Unlocking Personalized Wellness Through Genetic Insights - Len May

Unravel the mysteries of your genetic blueprint and unlock the secrets to personalized wellness with our visionary guest, Len May. As a pioneer in precision medicine and cannabis science, Len guides us through the fascinating interplay between genetics and the endocannabinoid system, which has been shaping our health landscape since its discovery in 1992. Discover how your DNA holds the key to optimizing health, managing stress, and personalizing your wellness journey. Len's insights reveal how phytocannabinoids from cannabis can work with your body's receptors to maintain balance and prevent adverse health events, and he emphasizes the transformative power of understanding your genetic predispositions for a tailored approach to wellness.

Imagine a future where your wellness plan is as unique as your DNA. In this episode, we delve into the promising possibilities of DNA-based recommendations for hormone optimization and health management, offering a proactive stance on conditions like menopause. Len's work at EndoDNA illuminates the path towards a healthier future, where lifestyle choices intersect with genetic knowledge to create personalized health strategies. From stress management to nutritional adjustments, learn how your unique genetic profile can inform every aspect of your health plan. Don't forget to explore more of Len's pioneering work on his podcast, "Everything is Personal," and stay inspired in your quest for a balanced, fulfilling life.

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Science of Personalized Wellness
• 11:32 Genetic Personalized Wellness Plan
• 23:01 The Future of Personalized Wellness

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

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Speaker 2: 0:59

Hello and welcome to the Pleasure Principles, the podcast where science meets self-discovery and wellness gets personal. I'm your host, epic, and today we are diving into a groundbreaking topic that's reshaping the future of health and the happiness. Our guest today is none other than the visionary len may. So welcome to the show, len. Thank you, I appreciate it. Lovely, lovely, so so let, before we start our conversation, I'd quickly love to introduce you to all of our listeners. Dear listeners, len is a true pioneer in precision medicine, cannabis science and the fascinating interplay of genetics with the endocannabinoid system. So Len is the CEO of EndoDNA and champion of personalized wellness solution that tap into the unique code of view. So get ready to unlock the secrets to optimize health, explore the cutting edge DNA-based technologies and, yes, even tackle some of those controversies surrounding cannabis and the genomics. So it's going to be insightful, mind bending and, dare I say, it's personal. So welcome to the show again.

Speaker 3: 2:18

I appreciate it. Thank you. I think I have a very long intro that eats up a lot of the time, so we'll try to catch up, but I appreciate you having me on that's.

Speaker 2: 2:29

That's really lovely, great, great. So, uh, I mean uh to start with. I mean uh, I. I believe there will be people who would love to know more about it. So what exactly is um endocannabinoid system and and why is it so crucial for our health?

Speaker 3: 2:46

Yeah, it's such an important question that you ask because you know we've evolved over millions of years and things that are not part of us we don't need anymore we sort of evolutionary, evolutionarily got rid of and some of the things still exist. Like you know who needs the appendix? What is I used for? But the endocannabinoid system stay with us through evolution and the challenges. That's only been discovered in 1992 by dr rafael musholem. So the endocannabinoid system is our prime primary regulating system. It modulates the other systems in our bodies and its overall goal is to maintain balance or homeostasis. And the way that it works is it gets signals from the other systems, like your immune system, your endocrine system, et cetera, and sends that signal up the central nervous system to your brain and then your brain makes a decision which endogenous means we created ourselves, which endogenous endocannabinoid or neurochemical to secrete in order to address a system that's out of balance or out of homeostasis.

Speaker 3: 4:05

The two endogenous neurochemicals that the endocannabinoid system produces, the first one's called anandamide, so the word ananda means bliss in sanskrit. So this is our bliss uh molecule, basically, and we we release that during things like uh, if we get the runner's high, if we get the runners high for running, we feel euphoria. You know doing physical activity, you know sexual activity, anything of that nature. What do you feel, that euphoric happiness? That's anandamide. The second one is called 2-AG and that's also released endogenously.

Speaker 3: 4:48

Now the interesting part of it, since you mentioned cannabis, the interesting part of it is that we evolved with receptors in our brain, our central nervous system, our bodies, for ph endocannabinoids, part of our endocannabinoid system. We're able to address those deficiencies by consuming phytocannabinoids from the plant. The only plant in nature so far that we've discovered that has these is the cannabis plant. So there's CB1 receptors in your brain and your central nervous system and they have an affinity for Delta 9, thc, which binds your CB1 receptors and releases anandamide, which gives you that feeling of euphoria or feeling quote, unquote high the second cannabinoid, high the second uh cannabinoid, uh cannabidiol, uh cbd. That has an affinity for the cb2 receptors which are located mostly in your immune digestive system more throughout the body and those work to to release 2ag which then will modulate and regulate those systems to reduce, maybe, inflammation or overactive immune response which is responsible for aches, pains and those inflammatory conditions.

Speaker 2: 6:17

Good, that's really, really lovely. And also regarding the DNA how does our DNA influence the way we react to the cannabis or maybe other wellness interventions?

Speaker 3: 6:32

Yeah, I mean DNA to me is your blueprint for life, and the thing that we always thought and struggle with is like you're born this way, you get your genetics from your mother and your father and that's it. Well, that's not really the case. You get your DNA from your parents and some of those, and, if I can give somebody a visual, there's a bunch of on-off switches. Some of those switches are turned on like predispositions to our skin color, to our hair color, our eye color, things of that nature, now, other things that we are genetically predisposed to. We have the control to turn on and off based on our lifestyle choices, which is called epigenetic expression. So in cannabis it's a perfect example. The reason why we started an endocannabinoid system test and we have a patent on the use of DNA to make recommendations associated with the endocannabinoid system test, and we have a patent on the use of DNA to make recommendations associated with the endocannabinoid system the reason why we did that was to help people either avoid or mitigate a possible adverse event, so they can find what works best for them. And the way that it works is when your genetic predispositions may determine your epigenetic expression. So if somebody is prone to stress reactivity and they're consuming something that may actually trigger that stress reactivity. Now they're creating an adverse event. That's possible from substances like cannabis and other things.

Speaker 3: 8:05

The other thing that we have to look at it are things like drug interaction. So drug to drug interaction, uh, so if you're taking prescription medication, how the your genetics, how do they interact with your phytocannabinoid consumption and how they interact with your own genetic? Uh, you know predispositions so you can mitigate risk that way as well. And the other thing is dosing. You know and that's everything. Whether you're taking a phytocannabinoid, whether you're consuming anything, your prescription medication, the dosing has always been the doctor says, well, take two of these and call me in the morning. Well, why am I taking two? Why am I not taking three or four or one? I'm an ultra rapid metabolizer. So for me, if I'm taking that, maybe I'm metabolizing really quickly and not getting the same effect as somebody that is a normal metabolizer or somebody that's a slow metabolizer.

Speaker 3: 9:02

So all these things we have to look at, which then allows us to make good life choices, which then allows us to make good life choices, and the things that matter most when you're making those choices and you know your genetic predispositions, the food that you consume. So the food that you put in your body can actually help with epigenetic expression. Also exposure to chemicals, heavy metals, pesticides, all these different things. Also the same thing, and the one thing that most people don't talk about is our own neurochemicals. So if you're doing things and if you have a highly stressful job or something you do, you're secreting a lot of your neurochemicals which can actually affect the epigenetic expression of some of those genetic markers as well. So it's really important to know sort of your life's GPS, understand where your own potholes are in your own road. So then you can collaborate, even with a healthcare professional. That's our primary customer as well. We can collaborate. The patient and the healthcare professional collaborate together to create a personalized plan for intervention.

Speaker 2: 10:18

Understood, got it. So also, like from the listeners perspective, I'm saying like can someone without prior health issues benefit from the DNA-based approach to the wellness?

Speaker 3: 10:30

Absolutely, and the reason why it's extremely important is because you know, at least in the United States and a lot of other places in the world, we implement what I refer to as sick care. So if your elbow hurts, we look at your elbow, we give you a shot, or we give you something for the elbow to stop hurting. Well, what we need to look at is healthcare, and healthcare looks at couple different things. First of all, how do we prevent something from actually expressing itself? What can we do to learn about the individual that we can actually prevent that? The second thing is that we're looking at the root cause of what is causing the elbow pain. The pain itself is a signal that there is something that's going on and in order for when you get a shot now, the signal is there is something that's going on and when you get a shot now, the signal is dulled. You're no longer getting the signal, but the underlying condition that may be causing the pain in the first place has never been addressed. So by understanding your genetics, by understanding what you can do to prevent some of these things from happening and to also put together you know, why am I getting some pain in my elbow?

Speaker 3: 11:45

Well, it could be two things. It could be that I have a genetic predisposition to stress reactivity. I've been experiencing a lot of anxiety and stress. The cortisol level is pumping into my bloodstream and it's staying there longer because I actually have an enzyme called fatty acid amide hydrolase not to get really sciencey but which is preventing me from creating enough anandamide that can actually help to alleviate some of that stress. Have all this cortisol, my immune system? Maybe it's overreacting to that and the over response is causing the inflammation and the pain and discomfort in the first place. So if I'm addressing that extra stress, maybe it'll alleviate the pain in my elbow. So those are the things that you have to kind of put the piece of the puzzle together and find out the root cause of what is creating the condition that I'm experiencing in the moment, instead of addressing the symptom, which is actually healthcare and, personally, precision. Health and wellness versus, you know, sick care, God love it.

Speaker 2: 12:58

So also, like for the listeners if cannabis is so effective, then why isn't it a kind of universal treatment? I mean, what makes it work for some and not for?

Speaker 3: 13:16

others. Yeah, I mean, it's a very complex plant and we're complex individuals. So you have, you know, over 400 different components in a cannabis plant. So it's not just, and that's why, you know, big pharma has had a lot of challenges trying to figure out how to utilize cannabis as medicine for different conditions Now there are clinical trials there's plenty of them going on right now. Different conditions now there are clinical trials, there's plenty of them going on right now. There is a FDA approved drug called epidiolex, now owned by Jazz Pharmaceuticals, for a specific form of epilepsy childhood epilepsy, gervais syndrome as well. So there are drugs that are being developed, but their individual components are two component drugs, but they're individual components or two-component drugs.

Speaker 3: 14:05

This plant has many components and so, looking at cannabis as sort of a nutraceutical, maybe it's a different way to look at it, because it has those components that can help address symptomatic conditions and also different types of components have a different effect, so some components are more sedative. So if you want to consume something that'll help you improve your quality of sleep, you can find your sweet spot there. However, thc, which is that euphoric property in cannabis, has a very narrow therapeutic window, so taking too much of that can actually do the opposite for people and create what I refer to as active brain. So you're going to be sleeping, but you're not hitting your delta and your theta level of sleep states. You're actually in your alpha, so you're getting the sleep, but you're not getting the good quality restful sleep. Once again sleep, but you're not getting the good quality restful sleep. Once again, understand your genetic predisposition to some of those conditions can help mitigate that upfront, like things like bruxism which is grinding your teeth.

Speaker 3: 15:13

So, if you think about it, if a person is stressed during the day and doesn't do anything to address the level of stress you know meditation, all these other things that you can do Now when you're sleeping, a lot of those things that you just kind of push down can actually express themselves and you're not getting your good quality of sleep and you're sort of on this hamster wheel where you're not resetting during sleep. You're still getting that stress, anxiety during the day and you're sort of continuing your life. Now you have aches and pains. Where are they coming from? Now you're sort of continuing your life. Now you have aches and pains. Where are they coming from? Now you're taking medication for those aches and pains. Now it can move into your gut, health trigger things like IBD for certain people. But it all started out from, you know, stress and not getting good quality sleep. So if you can address those things, you can address a lot of different things in your personalized health and wellness.

Speaker 3: 16:04

Cannabis is a Schedule I drug in the United States. It's legal in 37 different states maybe 38 at this point but we still have this federal program, even though the FDA and everybody else who's looking into this also made suggestions to reschedule this or maybe even deschedule this so we can start studying it a little bit more. But even besides cannabis, you know we have we have a multitude of different tests. We have a test for female hormone health, for male hormone health, for nutrigenomics what nutrients and supplements may be right for the individual minerals. We have a mental health test. We have the canine test for dogs. So women that actually are experiencing perimenopause, menopause, postmenopause we can see in advance if they have a genetic predisposition to something like hot flash severity and they can create a customized plan with their healthcare professional on hormone optimization, personalized supplementation. So we can alleviate the suffering that people experience when they don't know that their genetic predisposition is as such.

Speaker 2: 17:17

That's lovely, that's really lovely. And also I mean how do genetics intersect with the lifestyle choices like diet or exercise when designing a personalized wellness plan?

Speaker 3: 17:34

I mean, your genetics, as I said previously, are sort of your blueprint, right, so they'll tell you if you have genetic predispositions to something. So an example of that would be this is a perfect life example. I just had an individual that is looking to change their lifestyle to become a vegan, which is great, fine, that's your choice. But they also have predispositions to low iron levels. They have predispositions to low calcium levels and a couple other genetic predispositions. Now you can get that information through a blood test. The blood test captures a moment in time, a genetic test which we use saliva for. It's non-invasive. That looks at your genetic predispositions over time through your life. And when you're capturing a moment in time, you have to start looking at those factors over time, not just a one-time blood test. How does it compare to baseline over time? So, bookending your genetic predispositions with the epigenetic expression and the feedback loop, that'll give you exactly what you need. But going back to you know this example if you are choosing to, you know, become a vegan and you have this genetic predisposition, well, you were getting your iron from a lot of meat that you're eating before and now that you made that choice, you may not be getting enough iron in your diet. So by not, if you know this about yourself, you can subsidize and supplement for the iron that you may be genetically predisposed to be deficient, in Same thing with your calcium. And then, by the way, if you have a calcium deficiency, there's also a genetic marker for sensitivity to dairy, et cetera. So if that's the case, you may look to get your calcium from other sources, like green leafy vegetables as well. So understanding all these things will help you create your own personalized treatment plan.

Speaker 3: 19:45

I'll give you a couple other examples, like there's two that are really really important to look at. Number one is opioid dependency. So there's a genetic predisposition to opioid dependency. One in four people may have this genetic predisposition. Well, how many doctors prescribe an opioid to an individual and they don't know that they have an opioid dependence predisposition? By consuming the actual opiate they can trigger the epigenetic expression and maybe that person is now has this opiate dependency. So understanding that you can modify your protocol if that individual has that.

Speaker 3: 20:21

Another thing is treatment resistant depression. Well, how many psychopharmacologists prescribe antidepressants or ssris to individuals that have treatment resistant depression without doing their genetic test? They're still recommending that it may not work for the individual because they genetically have this predisposition. However, they can still suffer the side effects of that medication without the efficacy that they would want. So that's why it's really important to understand that, create the personalized treatment plan, get the feedback loop with biometric feedback, blood work, uh, epigenetic testing and then what we do is we use machine learning, ai, to start making predictive inferences. So what I mean by that is you know Then the doctor that has the interactive treatment plan, the next patient that comes in, well, it'll say you know, there's been 100 people that have used this specific protocol that reported efficacy. So this is the suggested protocol for the healthcare professional. They can go in and still modify it, which is fine, because, based on that feedback loop, the AI gets even better every single time there's a modification and starts creating those predictive infants patterns.

Speaker 2: 21:35

Exactly yeah. So how accessible is this technology for everyday people?

Speaker 3: 21:42

Yeah, it's very simple. You can go to endodnacom. There's a saliva test. It comes to your home, you can swab. You register because we are HIPAA compliant and GDPR compliant, so all your data is treated like a medical record. You would send a sample to the lab. It'll take a few weeks to get your results. You'll be notified. You log into your portal, which is called MyDNALive, and you will get your results. You'll be notified. You log into your portal, which is called MyDNALive, and you will get your results in the portal. So it's very accessible.

Speaker 3: 22:19

Our main customer is a healthcare professional and we have this product called Lab in a Box. So we empower doctors and clinics to have their own version of the endodna test white labeled for them so they can have it in their clinics, in their, in their doctor's offices. They can provide this for their patients as well. The other way that we get dna information is raw data from other dna tests. So if somebody's taking a dna test, maybe like a 23 me orestrycom, you can take the raw data that belongs to you and you can upload it to our site. We'll interpret that and provide you a report within 24 hours. Perfect.

Speaker 2: 23:02

Perfect, lovely, great. So that's really, really awesome. I would say awesome. I would say and uh, that's, that's really a great conversation, and your insights into precision health, genetics and the uh endocannabinoid system have truly opened our minds to what's possible in the personalized wellness. So, uh, for the listeners I would love to mention, like, remember that your health isn't kind of one size fits all, so so if today's episode has inspired you to dig deeper into your own wellness blueprint, then go check out Len's work at EndoDNA and his podcast. Everything is Personal. So thank you so much for tuning into Pleasure Principles and do not forget to subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with someone who'd love to know more about the future of health. So until next time. This is your host, avik, signing off. Stay curious, stay balanced and keep discovering the principles that bring you pleasure in life. So thank you so much.