Full Transcript for EP 196 WTH?!? Unlocking Cognitive Health with Your Genetics with Elwin Robinson

wasn't really interested in it anymore 66 00:04:00,839 --> 00:04:04,919 as much. And so I, you know, was focusing more on the business. 67 00:04:04,919 --> 00:04:08,699 And, you know, I started working with someone else and helping 68 00:04:08,699 --> 00:04:10,919 them vet, grow their business, and all that kind of stuff. 69 00:04:10,919 --> 00:04:14,339 Anyway, I got to the age of 39, years old, I thought I had it 70 00:04:14,339 --> 00:04:17,159 all figured out enough that, as I said, I was teaching stuff. 71 00:04:17,519 --> 00:04:20,659 And then suddenly I started to get this stabbing pain in my 72 00:04:20,659 --> 00:04:25,699 right midsection area around my lower ribs. And I was quite 73 00:04:25,699 --> 00:04:28,699 aware of the kind of Taoist system of health back then. And 74 00:04:28,699 --> 00:04:31,639 so I immediately thought, you know, liver and gallbladder, as 75 00:04:31,639 --> 00:04:36,139 you would, if that's the system that you are in. And the first 76 00:04:36,139 --> 00:04:40,599 thing I did is went to a medical doctor, and they could not find 77 00:04:40,599 --> 00:04:44,979 any problems, even with an MRI, CT, Bloods, endoscopy, all of 78 00:04:44,979 --> 00:04:48,039 that kind of stuff. I went to several medical doctors, in 79 00:04:48,039 --> 00:04:52,299 fact, you know, private eventually, initially, what we 80 00:04:52,299 --> 00:04:56,859 have over here, like NHS. And then I went to all the kind of 81 00:04:56,919 --> 00:04:59,919 standard practitioners, I would say, functional medicine, new. 82 00:05:00,119 --> 00:05:04,439 Nutritionist, naturopath and all of those kind of people. They 83 00:05:04,439 --> 00:05:06,479 all gave me interesting insights. I learned a lot of 84 00:05:06,479 --> 00:05:09,179 interesting stuff along the way, but no one could work out what 85 00:05:09,179 --> 00:05:11,759 was wrong with me. Then I was like, Okay, well, maybe it's a 86 00:05:11,759 --> 00:05:14,099 structural issue, right? If you have pain here, could be a rib, 87 00:05:14,099 --> 00:05:16,739 could be a muscle, could be a fascia, could be something like 88 00:05:16,739 --> 00:05:20,759 that. So then I, you know, I saw a physio and a craniosacral 89 00:05:20,759 --> 00:05:25,279 therapist and osteopath and acupuncturist and all of those 90 00:05:25,279 --> 00:05:27,799 kind of people. And again, I learned a lot, and it was all 91 00:05:27,799 --> 00:05:32,299 very good, but it didn't help. Now, by this point, I'd always 92 00:05:32,299 --> 00:05:34,699 been a bit underweight and always had a bit of digestive 93 00:05:34,699 --> 00:05:37,099 issues. That was, like the only thing that I had still in my 94 00:05:37,099 --> 00:05:39,799 30s, like, I had a few food intolerances. And I thought, 95 00:05:39,799 --> 00:05:46,299 Wow, just just the way it is normal. But like this, pain was 96 00:05:46,299 --> 00:05:49,059 of a specific type that it got worse pretty much when I ate 97 00:05:49,059 --> 00:05:53,499 anything, which is also why I thought it was the liver. And 98 00:05:53,979 --> 00:05:58,479 painkillers did not work for it. You know, because I know a lot 99 00:05:58,479 --> 00:06:01,199 of people over the age of 40 of chronic pain, I think it's like, 100 00:06:01,199 --> 00:06:05,519 but over 50% but usually like, if NSAIDs don't work, they put 101 00:06:05,519 --> 00:06:08,459 you on opioids right to control the pain. So this is a specific, 102 00:06:08,459 --> 00:06:10,919 specific type of pains that NSAIDs didn't work, and opioids 103 00:06:10,919 --> 00:06:13,799 actually made it much worse. So there was no type of painkiller 104 00:06:13,799 --> 00:06:17,579 that was actually effective. And so as you can imagine, I was 105 00:06:17,579 --> 00:06:21,059 kind of put off eating, and I lost a lot of weight. I ended up 106 00:06:21,059 --> 00:06:25,459 being 120 pounds, six for free, pretty emaciated. I felt cold 107 00:06:25,459 --> 00:06:28,699 all the time. I started to get arrhythmia. I had constant 108 00:06:28,699 --> 00:06:36,079 anxiety. I couldn't sleep, and I was in probably the worst state 109 00:06:36,079 --> 00:06:39,439 of my life, and certainly the worst state. While no one could 110 00:06:39,619 --> 00:06:43,659 work out what was wrong with me. No one had any idea as to what 111 00:06:43,659 --> 00:06:47,859 was causing this pain, what was causing this issue. Eventually, 112 00:06:47,859 --> 00:06:51,339 you know, with all these people kind of treating me as if maybe 113 00:06:51,339 --> 00:06:54,159 I was making it up, I thought maybe I am. Maybe it's some kind 114 00:06:54,159 --> 00:06:58,959 of emotional issue. So, so, you know, I did the kind of 115 00:06:58,959 --> 00:07:01,679 traditional therapy thing, which I'd never been keen on, but I 116 00:07:01,679 --> 00:07:04,919 started doing that and working on those levels, also did more, 117 00:07:04,919 --> 00:07:07,259 you know, like I did Joe Dispenza, whole thing of 118 00:07:07,259 --> 00:07:10,499 meditation every day, focusing on, you know, being healed and 119 00:07:10,499 --> 00:07:14,039 all that kind of stuff, and all kinds of stuff, emotions, 120 00:07:14,039 --> 00:07:18,779 trauma, different kind of energy based systems and all the rest 121 00:07:18,779 --> 00:07:21,739 of it. And they were all very interesting, and I learned a 122 00:07:21,739 --> 00:07:24,559 lot, but none of those helped either. And in fact, often they 123 00:07:24,559 --> 00:07:27,139 would make it worse, often after a session in meditation, or 124 00:07:27,139 --> 00:07:30,019 whatever I feel like, in a blissful state, and then, like, 125 00:07:30,019 --> 00:07:32,479 half an hour later, this pain would be back and worse than 126 00:07:32,479 --> 00:07:38,239 ever. And I was what, what is this? And so I did a lot of self 127 00:07:38,239 --> 00:07:40,779 testing as well. You know, I was a very fortunate position. I 128 00:07:40,779 --> 00:07:43,179 felt very embarrassed, as you imagined, been teaching

health 129 00:07:43,179 --> 00:07:45,459 for 10 years, and suddenly you have this thing that you can't 130 00:07:45,459 --> 00:07:48,459 work out, admittingly, no one else could, either. So that 131 00:07:48,699 --> 00:07:51,459 should have helped a bit, but it didn't really. I was still very 132 00:07:52,119 --> 00:07:55,599 mortified and determined to work out what was going on on many 133 00:07:55,599 --> 00:08:00,599 levels. And so I'd spent a lot of money on testing. None of it 134 00:08:00,599 --> 00:08:03,959 had, really was, you know, brought up anything. And then I 135 00:08:04,619 --> 00:08:08,399 came across this thing that said, if you've ever done a test 136 00:08:08,399 --> 00:08:12,539 before, like 23 a million ancestry service, then you can 137 00:08:12,539 --> 00:08:15,299 upload your data from that, and within a few hours, we can give 138 00:08:15,299 --> 00:08:17,639 you all this information about your health, and it probably 139 00:08:17,639 --> 00:08:20,779 such a wide variety of, you know, reports and information, I 140 00:08:20,779 --> 00:08:25,219 was like, sounds worth a try, right? And so I did it, and I 141 00:08:25,219 --> 00:08:29,599 was blown away with how accurate it was. And it was interesting 142 00:08:29,599 --> 00:08:33,139 to me, because the some of the things that it said I had, which 143 00:08:33,139 --> 00:08:38,359 I had then, you know, when I had my DNA tested in 2013 I didn't 144 00:08:38,359 --> 00:08:41,019 have any of those problems. So, you know, I know that's kind of 145 00:08:41,019 --> 00:08:43,599 obvious to you, probably that, because these things stay the 146 00:08:43,599 --> 00:08:45,939 same, the snips stay the same throughout your entire lifespan. 147 00:08:45,939 --> 00:08:48,339 But, you know, just on an emotional level, it's like, oh 148 00:08:48,339 --> 00:08:50,679 my god, if only I'd have known this information back then, I 149 00:08:50,679 --> 00:08:53,919 almost certainly could have prevented all of these issues 150 00:08:53,919 --> 00:08:57,879 occurring. And so I was like, that's amazing. Now, I wish I 151 00:08:57,879 --> 00:09:00,719 could say because it makes a nice story. It told me what was 152 00:09:00,719 --> 00:09:03,299 wrong with it, and I fixed it. And the end, but it wasn't quite 153 00:09:03,299 --> 00:09:07,079 as simple as that. What it did is it gave me clues to work out 154 00:09:07,079 --> 00:09:10,379 what was going on, that when I did further testing to confirm, 155 00:09:10,439 --> 00:09:13,199 and then, you know, went down those pathways, I managed to 156 00:09:13,199 --> 00:09:16,979 work it out, get a proper diagnosis, and then actually 157 00:09:16,979 --> 00:09:21,199 resolve it. And I was like, maybe, you know, this is just 158 00:09:21,199 --> 00:09:24,979 me. So I, you know, got my wife to try it, got some of my 159 00:09:24,979 --> 00:09:27,739 business partners to try it, several friends, family members, 160 00:09:27,739 --> 00:09:31,219 employees, and, you know, after having seen like, a couple of 161 00:09:31,219 --> 00:09:33,679 dozen people and gone through the results of them, and, you 162 00:09:33,679 --> 00:09:38,119 know, learn, I was like, this is really incredibly interesting 163 00:09:38,119 --> 00:09:42,759 and incredibly helpful. And so. But the problem was, I kind of 164 00:09:42,759 --> 00:09:44,979 had to go through it with them, because we were talking about 165 00:09:44,979 --> 00:09:47,739 this before we started recording a lot of these platforms. 166 00:09:47,739 --> 00:09:50,739 They're quite practitioner focused, like someone who 167 00:09:51,039 --> 00:09:55,659 doesn't have, you know, a fairly in depth, intimate understanding 168 00:09:55,659 --> 00:09:58,539 about just health in general, let alone also genetics that 169 00:09:58,539 --> 00:10:02,159 they're not going to understand. And most of it. And so I wanted 170 00:10:02,159 --> 00:10:04,979 to create something that was, just as, you know, insightful 171 00:10:04,979 --> 00:10:08,339 with just this, you know, huge comprehensive amount of accurate 172 00:10:08,339 --> 00:10:12,239 information, but that was a bit simpler for the person to use. 173 00:10:12,239 --> 00:10:15,179 In fact, significantly simpler. And then also more affordable, 174 00:10:15,179 --> 00:10:17,879 because they can often be pretty expensive. The good ones can be 175 00:10:17,879 --> 00:10:22,039 pretty expensive. So I wanted to make it like, more affordable 176 00:10:22,039 --> 00:10:25,879 than, you know, any other comparable test, by far, and so 177 00:10:25,879 --> 00:10:28,999 that, to ask your question, yeah, I ended up founding 178 00:10:28,999 --> 00:10:30,199 genetic insights, no, 179 00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:33,620 and that's perfect. And it, you know, it's oftentimes the, you 180 00:10:33,620 --> 00:10:38,600 know, the healing journey that we innovate like this. I'm 181 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:42,340 wondering, just for our lay listeners and viewers like are 182 00:10:42,340 --> 00:10:44,680 all genetic tests created equal? 183 00:10:45,820 --> 00:10:48,700 So there's the test, and then there's the interpretation of 184 00:10:48,700 --> 00:10:50,740 the data. So first of all, I should probably make that 185 00:10:50,740 --> 00:10:55,780 distinction. So I'd say, in terms of the actual test, if 186 00:10:55,780 --> 00:11:00,900 they're doing any of the kind of ancestry services, I mean, there 187 00:11:00,900 --> 00:11:03,720 is definitely some differences in what they do and don't test 188 00:11:03,720 --> 00:11:06,720 for. So they're not all created equal, but they're all kind of 189 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:09,720 good enough. So if you've done ancestry.com if you've done 23 190 00:11:09,900 --> 00:11:12,240 me, have you done MyHeritage? If you've done any of the, you 191 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:15,900 know, popular ones, they test for, enough of the important 192 00:11:15,900 --> 00:11:20,360 snips that we can then take that data and

we can come up with 193 00:11:20,420 --> 00:11:23,360 accurate risk scores and recommendations based on them. 194 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:25,760 So that's kind of the good news. You've ever done any of these 195 00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:29,900 big services before. Actually, probably is good enough now, 196 00:11:29,900 --> 00:11:32,300 ironically, often the people who do the health ones, it's not 197 00:11:32,300 --> 00:11:34,520 good enough. Because often, if you say you've had it done 198 00:11:34,520 --> 00:11:36,980 within functional medicine, doctor or nutritionist or 199 00:11:36,980 --> 00:11:39,740 something like that, often they just test a handful of snips. 200 00:11:39,740 --> 00:11:42,160 You know, they just tested free, or they just tested a dozen or 201 00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:46,480 something, right? Yeah, and that's not helpful. We do need, 202 00:11:46,480 --> 00:11:49,180 it's not a full genome, because, of course, most of the genome is 203 00:11:49,180 --> 00:11:52,300 stuff that is not relevant. But we need, like, a full list of 204 00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:56,140 the SNPs that have been studied and researched, which, as I 205 00:11:56,140 --> 00:11:59,440 said, most of these ancestry services do a good enough job on 206 00:11:59,440 --> 00:12:02,220 that in terms of the interpretation, to answer your 207 00:12:02,220 --> 00:12:07,080 question, there is a huge variation in the quality of the 208 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:10,680 interpretation, and I'd say, I'll put that down to, well, at 209 00:12:10,680 --> 00:12:18,480 least two major factors. One of them is the level of 210 00:12:18,540 --> 00:12:22,040 sophistication of the interpretation that's being 211 00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:24,260 done. And we talked about this again before we started 212 00:12:24,260 --> 00:12:28,580 recording that, in my experience, unfortunately, most 213 00:12:28,580 --> 00:12:32,060 of the services out there that have got the most popularity 214 00:12:32,060 --> 00:12:36,200 often due to, you know, sophisticated and marketing, 215 00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:40,060 maybe they spent a lot of money on marketing and sales. They are 216 00:12:40,060 --> 00:12:46,180 actually the most simplistic, like unhelpful, potentially 217 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:52,060 services, because all they do is they take this huge file. You 218 00:12:52,060 --> 00:12:54,820 get this huge file from any of these services, this raw data. 219 00:12:54,820 --> 00:12:58,420 It's called, where they list, you know, huge amount of these 220 00:12:58,420 --> 00:13:02,100 different SNPs, which stands for single nucleotide polymorphism. 221 00:13:02,100 --> 00:13:05,100 It's basically just one variation, one difference in 222 00:13:05,100 --> 00:13:09,720 your genetic code. And then they, you know, you can easily 223 00:13:09,780 --> 00:13:13,080 anyone can do this. You can hire a software developer and go pick 224 00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:16,920 out this snip, and then you can hire a scientific writer and go 225 00:13:17,100 --> 00:13:20,040 tell them what it means. And so most of the systems out there 226 00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:23,480 are basically that which, as I said, anyone can do. They pick 227 00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:26,000 out. They say, Okay, you have this snip. And this means this 228 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:28,640 about you. It means you need more vitamin B 12. It means that 229 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:30,620 you're more likely to be stressed. It means you're more 230 00:13:30,620 --> 00:13:33,500 likely to dive hard, like whatever it might be like. But 231 00:13:33,500 --> 00:13:38,960 the problem with that is that it's only one isolated variable, 232 00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:42,700 and so anything now, there are exceptions to this. There are a 233 00:13:42,700 --> 00:13:46,300 few things like, for instance, with nutritional needs, it's 234 00:13:46,300 --> 00:13:49,540 true that if there is just one slip difference that may well 235 00:13:49,540 --> 00:13:51,820 mean you need more of a certain nutrient, or something like 236 00:13:51,820 --> 00:13:54,340 that. Certainly we have, we have those reports as well. It's 237 00:13:54,340 --> 00:13:59,860 true. But when you're trying to evaluate something like your 238 00:13:59,860 --> 00:14:05,940 cardiovascular health, and what the risk is of you getting, you 239 00:14:05,940 --> 00:14:08,040 know, heart health issues later in life, which, of course, is 240 00:14:08,040 --> 00:14:11,280 super important. Because first of all, you know, 40 to 50% of 241 00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:14,400 people die of that. And then second of all, it's called the 242 00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:16,860 silent killer for a reason, right? Which is, unless you test 243 00:14:16,860 --> 00:14:19,500 these markers regularly, you have no idea you have a problem 244 00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:22,040 until you have a severe problem. So this is really, really 245 00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:25,280 important. And so I would say to say to someone, oh, you know, 246 00:14:25,700 --> 00:14:29,300 you don't have a genetic risk for health, heart health problem 247 00:14:29,420 --> 00:14:34,940 just based on one snip or even just a handful of snips, is so 248 00:14:34,940 --> 00:14:39,320 inaccurate. It's, you know, verging on irresponsible in both 249 00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:41,200 directions. You could tell someone, oh, you have a high 250 00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:44,860 risk based on this snip. It's like, but this, there's so many 251 00:14:44,860 --> 00:14:46,780 other, you know, genetic factors, let alone also 252 00:14:46,780 --> 00:14:49,720 lifestyle and environmental factors on top of it, but just 253 00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:52,780 in terms of genetic factors. So, you know, for our report for 254 00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:56,800 cardiovascular heart health, we we're analyzing 10s of 1000s of 255 00:14:56,800 --> 00:15:01,020 snips, and so that AI that actually. Does that analysis is 256 00:15:01,020 --> 00:15:04,860 built by and

maintained by several dozen full time AI 257 00:15:04,860 --> 00:15:09,660 engineers the process of deciding with each snip how 258 00:15:09,660 --> 00:15:13,560 important it is, how much should we weight it, you know, in terms 259 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:16,260 of coming up with the risk analysis. And then what are all 260 00:15:16,260 --> 00:15:20,540 the studies that show that it potentially like? So if you have 261 00:15:20,540 --> 00:15:23,660 this snip, then this nutrient might be helpful. If you have 262 00:15:23,660 --> 00:15:26,240 this snip, then this lifestyle intervention may be helpful and 263 00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:29,120 like but this but, but then if you have this other snippet, 264 00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:31,880 says it's not helpful after all. So balancing all of that and 265 00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:36,800 coming up with an overall conclusion, which otherwise 266 00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:40,400 you'd have to have a very skilled and knowledgeable 267 00:15:40,400 --> 00:15:43,600 practitioner to do right? If they just had the snips in front 268 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:46,240 of them, they'd have to go, oh, as far as I know, this balances 269 00:15:46,240 --> 00:15:48,880 out this, and this cancels out this, and this is more important 270 00:15:48,880 --> 00:15:52,000 than this. So like our system, and we're not the only one, but 271 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:55,900 our system does that. It actually does that proper 272 00:15:55,900 --> 00:15:59,800 analysis coming up with a and again, not to say it's perfect. 273 00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:03,060 I mean, as more research comes out and more data is available, 274 00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:06,660 you know, we do update regularly, do it, yeah, yeah. 275 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:11,760 But to at least come up with the best possible conclusion that 276 00:16:11,760 --> 00:16:14,580 the current research allows, rather than this extremely 277 00:16:14,580 --> 00:16:18,240 simplistic, oh, you just have this, therefore this, and then 278 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:20,780 the other thing I would say that, you know, sets. And again, 279 00:16:20,780 --> 00:16:23,300 we're not the only one trying to say that. But like a system, 280 00:16:23,300 --> 00:16:28,280 like cars apart, is that the recommendations, like I say to 281 00:16:28,280 --> 00:16:31,940 people, if I if all we could give people is risk scores, I 282 00:16:31,940 --> 00:16:35,000 would not do this, because that can be extremely disempowering, 283 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:38,120 right? It's like, oh, you're in the top five percentile, you 284 00:16:38,180 --> 00:16:42,040 know, 95th percentile for having, you know, a high risk 285 00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:44,740 for heart health issues or for developing diabetes, whatever it 286 00:16:44,740 --> 00:16:48,400 might be like, that's not good to tell someone like, you know, 287 00:16:48,460 --> 00:16:52,300 I You mentioned my seven step system in my intro there, like, 288 00:16:52,660 --> 00:16:55,840 I think one of the seven root causes of all chronic disease is 289 00:16:56,140 --> 00:16:59,140 the placebo and the nocebo effect, right? The belief that 290 00:16:59,140 --> 00:17:02,340 we have in my mind. So if you say to someone, you have a high 291 00:17:02,340 --> 00:17:05,700 risk of getting developing this disease, that's basically like 292 00:17:05,700 --> 00:17:08,580 putting a curse on someone. If that's all you're doing, you 293 00:17:08,580 --> 00:17:14,340 have to also say to them. And based on your genetics, here are 294 00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:17,940 the things that are shown that for you are specifically 295 00:17:17,940 --> 00:17:20,780 helpful. And if you just do the top you know, the top 296 00:17:20,780 --> 00:17:24,620 recommendations, you're going to make a massive difference. And 297 00:17:24,620 --> 00:17:26,720 so I'd say, Now, I know a lot of other companies give 298 00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:29,420 recommendations, but often it's just like supplements, or 299 00:17:29,420 --> 00:17:32,360 something like supplements are almost never in our top three. 300 00:17:32,360 --> 00:17:35,180 I'm not against supplements. I take probably too many of them. 301 00:17:35,240 --> 00:17:38,120 I've all covered full of them. Like, you know, I'm a fan of 302 00:17:38,120 --> 00:17:41,920 them, yeah, but, but they shouldn't be in the top three in 303 00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:44,800 most cases, right? When we're talking about, like, health 304 00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:47,800 issues. And so, you know, we give lifestyle recommendations, 305 00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:50,200 you know, dietary recommendations, that's it. We 306 00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:52,720 don't actually give medication, you know, that's, that's like, a 307 00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:54,160 separate thing, you 308 00:17:54,160 --> 00:17:56,860 know. So one, one comment on that is, you're not going to be 309 00:17:56,860 --> 00:17:59,980 able to supplement your way out of a bag of potato chips. So 310 00:17:59,980 --> 00:18:03,540 that, that's the underlying understanding. But secondly, 311 00:18:03,540 --> 00:18:09,600 when, when, folks, I think some of the misperceptions around 312 00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:14,160 genetics, one like, are, you didn't destined to express the 313 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:17,400 gene even though you have the snip. So like, I guess this 314 00:18:17,460 --> 00:18:22,100 would bring in, like, how does epigenetics fall in here with 315 00:18:22,100 --> 00:18:25,820 your with your platform and your discussion here, because I think 316 00:18:25,820 --> 00:18:29,060 a lot of times folks, you know in the past, they would say, Oh, 317 00:18:29,060 --> 00:18:32,060 I don't want to know, because there's nothing I can do about 318 00:18:32,060 --> 00:18:34,940 it. Or, you know, or you have George Burns, who used to play 319 00:18:34,940 --> 00:18:39,200 God in the movies, and drinking a scotch and smoking cigars. And 320 00:18:39,380 --> 00:18:42,280 when asked like, well,

what are your you know, what do your 321 00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:45,340 physicians say? George? He says, oh. They say, nothing. They're 322 00:18:45,340 --> 00:18:49,660 all dead. You know, he's 98 years old, and he was blessed 323 00:18:49,660 --> 00:18:53,800 with genetics that could handle a lifestyle like that. So how do 324 00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:58,120 you tie that in? Before we dive in specifically, of, how does 325 00:18:58,120 --> 00:19:01,380 knowing about your genetics help improve, you know, with your 326 00:19:01,380 --> 00:19:06,420 cognition and or brain health, this more meta discussion on 327 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:10,920 overall, you know, how do you place this in, like, are you 328 00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:12,840 destined because of your genes? To 329 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:15,780 a great question, and I could tell you a very experienced in 330 00:19:15,780 --> 00:19:18,960 this field, because when I first put the page together about our 331 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:22,220 services, I didn't include, like, addressing this, and I 332 00:19:22,220 --> 00:19:25,160 need to update it, because it is the number one thing that people 333 00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:29,420 are concerned about, and rightly so. So I'd say, you know, going 334 00:19:29,420 --> 00:19:32,180 back philosophically, 1000s of years, there's always been that 335 00:19:32,180 --> 00:19:37,040 conflict in the in the way people think, between the idea 336 00:19:37,040 --> 00:19:40,780 of fate versus free will, right? So the people on the fate side, 337 00:19:40,780 --> 00:19:44,440 they tend to believe it's going to happen. There's nothing I can 338 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:48,340 do about it. But the people on the Free Will side tend to be 339 00:19:48,340 --> 00:19:53,080 like, I can manifest my own, you know, life. I can create my own 340 00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:56,320 destiny. I don't have to be held back by the chains of the past 341 00:19:56,320 --> 00:20:00,300 all that kind of stuff. Now I can say Dr Greg. I. Never 342 00:20:00,300 --> 00:20:02,940 imagined I'd be someone who had a genetics, I said company, 343 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:07,080 because very simply, I was very much in that second camp for my 344 00:20:07,080 --> 00:20:11,400 late 20s and all my 30s, I didn't like the idea that there 345 00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:14,040 was anything holding me back, and that there's anything 346 00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:17,160 stopping me from being who I wanted to be, and all the rest 347 00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:21,020 of it. So it's been very sobering and humbling, which is 348 00:20:21,020 --> 00:20:25,160 a great thing to realize that, you know, we're all dealt a 349 00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:28,160 certain set of cards, we have certain advantages and we have 350 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:31,340 certain disadvantages. Now, to actually answer your question, 351 00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:38,180 it is not set in stone, but it is a factor, you know. So if we 352 00:20:38,180 --> 00:20:41,500 use the cards you dealt analogy, you know, for any poker players 353 00:20:41,500 --> 00:20:44,440 out there, if you're dealt a bad hand, you can still win. It's 354 00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:48,400 just more difficult and ditto, you can actually also win. You 355 00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:50,320 know, you can still you can lose, even if you have a 356 00:20:50,320 --> 00:20:52,540 straight flush, if you are very unlucky, or if you play it 357 00:20:52,540 --> 00:20:58,600 wrong. So there is the the so here's what I've observed in 358 00:20:58,600 --> 00:21:04,800 practice, having seen a lot of people's results, generally by 359 00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:09,720 the time someone's in their 30s or 40s, late 30s or 40s. So one 360 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:13,320 of the ways we can, like, we have over 500 reports in our 361 00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:18,000 membership system. The ones right at the top would be sort 362 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:20,720 by risk. They're often like, you're in the top, you know, 99 363 00:21:20,900 --> 00:21:24,020 percentile, something like that, by the time someone's in their 364 00:21:24,020 --> 00:21:27,980 late 30s or 40s, I very rarely see where they haven't 365 00:21:27,980 --> 00:21:30,500 manifested that either they haven't already got it or they 366 00:21:30,500 --> 00:21:33,740 have had it at some point. For me, for instance, as I said, I 367 00:21:33,740 --> 00:21:36,080 thought as being healthy, but there were some serious things I 368 00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:40,420 was missing. Like, one of the things that were right at the 369 00:21:40,420 --> 00:21:43,600 top was like sinus problems. And it's true, I'd had that my whole 370 00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:46,900 life, you know, from teenager onwards. And so, you know, the 371 00:21:46,900 --> 00:21:49,060 question would be, was I destined to have that, or was 372 00:21:49,060 --> 00:21:51,520 there anything I could have done to prevent that? Well, I was 373 00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:55,660 also having, you know, loads of inorganic, pasteurized dairy. I 374 00:21:55,660 --> 00:21:57,880 was also smoking lots of cigarettes, you know. So, like, 375 00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:00,480 obviously, lots of things that were irritating my sinuses, 376 00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:05,340 potentially so. So I have seen that the average normal person 377 00:22:05,340 --> 00:22:07,320 who is the average normal lifestyle, they've usually 378 00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:10,320 manifested the things that are the highest risk for however, I 379 00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:13,080 work with two groups of people, often people who are like me, 380 00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:16,440 who have really tried everything and nothing's worked. But then I 381 00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:19,560 also speak to a lot of people like maybe yourself, who are 382 00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:23,840 influencers, experts, thought leaders and people have really 383 00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:26,840 been into this for a long time and living a healthy

lifestyle 384 00:22:26,840 --> 00:22:29,240 for a long time. And honestly, when I go through their results 385 00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:31,820 to them, it's always the most difficult, because I want to go 386 00:22:31,820 --> 00:22:34,280 through it with a normal person, it's like, oh my god, that's so 387 00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:36,860 amazing. They're so accurate. They're so whatever. And then I 388 00:22:36,860 --> 00:22:39,920 go, I just had it last week with the doctor. I went through it 389 00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:43,180 and and and she was like, No, don't have that, don't have 390 00:22:43,180 --> 00:22:46,060 that, don't have that problem. And, you know, it's frustrating 391 00:22:46,060 --> 00:22:48,280 for me, of course, because I'm trying to show that the system 392 00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:50,680 works, because I want them to use it with their clients and 393 00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:53,860 their patients. But what I do then, in that case, is I go 394 00:22:53,860 --> 00:22:55,900 through with them and I say, Okay, fair enough, let's look at 395 00:22:55,900 --> 00:22:58,360 this one. You've got really high risk score. You haven't ever had 396 00:22:58,360 --> 00:23:01,020 it. Fair enough, I acknowledge that, you know, it seems to be 397 00:23:01,020 --> 00:23:03,420 wrong. That's fine. And then I look at the report itself, and 398 00:23:03,420 --> 00:23:05,940 scroll down to recommendations, and often the reports like 399 00:23:05,940 --> 00:23:08,760 majority recommendations, and I look and I always say, if you do 400 00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:11,400 the top three recommendations, that's often more impactful than 401 00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:13,920 doing, like, the next 10, you know, like, that's the most 402 00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:16,320 important. And I say, are you doing this recommendation? Oh, 403 00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:18,060 yeah, I've been doing that for years. Are you doing this 404 00:23:18,060 --> 00:23:20,400 recommendation? Yeah, I've been doing that on and off my whole 405 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:23,540 life. Are you doing this? So and So, I see that again and again, 406 00:23:23,540 --> 00:23:26,420 that when people actually have been doing it for a long time, 407 00:23:26,420 --> 00:23:28,640 because a lot of these things are not things you haven't heard 408 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,220 of. A lot of them are, you know, things that you're already 409 00:23:31,220 --> 00:23:33,980 familiar with, like it actually works, actually make a 410 00:23:33,980 --> 00:23:36,500 difference. So to go back to epigenetics, some people ask me 411 00:23:36,500 --> 00:23:39,860 to quantify it. They say, Well, how much of it is genetics and 412 00:23:39,860 --> 00:23:42,760 how much of it is lifestyle, environment and all the stuff 413 00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:45,820 that you can control. And I used to say, oh, you can't answer 414 00:23:45,820 --> 00:23:47,860 that. But you know what? I actually give an answer these 415 00:23:47,860 --> 00:23:50,980

days, because I've seen so many reports, and often we give you 416 00:23:50,980 --> 00:23:53,440 an estimate for that. So for instance, with heart health, the 417 00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:57,700 figure we give is about 40% so about 40% is genetics, 60% is 418 00:23:57,700 --> 00:24:00,840 environment and lifestyle. Obviously, that's an estimate. 419 00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:05,340 That's not exact, but it gives you some kind of idea. And 420 00:24:05,340 --> 00:24:08,100 honestly, what I have found some things, you know, the report 421 00:24:08,100 --> 00:24:11,160 says only 10% of it is genetics. Sometimes it's, you know, quite 422 00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:13,860 a high percent. And obviously there are some things like, you 423 00:24:13,860 --> 00:24:16,860 know, your eye color and all the rest of it, that's 99 point 424 00:24:16,860 --> 00:24:20,240 something percent, you know, set in stone, although usually we we 425 00:24:20,300 --> 00:24:22,700 don't have reports about that, but we do have some reports on 426 00:24:22,700 --> 00:24:25,520 things that you can't change, more, like traits and, you know, 427 00:24:25,520 --> 00:24:31,400 personality and sleeping habits, and you know what kind of foods 428 00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:35,900 work for you, even nutritional needs. You know you're not, 429 00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:39,020 you're not necessarily going to have nutritional deficiency 430 00:24:39,020 --> 00:24:41,560 because of genetics, but if you have an increased need for a 431 00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:46,300 nutrient, that's not going to change, right, like so that's 432 00:24:46,300 --> 00:24:48,940 like a very high chance that, basically, you're going to have 433 00:24:48,940 --> 00:24:53,140 it. And I see that again and again and again when people have 434 00:24:54,340 --> 00:24:57,580 because I often I encourage people to test based on what we 435 00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:01,380 show them, not to just you. Usually not to take action based 436 00:25:01,380 --> 00:25:04,380 on what we show them. I mean, if your nutritional needs says that 437 00:25:04,380 --> 00:25:08,400 you need more, you know, like a glycine or vitamin B 12, I say 438 00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:11,520 go for it, because these things are pretty safe to have. But if 439 00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,160 it says you need more iron or vitamin d3 or anything like 440 00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:16,200 that, I say test, because you can easily have too much of 441 00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:18,420 those things. So you want to actually confirm it. So I do see 442 00:25:18,420 --> 00:25:22,100 a lot of people who do follow up testing, and I'm amazed at how 443 00:25:22,100 --> 00:25:25,400 often and how accurate is even dodge grade down to the amino 444 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:27,800 acids. You know, say you have an increased need for lysine, you 445 00:25:27,800 --> 00:25:30,080 have an increased need for tyrosine, you have increased 446 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:32,600 need for methionine, all these kind of things. And you can see 447 00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:35,420 actually has a big impact in their life. I had one client, 448 00:25:35,660 --> 00:25:39,080 this is kind of related to, you know, brain and because it's 449 00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:42,640 nervous system issue, they had chronic anxiety for 40 years. He 450 00:25:42,700 --> 00:25:45,400 spent hundreds of 1000s of dollars in trying to resolve it. 451 00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:47,860 He tried every kind of treatment, from, you know, 452 00:25:47,860 --> 00:25:52,960 normal therapy to Ayahuasca to, you know, all kind Reiki, you 453 00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:58,720 know, all kinds of everything. And he had an elevated need for 454 00:25:58,720 --> 00:26:03,600 the amino acid glycine. And glycine is an amino acid that is 455 00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:06,660 not found in huge quantities in anything other than animal 456 00:26:06,660 --> 00:26:10,500 connective tissue, where it's like 20% of the total protein. 457 00:26:10,740 --> 00:26:14,040 And he had been like vegetarian for a long time, and even when 458 00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:17,040 he was eating animals, he was never eating like, you know, 459 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:19,380 bone broth or anything like that. So I just got him on 460 00:26:19,380 --> 00:26:22,040 glycine, and there was loads of other stuff I gave him to do, 461 00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:24,500 and he hadn't got around to most of it. I said, you need to see a 462 00:26:24,500 --> 00:26:26,780 doctor to test for this. He hadn't got around to any of 463 00:26:26,780 --> 00:26:29,420 that, or he started doing his glycine and a couple of herbs, 464 00:26:29,420 --> 00:26:33,380 and he said, the anxiety has gone. 40 years of anxiety has 465 00:26:33,380 --> 00:26:35,840 disappeared. Now. Does that mean that that's going to happen for 466 00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:38,900 every person who has anxiety who takes lysine? No, the vast 467 00:26:38,900 --> 00:26:41,560 majority, it probably won't work for and that's the point. It's 468 00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:45,460 like finding the thing. So, you know, sorry, I've gone on a 469 00:26:45,460 --> 00:26:50,500 tangent to answer the original question. The epigenetics 470 00:26:50,500 --> 00:26:54,460 absolutely do matter. But in this case, with that story I 471 00:26:54,460 --> 00:26:56,980 just told, I guess that guy's always going to need more 472 00:26:56,980 --> 00:26:59,620 glycine, right? He doesn't necessarily have to supplement. 473 00:26:59,620 --> 00:27:02,100 He can just, you know, eat more of the foods that contain it 474 00:27:02,100 --> 00:27:05,280 naturally. But that's not going to change when a lot of other 475 00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:08,700 cases, you know, the vast majority is environment and 476 00:27:08,700 --> 00:27:11,820 lifestyle and genetics play very little part and often in the 477 00:27:11,820 --> 00:27:15,060 major things like the risk of heart disease and diabetes and, 478 00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:17,700 you know, respiratory

health and poisonings and all the things 479 00:27:17,700 --> 00:27:21,920 that actually kill people, is around 40% I see so genetics do 480 00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:23,360 play like a significant part. 481 00:27:23,780 --> 00:27:27,260 Interesting. You know, I've been in practice for 25 years. I 482 00:27:27,260 --> 00:27:32,840 typically said 33% of the time to people express their genes 483 00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:36,920 just like their parents did. Now I had no data to go on. 484 00:27:37,700 --> 00:27:41,620 Anecdotally, what I was seeing in talking to my patients, 485 00:27:41,620 --> 00:27:44,440 hearing their family history and what was going on with them. But 486 00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:48,460 you know, now you're running loads of the genetic data, and 487 00:27:48,460 --> 00:27:52,900 it just, it's a different world. You know, 25 years later, and so 488 00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:56,620 40% I wasn't too far off with that, and 489 00:27:56,620 --> 00:27:59,560 that's my estimate. You may end up being right, I mean, but it's 490 00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:01,320 around that level, yeah, and 491 00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:04,140 so I guess, in just to reiterate, it doesn't mean 492 00:28:04,140 --> 00:28:07,140 you're destined by your genes, but they definitely the way that 493 00:28:07,140 --> 00:28:10,020 I talk about it is it kind of puts you to the front of the 494 00:28:10,020 --> 00:28:14,700 line of we take the guessing out on your platform, and then we 495 00:28:14,700 --> 00:28:18,420 have a much better starting spot. Of course, you can always 496 00:28:18,420 --> 00:28:21,740 do trial and error, but it could take 40 years, like your friend 497 00:28:21,740 --> 00:28:26,180 with the anxiety to figure out a result where this kind of could 498 00:28:26,180 --> 00:28:30,080 streamline it and put you at least to like, what are the best 499 00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:34,820 you know, most probable interventions to create change. 500 00:28:35,120 --> 00:28:39,260 So that leads into, and we will get to, this cognition and brain 501 00:28:39,260 --> 00:28:44,440 health discussion, but on how accurate are these for 502 00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:48,160 determining diet and exercise regimens for people, 503 00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:52,660 you know, very down to even a granular level? So again, I 504 00:28:52,660 --> 00:28:55,360 think a lot of systems out there are overly simplistic. They're 505 00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:58,120 like, you know, are you this type? Are you that type? And 506 00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:01,080 sometimes I dabble in that kind of thing. But I think in 507 00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:04,740 reality, you know, different people have different needs all 508 00:29:04,740 --> 00:29:07,680 the way down to, as I said, like the individual amino acid and 509 00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:11,100 the individual micronutrient. And so understanding that, I 510 00:29:11,100 --> 00:29:13,260 think, could finally give you the key. But of course, when it 511 00:29:13,260 -->

00:29:16,680 comes to dietary The other big thing is how well you digest. So 512 00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:18,600 we have, you know, a whole category based on that, with 513 00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:23,060 lots of reports. And there's what foods does your body treat 514 00:29:23,060 --> 00:29:27,920 as if they are a poison, or what foods contain things that your 515 00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:31,280 body struggles to detoxify. So, you know, for instance, 516 00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:36,260 oxalates, histamines and salicylates are, you know, 517 00:29:36,260 --> 00:29:38,840 poison ish, things that are naturally found in foods that 518 00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:41,500 your body, quote, unquote, should be able to process and 519 00:29:41,500 --> 00:29:43,840 deal with without any problem, but that there's a certain 520 00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:46,780 subset of people who have specific genetic variants and 521 00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:49,300 possibly other environmental stuff going on as well, that 522 00:29:49,300 --> 00:29:53,440 means that they do not deal with those things very well. And so, 523 00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:56,500 you know, that's another book I didn't It's not in the intro, 524 00:29:56,500 --> 00:29:58,660 but it's the other book that I have forthcoming. Is that, you 525 00:29:58,660 --> 00:30:01,680 know, the rejuvenate diet and. It's, I call it that because 526 00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:04,740 everyone was calling it a diet, but it's a non diet, diet, like 527 00:30:04,740 --> 00:30:07,740 one of my central precepts of that is there is literally 528 00:30:07,740 --> 00:30:13,500 nothing that is good for everyone, yeah, like that. What 529 00:30:13,500 --> 00:30:16,320 is medicine to one person might be poison for another. I've I 530 00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:18,540 the only you know, I ask people. I can ask yourself, you can 531 00:30:18,540 --> 00:30:21,000 think through any exceptions to that, the only thing I can think 532 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:24,200 of is maybe like an air purifier or a water purifier, that's 533 00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:27,380 like, beneficial for everyone, but almost anything else, even 534 00:30:27,380 --> 00:30:30,560 any type of regimen and sunlight, some people have an 535 00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:32,780 issue of that fresh air. Some people have an issue of that, 536 00:30:32,780 --> 00:30:35,060 like any kind of food. Some people have an issue with that. 537 00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:38,540 So, like, you really got to take it on a case by case basis, and 538 00:30:38,540 --> 00:30:44,320 so I would say, so long as you are not looking for simple, one 539 00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:49,660 size fits all answers. This is the very best approach. And as I 540 00:30:49,660 --> 00:30:52,660 said, I wouldn't base everything purely on what the genetics say, 541 00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:55,780 but the combination of starting with the genetics, that's why 542 00:30:55,780 --> 00:30:59,140 it's the first step of my seven step system. Start with genetics 543 00:30:59,140 --> 00:31:01,860 and then go, oh, you know, maybe I need to test for these food 544 00:31:01,860 --> 00:31:04,260 intolerances. Maybe I need to test for these nutritional 545 00:31:04,260 --> 00:31:06,960 deficiencies. Maybe I need to test to see if I have an excess 546 00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:09,600 level of these toxins. Maybe I need to test to see if I have 547 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:12,480 these hormonal imbalances or neurotransmitter imbalances, or 548 00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:15,120 whatever it might be, you know, like these are the basic things, 549 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:18,900 which I often see is like the root cause of all this disease 550 00:31:18,900 --> 00:31:24,920 and lack of wellness, and to start with genetics. And then, 551 00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:30,320 do you know, in most cases, do further testing to validate, as 552 00:31:30,320 --> 00:31:33,260 I said, again and again, it can be life changing. And sometimes 553 00:31:33,260 --> 00:31:35,720 it's just an amino acid, sometimes it's just a hormone, 554 00:31:35,900 --> 00:31:38,840 sometimes it's just a herb that, you know, adapts a hormone or 555 00:31:39,020 --> 00:31:42,520 like and sometimes it's a simple lifestyle change, and these 556 00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:45,880 things can have a massive effect because of the weakest link 557 00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:48,580 idea, you know, like it's the the weakest link in the chain. 558 00:31:48,580 --> 00:31:51,880 You're only as strong as your weakest link. And so if you have 559 00:31:51,880 --> 00:31:55,180 a, you know, say, a deficiency, and something obscure you might 560 00:31:55,180 --> 00:31:59,320 not even heard of, like molybdenum or alanine or 561 00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:02,160 something like that, these are things, and no guru is going to 562 00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:04,740 tell you your health problems are caused by, you know, like 563 00:32:04,740 --> 00:32:08,580 it's very unlikely, and yet it could be the thing for you, 564 00:32:08,580 --> 00:32:10,860 which makes the biggest difference of all, 565 00:32:10,860 --> 00:32:15,660 interesting. Well, great. So you know now we've wound them up. 566 00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:20,360 We've wound up to the to the punchline. So you know, this 567 00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:25,820 aspect of you utilizing your genetic platform for program 568 00:32:25,820 --> 00:32:29,000 development to create cutting edge therapeutics and 569 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:34,460 specifically around brain health. What are some examples 570 00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:40,360 of patterns that you've seen and or you know, some maybe you 571 00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:43,840 know, not without geeking out too much, but getting into some 572 00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:47,560 of it, you know, some of the names of the SNPs, or things 573 00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:50,980 that you consider when you're thinking about brain health. For 574 00:32:50,980 --> 00:32:52,420 folks, sure. 575 00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:55,780 I

mean, honestly, I don't usually focus on individual 576 00:32:55,780 --> 00:32:58,780 snips. That is one of the differences for our system to 577 00:32:58,780 --> 00:33:01,920 other people's. I sometimes focus on jeans, maybe, but, you 578 00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:05,460 know, not, I think, yeah, yeah, 579 00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:09,300 have it that way. However you take that question, go with it, 580 00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:10,560 yeah, absolutely. 581 00:33:11,460 --> 00:33:15,240 So I would start with the basics, honestly, which may 582 00:33:15,300 --> 00:33:18,360 sound boring to say, but you know, so I have our category in 583 00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:21,320 front of me, our brain health category, and it contains, like, 584 00:33:21,380 --> 00:33:23,720 obvious stuff that you might assume that there would be 585 00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:27,020 rapport and, like, cognitive decline, short term memory, 586 00:33:27,740 --> 00:33:32,060 verbal ability, cognition, and, you know, things like diabetic 587 00:33:32,060 --> 00:33:35,540 neuropathy, peripheral neuropathy, like these kind of 588 00:33:35,540 --> 00:33:37,640 things that you know very much speak to the potential 589 00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:40,100 degradation of their system. And then we also have things in 590 00:33:40,100 --> 00:33:42,760 there about, you know, relevant nutrients, relevant 591 00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:45,820 neurotransmitters, relevant genes. Some of the genes that I 592 00:33:45,820 --> 00:33:51,220 include in there, for instance, are comt and BD, EMF. But, you 593 00:33:51,220 --> 00:33:53,800 know, usually I wouldn't start with any of that stuff. I just 594 00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:57,940 said I would actually start with, you know, like a, for 595 00:33:57,940 --> 00:34:01,980 instance, a stress report. I would look at an inflammation 596 00:34:01,980 --> 00:34:06,900 report. I would look at a blood sugar like a hypoglycemia 597 00:34:06,900 --> 00:34:12,420 report. I would look at a, you know, an arterial health report. 598 00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:17,700 I would look at, let's just see, yeah, well, let's just start 599 00:34:17,700 --> 00:34:21,620 with those ones. For instance, because, you know, a lot of, 600 00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:25,460 actually, yeah, oh, yeah. And I would look at a like a basic 601 00:34:25,460 --> 00:34:30,740 hormonal, you know, report in most cases as well. Because, you 602 00:34:30,740 --> 00:34:34,160 know, I think this is my theory. I wonder if you agree that, you 603 00:34:34,160 --> 00:34:38,060 know, a lack of thyroid function is like an epidemic in our 604 00:34:38,060 --> 00:34:43,180 society that is undiagnosed 100 years ago, it was common. You 605 00:34:43,180 --> 00:34:46,540 know, 30% of people, roughly, were considered to be have low 606 00:34:46,540 --> 00:34:52,120 thyroid function. You know, the common symptoms are being 607 00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:55,840 overweight, dry skin, constipation, but also digestive 608 00:34:55,840 --> 00:35:00,360 problems in general, allergies and intolerances. You. Chronic 609 00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:07,320 infections, edema and anxiety and or depression and, yeah, you 610 00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:10,620 know lack of cognitive function as well. It's a crucial part of 611 00:35:10,620 --> 00:35:15,540 it. And why doctors, medical doctors, often don't like to if 612 00:35:15,540 --> 00:35:17,520 you go in with all those symptoms, oh, and fatigue, 613 00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:19,740 sorry, the most obvious one, sure. And when you and when you 614 00:35:19,740 --> 00:35:22,280 go into such a broad section of symptoms, they don't like it 615 00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:24,860 because it's too diverse, and they're like, Oh, you're making 616 00:35:24,860 --> 00:35:27,560 it up, or it's just whatever. And they'll kind of fob you off. 617 00:35:27,860 --> 00:35:30,260 But the truth is that all of those things I just said, and 618 00:35:30,260 --> 00:35:32,960 it's very common, and probably a lot of people listening to this 619 00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:36,320 can relate to maybe most of them is because they're all basically 620 00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:39,320 down to one simple thing, which is a lack of energy, right? A 621 00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:42,940 lack of energy on the cellular mitochondrial level. Now, a lack 622 00:35:42,940 --> 00:35:46,420 of energy on the cellular mitochondrial level can be down 623 00:35:46,420 --> 00:35:49,360 to things other than thyroid, of course, right? And you know one 624 00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:52,060 of the thing is, you know, anemia commonly something that 625 00:35:52,060 --> 00:35:55,300 doctors do routinely test for, right? And especially in women, 626 00:35:55,300 --> 00:35:59,680 that you know commonly, is an issue. But I see so often, like 627 00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:03,060 people focusing on mitochondrial health and metabolic health, and 628 00:36:03,060 --> 00:36:05,220 all of a sudden they're talking about, like, carnitine, they're 629 00:36:05,220 --> 00:36:07,500 talking about CO, Q, 10, all this stuff. And I'm like, But 630 00:36:07,500 --> 00:36:11,400 what about thyroid? What about the very thing that tells the 631 00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:15,540 mitochondria to create energy in the first place? And so, you 632 00:36:15,540 --> 00:36:18,180 know, one of the things, if someone has cognitive issues 633 00:36:18,480 --> 00:36:22,760 before I looked at bdmf, or, like any of these more you know, 634 00:36:22,820 --> 00:36:26,360 advanced things I'd be looking at. Okay, so first of all, is 635 00:36:26,420 --> 00:36:30,380 your body creating enough energy because, and here's, here's the 636 00:36:30,380 --> 00:36:33,680 distinction, I would say that helps you know, on a clinical 637 00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:36,740 level, to identify this is the issue. If you're still 638 00:36:36,740 --> 00:36:40,720 reasonably mentally sharp, but your problem is more like 639 00:36:40,720 --> 00:36:46,840 memory, then I often say that that

would be a thyroid issue. 640 00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:50,800 And the reason being, because my understanding is when you have 641 00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:53,680 low cellular energy, when you have low mitochondrial energy, 642 00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:57,880 which I relate to, say chi. In the eastern system, your body 643 00:36:57,880 --> 00:37:01,620 has to go into its you know, in the eastern system, reserve 644 00:37:01,620 --> 00:37:05,040 energy, it's Jing, which I would relate more to, you know, 645 00:37:05,460 --> 00:37:09,360 adrenal over activation from a western point of view. And so 646 00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:13,740 the adrenaline goes up, the cortisol goes up. When those 647 00:37:13,740 --> 00:37:16,920 systems go up, the body prioritizes the survival 648 00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:19,260 functions. So there's plenty of energy for the heart, there's 649 00:37:19,260 --> 00:37:21,660 plenty of energy for the lungs, there's plenty of energy for the 650 00:37:21,660 --> 00:37:23,840 muscles, there's plenty of energy there's plenty of energy 651 00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:26,360 for some of the functions of the brain, like the ability to 652 00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:30,560 focus, but the more luxury functions, like the immune 653 00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:33,980 system, like the detoxification system, and from my experience, 654 00:37:33,980 --> 00:37:37,160 like the memory system, is often what suffers. So I see that 655 00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:39,620 again with people like, I'm still like, I'm still sharp 656 00:37:39,620 --> 00:37:42,280 enough to, like, do stuff, I keep forgetting stuff, and then 657 00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:45,040 I see that they have this pattern of, like, what I call 658 00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:47,620 adrenaline dominance, although I got the term from Dr Michael 659 00:37:47,620 --> 00:37:52,300 Platt, who coined it. And so that I would say, you know, if 660 00:37:52,300 --> 00:37:54,580 you can relate to that, then I would look at a lack of 661 00:37:54,580 --> 00:37:57,820 fundamental energy before I look at the brain specifically. So 662 00:37:57,820 --> 00:38:01,560 that's why I bring that up. And look at is stress high, and is 663 00:38:01,560 --> 00:38:04,260 actual mitochondrial energy production low? And the two 664 00:38:04,260 --> 00:38:07,260 questions have to go together, because often you don't realize 665 00:38:07,260 --> 00:38:10,860 that you have low energy. If you are that type that goes into an 666 00:38:11,460 --> 00:38:15,000 overly adrenal state in response to a lack of mitochondrial 667 00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:17,940 energy. Generally, if you have a lack of micro energy, energy, 668 00:38:18,060 --> 00:38:22,040 there's one of two, like avenues you can go down. You can either 669 00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:24,500 go into the sympathetic state, where you jack up your 670 00:38:24,500 --> 00:38:26,780 adrenaline, all the rest of it, in that case, as I said, like 671 00:38:26,780 --> 00:38:30,380 your ability to focus and

process things, tends to be as 672 00:38:30,380 --> 00:38:34,940 quick and as functional as ever, but the memories suffers. Or you 673 00:38:34,940 --> 00:38:38,840 go into more the dorsal vagal state, which is this kind of, to 674 00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:42,160 some degree, shuts down state, this kind of partial hibernation 675 00:38:42,160 --> 00:38:44,680 state. And then when you do that, of course, everything 676 00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:47,440 slows down. It's kind of more of a depressed kind of state. But 677 00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:50,320 you know, you're also going to tend to have low energy in 678 00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:54,280 general, not just in your brain. So if you you know, if all of 679 00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:57,340 you is low energy, including your brain, then I would also 680 00:38:57,340 --> 00:38:59,980 look at the thyroid, potentially, and other things to 681 00:38:59,980 --> 00:39:03,000 do with basic energy. So that's kind of one element of energy 682 00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:05,580 for the brain. The other element of energy brain that I would 683 00:39:05,580 --> 00:39:08,940 look at straight away is blood sugar. I think again, there is 684 00:39:08,940 --> 00:39:14,580 an epidemic of hypoglycemia and insulin resistance, which is not 685 00:39:14,580 --> 00:39:17,520 recognized and not talked about. Because, again, a lot of people 686 00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:23,360 are like avoiding some of the negative effects by abusing 687 00:39:23,360 --> 00:39:27,680 stimulants and by, you know, running on stress, which you can 688 00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:30,980 you don't have to take something to spike adrenaline in your 689 00:39:30,980 --> 00:39:33,560 system. You only have to, oh, my God, this is going to happen. 690 00:39:33,560 --> 00:39:36,620 And this is why a lot of people become addicted to, you know, 691 00:39:36,620 --> 00:39:39,140 worrying and drama and all the rest of it, because it spikes 692 00:39:39,140 --> 00:39:42,460 their adrenaline. And again, if you do that, what happens is, 693 00:39:42,460 --> 00:39:45,520 you know, often, unless you're very far advanced in that you 694 00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:49,540 can still think and focus reasonably well. But again, it's 695 00:39:49,540 --> 00:39:53,740 like memory and creativity and being able to think outside the 696 00:39:53,740 --> 00:39:56,740 box and all those kind of more executive functions that are non 697 00:39:56,800 --> 00:40:00,660 emergency based start to suffer. You know. Okay, so yes, you're 698 00:40:00,660 --> 00:40:03,300 still able to focus and you're still able to think quickly, but 699 00:40:03,300 --> 00:40:06,720 first of all, memory goes but then also, you know, your 700 00:40:06,720 --> 00:40:10,920 worldview kind of narrows. Often, your decision making gets 701 00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:13,140 worse and worse, because it's coming from this, you know, 702 00:40:13,140 --> 00:40:16,740 reactive stress, like state. So that would be one of the other, 703 00:40:16,740 --> 00:40:19,860 you know, primary things that I focused on. And so blood sugar, 704 00:40:19,860 --> 00:40:23,960 you know, for instance, I see an epidemic of people in the health 705 00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:28,160 world who skip breakfast intermittent fasting, just drink 706 00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:31,820 coffee. They you know, maybe all just a juice or something like 707 00:40:31,820 --> 00:40:34,700 that. The problem is, if you're not having protein, carbs and 708 00:40:34,700 --> 00:40:37,940 fat in the right ratio, for you pretty soon after waking up. And 709 00:40:37,940 --> 00:40:40,960 I know the Eastern system, those system teaches this as well. 710 00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:44,860 Your body starts cannibalizing your own, you know, nutrient 711 00:40:44,860 --> 00:40:47,860 reserves. And it does that by raising cortisol and raising an 712 00:40:47,860 --> 00:40:50,020 oradrenaline, raising adrenaline, it has to raise 713 00:40:50,020 --> 00:40:53,320 those stress chemicals, to do gluconeogenesis and lipolysis 714 00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:57,520 and all the things to pull the energy out of storage so your 715 00:40:57,520 --> 00:41:00,700 your your negatively affecting cognitive function. But the 716 00:41:00,700 --> 00:41:03,540 problem is, it doesn't feel like it right. You wake up, you don't 717 00:41:03,540 --> 00:41:05,940 eat, you have a coffee, you're like, Oh, my brain is good. And 718 00:41:05,940 --> 00:41:08,220 then maybe you eventually eat, maybe it's lunch, maybe it's 719 00:41:08,220 --> 00:41:10,500 dinner, and then you're like, Oh, now I feel so tired and I 720 00:41:10,500 --> 00:41:15,240 can't think clearly anymore. But it's an illusion, because food, 721 00:41:15,240 --> 00:41:17,640 if it's the right food and done the right way, it gives you 722 00:41:17,640 --> 00:41:20,840 energy, like your body makes basic energy, whether you call 723 00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:25,640 it ATP, or whether you call it Qi, out of oxygen and glucose, 724 00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:28,100 like on the simplest level, right? So it's breathing and 725 00:41:28,100 --> 00:41:32,540 eating. And so if eating gives you less energy, that tells you 726 00:41:32,540 --> 00:41:35,780 you're running on stress, which, again, allows some of your brain 727 00:41:35,780 --> 00:41:39,020 functions to keep going for a long time. But a lot of those 728 00:41:39,020 --> 00:41:43,120 higher functions, creativity, you know, good decision making, 729 00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:46,300 memory, all that kind of stuff will often, like, start to 730 00:41:46,300 --> 00:41:50,260 suffer quite early. So I would say, you know, balancing blood 731 00:41:50,260 --> 00:41:53,140 sugar, making sure your blood sugar doesn't crash. Breakfast 732 00:41:53,140 --> 00:41:55,720 being the most important meal of the day, all that kind of stuff 733 00:41:55,720 --> 00:41:58,180 would be something I focus on. And of course, if you do feel 734 00:41:58,660 --> 00:42:01,620 like you're

you have brain fog and all the rest of it after 735 00:42:01,620 --> 00:42:05,040 eating, then it's not that you should not eat half the day, 736 00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:07,920 especially the first half of the day. It's that you need to work 737 00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:10,620 out what's going on of your digestion, or what's wrong with 738 00:42:10,620 --> 00:42:13,620 your diet that is making you have brain fog after you eat. 739 00:42:13,620 --> 00:42:16,080 Because that's not normal. That's not the way it's supposed 740 00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:17,100 to be. Yeah, 741 00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:21,740 yeah. That's lovely. You know, I think it's it's a biggie that we 742 00:42:21,740 --> 00:42:25,580 see in a lot of bow hacking and in longevity of, oh, you've got 743 00:42:25,580 --> 00:42:29,840 to do intermittent fasting. And it's actually, it's more 744 00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:34,460 difficult for women to do that. And that is, you've really said 745 00:42:34,460 --> 00:42:37,760 that very well. Thank you for that. That's, I think a lot of 746 00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:41,800 folks are going through those patterns feeling like they're 747 00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:45,340 doing the right thing, and yet they're eating and then they 748 00:42:45,340 --> 00:42:50,500 crash. And that's a great marker that you're running on stress. 749 00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:54,040 And maybe get your hormone levels checked with a dodge or 750 00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:57,520 a, you know, diurnal cortisol pattern to see, well, what is 751 00:42:57,520 --> 00:43:00,180 going on there? Are you measuring your blood sugars? You 752 00:43:00,180 --> 00:43:03,840 know, diabesity of the brain is a real thing. Why we're seeing 753 00:43:03,900 --> 00:43:09,360 Alzheimer's cognitive decline increase as we go forward here 754 00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:13,800 is, there is a lot more sugar imbalances because of the food 755 00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:18,300 industry, and our diets have been hijacked by food 756 00:43:18,300 --> 00:43:24,140 processing, etc. So that's, that's, that was really a great, 757 00:43:24,140 --> 00:43:27,200 succinct way of putting it together. Yeah, thank you. 758 00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:31,220 And I would say women are also free to is more likely to have 759 00:43:31,220 --> 00:43:34,280 fire issues, right? Like, diagnose normal thyroid issues, 760 00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:39,860 and I think it's absolutely related that. So yeah, to me, 761 00:43:39,860 --> 00:43:43,720 the key is, like, get your metabolism going faster, which 762 00:43:43,720 --> 00:43:49,120 you can tell by, you know, like a 37 or 98.6 degree middle of 763 00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:53,620 the day, you know, under the time, kind of temperature. And 764 00:43:53,620 --> 00:43:56,680 if you if you've achieved that, and you can maintain that, and 765 00:43:56,680 --> 00:43:59,380 then you add intermittent fasting, and it doesn't reduce 766 00:43:59,380 --> 00:44:01,980 your metabolism, then intermittent fasting is great, 767 00:44:01,980 --> 00:44:04,740 but the problem is, most people are doing intermittent fasting 768 00:44:04,980 --> 00:44:09,420 because they are not producing enough mitochondrial energy. So 769 00:44:09,420 --> 00:44:11,820 they're having all these health problems and probably feeling 770 00:44:11,820 --> 00:44:15,780 brain fog and feeding low energy. And then by doing 771 00:44:15,780 --> 00:44:18,600 periods of time and not eating, that slows down your metabolism 772 00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:21,500 even more, it raises your adrenaline even more, which 773 00:44:21,500 --> 00:44:24,080 makes the problem even worse. And then the practical thing, in 774 00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:27,080 terms of what you said, there is the number one thing. You hear 775 00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:30,620 people, but I'm not hungry when I wake up, it's like but that is 776 00:44:30,620 --> 00:44:33,140 the number one sign that you're running on adrenaline. That's 777 00:44:33,140 --> 00:44:35,780 adrenaline dominance. If you wake up and you don't have a not 778 00:44:35,780 --> 00:44:38,240 just not hungry in the sense of my energy is low. But if you 779 00:44:38,240 --> 00:44:40,780 don't have a grumbling in your stomach within an hour of waking 780 00:44:40,780 --> 00:44:44,920 up, you are almost certainly running on adrenaline, and that 781 00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:48,160 is not sustainable. Again, if you have good strong genes, 782 00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:51,640 sustainable for a lot longer than people who have less strong 783 00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:55,840 genes in this sense, but eventually it is always going to 784 00:44:55,840 --> 00:44:57,760 leave you depleted. Yeah. 785 00:44:59,020 --> 00:45:03,660 Well, any. Any last pieces on that brain health, because I 786 00:45:03,660 --> 00:45:08,100 know we're just getting into it, and would like to some more of 787 00:45:08,100 --> 00:45:11,880 the top level things for folks to think about. I 788 00:45:12,240 --> 00:45:14,700 mean, I could talk about stress, but we kind of really have I can 789 00:45:14,700 --> 00:45:17,640 talk about inflammation, but I guess you hear about it a lot. 790 00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:19,920 Let's talk about, like, something that's maybe a little 791 00:45:19,920 --> 00:45:22,940 bit more interesting to people, and that would be dopamine, you 792 00:45:22,940 --> 00:45:28,640 know. So dopamine is the neurotransmitter which gives you 793 00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:33,320 focus, and which also which gives you energy. Like, sorry, 794 00:45:33,380 --> 00:45:37,400 not energy. I'll just describe energy, enthusiasm, enthusiasm, 795 00:45:37,400 --> 00:45:42,460 motivation, passion, drive, ambition, all of those kind of 796 00:45:42,460 --> 00:45:45,280 words are dependent on dopamine. So my understanding of dopamine 797 00:45:45,280 --> 00:45:47,860 from an evolutionary point of view, is, it's the thing that 798 00:45:47,860 --> 00:45:51,940 makes you want things. And so the secondary function of

799 00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:54,580 dopamine, because it's the thing that makes you want things, is 800 00:45:54,580 --> 00:45:58,240 it also is the thing that gives you mental clarity. Because, you 801 00:45:58,240 --> 00:46:01,440 know, throughout most our evolution, for most of our 802 00:46:01,860 --> 00:46:05,760 mammal, distant relatives, or however you want to put it, 803 00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:09,900 there is always a problem of there's basic life is two 804 00:46:09,900 --> 00:46:14,160 things. It's getting away from things which are dangerous, so 805 00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:16,740 it's being able to spot that, and that's more done through 806 00:46:17,700 --> 00:46:20,520 adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol, the things that I've 807 00:46:20,520 --> 00:46:23,360 just talked about, but the other side of it is getting things 808 00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:26,840 that you want. So, and this is usually food or, you know, 809 00:46:26,840 --> 00:46:32,780 mating opportunities of the type that you like. And so a lot of 810 00:46:32,780 --> 00:46:36,380 people, I would say, if you're the kind of person who's like, I 811 00:46:36,380 --> 00:46:38,600 have enough energy still, well, when I don't relate to 812 00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:41,200 everything you said, but, you know, I just don't have much joy 813 00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:43,480 in my life anymore. And I'm start, you know, my brain's 814 00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:46,780 starting to slow down, and maybe I'm, you know, I'm kind of 815 00:46:46,780 --> 00:46:49,540 worrying too much, and I'm not happy, and I find it hard to 816 00:46:49,540 --> 00:46:52,540 relax all the rest of it. I'd say, the reason why you're still 817 00:46:52,540 --> 00:46:55,300 functional and still able to maybe earn a lot of money and 818 00:46:55,300 --> 00:46:59,020 run a household and five kids and all that stuff is because 819 00:46:59,020 --> 00:47:01,860 your adrenaline, your cortisol, is keeping you going, but the 820 00:47:01,860 --> 00:47:04,320 reason why you're lacking joy and the reason why you're 821 00:47:04,320 --> 00:47:07,800 lacking motivation, like, if I I'm doing it because I love to 822 00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:11,880 or because I want to, is because the dopamine is not there 823 00:47:11,880 --> 00:47:15,000 anymore. So in my experience, I'm sure you see the exact same 824 00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:18,000 thing, dopamine collapses before cortisol and adrenaline, which 825 00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:23,120 is because, because staying alive in, you know, in terms of 826 00:47:23,120 --> 00:47:26,060 in an emergency situation, is more fundamental than getting 827 00:47:26,060 --> 00:47:30,080 things that you want from a design point of view. And so I 828 00:47:30,080 --> 00:47:32,600 would look at dopamine as one of the first things, you know, the 829 00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:36,140 other thing, the other element of it, is memory and stuff like 830 00:47:36,140 --> 00:47:42,520 that, which I, you know, I would look at more choline and the PMT 831 00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:45,700 gene specifically, and you know, stuff like that when it comes to 832 00:47:45,700 --> 00:47:49,660 memory. But yeah, so those would be like my two starting places. 833 00:47:49,660 --> 00:47:52,840 But let's talk about dopamine a little bit more. So some people 834 00:47:52,900 --> 00:47:57,160 naturally have high dopamine, some people naturally have low 835 00:47:57,160 --> 00:48:00,100 dopamine. And you know, many people are in the middle. That's 836 00:48:00,100 --> 00:48:04,080 super, super important to find out about yourself, especially 837 00:48:04,080 --> 00:48:06,780 if you have a genetic tendency for low dopamine. You are 838 00:48:06,840 --> 00:48:10,740 absolutely going to have addictive tendencies of one type 839 00:48:10,740 --> 00:48:17,340 or another, and you are going to find it very difficult to just 840 00:48:17,340 --> 00:48:23,660 like focus and you know, whether it's on studying or in your work 841 00:48:23,660 --> 00:48:26,720 or whatever it is you might need to do, and you might find it 842 00:48:26,720 --> 00:48:33,020 very tempting to go on social media or shopping or gambling or 843 00:48:33,020 --> 00:48:35,840 pornography or, you know, whatever it might be even, 844 00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:39,500 let's, you know, let's talk about the fairly, you Know, 845 00:48:39,740 --> 00:48:42,940 innocuous addictions, let alone drug addiction and sexual 846 00:48:42,940 --> 00:48:45,640 addiction, all the kind of life destroying ones. But you know, 847 00:48:45,640 --> 00:48:47,980 you're going to find it very difficult, and that's because 848 00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:51,040 you're constantly trying to raise your dopamine to a point 849 00:48:51,040 --> 00:48:54,460 of feeling okay, and so that's very important to know about 850 00:48:54,460 --> 00:48:56,500 yourself. There's a gene called compt. I don't know if you 851 00:48:56,500 --> 00:48:59,080 talked about it on your podcast before. Um, okay, let's talk 852 00:48:59,080 --> 00:49:01,980 about that one just briefly, if we have time for that, because 853 00:49:01,980 --> 00:49:04,980 it's very interesting gene. As you ask for a gene, I'll give 854 00:49:04,980 --> 00:49:10,320 you a gene. So compt. Comt is the gene which breaks down 855 00:49:10,320 --> 00:49:13,740 catecholamines, which are a specific class of stress 856 00:49:13,740 --> 00:49:16,260 chemicals, and they basically consist of adrenaline, 857 00:49:16,500 --> 00:49:20,600 noradrenaline, sometimes called epinephrine, nopinephrine, and 858 00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:26,000 dopamine, and the and dopamine is a key point. So some people 859 00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:28,580 break those down very quickly. Some people break them down very 860 00:49:28,580 --> 00:49:31,400 slowly. Obviously, many people are in between. But again, it's 861 00:49:31,400 --> 00:49:35,060 that is very important to know about yourself. Are you fast 862 00:49:35,060 --> 00:49:38,060 comped

or slow comped, especially, and so, you know, a 863 00:49:38,060 --> 00:49:41,440 lot of genes, a lot of the difference between is basically 864 00:49:41,440 --> 00:49:44,380 just how quick or how slow they work. That's often, you know, 865 00:49:44,380 --> 00:49:46,840 that has huge repercussions, but that's when you really boil it 866 00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:49,240 down. That's like the simplistic way of looking at it. And so 867 00:49:49,240 --> 00:49:53,320 that's true for this comp. And so if you have a tendency to 868 00:49:53,320 --> 00:49:57,340 break stress chemicals down quickly, then you have a serious 869 00:49:57,400 --> 00:50:00,060 advantage in life, which is often obvious, but also. A 870 00:50:00,060 --> 00:50:03,960 serious disadvantage, which may not be immediately obvious. The 871 00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:06,660 serious advantage to breaking down stress chemicals quickly 872 00:50:06,780 --> 00:50:11,820 is, if you are in a war zone, if you're in a highly difficult 873 00:50:11,820 --> 00:50:15,720 stressful situation, you have an amazing resilience. Because 874 00:50:15,720 --> 00:50:17,940 whereas someone who breaks them down slowly, the stress 875 00:50:17,940 --> 00:50:20,540 chemicals might build up more and more until they start to 876 00:50:20,540 --> 00:50:23,480 feel overwhelmed and, you know, be seriously traumatized and 877 00:50:23,480 --> 00:50:26,660 have a nervous breakdown and all the rest of it, you're okay. So 878 00:50:26,900 --> 00:50:29,240 that's a serious and I'm not that kind of person. I always 879 00:50:29,240 --> 00:50:31,700 used to look at that kind of person go, Oh God, I wish I was 880 00:50:31,700 --> 00:50:34,160 more resilient. I wish I was like that. I wish I could take 881 00:50:34,160 --> 00:50:37,040 things in my stride. I wish things were no big deal to me, 882 00:50:37,040 --> 00:50:39,500 like those kind of people, and they're often called, like, the 883 00:50:39,500 --> 00:50:43,180 warrior gene. It's often called the warrior warrior, but I think 884 00:50:43,180 --> 00:50:46,480 warrior warrior is the wrong term for it. I would like to 885 00:50:46,780 --> 00:50:49,660 suggest a new one for comp it's actually the wizard warrior, 886 00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:54,040 because the other type, the type that is slow, comped, they have 887 00:50:54,040 --> 00:50:58,660 the they break down stress chemicals slowly, but that also 888 00:50:58,660 --> 00:51:01,440 means that they break down dopamine slowly. So the 889 00:51:01,440 --> 00:51:05,100 disadvantage that they have is in a stressful situation, they 890 00:51:05,100 --> 00:51:07,620 are more likely to become overwhelmed. If it continues for 891 00:51:07,620 --> 00:51:10,440 too long, they're more likely to shut down, you know, have a 892 00:51:10,440 --> 00:51:14,640 nervous breakdown, all of that kind of stuff, panic attack, all 893 00:51:14,640 --> 00:51:18,840 that. But they also have an advantage, and the fast 894 00:51:18,840 --> 00:51:23,060 conference has a disadvantage, which is in a peaceful 895 00:51:23,060 --> 00:51:27,740 situation, a fast, calm person who breaks down stress chemicals 896 00:51:27,740 --> 00:51:31,940 very quickly. They become bored and they can't focus on 897 00:51:31,940 --> 00:51:35,420 anything, and often, they will actually create stress. They 898 00:51:35,420 --> 00:51:38,000 will create drama. They will create crisis. They will create 899 00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:41,080 war, because they only feel good in their situation. I remember 900 00:51:41,080 --> 00:51:43,600 listening to an interview of a boxer, and they said, while you 901 00:51:43,600 --> 00:51:45,940 do it, you don't get paid very much. It's, you know, like 902 00:51:45,940 --> 00:51:48,820 brutal, your brain damage all the rest of it. He goes, it's 903 00:51:48,820 --> 00:51:51,520 the only time I'm not bored. That's what he said. So that's 904 00:51:51,520 --> 00:51:55,780 like a that's a classic fast comps warrior gene. That is 905 00:51:55,780 --> 00:51:59,740 often how they feel. And I, as much as I was, always, like, 906 00:51:59,800 --> 00:52:02,400 envious of those people who are very resilient being in a 907 00:52:02,400 --> 00:52:05,340 crisis. I was also like, why does this person seem to keep 908 00:52:05,340 --> 00:52:08,460 creating a crisis situation unnecessarily? Like, I never 909 00:52:08,460 --> 00:52:11,160 quite understood that either, but when I understood genes, I 910 00:52:11,160 --> 00:52:16,320 understood Oh, and so the slow, calm person, because they break 911 00:52:16,320 --> 00:52:18,960 down. They break down adrenaline, Nord, a slowly, 912 00:52:18,960 --> 00:52:22,160 okay, not great. But they also break down dopamine slowly, and 913 00:52:22,160 --> 00:52:24,800 dopamine is the primary neurotransmitter that makes you 914 00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:27,800 feel good and gives you ability to focus and makes your brain 915 00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:30,380 work well and make your brain work quickly, and all the rest 916 00:52:30,380 --> 00:52:33,380 of it. And so the way I look at it now is, if you are fast 917 00:52:33,380 --> 00:52:37,580 comped, you're more warrior type who is genetically predisposed 918 00:52:37,580 --> 00:52:41,860 to thrive in a chaotic, stressful environment. But if 919 00:52:41,860 --> 00:52:45,640 you are the wizard type, the slow comp, who breaks down the 920 00:52:46,180 --> 00:52:49,540 neurotransmitters, especially dopamine, slowly, you are more 921 00:52:49,540 --> 00:52:54,400 likely to thrive in a peaceful, harmonious environment, and so 922 00:52:54,460 --> 00:52:57,100 both of them have an advantage, both of them have have a 923 00:52:57,100 --> 00:53:01,020 disadvantage. So that's one example. But of course, when it 924 00:53:01,020 --> 00:53:04,680 comes to brain like, if you know, talk about GABA, it's 925 00:53:04,680 --> 00:53:07,380 great to have high levels of GABA, in many ways, it keeps 926 00:53:07,380 --> 00:53:10,080

you, you know, again, from being stressed and overwhelmed and all 927 00:53:10,080 --> 00:53:12,780 the rest of it. But if you have high levels of GABA, you're kind 928 00:53:12,780 --> 00:53:15,780 of in a sedated state a lot of the time, and you kind of need 929 00:53:15,780 --> 00:53:18,840 something to break out of it and infer, you know, you maybe, you 930 00:53:18,840 --> 00:53:21,440 know, a stimulant, the coffee is actually a good idea, because it 931 00:53:21,440 --> 00:53:24,020 will raise your, you know, adrenaline and norepinephrine 932 00:53:24,020 --> 00:53:26,960 levels enough that you can kind of have mental energy and think 933 00:53:26,960 --> 00:53:30,620 clearly and all the rest of it. You know, the endocannabinoids 934 00:53:30,620 --> 00:53:33,980 make a difference to mental clarity. There are advantages 935 00:53:33,980 --> 00:53:36,140 and disadvantages to having high or low levels of the 936 00:53:36,140 --> 00:53:39,560 endocannabinoids. Now, serotonin is a bit of a controversial one, 937 00:53:39,560 --> 00:53:42,640 but you know, if that's high or low, oxytocin, if that's high or 938 00:53:42,640 --> 00:53:45,280 low, cortisol, if that's high or low, noradrene, if that's high 939 00:53:45,280 --> 00:53:48,280 or low. So we have reports on each of those, and each of 940 00:53:48,280 --> 00:53:51,100 those, they may not be a big deal for you, because yours may 941 00:53:51,100 --> 00:53:53,920 just be normal and it may not be something to worth focusing on. 942 00:53:54,100 --> 00:53:57,040 But if you, oh, it's like, Ah, I have a tendency to high 943 00:53:57,040 --> 00:54:00,720 cortisol, oh, I have a tendency to low dopamine, oh, I have a 944 00:54:00,720 --> 00:54:03,180 tendency to, you know, slow comps, or whatever it might be. 945 00:54:03,240 --> 00:54:06,960 Again, I can't tell you it's the one thing, except for, maybe 946 00:54:06,960 --> 00:54:09,480 with cellular energy and blood sugar and the inflammation, 947 00:54:09,480 --> 00:54:14,100 these very basic things. But like finding that one, ah, this 948 00:54:14,100 --> 00:54:17,700 is the thing that, for me is causing, like all my problems, 949 00:54:17,700 --> 00:54:20,180 can be really, really enlightening. That 950 00:54:20,180 --> 00:54:26,000 is awesome. Elwyn Robinson, of genetic insights, drop in some 951 00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:30,020 knowledge bombs here today. Thank you so much. Any last 952 00:54:30,020 --> 00:54:33,320 parting words for our listeners and viewers? Yeah, 953 00:54:33,320 --> 00:54:35,660 if you'd like to see this for yourself, well, first of all, 954 00:54:35,660 --> 00:54:38,840 you'd like to learn more from me. Youtube.com/elwin, Robinson 955 00:54:38,840 --> 00:54:42,100 is my YouTube channel. I have a lot of episodes on like topic 956 00:54:42,100 --> 00:54:45,940 focused. And I do have a full episode on brain health that 957 00:54:45,940 --> 00:54:48,400 goes into a lot more detail about this, as well as non 958 00:54:48,400 --> 00:54:52,180 genetic factors. So check that out. And if you would like to 959 00:54:52,180 --> 00:54:55,000 try our genetic service for yourself, go to genetic insights 960 00:54:55,000 --> 00:54:59,920 dot CEO, and if you use the coupon code, E, 4l, w, T, A. 961 00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:03,540 Much, then I'm happy to offer you an additional 25% off. As I 962 00:55:03,540 --> 00:55:05,700 said, I think we're already industry leading in terms of 963 00:55:05,700 --> 00:55:08,220 being more affordable than anyone else who offers any kind 964 00:55:08,220 --> 00:55:10,920 of comparable service, but I'd like to offer an additional 25% 965 00:55:11,460 --> 00:55:14,040 off for your viewers and listeners to thank them for 966 00:55:14,040 --> 00:55:15,960 listening all the way to the end of the podcast. 967 00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:21,020 Awesome. Well, thank you all. If you got something out of today's 968 00:55:21,020 --> 00:55:24,800 podcast. Please go out. Give us a thumbs up. Give us a five star 969 00:55:24,800 --> 00:55:27,980 review. Let people know what you learned, what you're taking away 970 00:55:27,980 --> 00:55:30,680 from this one. I'd like to know too. You can put it down in the 971 00:55:30,680 --> 00:55:33,980 comments. Would love to see what you thought of today's episode. 972 00:55:34,220 --> 00:55:36,800 We wouldn't be doing it without you. Thank you, and we'll see 973 00:55:36,800 --> 00:55:37,520 you next time you.