ZuluTime Episode # 16 This is how you Play your best health cards
[00:19] I think I am going live right now. I'm on Facebook, I think. Yeah. So I'm trying something new here, but it looks like it's working now. How is everybody? So Zulu time, episode number 16. We got bunch of good stuff coming out today. Today we're gonna. Talk about how you can play your best health cards, how you can play your best health cards. And so I'm going to take you back down to the memory lane. When I was back in, um, in college I actually did a lot of DNA research, a lot of DNA with something called SiRNA. is something that you put to the genes and you knocked gene out. You can take genes out. And that's Kinda like saying that like if you have a cookbook and everyday let's say that you read through your cookbook and you, um, you read through your cookbook and, and there is like pages when the cookbook, right, with information as to how to cook it, the ingredients, everything.
[01:29] Right? And so think about the cookbook as the DNA. The DNA is like the cookbook of our body. Everything we do, every protein, every, you know, everything is like coded there, right? So there's like the framework to building everything. So what I used to do in research was actually is like rip a page off, right. And so, and what we were doing at that time was actually we were ripping one of the genes off this, a cells from the lungs of mouses and we would see if, when we took the gene, um, with, would it be harder for these cells to actually be resilient to, um, is like extensive lung trauma. Does that make sense? So a little mouse says they take the cells out of the little mouses from the lungs. Uh, we had them, you know, bunch of them and we would take genes out of the cells and these genes were actually protecting them all the time and to see whether we could weather weather's by taking the protection out.
[02:39] Like could they still defend and, and, and I think, you know, you're fascinated and yeah, at that time, because I was like, wow, you can take genes in and out of things. So I knew this was going to be a big part of medicine and a big part of healthcare in the future and fast forward, you know, I, but I always wonder how it was going to play out. And I think the first time that I realized that he was going to be a pretty big deal was when I saw patrick Nan. Those of you who are not familiar, uh, he is a major influence in healthcare in the world. Really, uh, an amazing, uh, he's a surgeon and also a business guy. Uh, his companies are huge and he makes a big impact in the world and he's making a big impact in the world.
[03:29] And he actually has used epigenetics, uh, to treat a pancreatic cancer which uses it to guide the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Better said. And what is the, what is this all mean? Well, it means here is the bottom line, right? Pancreatic cancer was crap, was like a death sentence pretty much, right? And so in there. But when you combine different medications, different chemotherapies, different tech approaches, the patients do better and some patients will do better. But then you will give the cocktail to other patients and they will do good at all. So Patrick Nan started asking himself like, how could we predict whether this chemotherapy agents I actually like going to do well for that person or not? How could we predict if the diabetes medication that I'm going to take is going to be good for that person or not? How can I predict if the stats that I'm going to take for cholesterol is going to hurt my muscles are not.
[04:32] Is that possible? Yes, it is becoming possible now. So what he's doing with pancreatic cancer is actually taking the genetic map, the genome of the person and actually mapping it out and seeing um, if these medications have an effect on this person at a DNA level, right? And then you take a thousand patients and you get their genomes and how their genes express. And then so if a patient comes in, you just kind of compare them to other patients and you can tell, yeah, these, this group of chemotherapy agents are going to actually help that patient. Or, Oh, this group of chemotherapy agents are actually going to hurt that patient and so epigenetics is really going to play a major, major, major role in healthcare is already starting to. And it almost like, you know, when I hear practitioners that have been practicing with the tools of epigenetics for, you know, 10 years or so, you almost feel like when you leave that room, you almost feel like you are actually, I'm blindfolded in a way because not using it is like throwing darts blind for, um, why is that?
[05:49] Well, because with epigenetics you can get the, uh, the, the, the, the, the map of a person, right, of the blueprint of this person and say, okay, how does metformin for diabetes? How does that do? How does this do? How does that do? And it also allows you to see patterns in people. Um, people who worry a lot tend to have a way of expressing their epigenetic maps and people who are very relaxed and to express their epigenetic maps in a different way. And so this is very real, very data driven and he's amazing because then you can compare that to see whether someone is actually going to respond to a medication either before you give it and you can actually predict whether that person is going to respond to a medication in the future. I think we're probably not going to use medication before doing this, you know, he's going to be like, like once you have that, you can go back, right.
[06:47] Is like is like try to try to live without google. And so I think he's going to be like that because it's almost like using medications without that piece of information is a little bit of a blindfold, right? Um, in terms of side effects, in terms of everything, in terms of response. So I really believe that the future, how do we play your best cards now? You know, it's like that saying that says, you know, make the best of it, make the best. And so I think that when you talk to practitioners that do epigenetics, it is a very common practice that the ones that patient knows that, oh, um, I worry so much because of that, because of those genes, uh, because of that, I worry so much because of the way that those genes are being expressed. And so he's almost like a big relief because people is like, they stopped blaming themselves.
[07:41] Right. And so he's like, you play your best car. So it was, are the cards that I got played, for instance, my epigenetic, a map has a high affinity for like leaving a lot of, uh, excitatory neurotransmitters. So like neurotransmitters that are like epinephrin and Adrenalin, like a of the fight and flight. Right? And so then, okay, if that's the case, then how do I work with it? Right. How do I do, how do I, how do I fanangle I so that I can use different medications to target specific things when I need it and be able to predict that or I know then that I'm predisposed to like, I'm going to hard or not stopping or. And so you, you kind of learned, it allows you to learn your weaknesses even better and better yet when you're about to take medications. Um, and so, so it's really going to be an interesting time because a lot of medications are going to be tested against your genome, against your genetic expression.
[08:51] So to see whether, what type of effects he has or not and um, a lot has to do with a little switch that the genes have weather to turn them on or off and through different chemicals you can actually do these to turn different genes off or on. And so if you have more questions about this, I'm going to go into a little more detail in later episodes about what epigenetics. But this is the bottom line for now that I want you to take away. If you're a practitioner, know that this is a tool that is going to be so helpful to treat your patients and to know what your patients are going to have side effects where they're going to respond to different medications and chemotherapies or not. So that's that. And then as a patient, not that is coming now where you can actually know yourself even better as to like your genetic expression and how those genes actually result in a chemistry, the chemistry of view, right?
[09:56] And how many chemistry of view is like way excitatory or down. Where is that going to be more relaxed or uh, gonna we make you more prone to these is going to make you more prone to that. And so knowing that now you have like some cards and you say, okay, like now that I know that I'm gonna take this behavior pattern, I'm going to take that behavior pattern so that I can offset that or even a synergized with it. So really exciting time and I think, you know, in the next 10, 20 years is going to be. We are really, really, really transformative time for medicine because that's truly going to be personalized. Yes. Personalized listening to a patient isn't even to what they want, but actually looking at their past, meaning what they're bringing in terms of their genes and their present, what they've created so far and where they want to go in the future and so was going to be really exciting times for medicine and I'm so excited about that. So you guys have any questions, comments, or concerns with the next episode, let us know. We will address them and we will definitely be talking more about epigenetics. This is a hot, hot, hot, hot right now. All right everybody. Have a wonderful time. Have a wonderful day. Until next episode, Dr z here, take care.
Andres Zuleta MD
Founder @ Samasta
Host @ ZuluTime
