Molecular Predictive Testing Will Boost Your Longevity

Molecular predictive testing reduces the visibility gap and changes longevity outcomes. Longevity spoke to Jim Kean, CEO of MolecularYou, about innovation in healthcare solutions. The importance of personalized medical solutions and how AI-powered technology ensures molecular predictive testing is more accurate and accessible than ever before. 

Molecular predictive testing will reduce the visibility gap

Shifting medical care from reactive to proactive

AI, proteomics, and metabolomics are used to predict health risks

• The potential of AI, proteomics, and metabolomics in predicting health risks even before symptoms appear.
• Today’s technology not only enhances individual health outcomes but also helps healthcare providers deliver value-based care, resulting in better patient engagement and more effective health management.
• How a predictive healthcare model can significantly reduce healthcare costs overall for both patients and the healthcare sector.
• How Molecular You’s technology and unique approach to analyzing an individual’s blood profile can provide personalized insights and preventive measures, paving the way for treatment plans tailored to individual needs and conditions.

Why MolecularYou?

Jim Kean

Access to diagnostics

Kean has always advocated for democratizing access to the components of health that he believes should be available to everyone without a series of gatekeepers. He recalls that in the 1990s, most patients lacked internet access and a thorough knowledge of all things medical. They had to go through doctors as an alternative.

According to Kean, his initial business was a browser that let users seek information online rather than going to a doctor or nurse for advice. WebMD later acquired this business. He later created WellnessFX, which essentially continued the same subject, because he believed it was crucial to mainstream health.

He started his company to provide consumers with access to diagnostics and specialists who were willing to talk about anything. Since British Columbia at the time was a centre for molecular medicine, he sold Wellness FX in 2013.

The human genome vs the human proteome

With regard to MolecularYou, Kean created a test that enables you to witness the negative changes in your health as they begin to happen. He points out that researchers who worked on the human genome and proteome tended to concentrate on the human genome, which had the problem of being 60% predictable and not providing you time. In essence, you would be aware that there was some chance, but what you choose to do will determine this.

The human proteome, on the other hand, identifies the precise location of the action. It is where the commands to your proteins to receive a readout from your metabolite ping every second of your existence.

This can inform you of both what is happening right now and what will take place over the next 12 to 24 months. He refers to it as a visibility gap where individuals make forecasts based on inaccurate or overly general diagnostics from the past. This then aids insurance plans in underwriting coverage based on whether you go to a doctor, and usually, when you do that, you’re already fairly sick and pretty far along.

“What if you could move upstream and literally could see the changes for poor health happening at a molecular level as they start to occur?” asks Kean.

This would obviously be powerful as it would be years in advance when you actually see your condition.

Accessing and Tracking

Providing access to tests like these requires intellectual access as well, and it also has to seem easy to do. If you don’t understand how something applies to you, then it’s not going to go anywhere. Kean aims to provide something straightforward that people can easily access and comprehend.

He recalls how he had a patient who was a regular subscriber for years. She had her MolecularYou test, and she had always followed a healthy lifestyle from the recommendations they gave to her.

Then, one day, a signature comes up showing that she had a screening risk profile for pancreatic cancer. They took her report to a physician. He immediately ordered imaging for her and discovered three small nodes of pancreatic cancer lesions. As they had just started, these were microscopic.

As a result, they were able to do a minimally invasive surgery and excise them. Months later, they had the woman’s test rerun to see if her molecular level values had returned to healthy levels. They had. To put this into perspective, pancreatic cancer normally appears at stages 3 and 4 and has a 99% fail rate.

This was a huge win for Kean’s team

Imagine every year, instead of waiting for something to manifest itself and having it too far developed, that you can catch it at the earliest start. On top of that, these tests are fast and easy, and you can do them just once a year. Furthermore, you can work with a professional to find out how you can change your diet while focusing on certain areas of your body to minimize the risk.

Biomarkers

The National Library of Medicine describes a biomarker as a broad subcategory of medical signs – that is, objective indications of medical state observed from outside the patient – which can be measured accurately and reproducibly. Kean’s test sees over 25o biomarkers in their health test in 26 health areas. In the old days, if you were diabetic, you’d look at your glucose and HbA1c, which tells you your metabolic health. They are old-style, single markers, which have a cut-off of being too high or too low.

Kean mentions that we are not just a single marker. There are multiple markers that go into each condition. These markers move at a different rate of change to each other.

So, for example, the literature will validate that 10 markers are associated with Alzheimer’s. Then they’ll calculate where each marker is and where it is relative to each other, as well as what the rate of change is. This then generates a risk signature, which goes through a process of independent validation. They have a risk profile of 98% accurate prediction of Alzheimer’s.

MolecularYou Test

Kean notes how he is always “looking for the wins”. He elaborates by saying that finding a patient, helping them catch something at the earliest stages, avoiding all the costs and drama, allowing them to have a regular life, and being happy, to him, is a great victory. His test has been approved in Canada, and his test can be bought there. They will also be bringing it to the US, and they are starting a pilot for a large neurology group with about 325000 patients.

Right now, Kean’s test requires a phlebotomist for the small tube of blood. However, they are developing a small, minimally invasive way of drawing blood. They are also about to release a new version of their test that goes from 250 biomarkers to 825 biomarkers.

Bottom Line

If every person started to accept that the power is in their hands when it comes to their health, then they would be able to decide how their health rolls out as they get older. Actively go and seek credible information and take accountability for your own health outcomes. Not only does this see a drop in diseases but also in expenses.

Watch the full interview

To learn more about MolecularYou, watch the full interview below:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Gisèle Wertheim Aymes (@gisele_wertheimaymes)

References

1. CDC Health and Economic Costs: https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/about/costs/index.htm

2. Strimbu K, Tavel JA. What are biomarkers? Curr Opin HIV AIDS. 2010 Nov;5(6):463-6. doi: 10.1097/COH.0b013e32833ed177. PMID: 20978388; PMCID: PMC3078627.