Latest / Ageless and Timeless Podcast® / Kashif Khan is Chief Executive Officer and Founder of The DNA Company

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Kashif Khan is Chief Executive Officer and Founder of The DNA Company · Ageless and Timeless Podcast®

0:10
Good morning everyone. This is Michelle Used from Ageless and Timeless. I want
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to introduce someone today that I've been really eager to have on my podcasts,
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and I'll tell you why in just a moment. His name is Kashif Khan
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and he's the CEO of the DNA Company in Toronto. And if anyone knows
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of the DNA Company, then congratulations because this is the greatest little secret and
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it's getting to be better known now. They're doing DNA testing like it's never
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been done before, and I'm gonna let kaschief explain that. But this is,
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you know, the next generation, and it's functional genomics rather than the
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traditional genome that you hear about on the media with one, two, three,
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V and all those older models. So we're in the new generation,
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right because you good morning, good morning, good to do. Yeah,
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we're there. There's always innovations. We're trying to stay ahead of it and
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you are. And so why don't you give us a quick synopsis of what
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the DNA Company is and why you're unique, and then I'm going to talk
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a little bit backtrack a little bit about you and how you came to where
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you are. So just give us a little summary if you wouldn't mind.
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Sure. So, essentially, genetics, which is what everybody's familiar with,
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is a gene instructs the biological process, and you may be told, hey,
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you have an eighty percent chance of this these the disease, or you
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may have elevated risk of you know, aging quicker, whatever. An anecdotal
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singular meaning. What we learn is the body doesn't really work like that.
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It's not all these individuals separated jobs. There's systems. It's much more functional.
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So the way your hormones operate affect your mood, the way your mood
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operates affects your hormones, ad vice versa. All these systems are interconnected,
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and so research was needed in terms of how do we take all of what's
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known about what each gene means and create a map that actually fits the way
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the body works, a functional map. And it's the same difference between when
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you go to the doctor, you're told what disease you have and what pill
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to take, and if you go to a functional medicine doctor, you're told
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why the disease happened. Two very different perspectives. One is, here's a
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symptom, here's what it's called we're going to treet to manage it, and
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you're probably going to have it for a long time, but you're not going
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to die. Functional medicine is you never needed to have this. What did
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you eat, what did you smell, what did you breathe? What relationship?
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What was the inflammatory trigger? Same difference between genetics and functional genomics,
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which took a lot of work, but we're finally there. That's very,
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very good because a lot of people believe that once you know what your genetics
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are, there's nothing you can and do. That's who you are. And
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I think the fact that you're showing that lifestyle can affect the and that's where
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functional genomics genomics comes, right, that your lifts. Yeah, and that
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statement, if you have a gene, it's like a prescription and it's your
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destiny. That is true for genetic conditions, right, A certain gene varied
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equals a problem. That's true. The challenge is that medicine applied that same
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thinking to chronic disease and aging, which is not at all true. What's
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true for chronic disease and aging is you have a propensity. Your body doesn't
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do a job well, and so it's more likely for you to develop the
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disease in other people, but you still have to cause it. And if
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you don't have the wrong environment, nutrition, lifestyle inputs, you'll never have
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a problem. If you have bad cardiovascular genetics, but you have zero stress
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and eat well and live on the sea and get sunshine, you probably won't
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get sick. If you have good cardioboscar genetics and you're a TV executive that
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drinks too much and it has too much stress and lives in New York and
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breathes to a solution, you still might get the disease. So all we're
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saying is that genetics tells you what to prioritize. What's my red flag,
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what's that thing for me that inside isn't working well? And with all of
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these things that I want to do, all these supplements, exercises, foods,
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what do I actually need to do What's going to give me the biggest
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return so that I can focus on that. So everybody should be listening to
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this. I really I want to emphasize this with my viewers that if you
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have a roadmap that's called your genetic blueprint, you do not have to accept
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that you might have that predisposition to let's say cardiovascular disease. You do not
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accept that, you accept that you have the predisposition, but that you could
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do something about it. And this is where the human should i and lifestyle
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really does make a difference. So this is what we've been preaching on age
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lists and time lists for three years is that you can make a difference in
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your health. And it's all about choice, right, yes, And all
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we're saying is now instead of trial and error, one size fits all,
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you can just focus on what the right choices are for you. Because there's
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some things that are counterintuitive. For example, there's some people where we have
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to tell them you should not be doing CARDIOVACX or exercise, you should not
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be running on a treadmill. And you know, you would think that,
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Okay, I'm going to get healthy. One of the first things I'm gonna
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do is exercise, right, and one of the easiest things to do is
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get on a bike or run. And there's some people where we have to
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tell them that their genetics around oxidation. You know, when you're breathing when
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you're on a treadmill and you're breathing in all that oxygen because you're taking you're
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breathing heavy. Some people produce too many oxidants, which is the byproduct of
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using oxygen dis fuel. The genetic around that are very easy to see.
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And if that's the case and you were not designed for cardiovass activity and you're
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running on a treadmill, that may be the thing that causes you the inflammation
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that leads to cardiovaskor disease. Right, So it's one layer of making choices
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to be healthy. But what are the right choices for me? Should I
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actually go become a vegan? I want to be healthy. I want to
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become a vegan. Great, if you have the genetics to actually produce the
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enzymes that break down your beans and lentils and lagoons and key protein sources,
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you'll probably do well. If you don't have the genetics for that, you
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might feel good in the first two, three, four weeks, but then
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all of a sudden, you're going to get sluggish, brain fog, hormones
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are going to get imbalanced, and everything starts to fall apart and you don't
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know what happened. So all we're saying, is all this massive data coming
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in of all these podcasts, interviews, YouTube videos, what do you actually
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need to do for you. We now have the ability to decide that.
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So what cuts chief, What are the answered questions that still challenge you with
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respect to genetics in the human genome. Well, I'm diving deep into discovering
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the mind, and what I'm learning is a lot of the other systems are
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pretty clear. There's like plumbing around how you clear hormones, how you metabolize
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foods, how you detoxify your body. What's going on in the brain is
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far more complex, and it's like it needs a whole other, separate,
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treated as an alien within yourself, that it needs its own guide. And
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what I'm what I'm seeing is how all these neurochemicals do so much more than
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we think. We think of dopamine as a pleasure chemical. You know,
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if you have a dopamine problem, you might become depressed or an addict.
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It's also your reward chemicals. It's the reason you're on you're posting this podcast,
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the desire to do great things right. It's a satisfaction chemical that when
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do I actually stop, how do I know I've done enough? And then
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these chemicals interlink with each other and we're now at the point where if I
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have your DNA. I don't ever need to talk to you to know your
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personality. To a tea, I can describe how to behave. Are you
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irritable? Are you irritating? Is it easy to distract you? Do you?
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Are? You? Do? You have a drama queen response. You
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give things too much meaning and weight, and there's trauma. So all of
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this is the terminal. So for me, I'm diving more into that.
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I'm trying to I'm not looking at oxytocin and some of the other Uh,
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there's that dry personality and mood. I would you know that's that's interesting you
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just said that because when we I want my viewers to know that I've just
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come through doing your tests and I want to talk about that today a little
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bit because it's something that I can personally address and discuss with you now because
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I've I'm now one of your victims, one of your happy victims, because
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it does give you so many insights. But but but now that that's happened,
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I when I looked back on the test, I thought, well,
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you talk about serotonin, you talk about dopamine, but you don't talk about
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oxytocin. And I'm so happy you just said that because I wanted to ask
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and I forgot to. So, what what is the role of oxytocin in
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with those other neuro transs? Oh, I think you also talked about neuro
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nephrine, right, yeah, and adrenaline. Well, then they're all you
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just keep painting a bigger picture. So if I tell you, for example,
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that you just mentioned epidephin and there's adrenaline, and how do you experience
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recall? So something happened a year ago? Excuse me, how do you
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remember it? Is there deep emotion attached to it? Is it more logical?
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Do you remember it at a higher level of detail or is it more
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macro and high level. So there's genetics that drive all of that, and
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then all of a sudden, your perspective is very different than the person you
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may be speaking to. And that could create a sp It could put you
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in a leadership role, It could put you in a it could drag you
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down. Right. So now if you if you layer on top of that
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to answer your question, something like oxytocin, it influences that to some degree
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because that's your love hormone, Like, that's how you're experiencing the quality of
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the emotion. So if you're oxytocin, if you don't experience trauma and you
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also are deficient with oxytocin, people are going to talk to you like you're
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a serial killer. You're cold and dry. Right. If the opposite is
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also true, people are going to talk to you like you're way overburdened when
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it comes to emotion. So these things do not they should not be spoken
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of as siloed individual things because that's not how we operate these all. And
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that's why I'm saying the functional interpretation is much more important than this straightforward genetic
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these powerful methods. So why does good in the test? Is it just
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that you're not far enough along in your assessment? Of the genetics of that
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to analyze that with individual clients. Yeah, so there's a couple layers of
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that answer. One is genetic testing is not as far along as people think
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it is. You know, you might go buy what's called the whole genome
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sequence, like maybe my entire genetic encyclopedia. I can tell you it's still
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not a whole genome sequence. There's a lot of things in there that are
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algorithms assuming things. There's certain genes that are very difficult to sequence that are
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missing. There's certain rare genetic markers that they don't have enough data on so
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they don't even report on. So the testing is not where people think it
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is. This is why I sort of made it a mandate to eliminate all
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the noise of genetics and only function or sorry, only focus on the functional
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genes, of which there's only about ninety. So you have twenty two thousand
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genes that make up your genome and literally only testing for ninety of them,
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because those are the ones that drive the functional systems and pathways. And if
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you start to layer other stuff, all of a sudden, accuracy goes down
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and you're not able to go as deep per gene. And let me give
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you one simple example. Anyone here that's familiar with genetics has probably heard of
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a snip SNP. That's the creation you're looking for. So twenty two thousand
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genes, each one is many thousands of letters long, the actual code,
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and somewhere along the way there may be a spelling mistake. It's this location,
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it's supposed to be a T and it's a C insteads that error.
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That error makes that gene excuse me, function different And now you can say
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this person does this too fast or too slow, whatever that job is.
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That's what most genetic testing companies test for. There's also something called an in
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deel, an insertion or deletion, which means it's not a spelling mistake,
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but there's a whole paragraph missing, or the paragraph was duplicated twice. Now
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imagine reading a book. The difference between a spelling mistake and a single word
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versus paragraph missing page. How does that change the interpretation of the instruction,
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So we go. There's also something called a copy number variation, and this
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is the last of three that I'll tell you. Copy number variation is how
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many copies of the gene do I get forget about to error or a variant
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or a swelling mistake. You don't even have the gene missing. Now in
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the female health, something as important as hormone metabolism mm hm, and you
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don't even have the gene that metabolizes the hormone mm hmm. And you wonder
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why, in the same exact environment you feel different than your friend mm hmm.
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Right, yeah, So that's the way we go a lot. We
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focus on what's important, but go a lot deeper into each of those genes.
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So does this mean that those of the five thousand people that have taken
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your tests thus far are going to need to take it again and let's say
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a year or two because of the changes that you're making and your adaptation to
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all of those twenty two thousand that will may at some point come into play,
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not all of them, but the ones that you're adding in, like
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oxytocin as an example, So there are some there's layers of that. Also,
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when you log in, as we learn more, we keep updating,
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so even within the genes that you've been tested for, we are already learning
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more. So a year from now, you learn in and log in and
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you may see something that you didn't see a year ago because we learned something
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new. Ah, science is still sort of novel in this world, so
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we keep learning. Second is there's genes that we've tested you for that we
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didn't report on because we're still on the back end learning that we want to
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be certain when we tell you what like the experience that you had when we
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went through it, it was like, wow, that's exactly me right.
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We want it to be that certain. And so thee that we're testing you
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for today that aren't being reported on. But in a year from now,
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you're going to log in and say, hey, wait a second, there's
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some new gene here that I didn't know about. We're just going to keep
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adding it. Third layer is there may be some new genes that we need
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to retest you for in the future because there's new science that we don't know
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about today's. We didn't bother testing for those genes, just to make sure
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that we test for the minimum possible so we get the maximum accuracy. So
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the case where maybe every few years you may have to test again, but
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not so so. Once a client always a client of DNA company. Once
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you sign and you do your first test, you will always be a client
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and given updates and advice as you go along. And one of the things
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that I noticed was, and I didn't know this, is that you can
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contact the company and actually get a like a concierge medicine advisor. I was
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lucky enough to have you. But now to other people who are interested in
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taking your test, just be aware that you can continue along with an actual
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coach from the company, a technically competent either a doctor or a practice some
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practitioner that will be able to be your coach, right and you can interact
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with that person and continue to on your journey. So that's us. Yeah,
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this was a big piece that was missing from genetics, which is the
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geneticists know what they know, the clinicians know what they know, and the
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two didn't speak, and so there was this gap in the middle of the
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patient stuck with all the data saying this didn't get me anywhere. So we
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built a training curriculum to be able to teach functional medicine doctors and many have
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taken it. But we thought, we also need to build a clinic because
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people expect from us the answers, so let's actually get the answer. So
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we built that clinic. We then you know, and like you said,
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there's multiple layers. I also at a personal level work with sort of celebs,
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athletes type things. So if people want to find out more work that
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they can, but I personally trained all these clinicians so they know their stuff.
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Mm hmm. Well, so just the other piece of this whole platform
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is that you also have a division that supports the nutraceuticals, the supplements.
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Why don't you talk about that for a moment, because that was something else
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I wasn't aware of that. You can actually come after your follow up and
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your council with the expert like you to go over your task and interpret it.
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Now you can then get on an actual protocol that's guided by you,
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and sometimes it's products that are not in the company's portfolio. But go ahead
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and tell us a little bit about what are some of the opportunities for people
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to actually work with the company on products that you select that are specific to
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that customized to that particular person. Yes. So, because we think of
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things from a genetic perspective, when it comes to a problem, we don't
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necessarily think we need a supplement or a pill to mask the problem. We
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think what is the system failure. And let me give you an example,
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maybe dealing with a young lady that has endometriosis and she just develops the things.
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She's like, I don't want to spend the rest of my life with
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this. Why does this happen? And the medical answer is medication potentially surgery,
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right, So what we do is we go deep into the genome to
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see why is this happening and how do we resolve that? And it could
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be that she's more estrogen dominant, she just makes way too much estrogen,
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right, And it could be that the metabolite of that is a toxic metabolite.
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So when women have their mental cycles before clearing the hormones, you first
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converted into a metabolite. You converted into something else, and some of those
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versions are potentially toxic. And if you add on top of that things like
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birth control pills and hormone disruption, then the total volume becomes too much.
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So if you are that woman, then instead of treating the endometriosis, if
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we know that estrogen dominance is the issue, I know that the SIP one
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nine a one gene takes your testostone converts it to estrogen, and I may
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also know that you have the ultra fast version of that gene, and I
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may also know that there's certain foods or ingredients that change the expression of that
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gene that make it slow down. So instead of masking the endometriosis, I
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can give you a cocktail that manages your gene expression. It's that pathway down.
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Now, all of a sudden, you're dealing with the root cause,
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and the endometriosis over time kind of goes away because there's nothing right. So
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that's how we think about supplementation. Figure out the root cause, support the
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system, not the symptom. And then and it's usually not just that one
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thing goes away. Other things also go away. You know, it's like,
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oh, sleeping better, my mood is better, I don't have brain
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fog because the same inflammatory insults trigger all of those things. Let's just for
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a moment summarize all the areas that you focus on and in the test so
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that people understand all the comprehensive systems that are being covered. Start with the
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neuro because that was the one that you're still challenged by. But let's go
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through the systems and talk about each one a little bit. If you don't
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mind sure. Neuro is really important because it's hard to fix something if you
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don't know how you think. And often we find people that have been stuck
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for a long time. They're actually not stuck with the health problem. They're
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actually stuck with their perception of it and their ability to actually execute on what
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the doctor told them or follow through or maybe not follow through too much,
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maybe they burn themselves out right. So often understanding your executive function as we
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call it, how you think, really helps in terms of working with people
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and helping yourself. Then we look at diet and nutrition, so you know,
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should I be keto, vegan, carnivore? How does my body actually
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metabolize all these macronutrients and micronutrients, Vitamin C, d zinc like what I
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need to be doing with my B twelves and my folic acid, clinic acid.
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All of these things are sort of driven by genetic pathways that help them
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metabolism of them. Then we sleep, and this is a big area where
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we actually didn't even think that it was a problem we were going to solve.
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But every time we were working with somebody with a quantic condition, they
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would say they're sleeping better. And we had to dig into why, and
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the same pathways that drive your mood, the same pathways that drive your detoxification,
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the same pathways that drive your hormones even affect your sleep, and so
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all of a sudden we can reinterpret those same genes for a different purpose and
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fix people's sleep quality. Their fourth area is hormones, So everything about your
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hormone dominance, when you make hormone quality, how toxic hormone clearance, the
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detoxification pathways, which really answers the big elephant in the medical room, which
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is female healthcare sucks really bad, right, It is really really underserved.
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And this is why because when you have research done on men who and that's
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primarily where medical research is done, who have a daily hormone cycle, that
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when women have a monthly hormone cycle that looks very different. Those two things
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fit together, right, the research doesn't fix the problem. The fifth area
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is everything about chronic disease aging. You know, how you have propensity,
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and the ways to think about inflammation and what that may does do to you,
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and how to prevent certain things or if you have them, how to
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reverse them. And the last area is immunity and inflammation. So innate cellular
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health, what's going on at the cellular level, all of the potential threats
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that can cause inflammation and affect your immune system, and how do you work
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on those. Then there's an additional report that takes all of what I just
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said and reinterprets it for the context of longevity. How do I take this
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stuff and add fifteen years to my life my bone, my brain, my
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skin, you know, my cells? Like, how do I take all
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this for that purpose that it's kind of like a bonus report that does all
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of that. Can you actually tell people their biological age then at the end
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of their testing, and because that's what you just say, almost saying just
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now, well yeah we can, but through a different test. Okay,
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So biological aging is a different It's not genetics, it's epigenetics. Yes,
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you could stop for a moment just to I want people to understand the difference
24:30
between the two. Sure, So genetics is here's what version of what gene
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you have your human instruction manual. Your cells read that manual to understand how
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to do all their jobs for making hormones and making care of every single thing
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that's going on your body is driven by instruction. Manual call your DNA.
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That's genetics. Epigenetics is based on what you're doing, what you ate,
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who you talk to, how scared you are, how happy you are.
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Your genes are constantly expressing up and down, meaning, like I said,
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you might have the fast version of the conversion of disastone into estrogen, a
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certain version of the gene. That's genetics. So your baseline, if you're
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doing everything normal, you're making too much estrogen, then you may take something
25:15
that slows that gene down, and that's epigenetics. That's expression. But the
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minute you stop taking that thing, you're going to go back to where you
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started. Right, it's not a change, it's augmenting. It's expression.
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It's how is it expressing right now? Based on inputs and now, based
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on measuring all your genetic expression, we have a very good sense of your
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biological age, how where, how far along are you? If you look
25:44
at the actual physical structure of DNA, it looks like it's meant to last
25:49
about one hundred and twenty years, So we look like we are wired for
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one hundred and twenty years of life if we do everything right. When you
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start to make wrong choices, you take those years away. So that's how
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to think about the two. The equigenetics test is completely different. I mean,
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I can send you links with all the stuff if people want access.
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But the foundation and everything we've been talking about up until now is the actual
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genetic test. So if you were guiding someone who had never done the test
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and starting from scratch, what would be the steps that you would advise just
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a normal, healthy person, not a not someone who's sick, but someone
26:27
who's healthy and wants to stay that way? What would you what would be
26:32
those steps? And the genetic test itself is what directs every future decision.
26:41
Okay, so from even things as recreational as should I wear cosmetics or not?
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Like how well do you default? Do you? Talks about those things,
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right, So everything that you have to think about in your health and
26:52
wellness, your DNA can kind of drive what's the right decision for me at
26:56
a surface level. Now, if you want to become a pro and really
27:00
know how to answer any question that may come your way, like oh,
27:03
I'm shifting from working to retiring and I want to go on a hike in
27:11
Africa, so I need to get into the best shape I've ever been in.
27:15
How do you actually do that for you? How do you get to
27:18
your actual goal? That's where you might consider working with one of our practitioners
27:25
or coaches on a more concierge program to dive deeper. And the only reason
27:29
I say that is because there's some things we know that we're not allowed to
27:33
say because FDA and Health Canada won't let us, which is normal when you're
27:37
doing testing. There's certain things that are consumer and there's certain things that are
27:41
more clinical and diagnostic. Then you cannot say unless you're actually working with somebody
27:47
as a patient. So there is the possibility, so the report itself will
27:52
change your life. There is the possibility to dive much deeper into the data,
27:56
like kind of like what you and I did. If you choose,
28:03
Yeah, if you choose and I, who is the right person for that?
28:07
It's either a health concern like I'm sick or my mom had Alzheimer's.
28:12
I don't want that right that person should work with a coach. Well,
28:17
it's like I'm high performance, I'm an athlete, I'm an executive, I'm
28:21
a super mom with four kids, like I to be at my best potential,
28:26
that's the person that needs it. Yeah, The third area I would
28:30
say is sort of that you know, biohacker, longevity seeker, health enthusiast,
28:34
which is, you know, I'm going to be doing a lot of
28:37
stuff. I'm going to be buying a lot of subtlements, doing a lot
28:41
of classes, watching a lot of podcasts. How do I prioritize and not
28:44
waste a whole bunch of money? Right? So that for that person is
28:48
a really good return because all of a sudden you've understood your DNA, where
28:51
now you can go arm yourself right to know how to use it as a
28:53
tool. Those are kind of the three people that I would advise seek coaching.
28:57
So I have a question though, because I want people to really understand
29:03
that. Well, let me let me back up and ask you more open
29:07
endedly, what is the best advice that you have ever received with respect to
29:14
genetics, with respect to your world? You mean in terms of actual advice
29:19
for me? Yeah, yeah, you know who was who? Well you
29:22
don't have to tell us who, But what is the best advice you've ever
29:26
received? And how have you applied that? So the biggest AHA moment for
29:30
me was that there's a gene called GSTM one which is a primary first line
29:37
of defense and detoxifier of the gut. So when you eat anything, there's
29:42
certain things that come along with it that are not meant to enter your bloodstream.
29:47
How efficient you do that process, I'm missing that gene, don't even
29:52
have it. So now when I used to work in the city with my
29:56
business partner and go to lunch every day and not be worried about packaging and
30:00
oils and all this stuff, Yeah, my zema depression even it would affect
30:06
your brain the gut brain connection, and thought that I actually had all of
30:11
those problems right right, So what I understood that, No, I just
30:15
have zero detox system of my gut, and I have to learn how to
30:18
eat, and I have to add certain supplementation to support detalks because I do
30:22
have to go to weddings and dinners and go to lunches and people and I
30:26
can't control what I'm eating. So then there's certain supplements I can take major,
30:30
major impact in terms of how I feel. You know, I went
30:36
from bi weekly or monthly deabilitating migraines where I had to sleep for two days
30:42
on and off to I might get a headache once every six months because I
30:47
kind of slipped and made a mistake, right, but now I know why.
30:51
So that was the biggest one for me. So if it's just any
30:57
other person who's facing symptoms rather than the actual root problem, because they don't
31:03
know what the root problem is, Like you didn't know that you didn't have
31:07
the gene, and you just knew that you had symptoms. So how do
31:11
you how do you translate symptoms into understanding the root problem, the root cause
31:15
of those symptoms that can then address what you just said, for example,
31:21
with your GI track. How do you go from under you know, knowing
31:25
you have symptoms like a migraine headache, to getting to the understanding of what
31:30
because this is what allopathic medicine does not do. And we both we all
31:34
know that you know, it basically tries to cure symptoms and basically does it
31:40
by giving you a pill, a pharmaceutical. So let's, you know,
31:44
let's dive deep into the because everybody has symptoms. There isn't a walking on
31:51
the planet that doesn't have something that is bothering them. So right know,
31:55
I think sixty six percent of Americans are on medication. Wow, you have
32:00
a four trillion dollar healthcare industry. And the most powerful and wealthiest empire that's
32:05
ever been on this planet. And that's how sick the population is, right
32:09
because of exactly what we just said. The belief is I am healthy,
32:15
excuse me until I have a symptom, and it's the joctor's job to get
32:20
rid of the symptom. That's healthcare today, when really that symptom, whatever
32:25
caused it to trigger, probably started ten, twelve, fifteen years prior to
32:30
which your body fought it. We are resilient, a pundrear that fight things.
32:36
We have detox systems and anti inflammatory systems. Then eventually you lose the
32:39
battle and it turns into a symptom. So the way I think about it
32:44
is a little bit different than what you said. We're kind of ignoring the
32:45
symptom. When we're looking at genetics, we're just looking for the system failure.
32:50
Yeah, where does my body not do a good job? Yes,
32:55
And let me give you an example. Like we may say that somebody is
32:59
suffering from a anxiety, right like your niece, Remember, and you talk
33:05
about her in your book for perfect example, So let's use her example.
33:09
So in her case anxiety, we ignored the symptom and we said, what
33:15
systems are failing and why would that equal the way she feels? So when
33:22
you look at hormone metabolism, if your hormones aren't balanced, that can dramatically
33:27
affect your mood in certain weeks of the month. Look at the fact that
33:31
she was a horrible vitamin D metabolizer, right, And if you combine those
33:37
two things, it equals hormone embalance, which affects your mood and then anxiety.
33:43
Why not something else well, because she is a very inefficient binder of
33:47
dopamine, which is what makes you feel satisfied, and so it's very hard
33:52
for her to get satisfaction from things, right, So that combination plus now
33:58
this happened, by the way, and peak COVID when she had side in
34:02
five months and got zero sunlight, zero vitamin D and she's already a bad
34:07
matabolizer. So that was the epigenetic trigger, the lifestyle lifestyle trigger that causes
34:12
that time. So that's the way again, not looking for anxiety gene,
34:16
looking for what systems are failing, what are her habits, environ nutrition,
34:21
lifestyle. When you combine all of that, how does that equal the way
34:23
she's feeling? And now the solution becomes very clear. It's not an anxiety
34:29
bill, it's upping her vitamin D in her docamine response. And that's what
34:34
we did and she never had the problem again. So this is what I'm
34:37
saying, that the root cause. You address the root cause. You didn't
34:40
just accept it. Oh, she has anxiety, and now we'll give her
34:44
a value or whatever they give you for pill to that that's just a band
34:50
aid. You know, who went deeper to the root cause. And then
34:53
when you fix the root cause, then guess what the symptom goes away?
34:59
Exactly Well, potentially other symptoms also, right, right, because root causes
35:07
can cause a lot of malfunctioning usually do Yeah, So how does lab testing
35:15
the blood work parallel genetic testing? How does they work symbiotic in a symbiotic
35:22
way to come up with answers that are consistent because what if you have a
35:25
lab tests that's inconsistent with the result of your genetics. So genetics is foundational,
35:34
meaning here's how your already does the job. Lab work is where are
35:38
you at today? So if I tell you that, or if you tell
35:44
me that your lab work says that you have good vitamin D levels, which
35:50
I did did right? But then yeah, but potentially you may still have
35:55
mood issues in the winter. You may still feel a lot better in the
35:59
sun's there's some symptoms of something else, which is I need more vitamin D.
36:04
But why is my lab work saying that my vitamin levels are good?
36:07
Because the genetic pathway for vitamin D is step one. You need to convert
36:14
the D two that comes from the sun into D three. That's the first
36:16
step. You then need to transport what you just made to the actual cell.
36:22
It's in the blood right now, you haven't actually used it, and
36:24
then you need to bind it. So you may be a great metabolizer of
36:28
D two into D three and the levels in your blood are awesome, but
36:31
did you actually get it to the cell where it's needed and do you actually
36:35
bind it? And so genetically we can be a lot more precise in terms
36:38
of dosage frequency and what your lab work actually means in your context. Not
36:45
keep in mind lab work is all one size fits all. We believe this
36:49
is how humans work and this is what and that's why lab work has a
36:52
range between one to five is normal. Well, one to five sounds like
37:00
two very different things to me, right but one to five is normal because
37:04
it has to be one size fits all. What we're saying is you can
37:06
use your genetics to understand if you're a four point two what does that mean
37:09
for you or somebody else? That did not mean anything for you, It
37:13
might mean a lot. Mm hmm, yeah, I understand. So,
37:17
so you can work with the lab outcomes. However, you don't accept them
37:22
because it's just a point in time. You don't necessarily accept them as the
37:28
almighty truth because the genetic results are far more, far more what you call
37:37
it strategic. Yeah, they're they're more certain, but the genetics will really
37:42
what the genetics will do is tell you how to better interpret the lab work.
37:46
Mm hmm. Right. So I'm not saying no to lob work.
37:50
Measuring is great. I'm just saying that get away from the range of one
37:53
to five and the one size fits all and know what that love work actually
37:57
means for you. Simple example, there's a gene called apo apoe which which
38:05
people call the Alzheimer's gene, and it happens really how efficiently your body transports
38:10
lipids cholesterol. So if you have a bad version of that gene, you
38:15
don't do such a good job in week cholesterol around your body, which means
38:20
that your baseline is a higher cholesterol number. So when you go to the
38:23
doctor for blood work, they're going to tell your cholesterol is high. But
38:28
it's not necessarily bad news for you. That's Rightesthetics just make it high.
38:32
You didn't do anything to cause that, that's just who you are, so
38:37
to interpret the data better. You know, that is such an important point
38:40
that you just made, because so so much of the pharmaceutical industry is,
38:45
you know, making billions on stat and drugs, so telling even young kids
38:51
you know that they have high cholesterol when in fact cholesterol people oftentimes don't realize
38:55
that cholesterol is good as long as it's not the bad kind, the LDL,
39:01
and as long as you're using it efficiently. So, for example,
39:06
I just went with doctor Daan goodenow Is. He does a lot of work
39:13
with I think I mentioned him to you. He does work with plasmalagins and
39:16
he you know, my cholesterol always comes out high in quotes when I do
39:22
the blood work. Well, high for me is about two hundred and seventeen
39:28
last blood test, and knows very rarely in my ever below two hundred which
39:34
is what they say is the is the norm. And actually he said that
39:37
would be hugely dangerous for me because my body is using that two hundred and
39:43
seventeen score very efficiently to transport the cholesterol to the places it's needed, like
39:50
the brain and the gut and so forth. So you're saying the exact same
39:54
thing. I believe is that if you're two seventeen, that's your result.
40:00
That's not necessarily bad. Just your listen. Don't listen to necessarily listen to
40:05
what the drug industry and the allopathic medicine industry is trying to tell you that
40:09
you need to be two hundred over below. You need to know why it's
40:14
that number. The number is the starting point, and you need to ask
40:21
why for me, because it's not the same reason, right so, and
40:25
once you know why, you can better interpret well. And also it's the
40:30
size of the particles that's the most concerning. And as you and I talked
40:34
about the arterial vessel walls and how plastic they are, right, how resilient
40:40
they are, that those are more of the interpretations that you need to be
40:45
asking about. And your ratio, like my ratio is three point four,
40:49
well, that's actually low risk for cardiovascar disease. Correct, And those are
40:55
excellent ways to use blood work more efficiently. A simple burner range it's too
41:02
sort of elementary. Yeah, it's also arbitrary, like you said, because
41:07
now the doctor has to just randomly guess why you're on one end of the
41:12
range or the other. And the normally, when you take a look at
41:14
something like thyraid, for example, the ranges are absolutely ridiculous. Yes,
41:19
they're literally ridiculous. Your your borderline, like you know, not surviving,
41:24
but you're just in a nice range. You're told normal, go home.
41:30
Everyone needs personalization around things like thyrade and foremones and so short answer, if
41:37
it's about a range and a good or bad, it's not enough. But
41:39
the way you were talking about going deeper into blood work and looking for very
41:44
specific markers, that's the better blood work. I'm so glad you mentioned.
41:49
I think it's the most underdiagnosed conditions in humanity, and so many people don't
41:55
understand. The doctor tells them to go home, you're fine, and yet
42:00
they've never really tested their thyroid in the way probably it needs to be tested,
42:04
which is the Barnes method. Just putting a thermometer under your arm before
42:10
you get up in the morning and doing that for five days in the road
42:14
seeing what your your temperature is. Isn't that a much more efficient way to
42:19
see how whether your parasyroid are or not. Yeah, there's there's a lot
42:22
of functional ways to understand your body. You can also use the traditional blood
42:28
work, but just interpret it better. Yeah, right, to know what
42:31
it really means. There's functional medicine doctors that the exact same blood work that
42:36
your allopathic doctor said is normal, they're going to tell you this is not
42:37
normal at all, based on your lifestyle, based on your environment, again
42:43
a sprinkle of personalization, Yes, based on your context. That's the first
42:47
important question is Okay, here's this information in what context? In somebody that
42:53
eats donuts at Walmart all day or somebody like you who's doing everything right right
42:59
and and somebody, So that context is key. So yeah, so it
43:04
is about functional test, but it's also about just better interpreting the existing tests.
43:08
Well, you know, knowledge is power, and that's the more knowledge
43:14
we have also, we have more power, but we also have more confusion
43:16
because there's so many different opinions. So you know, you have to be
43:22
discerning and know who to listen to, and so that brings up the science.
43:28
So, how often do you get challenged by or I shouldn't say how
43:30
often, but do you get challenged by the scientific community for the DNA testing?
43:37
And how do you respond to that baily every single day? Why?
43:46
Because here's what I've realized was broken. They'll keep in mind some people made
43:52
listening. They don't know. The reason why I started this company is because
43:55
I was sick, right, and I used my genetics to heal myself,
43:59
and so I ended up investing into it and building it, and so I
44:01
had to also go through the experience that genetics is kind of underwhelming, it
44:07
doesn't work, and I realized it's such a powerful tool. This is my
44:09
genome. Why am I getting these You got an eighty percent chance of this,
44:14
ten percent chance of that, and I still don't know what to do
44:15
about it type answers. And so I realized what was broken is that the
44:22
research model was the same as the pharmaceutical research model, the evidence based double
44:28
blind facebo type thing where you're looking for averages and you're taking this hyper personalized
44:35
thing DNA and converting it into averages. Completely defeating the purpose. And so
44:42
when I talked to clinician scientists, I speak at a lot of events,
44:45
I speak at medical events, a lot of online summits type thing, and
44:49
it always starts off, where's the evidence, where's the research words this or
44:52
that so, And I had to show them that they're a research model doesn't
44:57
work for personalization. What you need to do for personalization, which is exactly
45:00
what I did, is speak to each individual person as a separate study.
45:05
I need to see you. It's called end of one. If I can't
45:08
fix your problem, I haven't used genetics probably, so in our research model,
45:15
we did that seven thousand times, one by one by one, by
45:21
one by one, seven thousand different people interviewed them, sat with them,
45:24
got their medical history, learned about their food, learned about their relationships,
45:30
everything we needed to know about, putting their genetics in a context that we
45:36
could figure out how the epigenetic habits equals in combination with the genetics, how
45:39
they feel. So we came So now when I explain that to clinicians,
45:45
then they start to open up and be honest about, Yeah, I'm not
45:47
really happy with what I'm doing in my clinic, you know, I'm just
45:50
kind of managing people's disease. I really wish I could help them, and
45:52
then they end up learning and training and using the tools. So, but
45:58
one thing I can tell you is post COVID, there's a very big wave
46:04
of clinicians wanting more. You know, pre COVID, it was still a
46:07
very staunch here's what academia believes. Prove it to me, you're wrong,
46:12
and we would COVID that. But now it's like they're craving it. Like
46:15
I'm sick of what I'm doing. I want to shut my practice down.
46:17
I know there's a better way, and they're coming to us. The things
46:21
are So how are you going to incorporate that influx of people of doctors into
46:28
your uh into your training. So this is a unique thing we did.
46:32
And I know you started this podcast by introducing me as the CEO, and
46:38
I recently decided actually to step down. And Tracy Wood, who was our
46:45
COO, who has you know, many years of healthcare. So I'm an
46:51
innovator. I built it, but I'm not a healthcare specialist, right,
46:53
I don't know the industry that well. She does. She comes with that,
46:57
So I said to her, I need to keep talking about this.
47:00
I need to go out there. The world just needs to know. I
47:02
don't need to be running the company. You'll do much better about with that.
47:07
So I literally should come on. And that's what we did about a
47:09
month moreth and a half ago. I actually, yeah, I know you
47:14
didn't know. Sorry, I never told you that, But I literally came
47:17
off their role even though I'm the founder, and I Tracy took over,
47:22
so that I can just focus on advocacy, going out there speaking, teaching,
47:27
letting the world know that there's something better. And whether they decide to
47:30
work with us or anyone else, it doesn't matter as long as that as
47:34
long as we're changing the way healthcare works, because I can see, even
47:37
for myself, we're constantly teetering the edge between health and poor health. And
47:43
someone who's in the poor bucket doesn't know how close they are to good health.
47:49
Few tweaks right, and someone who's healthy doesn't know how close they are
47:52
to poor health. So many than what these things are. Take me for
47:58
example, I've done everything right all the I have this ezema and skin inflammation
48:04
all of the time. Yeah, right, and you would think that I
48:07
would never be sick because I knew everything right, right, I actually swept.
48:12
I started taking it easy with my diet. I didn't pay attention to
48:16
some of the chemicals that I was breathing in because it felt like I've cured
48:21
myself. There's no cure this thing that you walk around and need constant maintenance.
48:24
You have to do it right all the time. Mm hmm. So
48:30
just a kind of a rhetorical question. But what about your genetics helped you
48:34
to make that decision to step down? What genetics would you say supported who
48:38
you are as a person to make a decision that's that monumental. So there's
48:44
a clear answer to that. One is my compt protein is hyper fast,
48:50
so calmped clears things, The clears hormones, the clears toxins, and a
48:53
clear neurochemicals. So it's very easy for me to think like this, almost
48:58
sometimes to a level a problem. It's a little too quick, right.
49:01
It's also because my brain drive neurotopic factor MEDI and F, which speaks of
49:07
neuroplasticity, is hyper efficient, so I'm able to move on from things without
49:13
them having a lot of meeting. It's not okay, it's not like my
49:16
head is spinning thinking about it, it's more like get it, move on.
49:20
Pure logic. So you make decisions in a very defined way, in
49:24
a very very you know, articulate way. You know, you know,
49:30
when you have to do something, and I don't just think about it and
49:35
dwell on it and procrastinate. You actually go through the action to make it
49:40
happen. And that's good entrepreneur. Yeah, and I also have genetics around
49:47
binding emotion, and so I also really care, right so when it comes
49:53
to a promise that I made to our customers, our investors, I know
49:59
that see will do a better job than me. Right now in the next
50:00
phase of what we have to do. We have to take all of what's
50:02
built and turn it into a healthcare company, you know, putting the ego
50:07
aside. It's like, this is the right choice. So and I because
50:10
I care enough to actually make the right choice. And that's also genetically driven
50:15
by emotion. I noticed when we talked about the test results for me that
50:21
you mentioned a superpower. So that kind of fascinated me because I never thought,
50:28
you know, I guess, being humble, I never actually defined what
50:31
I might have as called superpowers, and yet it was consistent what you said
50:37
it was consistent with who I believe I am, Like the attention to detail
50:42
and the decisiveness and the entrepreneurial the things that we qualities that you and I
50:49
share. So what would you say are your superpowers? I would say it's
50:53
my reward seeking behavior warrior mentality that I really I'm constantly seeking more and more
51:02
and more, which allows me to take big risks right so crash and burn
51:07
or do something great. Mm hmm. It's also the same thing that you
51:14
have, by the way, serotonin ysregulation, which allows me to see the
51:19
world at a higher level of detail that I make better decisions. I see
51:25
things that other people don't see. It allows me to track things better too,
51:29
because I give value to stuff that other people don't even know. Is
51:30
there That combination leads to a profile which I also totally the same about yourself
51:38
that we call high functioning anxiety. Yes, it sounds like a funny term.
51:44
What I mean is I don't have anxiety that burdens me or makes me
51:49
not want to get out of bed. I have an anxiety that makes me
51:51
want to never stop. It's like a fire in my gut. I function
51:53
anxiety to drive. Yeah, the wiring I have, yeah, and the
52:00
perfectionism that goes along with that, that you don't want to ever do anything
52:04
that you're not completely satisfied with the outcome, or at least with the qualities
52:09
that you brought to the effort. You may not always get what you want
52:15
at the outcome, but you put in all the effort to do it.
52:17
But you know with a vision. I just got flashed that we're run out
52:22
of time. But I want everybody to know about your book, so I
52:25
have it here. It's called The I Hope I Can. That's going on
52:30
the screen DNA way, the DNA way. By the way, it's a
52:32
cool cover. Whoever designed your cover was very, very creative. I love
52:37
it. So look, if you want to get Cushy's book, everybody that's
52:45
that's watching, you can order it on Amazon right caush It's everywhere Marginal Eye.
52:52
I highly recommend. I'm telling you this book changed my thinking and it's
52:57
a very touching and very personalized account. And you know, I just realized
53:01
I never did get to talk to you and have you explain your history and
53:06
how you got on this path. But we'll do that. We'll have another
53:08
time together. But I just in the book, everybody who's listening you can
53:14
hear about the journey that Kashif took that is so mesmerizing and how he,
53:22
you know, took adversity and created opportunity. So I highly encourage you to
53:29
get his book and start there. And then as far as the testing,
53:35
if people want to, how would they go about getting your test? So
53:40
there's two things. My personal website is a shortened version of my name cash
53:46
Canofficial dot com so k A s h k h a n official dot com
53:52
And you can go there to work with me if you'd like, or follow
53:57
me on Instagram, same thing, cash on one Official. Okay, you
54:00
just want the test the DNA Company dot com. The test might also be
54:05
on my website, by the way, but you want to go to the
54:08
DNA company dot com. You can get it there also, okay. So
54:13
it depends on really what somebody needs and alive with test. So it's real
54:17
easy. I mean, you just spin into a tube and send it back
54:22
and they send this test almost to every country in the world, so it's
54:27
readily available and the results come usually five to six weeks later, because of
54:32
course they're all overwhelmed becoming more overwhelm because more and more people are taking the
54:37
opportunity. You know, I meant to ask you. We have a Michelle
54:42
Recommends on our website and the ageless and timeless dot com and almost all of
54:47
our guests want to incentivize our viewers with something that will basically and you know,
54:55
get them to understand more in a direct way, an actionable way,
55:00
what they just heard. Is there anything that you and I'm sorry to put
55:04
you on the spot on this, but is there anything that you would like
55:06
to suggest for our viewers incentive in terms of you know, like a discount
55:14
on buying the test. Yeah, either on the test or maybe your book
55:17
or something that you think would be a way for people to be encouraged,
55:22
you know, because everybody wants to not that, not that they wouldn't do
55:24
it without, but the Michelle recommends. The whole point of that is,
55:29
you know, to get people to become aware more aware in a direct way.
55:35
Yeah, the book I have no control over because it's the publisher that
55:37
published the book, right, But in terms of the test, yeah,
55:43
let's set up if you go to the DNA company dot com forward slash ques
55:50
perhaps you know to use Ageless ageless okay, okay, So the DNA company
55:57
dot com forward slash ageless, and I'll make sure that we set up a
56:00
discount code for you. We also want to respect your time for listing and
56:04
learning and appreciate that you want to change. I'll get that set up,
56:08
okay, and you and I can work on that later, and then we'll
56:10
have my assistant Alexis put that put the offer on web site. Okay,
56:15
perfect. Well, you have been amazing and I think this has just been
56:20
the primer for people to understand the value of understanding who they are and that
56:25
the most important I think one of the most important points that's come out of
56:29
this is that just because you get a blueprint, it doesn't mean that you
56:34
can't change your profiles of health. So don't ever accept just that, oh
56:42
my gosh, I have the APO E gene or whatever and I'm going to
56:45
get al No, that isn't the case. That is why the test is
56:49
giving you guidelines, but that you then take those guidelines and work with the
56:53
company or your healthcare provider, and you use lifestyle to be able to up
57:00
that to the functional level as you've described. I hope that's a good summary
57:06
if it is okay. Ultimately, what we're saying is that disease and the
57:10
pace at which you age is a choice, right. That's the things you
57:15
do every day, every second take you towards or away from disease and aging.
57:20
So let's just always make the right choice. That's perfect. I'd love
57:23
to end on that high note, thank you, Kushief and have a beautiful
57:27
day, and thank you again. I want to come back and maybe sometime
57:30
in early twenty twenty four, I want to do a follow up, and
57:35
actually maybe even later in twenty threety four because you're working on some changes that
57:38
are going to occur with the testing, so I want to of course be
57:43
involved with that directly with you, but also for my viewers. So thank
57:46
you again, pleasure so generous with your time, Take care, thank you.
57:52
Okay, bye bye,