#9: Navigating the Gut Microbiome to Revolutionise Breast Cancer Detection: Insights with Nika Pintar

Innovations in Women’s Health and Longevity: Insights from Nika Pintar of AniBiome

In this episode of Biohacking Eve: Health Optimisation for Women, host Judith Mueller interviews Nika Pintar of AniBiome. The discussion covers pioneering research in affective neuroimmunology, the impact of gut microbiomes on women’s health, and advanced diagnostics for early breast cancer detection. Nika highlights the importance of understanding individual biological baselines, personalised medicine, and the need for greater focus and funding on women’s health research. The episode also touches on practical biohacking tips, the benefits of daily habits, and the potential of emerging technologies to revolutionise health monitoring and treatment.

Social Media Links

Ani Biome IG: https://www.instagram.com/ani_biome/

Nika Pinta’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/nika.pintar/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nika-pintar/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/anibiome/

Resources

AniBiome Website

https://anibiome.ai/

 (For the longevity intervention trial and breast cancer diagnostics program)

Books

The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma

Biohacking Tools

•  TheraBody Belly Wrap (Infrared + Vibration)

               https://www.therabody.com

• Vibration Ball (similar to TheraBody’s vibration devices)
• Bellicon Trampoline

              https://www.bellicon.com

• Loop Earplugs (Noise reduction)

             https://www.loopearplugs.com

• Silk Sleep Mask
• Ultra Human Smart Ring (HRV tracking)

               https://www.ultrahuman.com

Creative Tool

Watercolor set + postcard papers 

Timestamps:
 00:00 Introduction to Women’s Health and Breast Cancer
 00:13 Welcome to Biohacking Eve with Judith Mueller
00:40 Interview with Nika Pintar of AniBiome
00:49 The Impact of Hormones on the Gut Microbiome
01:32 Exploring Affective Neuroimmunology
03:53 Challenges in Breast Cancer Diagnostics
05:43 Innovations in Non-Invasive Breast Cancer Detection
07:02 The Importance of Women’s Health Research
08:00 The Role of the Oral Cavity in Disease Detection
13:32 Personal Health Stories and Challenges
19:59 The Need for Hyper-Personalised Medicine
23:33 Preparing for Menopause and Ovarian Ageing
26:11 Innovations in Reproductive Health
28:16 Autoimmune Diseases in Women
30:41 Biohacking Tools and Daily Habits
32:18 Impactful Books and Purchases
35:06 Calming Techniques and Travel Tips
44:10 Exciting Breakthroughs and Future Projects
48:57 Final Thoughts and Call to Action

Insta/TikTok: @BiohackingEve
Website: www.BiohackingEve.com

Transcript

Nika Pintar 0:00

what really, personally was also tough to comprehend was why are we so still addressing breast cancer and actually the state of breast health in a sense, to very, very invasive methods. So basically still the golden standard is just to cut the breast open, see and see what's going on. There's really no other way to just be able to tell what's going on. And even mammographs, you know, women's breasts are being squished. Why are we still doing it this way in today's world. I mean, if you told a man that. their organ would be squished for a health procedure. How would they react to that? Maybe I'm being a little bit controversial here, but I don't think it should be done in such a way.

0:58

Welcome back to Biohacking Eve, health Optimization for Women with Judith Miller, where we shine a light on everything that will help you reach your best self. As a woman, as unique and individual as then you can be live long and prosper my friend.

Judith Mueller 1:18

Hello and welcome back everyone. Today we have Nika Pintar of AniBiome on the show. Hello Nika.

Nika Pintar 1:25

Hi, Judith. It's such a pleasure to be here today.

Judith Mueller 1:29

So, Nika and I met, and when we first talked about things, we talked about the fact that women are biochemically a different person every single week. When I mean biochemically, I mean hormonally. And Nika made a very good point that the gut microbiome, which is one thing that she deals with on a daily basis, is actually heavily affected by hormones. Tell us about that.

Nika Pintar 1:55

The longevity week. And it's so important to place women. at the center of this understanding scientific exploration of what is the female biochemistry like. And I think it expands much further than just a gut microbiome. So at AMI, we are pioneering the of affective neuroimmunology. When I say affective, I am referring to referring to the affectome, which is basically how do our emotions, thoughts, behavior, so all of the intangible things, the mind, how do they drive biological changes related to aging? For example, there are studies showing that, for example, people who will develop chronic diseases before that, they are showing signs. symptoms of anxiety and depression and so on. So how can our mind drive such biological changes? And then how does that connect to the neuro immunology? So our cognitive performance, how present we are, how focused we are, how much energy do we have and what is our immune state? And when we are talking about the immune state, we must take into account gut microbiome finally, gut dysbiosis has been recognized as one of the hallmarks of aging. However it's a much broader field. It's about completely mapping the state of both health and disease, because ultimately if we don't understand each one separately. If we don't understand what health is, we don't know how to navigate from a state of a certain condition back towards the state of health. And ultimately here, a point that I would like to address as well is that we don't know enough about health. The whole system nowadays is really built around disease. So everything we are looking at, you know, how the typical pharma approaches, single molecules, single pathway related to a certain condition and so on, but no one is really looking at a state of health and what is the next stage in the state of health and how do we achieve it as humanity? Because when we look at numbers, only 1 in 10 Americans is considered metabolically healthy. So if only one is considered metabolically healthy, ultimately the question is, is that person really healthy or are they only healthier than someone who is already suffering from something? And then there's so much room to explore in that field.

Judith Mueller 4:29

So tell us about exploration. You mentioned you went to very interesting conference in San Francisco a couple of weeks back, and if you can maybe link that to the work that you're doing on breast cancer diagnostics, for example. Tell

Nika Pintar 4:47

is focused on women's health, specifically breast cancer. Dr. Laura Serman, who is really an outstanding woman organized it with her team. They're doing the wisdom study, which is focused on early detection of breast cancer. And what was really great to see was the amount of interest the room was full so much scientists, innovators, investors, everyone was there, which was, you know, Absolutely outstanding people from, you know, a 16 Z. It was just the highest level. However, what really, personally was also tough to comprehend was why are we so still addressing breast cancer and actually the state of breast health in a sense, to very, very invasive methods. So basically still the golden standard is just to cut the breast open, see and see what's going on. There's really no other way to just be able to tell what's going on. And even mammographs, you know, women's breasts are being squished. Why are we still doing it this way in today's world. I mean, if you told a man that. their organ would be squished for a health procedure. How would they react to that? Maybe I'm being a little bit controversial here, but I don't think it should be done in such a way. So connecting it to what we are doing at ANI we developed our digital biomarker. And in that sense, the utilization of our technology can also be for early detection of breast cancer. It's. Based on oral immunology, we connected with neuro ophthalmology and furthermore with cognitive biopsychology. Those are the sub components of our digital biomarker. And basically there are numerous signs occurring at the level specifically of the oral cavity that show an indication that a woman could have breast cancer. So I would like to have a full on disclaimer. We have not clinically validated it yet. We are looking for partners to validate it. So not just partners in terms of clinical center scientists and so on but also for women who Would like to be a part of this who can contribute to the development of science and technology for early detection that is completely noninvasive and ultimately not just about early detection, but possibly even about looking at the individual disease trajectory and looking at which and how can be influenced on the individual level? Because when we are talking about women's health, we just don't know enough, not enough funding is going into it. Only 2 percent of all venture capital going towards health related ventures goes into women's health. That's 2%. And when we even zoom out it's just, I mean, we make up 50 percent of the world's population, right? We don't know enough. We need larger data sets. We need, women to also, Be a part of it. So I would really like to use this opportunity to provide Ani as a platform as well in terms of the early detection of breast cancer. We offer it for free of charge. It's just about bringing this scientific novelty into real world application and helping humanity. Because if we are able to do that, it's just outstanding.

Judith Mueller 8:32

about the thinking behind the link between the oral cavity and breast cancer. Does it go one way, does it go both ways? What are the links exactly?

Nika Pintar 8:42

So when we are talking about oral cavity in general there is so much we can tell from it. And it's not even just breast cancer. There are indications for gastric cancer for IBD flares. So there's a lot of immunological markers that are occurring on the level of our oral cavity. For example, in IBD, it is well known that there are certain changes occurring in the region of our, actually on the tongue. It's itself like the color and similar that correlate with acute state of inflammation. And those symptoms usually even occur prior to any other symptom we are able to look at on the level of the GI tract. So which one was first, The chicken or the egg, you know, I don't think that's really the right question. We should be asking, but rather what can we do to observe it on the individual level to understand and predict before it occurs? And what is it that we need to provide that person specifically, whether it's a woman or a man, whether it's a child, because unfortunately in IBD, you know Still, there's a lot of cases being diagnosed very early on in someone's life, and when you think about it, it's severely impacting one's quality of life. So someone will go on to live, for example, for three fourths of their lifetime with a severely decreased quality of life. So Those changes occurring on the level of the oral cavity, the tongue itself is one of the earliest diagnostic tools across a variety of different traditional medicines, but also Western medicine. We were a part of a program by EIT Health and Takeda, which is, you know, the, the company for IBD for specifically for a non invasive diagnostics based on tongue biomarkers for early detection of IBD players. And yeah, it was really wonderful to be a part of this program. However, we have. Progressed much further since then also developed a multi agent system so now our agents are talking between each other to to really elucidate on an individual level, what could each pattern tell us. And especially observing it longitudinally over time.

Judith Mueller 10:58

What's an agent in this case?

Nika Pintar 11:01

So when we're talking about agents, it's not, you know, a person doing all of these discussion. It's a machine learning agent, and basically it's gathering all of those vast data sets. Because you can just imagine that, for example, when we are talking about the oral cavity. We are talking about taking a photo of the oral cavity on a daily level. So we have the RGB camera taking a photo through the phone. However, we also developed a multispectral device and we get infinitely more data because we are able to observe more spectrum than you can actually observe through a regular RGB camera. And then when we are looking at those spectrum, it's not just about each individual, but actually the correlations between them. And then again, on the individual level, what is the standard and what is the deviation? So it's about observing and truly bringing end of one medicine in a digital scalable way that can be implemented anywhere. Usually for a multispectral camera, you would need to invest 15, 000. It's a large device. It's not something you can have available anywhere this you can bring with you anywhere you go. I bring it with me all the time and yeah, that's the part of our appropriate theory diagnostics technology that we developed at AMI.

Judith Mueller 12:23

So when you say it's about the mean, the average for the individual and the standard deviation for the individual, does that mean you should determine a baseline as early as you can in your life? So you know what the variance is

Nika Pintar 12:37

Exactly. I would argue that the earlier we start tracking and building let's call it a digital twin, simply because that's the most, let's say use term of ourselves. We can understand our our youth better. We can understand our optimal state of health better because we know that with aging, degradation is happening as we are talking to that. You and me are aging. We can't do anything about it, right? We that's in the field of aging and we are, we are all patients, right? All of those changes are occurring all the time and nothing we can do about it right now. Anyway. So the earlier we start building such a digital twin, the earlier we start understanding on the individual level, what is occurring, the more we are able then to understand as the technology is progressing, what we need to do for that specific person. Because for example, a lot of the standards nowadays in the healthcare systems were built on older generations, older populations. When we are looking at, for example, different cancer markers and similar

Judith Mueller 13:51

Okay.

Nika Pintar 13:52

I will do my own story. Maybe, maybe that is something people will be able to understand and relate to a little bit more. So basically when I was I think I was 26 at a time. I went to get my wisdom tooth removed. I got a painkillers, painkillers, literally destroyed my stomach. I was gaslighted. No one would admit me to the hospital. They told me, Oh, you're a young woman. Nothing is going on. You're imagining the pain. And after actually nagging the doctors to allow me to be examined, I made it to the hospital. I was told now you wait and you will be the last one today that we will examine because You're the healthiest person in the room because you're the youngest. And then when I was actually undergoing the endoscopy, I did it without anesthesia or anything. So quite hardcore. And suddenly I hear the one thing no one ever wants to hear when they're lying in the hospital bed and that is, Oh, all the students come here. We've never seen something like this. That was fun. And then they say, Oh, this young lady has three stomach ulcers. We've never seen an immune system so compromised. Yeah. Long story short, the medicine I've been given has caused further problems and damage to my GI tract and so on. And now I've, I've invested about. more than two years of my life of just actively reversing all of that damage. I would say it, I reversed it. And there are still some things that, you know, I understand that my baseline is not the same as everyone else's, right? However, this year, I decided to go, I was doing my blood biomarkers and so on. And I had an elevated. Cancer biomarker for gastric cancer. So given my history, it was, I wanted to do additional tests to see what is going on and whether there is something that I should be aware of. And I made it to the doctor and I've done actually also the complete pill endoscopy to see my complete GI tract. And he said, absolutely everything is remarkable and perfect. There's nothing to worry about. And those biomarkers actually correlate that they're looking for markers at the levels of standards for people above the age of 50. So, we don't know. We don't know. There's so much we don't know in terms of what should we compare young people to because we've never seen such an incidence of cancers in young people as we do nowadays. In colorectal cancers. Specifically, there was just a study that came out very recently that is in in abnormal numbers on the rise in the young populations. And specifically when we are looking, for example at immunotherapy for cancer specific types of, so specifically in colorectal cancer, only one in 20 people respond. So that's something like an underlying problem. No one is talking about that. Basically you go to the doctor and you have a condition. However, chances are only 5%. that you will actually respond to the drug you will be given. And that's in this specific case, in general, on average, 50 percent of people don't respond to drugs. And you know, I don't think people are aware of that, that when you go to the doctor, that there is a significantly high chance that you would not even respond to the drug. And we don't yet know why is that. Coming back to the previous topic of gut microbiome, we know that gut microbiome is related to that. It is an emerging field of understanding all of those different interactions between the gut. But not just the gut itself, but also just individual biology and all the other things related to a person. But specifically, there are certain Species in the gut that have been identified, such as Fecalibacterium pelsicii, which has been just among a wide range of indications that it's present and more abundant in people who do respond to drugs. And again, this is now very overgeneralizing it, but we can dive really deep into which conditions and so on. I see you're trying to say something for a while now.

Judith Mueller 18:27

The two things on that when you say 50 percent are non responders to drugs, so we said there's a certain indication that certain gut microbiome might help with response or not. Looking at the drugs, are there certain clusters of drugs where there are higher or lower response rates? Are we saying ibuprofen works on 90 percent of people, but this particular immunotherapy for cancer only works on 10 percent of people?

Nika Pintar 18:56

So yes, it's a context dependent, right? So it's drug dependent condition dependent. For example, on average in oncology, 70 percent of patients are non responders. Now, even when we are talking about the response rates, there are again it depends on what you look at. What is the response? Right? Is it just about shrinking the tumor? Is it about actually eliminating the tumor? Those are two completely different things. So in average. across all drugs, it's 50 percent of people don't respond in oncology 70 percent in specific types such as colorectal cancer immunotherapy, it's only 5 percent of people responding. We are not even talking about drug to drug interactions and similar because ultimately, another thing that we should take into account when it comes to the aging population that there's encountering such conditions, most, well, a great deal of people will already be taking certain kinds of drugs. And that's just something that we, we really need to start looking at the individual and their individual trajectory and not just, This is a drug for this condition. And since you have a condition, this is the drug for you. That's the wrong way of thinking. It's more about you are this individual. This is your baseline. This is your trajectory. This is what happened over time. And this is how we will address it. That's why at Ani we are building this algorithm and we are building these data sets now in January, we are launching the largest ever longitudinal longevity intervention trial, and we will be integrating various omics. So transcriptomics, genomics, epigenomics, metabolomics, to really be able to benchmark our digital biomarker against that as well, but also to understand on a really, really deep level, we'll be collecting more than 250 GB of data per person just for the initial set of analysis to understand what's going on.

Judith Mueller 21:09

Who's a good trial subject for that? Do you want people who have some sort of chronic condition? Do you want a mix of people?

Nika Pintar 21:18

Unfortunately, let's just talk numbers. 50 percent of people in the world suffer from a chronic condition. 50%. As I said, one in 1 in 10 Americans is considered healthy. Yes, it's oriented towards, let's say the general healthy population. However, I would argue that each one of us, just given the world we live in, and it's nothing personal, really. has certain deviations. And it's ultimately about understanding all of those deviations across all the different biochemical profiles, you know, so it's ultimately about gathering the largest and the most dense data set. of people. The goal is to reach 1. 7 million people up in the next five years. So we can actually determine what is a healthy state and how can we move towards a healthier state.

Judith Mueller 22:19

So hyper personalization is key. Obviously at

Nika Pintar 22:22

Exactly.

Judith Mueller 22:23

there's, there's so much we

Nika Pintar 22:25

Yeah. People often ask me, you know, Nika, what kind of supplements should I take? Is this good for me? Oh, I was recommended this. Should I be on this diet, that diet? Ultimately, when you break it down, it's all about compounds. So it's all about different information and it doesn't even have to be something we digest. It can be light, it can be sound, it can be different types of we are surrounding ourselves with and taking into ourselves in a way on a daily level. And we just need to understand all of those different interactions. The more data we collect, the more data we know about each person, we can reach that stage. The sooner we can reach that stage of hyper personalization.

Judith Mueller 23:11

So sticking with that, actually knowing what your baseline is. We previously said, it'd be very good to find out particular baselines early on in life so that 10, 20, 30 years later, you can see what the changes are. This is something that is very, very prevalent in the current generations. So I will be going for a menopause in the future. Obviously the ones I have gone for already not much help for them, but something I hear time and time again is look, especially when going to HRT hormone replacement therapy. So for those who don't know, basically in menopause, your ovaries shut down. They stop producing your sex hormones, at least. To start with in the quantities that they used to, then basically it goes down to very, very low quantities. There are all sorts of negative side effects of that, which we'll dig into in different episodes. But my point being I hear time and time again. HRT is so, or needs to be very, very hyper personalized, but in order to know what to give this lady, we kind of need to know what her baseline was 10, maybe even 20 years ago. So this is a very interesting parallel here.

Nika Pintar 24:18

Yeah, I would say, like, if only I knew or collected all of that data about myself at least 10 years ago, that would be amazing. You know Given the stage and what we also connect a bit in person before was, as you mentioned, perimenopause, menopause, ovarian aging. It's a personal topic of interest. There are now interesting studies that came out about repromising that could potentially delay ovarian aging or very new studies, experimental and so on. So not I wouldn't advise anyone to now just go and take repromising for that. But it's definitely something that is interesting to explore further and to understand how exactly it works and why does it impact women in such a way? We don't know enough. Also I don't think we are told early on in our lives as women to start preparing for this stage. I've experienced it on my own skin and I, I have a network of women who experienced it. You know, suddenly you reach 30 and then it's like, Oh, now, now I should start thinking about this. However, we should have started to. thinking about this and managing it. At least I would argue 10 years earlier because that was the best time, right? And we are talking about egg freezing and similar. You start thinking about it in your thirties. What if we had started thinking about it earlier and just got the whole thing? Done. When our bodies were in a more optimal state for that, let's discuss that. And Yeah, I don't think we are educating women enough about their reproductive health in a way that is about preserving the best of their biology and understanding if we want to reach such a state what is needed. And I think there's so much. To be discussed here so much that we should take into account, like, even just the egg freezing methodologies, which I'm not a fan of thinking like, Oh, now we need to push 10 eggs out in one month. And then again, we are providing hormones and similar to kind of just kickstart the body into doing something that it would naturally not do. Are there. Smarter ways to do that. Are there better ways to do that? More efficient ways that are not so disruptive for a regular cycle are all topics where I'm really looking forward to seeing new innovations.

Judith Mueller 27:03

And actually one point that you raised, which I found so, so interesting, you said, look, I wouldn't mind going to clinic if I need 20 eggs, I'll go into the clinic once a month for 20 months in a row or whatever it's going to be and collect one egg at a time. And obviously with the, what we. Discuss with the current collection methods. That's actually not a good idea for various reasons, but when you set them up, actually, this is not a bad idea. So if anyone out there has ideas, please do get in touch. We would very much love to find out more.

Nika Pintar 27:32

A better collection method. Again we are very used to, oh we can do invasive things to women. Simultaneously we, we do not accept women experiencing pain, right? So if women are suffering from pain, it's just considered, oh, that's normal. So I think we just need smarter ways, more efficient ways to, to do that. I'm certain if enough funding would. go into that specific field, something very interesting would emerge.

Judith Mueller 28:03

so sticking with women, you previously mentioned there was some interesting statistics around autoimmune diseases and women specifically.

Nika Pintar 28:13

Yes. I, I think it's not even just statistics. I've seen it in my circle of friends. And I've heard from my friends about their friends. It's the rise of autoimmune conditions in women specifically. What I think the problem here is, is that we are kind of at this point, we just regarded as something very normal. I think ultimately that's the greatest problem and it impacts the quality of life. In such a significant manner, and again, coming back to the field of affect to neuroimmunology, a person that is diagnosed with something even early on in their lives or earlier on in their lives, then goes on just also considering themselves a patient of a certain condition. And it's much harder once you accept it, that this is your baseline. This is your standard now to also. Reverse it because a complete system. It's not really built around reversing it. It's more about managing a certain condition. I've personally after this whole gut brain interaction disorder and so on. I had such an impact, drastic impact on my quality of life. I started suffering from migraines. I started suffering from joint pain. I could not leave my house when it was windy, when it was rainy. I literally, I felt I was what, 27 or something. I felt like I at least 50 years older than that. And I've gone through that. and I also remember from that perspective, how much harder it was when you are in these mental patterns to again, consider yourself as a healthy individual, or just consider yourself as someone who has all the abilities to do all the things that healthy individuals do. And yeah, I think that's very limiting.

Judith Mueller 30:17

Let's work in that. Are you ready for the curve ball questions?

Nika Pintar 30:21

Yeah,

Judith Mueller 30:23

Fantastic. So what are three things that you wish that your clicks patients, the wider circle of people that you deal with and that you address with knew that you think would really move the needle if they knew that and acted upon it?

Nika Pintar 30:40

I think we live in a world that is very comfortable. We live in a world where it's much easier to be a couch potato rather than have the discipline to wake up and for example, just catch a little bit of sunlight. What I think the wider circle would need to be more aware of is just how many biohacking tools are already out there that are. Available to each and every one of us. And that's so easy to implement in our life with just a little bit of dedication, persistence, and discipline. So I think we don't emphasize enough this let's say more again, intangible things like dedication, persistence, and small things you can implement just go for a walk every single day. Wake up and look at the sunlight and grab some sunlight. Even if it's not sunny outside, go outside. Everyone can run for five minutes. I'm not saying it must be something long, tedious. It doesn't have to be the perfect you know, two hour exercise regime every single morning. I don't do that. I don't think people have the time to do that. Anyway. In most cases but simply set up a set of really small habits and stick to them and that will dramatically change things.

Judith Mueller 32:01

Okay, what is the book or are the books that you've gifted the most and what are the books have changed your life the most?

Nika Pintar 32:11

Well, there is one by Robin Sharma, 5am club. I think it changed my life. Because, well, it was one of the things that brought me and my co founder, Bruno, together. And we were reading the book together and we decided to wake up at 5am together. And that was just something about, you know, texting each other saying, Oh, I woke up at 5am. Did you?: Even though you probably shouldn't use your phone so early in the morning, but it was about this. Having someone with you go through that, it dramatically changed my life because I no longer do that. I wake up now without an alarm clock, so it's not usually 5 a. m., but I think we were on it for, I think, I believe more than 18 months, very religiously. And it was also about this strength of willpower. If you really want to implement something, you can implement it. But yeah, books are beautiful and very inspiring to read. And I like to read books that also have this. Practical impact on my life and what I can do.

Judith Mueller 33:19

And what purchase of a hundred euros, dollars, pounds, or less has most positively impacted your life in the last two to three years, or even a recent memory?

Nika Pintar 33:31

Well, I have a very recent memory. So I bought this and it's not something you would expect, but it's a watercolor set. So you have watercolors inside. And I bought this, postcard papers that are for watercolor painting, and basically I just draw every single day., I only just started, so I started three days ago, so it was only three days in a row for now, but It's very little. I can carry it around me all the time, and it's challenging me to flex my creative muscle. And there is this moment I realized now, as I'm working a lot using the most recent reasoning models and so on, and I'm just waiting for the agents to come up with a solution. There is this moment when they are thinking, and while they are thinking, you know, I have this. Not like, oh, now I can check my WhatsApp or check my email or, you know, it's something more scrolling like, let's say, so I decided to integrate a very simple and easy thing that I can always grab from somewhere and just flex my creative muscle instead.

Judith Mueller 34:45

So this is really interesting from a brain chemistry point of view. So rather than doing something scrolling. I eat the dopamine kick. The next thing, check your back balance, check your stock portfolio, check the news, check your emails, check whatever it is. You're actually using something that's calming. So you're actually going more towards the serotonin rather than the dopamine to, to pick you up as a way to keep you happy. Super interesting. any other purchases and, or any purchases have really changed your life of a thousand dollars, pounds, euros or less.

Nika Pintar 35:17

I'm a big believer in the TheraBody belly wrap that has the infrared and warming and vibration integrated into it. It really helped me manage my HRV. So as you can see, I'm, I'm wearing a. smart ring, it's ultra human in this case. But anyway, the therabody wrap dramatically helped me increase my HRV. And I also use their, they have a small ball as well, vibration ball, I really love it for all flights, for example, to just Keep the, you know, the limbs going and everything. So it's about setting up this system of things that are easy to integrate. I, I'm traveling a lot. I have other things that I really love, but that I cannot bring with me. For example, I have a belly con trampoline. I would recommend for every single person out there to get a trampoline and a bellycon is pretty much the best, but having a trampoline in your apartment, which I have back in Croatia. It's just this feeling of, you know, I have 15 minutes between meetings, what I'm going to do, get on that trampoline. It really gets all the stress out, gets all the stress out, gets you so pumped up and you can just continue. So trampoline, TheraBody, definitely some of the things.

Judith Mueller 36:45

I actually have a trampoline at home myself and I get specific days when I literally have like eight hours of back to back calls, every half an hour there's sort of a, you know, one new break in between and want to eat something. And if. One of my meetings finishes five minutes early, or someone says they're running five minutes late. I go on the trampoline, I put on my favorite songs and I'm not ashamed to admit some of them are actually quite a lot of them are Disney songs. So I go on there and I jump for five minutes and I sing. And you know, when I come into the meeting, people are like, who are you?

Nika Pintar 37:17

Yeah. trampolines are the best.

Judith Mueller 37:21

So what is this vibration ball that you mentioned for flights?

Nika Pintar 37:25

I actually have it here if you want me to show it. Just a moment. It's very simple. It looks like this, it gets you stopped at every single airport for certain So minus outta battery right now, but it's just, you turn it on and basically it vibrates, and that's what it does. I find it very helpful. I find it very calming. And I also have a special pillow for around the neck with a shiatsu thing inside. I told myself I'll never tell anyone about this. unless it worked. And it helps me calm down. So you will see, I'm all about really just calming down. I use a lot of different methods to calm down because I get so many different inputs throughout my day. Given the amount of things we are doing, we have more than 30 ongoing scientific projects at this moment in time. We are part of seven large consortiums, majority financed by the Dutch government. We just recently also welcomed Eric Worden, the CEO of Buck Institute for Aging as the president of our scientific advisory board. And there's a lot of inputs each and every day, also in the development of the technology. You must keep up every single day. Something new is coming out. You must be able to also take a step back, look at what's obsolete now, given the state of technology in the world. How do we progress? Doing all the patents, which is usually all the legal and IP strategy work is on me. So my day is really filled with so many different activities that I feel if I don't actively work on me actually being more relaxed. Being more able to breathe, being more able to just let those informations pass through and then navigate through that. It's not going to happen on its own.

Judith Mueller 39:19

I agree with you. So just coming back to the vibration ball. So this is something you use for vagal nerve, or how does it work?

Nika Pintar 39:29

Yeah, that is how it's supposed to work I practically use it when you're on the plane, I either just put it like here or I'm, I'm with

Judith Mueller 39:37

yeah.

Nika Pintar 39:38

I also put it on my shoulders. I put it. This will sound wrong, but I sit and it's maybe between my legs is not the best way to to to say it, but just like between my knees. Yeah. And then it's like you feel it throughout your whole system as well. And it really helps with long flights. I personally really think it's, it's great. And I think having a great sleep mask, it's very important. I travel a lot, as you can imagine and you go into a hotel, you cannot expect that everything will be on par, but all of all of your standards, you know, once you go into this deep dive, you kind of just either Set up your life. So you have this framework and you know that it works for you. So I got a silk sleep mask to help me out with that. And it has these nice you know, like puffy stuff to protect the eyes. And another really recent thing that I started implementing are the. They're called loop. They are small, things you put in the ear to just reduce the noise of the outside world. So when I'm in very loud spaces, I'm quite sensitive to just, The world around me being very loud. I think the currency of the future ultimately is a combination of our personal energy and focus, because only if you focus your energy and your intention, you can actually get something done. And then if I'm in a loud setting, I really cannot. Get my level of focus. So I got the loop headphones and it's not headphones. It's just like they they reduce the volume. You put it in your ears. It's still quite new. I like them. That's my initial observation.

Judith Mueller 41:32

Brilliant. So I'm going to put links to all of these into the show notes. Ah, what is an unusual habit on absurd thing that you love? I feel we've got quite a few ready, but if there's anyone else, anything else you want to add, let

Nika Pintar 41:46

Oh, absurd things. I love. I think You've already seen my my stack that is quite maybe it's not even the most usual biohacking stuff. I don't think biohackers do watercolors. But yeah, one of the things is, Shaking. So shaking is amazing. Again, connected to the trampoline. Even if you don't have a trampoline. I'm not very consistent with this. Right. But when I do shake before going to bed for like five to ten minutes. I even see drastic differences on my smart ring, like my heart rate and everything. And I feel I, well the metrics say I sleep deeper, I sleep better. So I think there's this. Great importance of letting go of all of the inputs. We receive such a huge amount of inputs. Don't provide your body and your mind with more inputs afterwards. You know, another Netflix show won't really help, but rather figure out ways how to reduce that noise and really focus on what is important to you.

Judith Mueller 43:00

Shaking is a really interesting one. I've used that time and time again as well. It basically works through somatic release. So it helps your, well, I suppose your cortisol, your stress hormones and your other adrenal hormones I mean, essentially lying on the floor, you're inducing a shiver, not necessarily a cold induced shiver, but something that you voluntarily, Well, start to shiver, really. And then you keep that up for a couple of minutes. So definitely worth trying. Sounds weird, but definitely try. So final two questions. What are you working on at the moment? IE, what is the next exciting breakthrough you see coming? Obviously we've touched on that quite a bit, but.

Nika Pintar 43:40

My everyday at ANI is filled with exciting breakthroughs. As I said, more than 30 ongoing scientific projects. We have some really exciting stuff coming up next year that I cannot yet disclose. But do keep posted on us and also the launch of the longevity intervention trial. I wake up to this feeling grateful to be in the position in which I'm in. You cannot imagine the number of operational problems coming up along the way. However, I'm really looking forward to this launch and I'm really looking forward not just to the launch, but also everything that will follow. And there's all of that data analysis and especially in the field of Women's health because There, there has not been such a study yet done in women. I am also particularly looking forward to launching sub pilots of that project as well. Like when we identify a certain subset of the population where we would like to explore some specific patterns more detail. So yeah, I'm, I'm just extremely grateful to be in the position to work with the world's leading scientists in the field. Innovators our partners are really best in class and I'm just there. There's so much to learn every single day. And I think this neuroplasticity and being open it's very important.

Judith Mueller 45:13

For the study, how can people get in touch with you both regarding partnerships, but also enrolling as study subjects?

Nika Pintar 45:21

Then they can just, you know, Go to our website, Anibion. ai, right now we have the waiting list for the upcoming trial. So it will be designed as an invite only membership program. And they can just sign up there and I would be happy to see what we can do.

Judith Mueller 45:43

Fantastic. And final question from me, who would be a perfect sidekick in, I suppose it's not a lab in your question, but in your work. So this could be someone now or someone alive in the past, this could be someone real or imagined.

Nika Pintar 45:59

Well, When I started at this journey I could not have imagined the kind of people I'm working with today. There is something that I've learned very early on that ultimately it is people's business and it's about the person to person contact and when there's Connection between the people and when that works, everything else can work without that. Nothing can work. I'm just really grateful to my co founder founder Bruno for his innovative spirit, his way of just picturing the vision and just really understanding how together, of That needs to then be implemented. So we balance each other out in that sense. But also I'm very grateful to have Eric Gordon with us. He's an outstanding person above everything and scientists, but you know, just very recently we visited him at his house. We went for a hike also with a lot of longevity physicians actually. And it's those moments that. Also support our phone longevity, right? And it's just amazing to be able to be here. And just recently made now until it's, she's a dual PhD in neuroscience from University of Maastricht and Milan. She joined us as the head of neuroscience at Ani. And we spend a lot of time together, given the multitude of scientific projects that we have and pioneering the field of affective neuroimmunology. And she's also an outstanding person. And we have so many great supporters from the investor circle and similar. I'm just grateful to have them with us. Oh, if you me, you know, which superstar do you want? I would say, you know, I'm very happy with the circle we already have. Of course, we can always upgrade and go beyond, but I just wanted to express gratitude also for what we've built so far.

Judith Mueller 48:08

Fantastic. Nika, it was an absolute pleasure to have you on.

Nika Pintar 48:13

Likewise, Judith, and once more, so for the trial, it's all on the website. People can reach out to us and I really look forward and I would be Just like to emphasize one more time for our breast cancer program for early diagnostics. If there's anyone out there, any woman who has an increased risk for high for breast cancer or has gone through breast cancer or knows someone who's going through breast cancer or has clinics. similar that our researchers in this field, we would be very, very happy to work and just reach out to me personally. I'll make sure that we get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you Judith for this opportunity to also spread the word about that.

Judith Mueller 49:02

Thanks, Nika. Thank you for joining me on this transformative journey. Your presence in this community is truly valued. Now, you may not realize it, but your words hold immense power. They have the ability to reach others who may benefit greatly from the wisdom shared here. If you found value in what you heard, I kindly ask you to take a moment to subscribe to Biohacking Eve, leave a glowing review on your preferred podcast platform, and share Biohacking Eve with your friends and family. Your support helps spread the message of health optimization for women far and wide. Lastly, I want to express my gratitude to you for investing in yourself. By prioritizing your well being, you serve as an inspiration to others. I'm eagerly looking forward to bringing you many more exciting episodes, and thank you for being a Biohacker. The biohacking Eve health optimization for women podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional healthcare services, including the given of medical advice and no doctor patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast is at the user's own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be substituted for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have and should seek the assistance of the healthcare professionals for any such conditions. In addition, the information on this podcast does not constitute investment or financial advice.