (perhaps not so) shocking outcome? Only 3x met label… https://t.co/PiqiQ581Ra
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What #longevity books should I be reading in 2023?
I post related #Longevity content to Instagram as well, follow me @nickengerer
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.
Time Travelling with the Health Nucleus: Ancestry in your DNA
Time Travelling with the Health Nucleus!
This post is a personal entry from our Founder Nick
I have always found it fascinating to ask the question - ‘where have I come from?’. Not in terms of where I have lived or the birds and the bees - no I refer to the much grander scheme of things.
Each of us is the product of a man and woman who have combined their DNA to create offspring, and on a broadly twice decadal time scale, a new generation in our lineage appears. A multitude of factors have come together to make this so, right down the particular genetic information carried by the sperm and egg cell that made the action happen!
Exploring ancestry with my 84 year old grandfather
I recently visited with my 84 year old paternal grandfather, who has created meticulous records of the family genealogy, reaching back into the late 1800s. It was just after the US civil war when my great, great, great grandfather John immigrated from Bavaria, Germany to Bay County, Michigan.
It’s just one more story in the treasured history of European immigrants arriving on the shores of the United States to form new communities and create new opportunities in America.
Stories like this one, fill my heart with awe and wonder in their romanticism. But that’s not exactly what this blog is about now, is it?
While I might find this story elegant and inspiring, what I find much more interesting and actionable is what it tells me about my genetic heritage, and how I might further optimise my own life based on my own genome.
And until recently, anecdotes like the ones my grandpa compiled were the only good information we could access on this topic.
Whole genome sequencing at the Health Nucleus fills in the blanks
In May 2018, as I previously blogged, I had my first (and certainly not my last!) visit to the Human Longevity Inc. “Health Nucleus” in San Diego. One part of this amazing experience, was the drawing of blood to sequence my whole genome.
To be clear, this is not the same sort of tests you can get from “DNAfit” or “23andMe”, which look at only certain parts of the genome. While such tests can provide valuable and actionable data, what I had completed for myself is something only a few thousands of people around the world have done to date! But given the recent falls in cost for having this done, that’s sure to be quickly changing….
Whole genome sequencing refers to the process of analysing the full sequence of human DNA, which is more than 3 billion base pairs in total! Specifically, ‘Whole’ genome sequencing includes both chromosomal DNA and mitochondrial DNA.
What did I learn sequencing my whole genome?
Did you know? While whole genome sequencing is still pretty expensive, you can still analyse over 700k locations of your DNA with Self-Decode for less than $100!
I am still sifting through the 400+ page report that reviews all of the results and insights that I gained from sequencing my whole genome.
With 3B base pairs of information, we are still learning what each of the many variations in each of our DNA actually mean.
Many of the results I received were actionable (e.g. my cardiovascular and alzheimers disease risk - more on that in future posts!), some were less valuable (e.g. my genetic disease risk - I would have already known by now if I had one of these conditions), and others were just downright fascinating.
And that’s what loops us back around to the stories and history that my grandfather had worked so very hard to compile.
He had spent countless hours researching, documenting and sharing these precious pieces of information, and still had only managed to reach back about 150 years in time.
But just imagine you could look even further. What could a thousand years of genetic history reveal? How about 10,000 years? 65,000 years or more? Is such an analysis possible? If so, what could it teach one about themself? And moreover, could it help them biohack their way to a long and healthy life?
Autosomal Ancestry
First, let’s look at my autosomal ancestry determination. Autosomal DNA in genetic genealogy is used to describe the 22 pairs within the chromosome that are independent from the X and Y sex chromosomes. I won’t delve into it further here, as that is not my role.
I suggest you use the most excellent ISOGG Wiki if you want to go deeper!. Autosomal ancestry compares your genome to other genomes from different populations of known origins, and is most relevant for your genetic ancestry on the order of 100s of years in the past.
The Health Nucleus report provided me with two related images to this analysis, both of which have largely confirmed that hard work my grandfather completed!
But of course, it also collated the results from my maternal grandparents and paternal grandmother as well (which were not included in his hard work!).
Autosomal DNA analysis confirms - yep, German! And maybe a spot of English in me too ;)
Haplogroup Exploration via my Paternal Chromosome
Hey, that was neat, but we kinda knew that information already. After all, I am white guy who likes beer.
Can we go back further? Yes we certainly can! The next tool for diving into ancestry are “Haplogroups”. ISOGG defines a Haplogroup as follows:
“A haplogroup is a genetic population group of people who share a common ancestor on the patriline or the matriline. Haplogroups are assigned letters of the alphabet, and refinements consist of additional number and letter combinations.”
Haplogroups can help identify the origins of your ancestors dating back on the order of thousands to tens of thousands of years! Common ancestors can be explored through both on the patrilineal (father) or the matrilineal (mother) histories.
Here we are looking into the sex chromosomes (as opposed to the autosomal regions above). Looking at my Y chromosome follows my father’s history, and this information will be shared by both my brother and my son (how cool is that?).
From my report:
“Your Haplogroup is: G2a1c2b1a. Haplogroup G is from approximately 48,000 years ago and is found in low frequencies in north Africa, north and west Asia, Europe, India, Malaysia, the Middle East, and Sri Lanka. It possibly had a period of isolation for over 10,000 years in southwest Asia.”
This beer drinking guy from Germany just had his mind blown! 10-50kya my ancestors were likely from modern day Turkey or Georgia! And since this is a Y-chromosome based analysis, that information is relevant to my son, my father, and even my 84 year old grandfather. I can’t wait to send him this blog!
Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroup Analysis
Mitochondria have been on my mind a lot lately. They are quite fascinating and turn out to be very important in the ageing process itself (for example, did you know - damage to mitochondrial DNA is one of the key reasons we age?). mDNA is inherited only from the mother, and therefore gives us the opportunity to look down my maternal genealogy. All of my biological siblings (we share the same mother) will have the same mDNA haplogroup, however my son will not, as he will have the mDNA of my wife.
From my report:
“YOUR HAPLOGROUP is: U5b2b3 Mitochondrial haplogroup U is estimated to have originated approximately 55,000 years ago. It has been identified at high frequencies in North Africa, Central and South Asia, the Middle East and Europe, where it is the oldest and predominant haplogroup.”
This analysis seemed to have much less confidence, as it spans from northern India, across parts of the Middle East and into eastern Europe, so I don’t quite know what to make of it at this stage! I’ll have to do some more digging around to see if I can narrow this down any further to make it more targeted.
Lastly, I am part Neanderthal (AND my wife is not surprised)
Hey guys, fun fact. I am 1.72% Neanderthal and only 98.28% Homo Sapien… 😮
OK, so this is not unusual as the typical range is 1.4% to 2.1% for Europeans. But I left you hanging for a minute and that was fun 🤗.
So - is this data actionable?
A key question I like to ask on this blog is - is the data action actionable? With respect to the ancestry analysis, I conditionally believe that it is.
This ancestry analysis tells me information about the environment that my body has evolved in response to, and offers hints to the diet that my ancestors likely consumed. Both of these are very influential aspects in the longevity journey.
For example, it may reinforce my routine use of cold exposure (cold showers, ice baths, cryotherapy), as it is clear from my autosomal analysis and haplogroup G categorisation that many of my ancestors were not the types to lounge in tropical climates, but instead would have seen hard winters.
They would have marginally evolved on the order of tens of thousands of years in response to those conditions.
Speaking of cold winters, I add an additional presumption that my body would likely favour some level of fasting and primarily carnivore/ketogenic diet for a certain portion of the year, based on what we’ve found here.
Additional insights could be gained by researching what these haplogroups have been discovered to eat in the past. But that is all research for another blog post and another day :). Trust me, I’ll get there. I’m too damn curious not to!
In closing, I would like to suggest that any of the above assumptions about environment and diet should be paired with further analysis of my genome sequencing results (e.g. like the Genomic Fit test I just completed at NextHealth!).
I should also note that given our increasing understanding of the role of the epigenome in expressing our genomic information, that the impacts of my current environment, diet and lifestyle also have a role to play in making conclusions about further biohacking and ’optimisation’ of myself.
This stuff is complicated and highly non-linear, but hey, bringing you guys along on this journey so we can sort it out together, is what this blog is all about.
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Why I Just Gave 15 Vials of Blood at NextHealth
Visiting NextHealth in Los Angeles to See and Experience Proactive Healthcare in Action
I’m coming off a real high having just been to LA and San Diego over this past week and not just because I had my face bathed in some awesome infrared radiation with a “Light Stim” (see this IG post and be sure to give me follow 😉). No, I’m jazzed because I FINALLY visited NextHealth in Century City, LA - and let me tell you, it was a life changing experience!
What is NextHealth?
NextHealth refer to themselves as a “Health Optimisation and Longevity Center” - as you can imagine, I fit quite squarely into their market segment (I am trying to Biohack my way to a vibrant, healthy, long life after all). They do everything from cryotherapy to dermatology and IV vitamin infusions to blood testing.
Why Did I Visit NextHealth?
This time I was out for blood 💉!!
NextHealth offers a few blood test products that I was very interested in for supporting my longevity journey. These are:
And then, upon further digging into some other options during my visit to the site, I decided to also add on:
My Motivation: Get Feedback and Optimise
There is simply no way to start to introduce all of the different things that will be covered by the above blood tests, those are quite extensive! But I do have a select number of things that drew me to these blood test options, by blood test product they are:
Total Baseline:
I was very interested in my NMR spectroscopy results so I can better understand what the particles sizes make up my LDL cholesterol
I am in my early 30s and undertaking many ‘hacks’ to keep my testosterone high - are they working? (dutch test hormone data!)
Micronutrient Testing
I have an aggressive supplement regimen (30+ supplements a day and climbing), and micronutrient testing will help me adjust the levels of supplementation very accurately
Genomic Fit
I am interested in optimising my diet and athletic performance (going for a sub-20 minute 5K at the moment) and ‘Genomic Fit’ will give me some actionable info on this
Food Sensitivity Testing
Figuring what foods you are sensitive to (different from being allergic) is very difficult to do with dietary testing alone, and I can tell I still have some foods in my diet that give me inflammation - what are they? I must know so I can ban them and protect my gut lining!
All Up I Gave 15 Vials of Blood in the Name of Science
“It’s less blood than it looks like”, Ashley, the gorgeous phlebotomist let me know. “We’re almost done”
Good, cause I was totally light-headed already.
“Yeah, I passed out once when I gave about 30x vials for a scientific research study”, I let her know. “But don’t worry, I totally gave that nurse a heads up that I was on my way out”, I joked.
She just laughed and smiled re-assuringly (and probably thinking “God, don’t let this guy fall over on me…”). Thankfully Nick stayed conscious this time, and just like she promised - the blood draw was over quite quickly.
And might I say - it was an exceptionally professional job done on the blood draw, complete with a comfortable chair and warm-up blanket over the arm to kick it off. A smoother experience than I have had in many hospitals!
While I’m Waiting for the Blood Test Results…
I am not going to get my blood results back until early December, so this story is far from reaching its conclusion. In fact that visit to NextHealth was so life-changing, I easily have 10-15 more blog posts I’d like to write about it.
One thing is for sure, I will have plenty of material to work with. I once again am going to find myself with a stack of amazing health data to dig through! It is my plan to walk through some key lessons I learn from those blood results in upcoming blog posts, so be sure to subscribe to the blog if you’d like to see what happens!
Comprehensive Health Screening: Health Nucleus
Health screening is the future of healthcare
In this short 5-minute video, our founder shares personal thoughts on the future of healthcare, and why it is proactive. The technologies to prevent disease are at your disposal, will you choose to access them?
medical screening in great socks
The Future of Healthcare
includes great socks 🧦
The future of healthcare is based on health screening that is proactive & preventative!
Today, we have all of the medical technology required to detect and treat the most common life-threatening diseases, provided that we can detect them early on.
This includes common killers such as cardiovascular disease (heart-attack, stroke, thrombosis), the chronic illnesses of metabolic disease (diabetes) and, of course, most cancers.
Even health screening and early detection of diseases of the brain (alzheimer's or parkinson’s) can result in extended healthspan, and slow the rate of disease progression (although a cure for these maladies will likely require changing the ageing process itself!)
Health Screening Gets Personal
As our founder shares, health screening is part of a personal motivation for creating Longevity Blog. “In my late 20s, I had three people quite close to me, also in their late 20s, be diagnosed with cancer. In fact, one of them, was my own wife (appendix cancer)!”
“Another had stage III colon cancer. The third, stage IV testicular cancer that nearly took his life.”
In each of these cases, treatments came well after the onset of the disease, which brought on deeper thoughts on the very nature of how we detect and treat these diseases.
Health Screening is how Healthcare catches up to the 21st CenturY
New longevity technologies are being developed and deployed at an increasing pace. Some forward thinkers, including our Founder, observe this trend to be exponential in nature.
This is particularly true for health screening technologies which are directly coupled with progress in computing capabilities (processing power, network communication speeds, memory availability).
However, your personal experience in the healthcare system does not make these changes immediately evident. The healthcare system has made great strides in responsive medicine - treating disease at later stages, after an acute event or advance systems are present.
comprehensive regular health screening is available now
All of the health screening technologies required to detect diseases at an early, highly treatable stage exist NOW (at the time of writing, late 2019).
It is not technological limitations which prevents your access to these technologies. Instead, the limitations are based on 1) knowledge of alternatives, 2) financial means to access them, and 3) your personal demand for access to them.
This foundational post from the Longevity Blog will be followed by all of the information you’ll require to learn about proactive healthcare technologies and how to access them.
It will include our Founder’s personal foray into this technology space, where we’ll use his experience to thoroughly vet and explore these new technologies, to help you decide which to add to your own personalised longevity strategy.
FULL BODY HEALTH SCREENING: the Health Nucleus
Full Body 3D MRI - on the cutting edge of proactive healthcare
As you’ll soon learn, many forward thinking technologists, scientists and medical professionals have already begun to create a healthcare system worthy of the 21st Century.
Where this adventure will start, is at one of the most comprehensive health screening treatment centres in the world: Human Longevity Inc’s Health Nucleus.
Based in San Diego, California, our Founder first visited the Health Nucleus in May 2018. Where he underwent the following:
a wide-reaching blood panel
microbiome sequencing (💩)
What followed on from this visit was a complete transformation in his approach to health and wellness. It’s precisely this type of self-experimenting that helps us create unique content to guide you on your own wellness journey.
Read more about the Health Nucleus in the following posts:
