The APOE Gene – The Healthspan Gene | EP004

Today I wanted to talk to you about a specific gene. So this is episode 4, and we are going to now start talking about specific genetic factors and their influence on our life. When I had my genetics done, and if you have listened to my original story, you'll understand that what compelled me to get my genetics done was the fact that my two oldest brothers passed away from the complications of diabetes. I wanted to know my risk factors measured through genetics for developing this disease. Now, there's two types of diabetes. Of course, there's type 1, which is an immune response that no one understands, really, why your immune system suddenly turns on your pancreas and destroys its ability to make insulin. It is a common disease, and it can strike at any age. It used to be called juvenile diabetes, but now we have people that are in their 40s and even 50s finding out that they have been diabetic to some extent all their life, and then they become a full-blown type 1 diabetic at an age that, well, we didn't used to think that that was possible. We just assumed that it was going to happen when they were younger. Many treatment modalities are available, and there's lots of diet and lifestyle options for people who are type 1 diabetics. Type 2 diabetics is something that's entirely different. I would say that type 2 diabetics is a lifestyle disease for the most part, but there are some genetics that can kick into the contribution or risk of our developing diabetes, even if we are careful. One of those genes is called the APOE. There's three different alleles of this gene. There's a 2, which is protective, there's a 3, which is neutral, and a 4, which increases your risk factor for inflammatory diseases and is also associated with a significant increase in the risk of Alzheimer's. It's the only gene currently that has been investigated for this particular situation, and the studies right now tell us that Alzheimer's is going to affect about 45 million people in the United States, so that would be about 4.5 million people in Canada. If we just do, you know, the United States has about 400 million people, Canada has about 40 million people, so 10%. It's a very, very destructive disease, not only to the person, but to the family. So understanding that there is a genetic risk factor is something that can really help us mitigate when this disease would actually strike a person. The higher the risk, so in other words, if a person has two alleles of the 4, they're an ApoE4-4, they have a many, many fold increase. Some, I've heard estimates up to a 2,000% increase of the risk of Alzheimer's. I happen to be an Apo3-4, and that was one of the most enlightening things that I discovered when I had my genetics tested, is that I have this risk, and it was unusual to me because there's nobody in my family that's had Alzheimer's. Now, I had my grandpa at age 92, who kind of lost his mind, is how it was described to me. I didn't know him at that age, really. He was distant from me, in distance, not in relationship. Just we were separated by a lot of miles at that time, so I didn't know him, and I didn't experience that, but his caregiver once told me that in his last two years of life, he was very, very demented, and that's unfortunate. But at 90 years of old, it's not maybe quite as consequential as it is at 42 years of age, and Donna, my wife as a nurse, had the, I'm going to say job, but it's not really a job because it's something she loved to do. Nursing was something she loved to do, but she took care of somebody that was 42 years old and was developing, and by age 44, had developed full Alzheimer's. At that time, we didn't understand this APO4 gene. Not only does APO4 gene affect your risk of Alzheimer's, but because it affects how you metabolize fat and how you transport fat in your body, it increases your risk of other complicated diseases like diabetes or cardiovascular disease where the metabolism of fats is also associated. So you kind of have a triple whammy if you have this disease. Some of you might remember a few years ago, Chris Hemsworth, a very famous actor, had his genetics done and was told that he had to refrain from doing the action movies that he was so famous for because of his genetics. It turns out that Chris is an APO4-4, and these people have to be very careful with diet and with what they expose, the amount of stress, the amount of physical challenge they expose their mind to in order to mitigate the early onset of dementia. So Chris changed his whole acting career for preservation of his faculties. For me, it was not quite as difficult, but still having this gene was a shock to me because once again, no one in our family had ever been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. No one that I know in my extended family, so uncles, cousins, there's no one that I know of that had Alzheimer's, or no one right now that I know of that has Alzheimer's. So having this risk factor was quite a surprise to me. Sometimes when I'm talking to people about getting their genetics done, they have a fear of finding something like this in their genetics that they, I'm going to say because they don't understand what it means, they just have a fear of what the outcome might be. I actually did the genetic review for a person who is an APO4-4. I explained to her what this gene was, all that it affected. She's 40 years old, and her response to me was, well, I don't care, I'm just going to go live my life. If I'm going to get Alzheimer's, I'm going to get Alzheimer's. I don't really think that she meant that. I think it was just a reaction to the fact that she found out that she had this risk factor, and it was a little bit overwhelming at the time, and I hope that she has taken some interest in it and has looked up what it really means and how you can mitigate this risk. How common is this gene? It's actually more common than we thought. APO4-4 is about 6% of the population, so that's a low percentage of the population, but 6% of 40 million people is still a lot of people that have an extreme risk of Alzheimer's. APO3-4 is around 12% to 13%, so that's still a significant number of 40 million people in Canada. And then there's the rest who have an APO2-4, where they have some protection, but they still have maybe increased inflammation from the APO4 influence. The value to me of knowing this was that I could intervene now. I could take steps now that we know will mitigate the effect of this gene. Does it mean I'm not going to get Alzheimer's? Well, nobody can answer that question. I can't answer it, and many professionals that have been researching this for many years can't answer that question. All we can do is things that would mitigate the risk. So what are things that I can do to mitigate the risk? Well, one thing for me is exercise is no longer an option. It's not, well, I kind of feel like exercise. I don't feel like exercise. Our exercise, done correctly, produces something called brain-derived neurotropic factor. Brain-derived neurotropic factor, as far as we know at this time, is the most brain-protective protein that we personally produce. It's something we're meant to produce through activity. So this is an easy thing to get into my mind, and then it was more difficult to get into my schedule. So I'm thinking, well, this is quite easy. If I can produce BDNF, and that is one of the things that will delay the onset of a disease like Alzheimer's or other cognitive challenges, that kind of sounds very simple. But getting that into my schedule was a little more difficult, and understanding the types of exercises that I needed to do to mitigate that risk. That's where knowing my fitness genes became really important and really useful. So my exercise is geared towards mitigating the risk of the APOL4 gene using the genetics that are most active and most efficient in my exercise protocol. So for me, that means I use kettlebells for regular workouts, and then I do use a spin bike for some extra cardiovascular exercise. Now, I don't create as much BDNF through spin biking as I do through regular exercise. While I'm talking about exercise and the creation of BDF, I'd like to talk about something that has become a dietary trend that many people seem to feel has done them a lot of good, which is intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting was introduced as a way to clean up your body. There's something called autophagy. So autophagy is the removal of material that our body has used, proteins and things that are left over after a cell dies. And autophagy is a process by which we destroy those in our body and get rid of them. If we don't destroy them, they become what's called sensitive. In other words, they sit around and they cause inflammation. What I discovered through the APOL4 discovery is I can create autophagy at the same time as I'm doing exercise. So I can increase this cleanup of material that could be inflammatory while I'm exercising. What you'll hear is a lot of people talking about intermittent fasting. The latest information on intermittent fasting, which was just released this week, is a meta-analysis of over 2,000 patients in 22 studies of intermittent fasting where they could see no benefit at all or maybe minor benefit to autophagy. But what we know about exercise intensity is the more intense the exercise, the more autophagy, the more cleanup our body is stimulated to do. So rather than intermittent fast, because I have a very high protein need, I can exercise and get the benefits of autophagy. So I use this example to show you that this gene is one of the highest risk factors for a debilitating disease that one person could have. Another one would be Parkinson's. I don't have that. But this is one of the most serious genetic factors you could have for a really debilitating disease. Not only for me, but it's very hard on the caregivers and the family around a person that has Alzheimer's. And the discovery that there are mitigating ways to handle this. So through exercise, and not only when I'm exercise, I'm getting the benefit of creating BDNF, but I'm also getting the benefit of autophagy. And something else called mitophagy. So mitophagy is the process whereby we first use muscle, then recreate muscle. And it's how we go through this process on a daily basis anyway, but we can increase the effectiveness of mitophagy. So there's many benefits to knowing this in advance. So rather than have the attitude, well, that's the way it is and I don't care. I'm just not going to do anything about it. I was able to work things in to my life that have many benefits beyond just mitigating the effects of an Apo4 gene, but also increasing my health span. In a previous episode, we talked about health span and lifespan. So lifespan being the length of time you live and health span being how you enjoy the number of years that you live. And our focus is on health span. In other words, not so much how long we live, but how good we live in the length of time that we do live. This is just one primary example of how genetics can be so important for you as you move through life. I always wonder what it is that makes people resist having their genetics checked. It's a very easy test. It's a simple cheek swab. There's no blood drawn, although there are some testing facilities that do draw blood, but we don't need to draw blood. A simple cheek swab and within three or weeks, maybe four weeks maximum, you have the blueprint that your body's been using to build your body since you were born. How many times do you have to have a genetic test done? Once. Your genes aren't going to change, but you can change around your genes. That's the study of epigenetics. It's how we get the best out of the genes that we do have, not how we change the genes that we have. Now, maybe in the future with AI and so on, we'll be able to do. And there is something called CRISPR technology where they can alter the genes themselves. But instead of that, maybe it would be just useful to understand what we have. So I look at it like this. I've got the blueprint for the house that I'm building. You know, everyone is actually a bodybuilder. We talk about bodybuilders and we think, oh, those are people that go to the gym and they spend half their life at the gym to create some magnificent looking Olympia type body. But actually, we are all bodybuilders. We're even building one that we like to live in or we're building one that is a lot of problem to live in. And understanding the blueprint and what the basis for that building would be is the most useful thing we can do. It's been very useful and enlightening for me to get my genetics done. I can't encourage you enough to get your genetic pattern done and take use of that. I went back to that DNA blueprint many times in the last three, four years since I've had it done, not only just to refresh my memory about what those genes are, but to actually now look at those individual genes in greater depth and understand how I can become even more effective and efficient at utilizing those genes to increase my health span. And you can, too. It's very simple. It sounds complicated. When we say genetics, people get the idea that this is something that's extremely complicated. It's going to be very time consuming. And the opposite is actually true. You get a plan. You can implement lifestyle changes through food, through exercise and supplementation that are very easy to do and very easy to follow after and have the comfort of knowing you're actually doing the best with the blueprint that you've been given to build a life that you want. Everyone is a bodybuilder. We're either building a body we love to live in or we're building a body that's going to be a very difficult place to live in. The choice is yours and the blueprint is available. So I'm just going to strongly encourage you to have your DNA done. This is Alan. We'll see you on the next episode. Thank you for watching this podcast. I'd like to mention that it is sponsored by DNA Power, a British Columbia company located in North Vancouver, B.C. DNA is an innovator and currently one of the most popular DNA tests available across the world. DNA's total power is the test that I had done, which gave me the blueprint to help me live a better life. I'm strongly going to encourage you to have your DNA test and I've included a link below. DNAPower.com slash Alan53. If you click on that link, you will get a 10% discount on the total power test. If you put Alan53 in the coupon code at the checkout of the DNA power test.