Do either of the good doctors have an opinion on Found My Fitness (finding out about gene polymorphisms and such)or Dr. Rhonda Patrick? This seems interesting, but I’m not sure if it’s worth doing or even legitimate. Thank you.
I have heard of her, but unfortunately don’t know the specifics of her recommendations to comment on them.
Ok,thank you! It’s very inexpensive, but you have to give them access to your 23 and me data so I’m a little nervous.
Sounds like something that will probably generate more anxiety and unnecessary testing than benefit.
Here is a little summary from the website. I’m specifically interested in Vitamin D metabolism (I’m deficient) but I’m really just interested in gene-related items in general (gene therapy and editing to treat disease).
Learn about polymorphisms involved in:
- Vitamin D metabolism
- Omega-3 fatty acid metabolism
- Vitamin B12 absorption
- Metabolism and excretion of potentially harmful compounds and carcinogens
- Saturated fat metabolism and risk of heart disease### APOE Genotype- Apolipoprotein E is a class of proteins involved in the transport of fatty acids and cholesterol throughout the body and brain. Polymorphisms in this gene can affect the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular disease in a way that may also interact with lifestyle factors, such as diet, sleep, alcohol intake, omega-3 fatty acid status, and more.
### PPAR Genotypes- Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are a group of nuclear receptor proteins that are transcription factors regulating the expression of many genes. PPARs play essential roles in fatty acid and glucose metabolism. Polymorphisms in these genes can affect disease risk in response to a high-fat diet.
Right. I’m curious how, specifically, they plan to use this information to change recommendations / management of a given individual’s health.
You could get much more information by running your results through promethease. However what exactly are you going to do differently based on the results?
I have had chronically low vitamin d levels for years, requiring supplements. Knowing I had a certain genetic polymorphism for this didn’t change anything about how I manage it. Anyway see below for details of what they might give you.
Here is an example from FMF on my results;
| Gene | SNPs Involved | Status | More Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| vitamin D binding protein | rs7041(T;T) | genetic risk for vitamin D deficiency | This gene encodes for the vitamin D binding protein which affects the delivery of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (precursor to vitamin D hormone) and activated vitamin D (1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D) to target organs, as well as clearance of vitamin D metabolites from the circulation. This genotype (T;T) increases the risk of vitamin D deficiency by two-fold. Genetically low vitamin D levels have been associated with reduced longevity and higher all-cause mortality. In addition, people with a genetic predisposition to low vitamin D levels have been shown to have a 2-fold increase risk of multiple sclerosis as a consequence of low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. The best way to assess vitamin D levels is to get a blood test. It is known that supplementing with 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day generally raises serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels by 5-10 ng/ml. A 25-hydroxy vitamin D blood test after supplementation may help indicate how much to supplement with. According to the endocrine society, blood levels of 25-hyroxyvitamin D below 20 ng/ml are considered deficient, less than 30 ng/ml is inadequate. Individuals with levels between 30-60 ng/ml are considered adequate. Meta-analyses have shown that people with serum levels between 40-60 ng/ml have the lowest all-cause mortality. 1. Read more on SNPedia. 2. Read more about genetically low vitamin D and higher all-cause mortality. 3. Read more about genetic risk for vitamin D deficiency and multiple sclerosis. SNPs Involved rs7041(T;T) |
Along that line, what do you think about Stan Efferding’s comments that everyone should get blood tests to look for deficiencies and such?
Right. You were going to take your Vitamin D regardless. This is the case for many of these situations related to genetic testing/screening, though there are exceptions. For example, the standard newborn screen tests for genetic conditions that do ultimately impact management … which his why they are a standard part of practice. It is important to understand when screening is/isn’t appropriate, which is something we wrote about here.
Aside from the obvious issues with taking medical advice from a bodybuilder, I’d say that in the absence of:
- findings/symptoms potentially attributable to a specific deficiency state
OR
- a medical condition that predisposes you to a particular deficiency
there is no compelling evidence to support going “fishing” for deficiencies, or evidence showing that the treatment of such incidentally found deficiencies improves outcomes.
Of course, the way this usually plays out is the “biohacker” types report some vague nonspecific symptom (like fatigue, etc.), then shotgun order every lab test they can think of, find a bunch of values that incidentally lie outside of that particular lab’s reference ranges, and therefore attribute their symptoms to those “abnormalities”. They may then start using various treatments, supplements, etc. to bring these values into the normal range. And given a deep underlying belief in the “biohacking” paradigm (or, perhaps, a deep belief in what Stan Efferding tells you), they are a perfect setup for a large placebo effect.
Thank you everybody for the discussion! In addition to a potential placebo setup, I would imagine the risk for nocebo is quite large. Ignorance is often bliss.
The whole “optimizing” your health or labs smells like a big placebo. It’s the same thing as all the studies on back imaging. Where someone feels perfectly fine. Then they get an MRI that shows disc degeneration. Then suddenly, they have back pain.
I get what you mean, but I like Efferding better than most. He’s very up-front about his drug use, and doesn’t try to downplay how much that, or genetics, matter. I disagree with some of the stuff he says, of course, but I think overall he seems way more reasonable and (usually) rational than I’d’ve expected before I started watching some of his videos.
They may then start using various treatments, supplements, etc. to bring these values into the normal range. And given a deep underlying belief in the “biohacking” paradigm (or, perhaps, a deep belief in what Stan Efferding tells you), they are a perfect setup for a large placebo effect.
And this is one of the reasons I also like Jujimufu, despite thinking he’s probably not a very good training model to follow. He did one of those “food allergen” tests, and then tried the suggestions. He had a video a bit later where he said he noticed some improvements and it was going well. BUT, and this is important to me, he did another follow-up video a few months later and said that over the long-term, he wasn’t actually seeing better results, and probably just got a temporary placebo effect from it.