The Concierge Doc Podcast with Dr. Jason Littleton, M.D.
The Concierge Doc Podcast is hosted by Dr Jason Littleton, M.D., where he features medical content to make smart lifestyle choices for optimal health, wellness, energy, youthfulness, longevity, balance, and happiness.
The Concierge Doc Podcast with Dr. Jason Littleton, M.D.
Unlock the Power of Genetic Testing for Health Insights with Dr. Lauren Fritsch
Discover the transformative power of genetic testing with Dr. Lauren Fritsch , a trailblazer in the field of scientific communication at New Amsterdam Genomics. Dr. Fritsch takes us on a fascinating journey through her innovative work in clinical genomics, challenging the limitations of direct-to-consumer genetic tests. Learn how whole exome and whole genome sequencing, coupled with sophisticated AI algorithms, can provide clinicians with unprecedented insights into disease risks, reshaping healthcare practices as we know them.
Unlock the secrets of your genetic makeup and its profound impact on health awareness. We dive into the significance of genetic testing for lung cancer risk assessment, particularly for non-smokers, and how this knowledge can refine screening protocols and lifestyle choices. Expectant parents, too, can gain critical insights into carrier status for rare mutations, setting a new benchmark for future healthcare decisions. This episode promises to deliver valuable perspectives on how genetic insights can influence personal health journeys and empower patients to take control of their well-being.
Join us as we explore the intricate dance between genetics and lifestyle. From weight management to sleep patterns, understanding your genetic predispositions can offer validation and lead to personalized solutions. Dr. Fritsch shares her personal revelations from genetic testing, which have impacted her approach to diet, hydration, and maintaining an active lifestyle. Discover how even subtle genetic insights can spark transformative changes, providing a blueprint for managing your health with informed awareness. This episode is packed with engaging discussions and practical tips that promise to enrich your understanding of genetics in everyday life.
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Disclaimer:
Access to the Information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk. The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and health care topics (the “Information”). Nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. The Information contained is compiled from a variety of sources. The Information should not be considered complete and not exhaustive and should not be in place of a visit or consultation with your own primary care doctor.
The views, opinions and statements expressed by our guests are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Dr Jason Littleton or the Concierge Doc Podcast. We do not endorse or take responsibility for any statements, claims or perspectives shared in this content. Viewers are encouraged to conduct their own research and form their own conclusions conduct their own research and form their own conclusions.
Speaker 2:Access to the information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk. The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and healthcare topics. The information Nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. The information contained is compiled from a variety of sources. The information should not be considered complete and exhaustive and should not be in place of a visit or consultation with your own primary care doctor. Welcome to the Concierge Doctor podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm your host, ceo and founder of Littleton Concierge Medicine, dr Jason Littleton, now today's guest, very excited to have on she's triple major in physics, biological systems engineering and clinical neuroscience. She got her undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech in 2018. Graduate degree, she's a PhD in translational biology, medicine and health at Virginia Tech in 2022. She did the dissertation on seagas sting signaling and traumatic brain injury mitochondrial DNA-induced antiviral signaling in a mouse model of TBI. She also started as director of scientific communications at New Amsterdam Genomics in 2022. And in her free time she loves horses professional equestrian, horseback riding instructor and horse trainer. Welcome to the podcast, dr Lauren Fritch, thank you. Welcome to the Concierge Doc podcast. Thank you for being on with us.
Speaker 3:Thanks so much for having me Concierge.
Speaker 2:Doc Podcast. Thank you for being on with us. Thanks so much for having me. Thank you so much. I think what you do is so fascinating and I want you to talk to us about your role as Director of Scientific Communication at New Amsterdam Genomics.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I took the role in 2022, right after finishing up my PhD and what I was really hoping for was a career that allowed me to, first off, of course, be still working in science, but to really help healthcare transform. So we really had this. You know very reactive type of healthcare system and I was hoping to help with that. You know preventative healthcare change. So in this role, it's been absolutely awesome. I get to research genetic studies, read about different diseases, as well as interact with clinicians like yourself and patients to help explain genetic testing results and really help to, you know, integrate clinical genomics into healthcare.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. So, you know, with new angstrom genomics, you know you have this test that physicians can administer to their patients and learn about. You know their genes and how we can help them in terms of some of the genetic hereditary diseases they may or may not have. Like, speak to us about that. What, what? How can myself, as a physician, help my patients by using this test?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I think the easiest way to really help people understand that is to first off explain a little bit about the different types of genetic testing that are available. So a lot of people have heard about these more. You know, kind of direct to consumer tests like 23andMe, ancestrycom, and what those tests are doing is looking for something called a single nucleotide polymorphism, a SNP, and they tend to have picked out very common things. So if you think about something like ancestry or physical traits, those are going to be very common mutations in the DNA. So what a lot of those companies do is they've picked out these common things and then they're giving you common information. So if you're interested in, you know, finding your long-lost cousin, that is fantastic. That's a really good way to do that.
Speaker 3:But for healthcare that doesn't necessarily get you the information that you need. So when we're talking about disease, the assumption here is most of these things are not going to be very common mutations. If it was super common, we would expect everyone to have the same health issues. So what New Amsterdam Genomics does is a type of testing called whole exome sequencing. We also do whole genome sequencing called whole exome sequencing. We also do whole genome sequencing, and what this is is sequencing all 22,000 genes in the genome to look for different mutations that may relate to disease risk.
Speaker 3:So, rather than really focusing on the common things, we've got all the common things, all the rare things and everything in between, so lots of information for you as the clinician. What do you actually do with that? If we give you this data file? That really wouldn't help you all that much. So the really cool thing about this technology is we have a proprietary artificial intelligence algorithm that is comparing every single mutation in an individual's DNA to the entirety of the medical literature. So those common things we can certainly pick up, but if there is even a case study about one patient with a mutation that you have, we can find that and explain what it means for you.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, that's huge.
Speaker 3:It's super, super cool. So, for you as the clinician, this is really giving you the best of the best genetic information available for each of your patients, without needing to just look at the common things you get. You know all of those super rare mutations and that's going to then help you understand what your patients are at risk for, as well as what they can do about it. So it's really designed to be empowering for patients and clinicians.
Speaker 2:well, as what they can do about it. So it's really designed to be empowering for patients and clinicians. So when a person signs up with New Amsterdam Genomics, is it kind of a one-time consultation or do you help that patient throughout their lifetime?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's such a great question. So it's a one-time test. So what that means is your DNA is not changing over the course of your lifetime and it's just a saliva sample, so it's very easy to collect. You do that once and then we have all of your genomic sequence available science on the interpretation of what those different mutations mean. So what our algorithm actually does is, every couple of weeks, it re-scans every single patient's genome and all of the available medical literature to look for new relationships that might exist. When those relationships are found, we send you, as the clinician, as well as the patient, an email that tells them to sign into their web portal and look at that new information. So a one time test that follows you for life and updates as that science evolves.
Speaker 2:But with you know, your company is a patient able to talk to someone throughout this journey, throughout their life journey, or is it? How does that work? How do they interact if they have further questions that you know they may have about new information that comes in?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the primary point of contact for each patient is their clinician. You, of course, are familiar with the patient's labs, medical history, all of that good stuff. You're going to be able to help put each of those findings in context for a patient. The flip side to that, though, is sometimes people still have more questions about you know, what is the science of this? How do I interpret it Right? In that case, patients are always welcome to reach out to us, either directly or through their provider, and get questions answered about.
Speaker 3:You know, I've read this study. I don't quite understand. You know, what is? What does this actually mean for me? How much science is really backing this, that type of thing? We really pride ourselves on helping patients and clinicians understand the results. They're only helpful if you know how to use them. So we encourage people, you know, if they come to you with a question about something in their DNA and the two of you are like, yep, not quite sure you are let's say, let's say, multiple issues that light up in their genomic studies, but yet they're not experiencing them physically.
Speaker 2:But they're concerned and they're worried. And you know how do you like work with people that may get concerned about something that you know it's showing up in their genes. They don't presently show signs of it and they may never like. What is your advice to that person? Because some people will take the information and get really worried. But then some people will be reassured and some people will get the information and be like, okay, look, I know what to look out for and how to change things in my environment. How do you, what do you say to that? Those different examples.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the big thing is genetics is not destiny, just because something is in your DNA.
Speaker 2:That's really good. That's key.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. Just because it's there doesn't mean it's guaranteed to affect you.
Speaker 2:People oftentimes hear genetics and they think you know well, if it's in your DNA, that's, that's your biology, there's nothing you can do about that. Let me just re-say that Genetics is not destiny. That was so key. I think people have to like swallow that and really let that soak in. Go ahead.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So a lot of times people think you know, yeah, it's in my DNA, so there's nothing I can do, I'm just stuck with that. It's certainly going to affect me. And it's true, there are a handful of diseases that are purely genetic. So you know, it's not that that's impossible, but for the typical diseases that our patients are coming to us that they're concerned about, it's not the case.
Speaker 3:If you think about something like heart disease really common problem, right, something like heart disease really common problem, right, everybody, everybody, is going to have a genetic risk of some sort for some type of heart disease. There's no way you will not. Now that doesn't mean that it's going to affect you because, let's say, you have that risk and you eat well, you exercise frequently, you get good sleep, you're doing all the right things. It is completely possible that you will never have heart disease. And that's kind of the hope is by understanding what you're at risk for.
Speaker 3:First of all, it's kind of motivating for people. You know, if you're at risk for diabetes based on your DNA and you're trying to cut out sugar from your diet at least, for me that's kind of a motivator to say, yeah, this is really going to be important because if I don't do this, here's what might happen. But on top of that, you know what your risk for it gives you this much more manageable list of things to worry about. Rather than saying, well, I could be affected by any of 10,000 diseases, our company is able to say to people, these are the you know, maybe six to eight conditions to be most focused on Doesn't mean you'll have those, but it gives you an idea to work with your healthcare provider and say what changes can I make to really proactively reduce the risk of these things? So genetics aren't destiny. Just because it's there, it doesn't mean that it's actually going to affect you. It's just helping you learn what you need to do to prevent it.
Speaker 2:Wow, you explained that Awesome that. That that was. That was. I love that. Genetics is not destiny. Um. So when it comes to like cancer, health and cancer risk, you know there's obviously. It sounds like new antigenomic covers that as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and cancer is a kind of a tricky area because that's one where it's Cancer is a kind of a tricky area because that's one where there's many factors involved in cancer development. It's not purely genetic. We don't necessarily know what every single one of those factors are, but we know some things that are not so helpful. So what you end up looking at for that is if you have a genetic risk for cancer. Oftentimes it tells you what things in the environment are really key to avoid. So let's say you have a genetic risk for lung cancer and this is.
Speaker 3:You know, presumably you're not a smoker, you know you've never really been around a lot of cigarette smoke.
Speaker 3:What we can actually do is look at what that gene does and understand what about the way that this protein is being affected increases cancer risk. So let's say it's related to the breakdown of chemicals that you would typically find in cigarette smoke. The next kind of step to that is to say, well, we're not really worried about the lung cancer in a non-smoker so much, but we know that you, you know, maybe live in a busy city where you're frequently around a lot of airborne pollutants and things like that. Then you can kind of talk about well, what are the things that we can do about the air quality, the exposure to chemicals, things like that, that maybe your body's not breaking down as well? So kind of a tangent there. But I think that's an important point, because oftentimes people think about well, if I have a predisposition to cancer, there's nothing I can do, and that's not necessarily the case. Sometimes we have changes to screening protocols, changes to, you know, your environmental exposures, things like that. That can be really helpful.
Speaker 2:And that's really good. You explained that very well. More and more in practice I'm seeing people who are not smokers that are developing lung cancer and you know they say, well, you know, I've never smoked in my life Will. Can this test also you know, I'm assuming it can help, you know tip a physician off about that early. Or is there more to it, more that we need to do to discover and to highlight these patients before this type of concern comes up?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the genetic information is super powerful. It is, of course, not the only information. It would be like trying to treat heart disease by just looking at someone's genetics. We've got so many other tools available. You have to use a combination. Cancer is one of those areas where many cancers do not start because of a genetic predisposition. There's something in the environment that tends to trigger it. So it's a little bit tricky, because not having a genetic variant that predisposes to cancer doesn't mean you won't develop cancer. The flip side of that, though, is if you have that genetic variant that predisposes to cancer, the likelihood of it typically is much higher. So then as a clinician, you can talk about you know the early cancer detection tests and things like that that for a patient that has a genetic risk, that's really going to be a focus, whereas a patient without a genetic risk for cancer you don't really have quite as much information about. You know the types of cancer to look out for things to avoid that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Does doing this test eliminate certain gene testing as it comes to expectant mothers?
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we offer really in-depth carrier status testing. So if you were to go to a fertility specialist, typically they'd be looking at things like cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs, those more common well-known recessive conditions. Our testing of course looks for those things, but we can also look for very, very rare mutations that most of these other tests wouldn't even consider because, again, they're very rare. The vast majority of your patients are not going to have them, so they don't really get as much benefit from it. So for our testing, we can actually compare two expectant parents' DNA to see if there's anything in common that they should be worried about at all. So much, much more in depth than the typical carrier status testing that you would do.
Speaker 2:Wow. So taking this test and it's going to encompass that right off the bat Okay, that's awesome. That's amazing. Now, when it comes to um, you know, applying it and physicians giving it uh to their uh, their patient census, is it something that you recommend providers do right off the bat? When they have a new patient, you know, tell them about this opportunity. Or is it something that, when something comes up along the way, that they introduce it? When's the best time for doctors to introduce this to their patients?
Speaker 3:It depends a little bit on the type of practice. I mean, I of course think that everybody should get this type of testing as early in life as possible, so that you know what you're looking out for. I would say the best time to do this for you know a provider is ideally when you have a new patient coming in, because that's really giving you kind of a blueprint of things to look out for. It might inform other tests that you may need to do. It might tell you, you know, maybe we're going to do an initial check for this, but if we don't see any areas of concern, we revisit it annually or you know something like that Maybe we don't need to prioritize it. The other component, though, is if you have some existing health condition, the genetic information can do kind of two different things for you.
Speaker 3:So first, there's a huge psychological component to it that I think is often missed. Let's say, you have a patient who has been struggling with their weight their whole life. It's been really powerful for people to understand that they have a genetic predisposition to that weight gain, because it makes them feel so much better knowing I didn't do something wrong. It's not that I'm not trying, I'm not putting in the effort. It's that I'm really fighting against my biology on this. So, yeah, and it's, it's something I don't think people tend to think about. You typically think about. Well, yeah, I already knew that that's not all that interesting. But understanding that you didn't do anything wrong, it's in your DNA it means you're going to have to work a little harder. Maybe you're going to need, you know, more intensive interventions to help combat that.
Speaker 2:Wow, that was huge, what you just. I never thought about that, you know. So it's not just what a person's eating, because this applies to that person who's exercising. They say they're eating right, they're doing all the right things, and yet they're still fighting uphill battle regarding their weight. That's huge what you just said. So like what specifically? What is it? What can you tell us specifically? What gene or what, what, what do you? What are you finding when it comes to weight loss? And it pertains, yeah.
Speaker 3:So there's. There's, of course, many genes related to weight gain, weight loss, that kind of thing. There's a few in some of the hunger hormones. So this is something that a lot of patients have been asking about, especially with, like, the GLP-1 based medications and things like that it's. You know, people are really understanding this a little better. So there's one particular one in a gene called ghrelin. It's a hunger hormone. It stimulates appetite, and this is a pretty common mutation and it basically causes you to just feel hungry even if you've eaten. So oftentimes, patients that have this mutation will describe it. As you know, they eat dinner with their family and then you know an hour later they're going back to the pantry because they just still feel hungry. They don't really feel satiated. So with things like that, first off it's explaining why are you getting back up to go to the pantry when you know the rest of your family is sitting down enjoying?
Speaker 2:family time. You just sold the product right there because now if people hear this part and they will they're going to want to buy and take the test. I mean that that sells the product right there. People, most physicians I know most physicians don't know that. I also know most people don't know that that they could have a genetic predisposition and they can find out what it is to help with you. Just, you just made money right there. I mean that's amazing, oh my God. I don't mean to stop you, but I got to just acknowledge that for a second. That needs to be like on repeat People, just you just play that. You'll make money In terms of selling the test because so many people struggle with that.
Speaker 2:The weight loss industry is massive in terms of pharmaceuticals, in terms of fitness and nutrition, health, I mean, wow, I sorry, I you know that was a whole aha moment for me, so I had to stop you. But, you know, continue please.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So first off, you get, you know, that psychological kind of boost of saying, yep, not crazy, it's here, and just acknowledging that is so, so powerful for so many people. Then the next component is well, what do we do about it? Now, you know, this is describing what I've been going through my whole life. Now what? So then we can start digging into the underlying biology of what's actually happening with that type of mutation.
Speaker 3:So in that, you know, ghrelin example this is something that stimulates appetite. It's making you, you know, feel hungry when you're not. And if we look at things that help reduce the production of that hunger hormone, those are all of your solutions now for helping that patient to lose weight. So, just as an example for this particular one, fiber consumption specifically helps to down, regulate or reduce the amount of ghrelin that your body produces. So a lot of people will hear you know, fiber makes you feel full longer. They'll have that in the back of their mind, but they won't really think about how that applies to them. Well, if your body is making too much of that hunger hormone, then, yeah, fiber is going to be a huge thing for you to help kind of blunt that appetite increase.
Speaker 2:Wow, what about? What about applications to insomnia and people who have trouble with sleep?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so sleep is kind of a tricky one. The genetics for sleep is pretty new. What we see more often than not for people with sleep concerns is mutations in genes related to the circadian rhythm that cause kind of a shift in basically your, you know when you feel tired. So if you think about someone that is perpetually a night owl doesn't matter what they do, they want to be up late and now you put that individual into a career where maybe they need to be up early every day and they just don't feel good about it Sometimes we'll find that they actually have a genetic variant that quite literally has their circadian rhythm shifted to make them that night owl. So that doesn't necessarily, you know, solve insomnia.
Speaker 3:Insomnia is a pretty tricky thing to, you know, tackle just with genetics, of course. But again, you first off can sometimes get that psychological component of saying oh okay, it's not me being lazy in the morning, it's that my biology dictates that I should go to bed a little bit later than the typical person. But if you know something like that, you can be a little bit more systematic with helping to kind of shift that circadian rhythm. So it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to tell you, you know you need to meditate before bed or you know something like that. We've got a lot of great literature about things to do to improve sleep, but in the case of someone that you know is kind of stuck on a sleep schedule that's not necessarily compatible with their lifestyle, we do frequently see that there's, you know, helpful information at a genetic level for that.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's amazing, and this is just a shot in the dark, but I wanted to ask about what? About pain? Is there a predisp? Are there genes that give people a predisposition in terms of having chronic pain?
Speaker 3:So that is a great question. So pain and fatigue-based syndromes because they tend not always go hand in hand, but they can. They're kind of anomalies in the field of biology, because we really don't have a clear idea of what causes a lot of these things. There are a few markers for pain sensitivity. They tend to be studied in the context of people that don't experience pain or they have a very dulled sense of pain. Those I've seen, you know, kind of pop up in patients. There's not, unfortunately, a ton related to chronic pain syndromes and things like that.
Speaker 3:What I will say, though we didn't touch on pharmacogenomics, but I think that's an important thing for your listeners to be aware of. One of the really cool things with genetics is we can actually figure out which medications are more likely to work for you based on your DNA. So New Amsterdam Genomics, of course, offers a complete pharmacogenomics analysis. So when you're talking about things like pain management, one of the things that we are able to offer is you, as the clinician, can plug in a certain medication to basically see if there's any red flags, for, you know, maybe the patient doesn't break that medication down very well, maybe they break it down super rapidly, and so giving the standard dose isn't going to do anything, because their body's just metabolizing it so quickly. So we can't necessarily explain why someone might be experiencing pain. But if nothing else, we can at least help you, you know, to help your patients by choosing a more appropriate medication. Understanding you know something about the biology as much as possible.
Speaker 2:Okay, well said. So it sounds like there's a portal that people can interact with that, you know, let's say, as it pertains to mental health, and they want to find out what type of SSRI that they should be taking that's going to help with their mood or their anxiety. New Amsterdam Genomics is going to be able to help with that, correct.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so we have. It's a view on the web portal that our providers are able to access. Our patients are, not just because we want to make sure that it's going to the right people, but you as a clinician could go through all of the SSRIs, for example, and look for a patient to see is there one of these that is more likely to be beneficial than another? Now, just like everything else, of course, it's multifactorial. We have a good understanding of genetics right now, but that's always evolving.
Speaker 3:So just because somebody doesn't have a red flag for something doesn't mean it's going to be perfect for them or anything like that. But it does take a lot of the guesswork out, so you can immediately cross some things off your list when you're trying to prescribe a new medication for a patient by saying, yeah, you don't break this one down very well, we're not using this because maybe it'll work well, but you're going to have side effects from it and we don't want to do that. So it can help you take this massive list of possible medications and really narrow it down so that you're not just, you know, playing a guessing game and working through 10 or 15 different meds.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's going to be extremely helpful. I can see all the myriad of applications, ramifications of getting your genes tested and getting them and having your primary care doctor understand what's on your plate, what you're dealing with. That that makes so much sense. Um, now, um, I want to ask you, you know, uh, before we close out, how do you, you know, I always I have this meds acronym move, eat, drink, sleep. I asked everyone on the podcast about that and I want to ask you this, in the backdrop of what we're talking about today, like you've probably taken the test yourself, I'm assuming. And how has that changed? How do you move, eat, drink, sleep, and what tips can you give us in regards to your own health?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I guess I'll kind of touch on the genetic part of it first, because that really underlines a lot of these. So for me I have a strong maternal family history of breast cancer and a strong paternal family history of heart disease. Now the family members with heart disease tend to not be the healthiest livers. They don't exercise well, they don't eat well. So for me I kind of assumed that was probably more lifestyle-based rather than genetic.
Speaker 3:My genetics came back showing I didn't have that crazy high risk for breast cancer that I thought I had. So that was fantastic for me. But I do have quite a few markers for high cholesterol, heart disease, things like that. So that was something I'd never really thought. I'd never thought that that was going to be a concern for me. So with that I had my doctor do some more advanced lipid tests. We kind of started digging around to see actually some of these things are not really in the range that I want, and so that's really changed a bit. On the diet side of things, because I'm very physically active, there's only so much movement you can do in a day so that I couldn't really do much with. But what I could do was think about. Well, I know that my cholesterol is up a little bit. I know I have some of these more inflammatory molecules. I'm going to make some tweaks to my diet to address that, and that's not something I would have thought to do had I not done the genetic testing first.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:So kind of the backdrop to that. But then, in terms of you know, what do I do specifically so for the movement? You mentioned at the beginning that I'm a horse trainer and horseback riding instructor. So I am super fortunate in that I get to work from home for this job. So we have a gym set up in the basement, I do resistance training, I have a treadmill at my desk so I do a lot of walking between meetings, that kind of thing, just getting, you know, sustained movement in throughout the day, and then I'm riding my horses every evening. So that's you know I'm always moving in the evenings and weekends and you know so I'm on my feet all the time. Movement's not something I really have to think about all that hard because I'm constantly moving.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's yeah. Now tell us about your diet. How do you eat?
Speaker 3:yeah, so I have a sweet tooth.
Speaker 2:That is my big downfall, um did you find that out from the testing or you just you knew no I didn't that one, I didn't know, um.
Speaker 3:So for me I can eat the world's healthiest dinner and I still need something sweet after dinner, like I, just I have to have it. For me, the biggest thing is there's a balance to everything. So I try to incorporate as many you know fruits, veggies, plants, things like that into my diet as possible. But I also know that I'm not a very happy person if I don't have any sugar. So my coffee creamer has sugar in it. I'm not giving it up. I can give up sugar in other places. But you know that's my thing, that the psychological wellness of it is so important for me that I can focus on other parts of my diet. And you know, I keep my coffee creamer and I keep my occasional dessert.
Speaker 2:But you didn't. But did you find out that you might've had a predisposition to sugar?
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's not a ton in my DNA. Honestly, I haven't done all that much digging because I don't think I want it to tell me that I like sugar more than the typical person. That's going to make me feel justified in it.
Speaker 2:No, I get that. I get that. Sometimes you know there's got to be a way to block from what you don't want to see when you get your genes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you actually can choose to not show like if you didn't want to know about your risk for Alzheimer's disease. Patients can check that off on their consent form and they don't have to see it. We typically don't think about, you know, like sugar consumption as being a scary thing for people, so there's not an option for that.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, you know, as it pertains to diabetes and people who acquire type 2 diabetes later in life. I'm sure that there's got to be some interesting applications there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, absolutely there's definitely some, for you know the way that your body kind of processes that sugar that can predispose to diabetes. Fortunately I don't have any of those, which does at least make me feel okay about, you know, having that sugar, because I know that I'm not in that pre-diabetic state. I've, you know, kind of checked blood sugars and things like that. And the choices I'm not in that pre-diabetic state, I've, you know, kind of checked blood sugars and things like that and the choices I'm making in my diet right now seem to be working really well for my metabolic health.
Speaker 2:So got it Good. What about hydration? How do you drink, move, eat, drink, sleep?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I drink water throughout the day. I always keep a water bottle near me at all times, constantly, because if I don't, I will forget to drink. Um, I don't really like flavored water, um, I don't like carbonation, so it's honestly pretty easy for me to focus on just drinking pure water throughout the day. Um, when I'm really physically active, especially in the warmer months, I like coconut water based um, like hydration drinks and you know for the electrolytes and things like that Um. So I don't tend to like um like hydration drinks and you know for the electrolytes and things like that Um. So I don't tend to like like. I know you can get some really fantastic like electrolyte packets and things like that. Those don't work as well for me. That more coconut water based approach seems to work better for hydration for me.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, interesting. I'll talk to us about sleep. We, we, we talked a little bit about sleep in general, but what are your sleep tips?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so sleep is something that I think is really lacking in our health care system right now. We don't really talk about it and I'm, of course, a neuroscientist by training, and sleep is so critical for your cognitive health. On top of that, that hunger hormone I mentioned sleep poor sleep actually upregulates that. So if you're someone that you know you didn't get a good night's sleep and then you feel really hungry the next day, there is biology for that. But for me, I'm someone that I need closer to nine hours of sleep a night. I wish I could work well.
Speaker 2:Me too. I need about nine or ten.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm just I'm not a happy person if I don't get a minimum of eight hours of sleep every night. And that was something that was actually a really hard thing for me to figure out because I was getting, you know, seven to eight hours and was still feeling kind of sl can be very normal too. We've kind of normalized, you know, running on very little sleep, and that was a hard mental shift for me, especially after doing all my academic studies. So yeah, for me, I I'm not always phenomenal about going to bed and getting up at the same time, but I always make sure I get at minimum eight hours of sleep, usually closer to nine.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, that's good, that's good. So so you wake up, what you at the same time, you go to bed at the same time, or how do you? How, how are you so consistent?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's. It's mostly I think ahead a little bit, so like, if I know I need to be up early the next day, I'm going to bed a little bit earlier. Um, and for me I'm super fortunate I don't really have a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep, so it doesn't really make a huge difference. You know, if I shift my bedtime by an hour night to night, I don't tend to find that that has that big of an effect for me. There's other people where that is certainly not the case, but for me it works. If I know I need to be up early, I go to bed early. If I know I can sleep in, I might stay up late and, you know, read a book longer or something like that.
Speaker 2:Can. Can our genes tell us anything about how some people are morning people and some people are not? Like I, I don't like waking up early in the morning.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's actually a few they pop up on. We have a page on the web portal called the diet, exercise and lifestyle page and there's actually a few kind of wellness traits in there. Some of those are related to are you more likely to be, you know, a night owl, you know? Are you more likely to get up early, that kind of thing. There's actually some genetic studies for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to. I'm going to have to take the test myself because I want to just find out what it says on that. I like rolling into the day, you know. I mean I don't know, know, maybe I go to bed too late, but um, so what about? What about success? Can you know our genes tell us anything about how successful a person would be, or maybe not?
Speaker 3:not really. Success is up to you. You know you can do anything that you put your mind to. So that's one of those things where, even if there were some genetic markers for it, I don't think we want them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I think you should feel like you can tackle anything that you want to, so your genes are certainly not limiting how successful you can be. You can do anything you want.
Speaker 2:That's good to know Before we wrap up. I got to ask you this question If you were giving an elevator pitch in 30 seconds about why people should get their genes tested, why people should have this done, how would you do it? I'm putting you on the spot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you really are, man, Okay. So I think the biggest thing that you get from this is kind of what I talked about. You get the peace of mind, knowing what is and isn't there. So you know why you're experiencing the things that you're experiencing and you know you're not going to have certain diseases. You were worried about the second part. The other 15 seconds is you get to know what to be proactive about. So nobody wants to be unhealthy. Everybody wants to live a long time and live healthy, and it's kind of like cheating. You know what you're already worried about, so you can do the right things now and you know stay, stay healthy as long as possible.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it Get your genes tested so you can cheat on your health and live longer. I mean no, I'm just joking, but I mean I love that. That is, that's amazing. I'm so glad that I had you on. Where can people find more information about New Amsterdam Genomics?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they can look us up online. Our website is naginomicscom. There's a contact button on there and I will mention for people because I imagine you've got a lot of patients listening our testing has to go through a doctor. So if you are a patient that's interested in doing the testing and you don't have a doctor that's familiar with us, first of all we'd love to meet your doctor and, you know, explain how everything works so that they can help all of their patients. But people can always reach out to us on the website and let us know you know where they're located, that kind of thing. And if we've got a healthcare provider in that area that we know is, you know, comfortable using our testing and taking new patients, we will always refer out.
Speaker 2:Oh, this is awesome. I'm so glad that I had you on. This is something that we're going to offer at Littleton Concierge Medicine. It's something that I really believe in and you know I had a discussion with you earlier in the week that I was like I got to have you on the podcast. This is what people need to hear. I don't think that people really know um about this. And then you said some things today about weight loss and I just feel like my gosh, this is going to fly off the shelves in my office because everyone's going to want to come in and get tested now, um, and just find out if they have a um predisposition to weight gain or have difficulty losing weight. I mean, this is awesome. Um, thank you for coming on. Listen, this is, uh, dr Lauren Fridge and I you you've just, you've just been wonderful to have on. It's been wonderful to talk to you. Um, thank you again. Um, I got to have you back on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks for having me, it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much. Well, listen, you guys. You're going to want to download this podcast and listen to it over and over again. Thank you for listening to this week's edition of the Concierge Dog Podcast. I'm glad that. I'm glad again to have you on. This has been awesome. I can't wait to talk to you guys next week. Thank you.
