Unlock Your 120-Year Potential: Genetic Secrets To A Healthier Life

Introduction to Kashif Khan and DNA health 0:00

Hello, everyone. Doctor Jack Wolfson back with another fantastic guest on the Heart Attack and Stroke Prevention Summit. And if you don't know our next guest, you definitely should. His name is, Kashif Khan, and Kashif is a leader in so many different things in health and wellness. And I would definitely say follow him on social media because you're going to get some of the best tips and strategies from an absolute truth teller that Kashif is. And he started a company called the DNA company. So he is definitely an expert when it comes to DNA.

What your genetics mean regarding your health, going forward, so we're going to dive into, a lot of that as well. Kashif, let me actually read a little bit of your, bio that was sent over. So, Kashif is a, bestselling author of the DNA way, so definitely check out that blog, Celebrity Longevity coach and founder of the DNA company. He's also spoken on TEDx two time, so I definitely suggest you check out, those talks as well. He's a pioneer driving the functional approach to genomic interpretation.

So checking what your genes are and then how they interact with the environment, nutrition, etc.. And that's of course all called epigenetics. We'll talk about that. When you hear his accent you realize that he is from Canada. And but again, he is the child of, of immigrants into Canada. We all immigrated from somewhere. So, he's also, he's participated in over 300 million in revenue in his own retail business prior to launching consulting services to help others thrive. So, again, cashier we can go on about you forever, but, let's see how we can help people prevent, heart attacks and strokes going forward.

So tell me, tell me how you would prevent heart attacks and strokes and everyone going forward. So I think the, genetic, part of the conversation was misinformed. And I think, you know, great clinicians like you or like, I don't need this genetic testing. It doesn't even help me. Right. And we heard a lot of that. And so my research was there must be more here. It's our human genome. What is genetics? It's a human instruction manual. Tells every single biological function how it should be executed.

So if we can't figure something out from that, we're interpreting it wrong. And so I took the academic knowledge of this gene means cardiovascular disease. This gene means stroke. This gene means Alzheimer's. And try to dig into why, and if we use, you know, let's say Alzheimer's is an example of that which plays directly into stroke. Also, the belief is the apple aging API equals dementia, right? Also equals stroke. It's known as Alzheimer's gene, but also equal stroke. And all we're told is certain version low risk.

Another version 8 to 10 times risk. Another version 17 to 25 times risk. And the truth is that gene doesn't cause stroke or Alzheimer's. How can it cause both? It's responsible for lipid transport. So moving cholesterol molecules around in your body simple terms. Right. So if you have a bad gene you don't do a good job of that action. Moving cholesterol. So why would there be gloss over there in the first place. Well if you have inflammation in parts of your body, your body's going to use

Why genes are priorities, not destiny 3:14

this beneficial hormone called cholesterol to fix it. And if you don't do a good job with transport guy, there's a lot more to it. But just to make it simple, some gets left behind. Much easier to develop that plaque. And so the gene doesn't cause the problem. The gene is broken biology meaning the job that you're supposed to do well, you're not doing so well. But initially the real question is why did I have inflammation in my arteries? Why did I have inflammation in my brain? That's the problem solve solves.

What I've learned is genes give us a priority. Stroke is a priority for you because of this profile, you don't deal with the well. Now let's figure out other parts of your of your biology that may potentially cause the inflammation. That's what we need to work on. And when you work on this, it's all a sudden in your control and optional whether you're going to have the stroke or not. Okay. So in your initial opening statement there, I think you insulted me about my position regarding regarding DNA and, I, you and I are both on the same page on this one.

I think that, you know, obviously DNA is is is of utmost importance. I just, I hate when people blame in their DNA for their illness, you know, when they're like, well, you know, listen, you know, my, my it's in my, in the medical doctors are the ones who are really guilty about this, cash because I think that, the, you know, the, the medical doctors, they blame the DNA in order to say, hey, listen, you've got, you know, you got a family history. It's in your genes. There's nothing you could do about it.

Therefore, take a statin drug and take your aspirin or your diabetes drugs. Talk about talk, real quickly about why does some of these what people would say is bad genes, why do they exist? Why do so many people have, and go e4? Why do so many people have, genetic code for LP? Little a there must be some genetic benefit of why people have these. These are not just random mutations that all of a sudden a quarter of the population end up with. So what? What now is bad used to be good, right? It used to be the beneficial version because our lifestyle, the environment and nutrition was different.

So keep in mind our DNA hasn't changed in a quarter million years. We are wired like people of hundreds of thousands of years ago. And so the vast majority of what your biology thinks it needs to deal with is a k person context, which is not at all how you live today. So 2024 looks vastly different. So the person that has the bad gene, for example, means this constant availability of high levels of cholesterol to fight inflammation. If you are a warrior of the past that once in a while had acute inflammation, you are much more likely to repair well and survive.

Today when the inflammation is chronic, ongoing constant equals stroke, dementia, cardiovascular disease. So what's changed is not this protective wiring that was meant to benefit you. What's changes are habits was changed. When you go outside and breathe you're making yourself sick. When you eat, you make yourself sick. When you put chemicals in your body. Make yourself sick. And the total accumulative load of all of what's causing inflammation is far beyond what we're capable of handling. And so, yeah, so there's a truth to exactly what you said.

Why these weird anomalies? Because that was the superhuman of the past, who now get sick faster. Now, when we talk about, you know, our DNA, how important is the is looking at the DNA? I mean, you you, you know, you founded the DNA company, and that's obviously, you know, it's it's it's in your DNA of the company is the word DNA. So, maybe talk about, you know, how that how that assessment with, you know, DNA and then how that interplays or with the assessment of, of, RNA and therefore interpretation of your epigenetics, how does this all plan together, you know, with the work that you're doing.

So that that's the exact gap that needed to be filled? So what you said about medical doctors say must be in your genes and then functional clinicians saying there's more to it, right? It's more about the lifestyle environment. So those things needed to be paired, which is your DNA will describe how you

How DNA and epigenetics guide personalized health 7:27

drive various processes in your body and therefore what's the priority. It's not a prescription. It doesn't yet equal the problem. Now you know, here's a priority I now need to consider what should my environment, nutrition, and lifestyle habits be based on my genes that I now understand? And it's a question of removing what's a threat and adequate thought a threat. So, for example, take me, why do I have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease? Not because I have bad cardiovascular genetics, because I have bad gut genetics.

So there's a gene called one that is a primary driver of detox in your gut. So glutathione, this master antioxidant that's used commonly in the functional medicine space. Is utilized differently in different parts of the body. And there's genes that instruct all that in terms of the gut, I'm missing the gene. It's not even about what version one instruction don't even have it. So I don't do this job, which is why I had eczema, psoriasis, migraines, all these issues before I discovered what was wrong with me.

I had a severe leaky gut. It was damage and it would constantly inflame from the same foods that my business partner was eating that had no challenge with. I used to go to lunch with them every day, right? So I now know that this leaky gut, you know, if you look at, for example, Doctor Gondry's work, who has done a gut test for every single one of his cardiology patients, who said not one of them, not even one doesn't have a despotic or broken gut, right? So for me, that's my red flag. I don't need to have bad cardiovascular genetics to cause cardiovascular disease.

I have an inflammatory low that's all significant. I can't tolerate it. Just like I said about when you asked about the genes of the past that were good was meant to be acute once in a while, blade in the gut that you fix versus constant chronic inflammation. So really the next so there's layers. Layer one. What disease do I need to be worried about. That's genetics right. Layer two is now that I know that what broke in biology what caused that. Right. And now that I know that I have my epigenetic game plan, my epigenetic name is what should I have it be?

What would my environment be? What my what my my nutrition be? And sometimes it's obvious and sometimes it's completely counterintuitive. But you now have your game plan. So, you know, because I let's just say like, you know, for me, it's kind of one size fits all as far as, hey, listen, we should be eating our our ancestral diet. We are a hunter, hunter gatherer I and recently I, I heard something different than gatherer. It's actually a hunter. Forager is probably the better terminology. So I'll try and use that here. A hunter.

So we should be hunter foragers. We should get adequate sunshine and of course quality sleep and stay away from toxins. So if we kind of blanket everybody with that, then how do we fine tune that with the information that you've been gathering? Yeah. It's interesting you say that because we kind of start there, which is paleo was kind of like the baseline. If you don't know what to do, start there. Then you start to look at the unique genes that drive each metabolic process and tweak. So starting a paleo and then Apple approach to how effectively do you actually use saturated fat as fuel?

If you're not doing a good job there, you got to tone that down a little bit. Then there's an y one, which is how effective do you do? You make, amylase activity like enzymes to break down starches. And you may be doing well. They're not so well done. I did some work with the U.S. female Olympic team where their question was same training, same foods, same everything. Why are some of these young women struggling and not getting from the same training, the same outcome? And the answer was they're really good at metabolizing starch and carbs as energy.

And you have them all a basically a little starch diet, which seemingly is the right answer, but not for them. Right? Switch that one little thing. And also they started to thrive. Muscle density came back, energy came back, brain fog went away. Right. So then there's the big one. I would say that kind of under the radar is, how we break down plant foods. And I can't tell you how many times I've had to meet with a vegan and tell them that that's the reason you're sick. Now, this is not true for everybody.

But for some people, the enzymes that actually allow you to use beans, lentils, chickpeas as fuel you don't make. And if you don't get your proteins, then you're going to feel sick. You know, the enzymes to break down your kale and spinach and Korean cruciferous vegetables you may not make, and your gut is going to get wrecked in your gut. You're going to end up with the leaky gut like me, right? So, yeah. So we can be hyper personal. It does start with like, a hunter or forager or paleo type thing,

Healing the gut and recovering from genetic weaknesses 12:11

and then you tweak and personalize until it's optimal. And also you feel incredible. Out of interest. Now, you mentioned that you had the, I guess the, the variant in your genetics that did not allow you to make gut glutathione your own. G, stem one you mentioned how how did you personally overcome that? What were your methodologies for that particular gene? And I would assume obviously, a lot of people, they can run the the DNA company to get their DNA tested, you know, through you guys and get the same interpretation.

But what was your kind of recovery plan to bypass that? So there was a couple phases, which I didn't know at the time. Right. This is early on when I was just discovering, that I could actually control my own health and what I now know is there's kind of three phases. Step one is acute. You got to put out the fire, right? You got to deal with. My gut was literally broken. I needed to fix the leaky gut. That's step one. Then step two, which is usually where people start, is the optimization what supplements are supposed to take.

How am I supposed to exercise what food is supposed to eat? If you haven't fixed the terrain, you're not getting ROI on the answers to those questions, right? So the fire's got to be put out first to heal the gut. And so how did I heal the gut? I fasted, you know, 24 hours of a fast, and all of a sudden, your gut starts to make stem cells and fix everything, you know? And I started to eat gut healing foods like collagen, you know, bovine collagen, aloe vera, slippery alum, marshmallow root, drinking teas, taking supplements.

Right. Designed for health. Makes a great product called GI revive. So I experimented with all this stuff. Fix the gut first. Then I started to ask my DNA, how am I supposed to eat? What's up? And was I supposed to take what do I lack in terms of vitamin D, vitamin B, etc.? Then eventually I got to where too many people start, which is how do I start biohacking and look at longevity, life extension and the challenges. Everything that you hear is the person who's already been through all this and is now telling you where they're at, which is they're in the biohacking longevity mode of where they're supposed to be.

So but you don't start there, you know, ask a guy like Dave Asprey how many years before he lost his extra 100 pounds, he became a biohacker. Right. So, anyways, so that's what I did. I was a bit of, actually put out the fire, fasting, supplementing, very clean, clean eating. And I got to the point where I now have metabolic flexibility so I don't have to be super careful every day if I want to go with the kids on the weekend and cheat with the ice cream, no problem. Right. So get your metabolic health to a level of resilience, and you're not at the tipping point every day anymore.

And that's kind of what I do. Excellent. Speak to, speak to the genetics of mold. And mold mycotoxins, maybe detoxify. And can you provide any insight to that? I think that mold and you and I have talked about this before, I think mold is it's a it's mentioned in the, in the Bible. But it's also it's a 21st century crisis. And then, how do people detoxify mold, mycotoxins. And then the insight as to kind of those who detoxify better than others. Is there any, is there any evidence that maybe, you know, the better detoxify or is lived longer, lived better? Any thoughts?

So it is a major, major, major problem, right. So we're seeing so many people that are when they're stuck it's often. Right. So toxins and mold and then childhood. Right. So talk to the mold the sequence in which your body also detoxify it sort of prioritizes a larger molecule full first like mold. So some people do a parasite cleanse the Candida Krebs heavy metal cleanse. And then they get sick again because they didn't deal with the mold first, which needed to be dealt with first. So yes, we have seen there's a actually a family that I was dealing with, a sort of a one on one type client where the mother was very, very sick and she was literally diagnosed with Ms.

multiple sclerosis. Right. And so she said, help me with my miserable piece of genetics here. I said, let's park what the doctors told you, the prescribe the diagnosis, and let's dive into your biology and see what genes are broken and what could potentially equal the way you feel. And maybe it isn't even Ms.. And so what we found was they didn't renovation and they broke their kitchen apart. And why did we go here? Because when I looked at this pathway in the body called glucagon here, which is a primary driver of removal, emboldened by so toxins, again, like my gut, she was missing.

It was needed. About what version? What variant? She was entirely missing. One of the most important genes in that pathway. So moment you can't tolerate mold.

Mold, mycotoxins, and detox genetics 16:48

So I asked her tell me about your mold exposure. I don't have any. Our house is clean, right? I said, tell me about what you eat to do eat or you drink inorganic coffee. You know, like no clean, clean, clean, clean, clean. So I went back to when did this start? On this day. What changed? We had a renovation. There you go. Right. She's well. What? The mold. Why is anyone else sick? I said, let's test their DNA, and I'll tell you, because they don't have this missing gene. So to your point, mold is not good for anybody, right?

But who's the canary in the coal mine? Who's going to show you how bad mold is for you? Is the person with this missing gene now, the other people may get sick over time. They're going to end up getting eczema or migraine here and there. And then eventually over time, it gets worse and worse. Worse because they can tolerate it, but you can't tolerate it forever versus again I said the canary in the coal. Right. Like day one boom there on the floor. Right. Misdiagnosed with literally ever. Yeah. Ms..

Whenever I hear Ms.. And it really because I you know I know this from firsthand experience with my wife. You know we're living in a house in 2018 and she was displaying all the symptoms, and signs of Ms.. And luckily and serendipitously, at that time, we discovered that, you know, the mold issue and then, you know, got out of the mold and immediately her symptoms resolved. And just how sad for really the millions of women who are labeled, you know, mostly women, not all women, but mostly women who are labeled with this condition.

And it is it's just a label. There's multiple sclerosis label, like, it's it's this nebulous thing, but in reality, it's it's, you know, mold is going to be the driver in so many of those cases. And, and that's why I'm just so thankful to know you, because I know you're shouting from the rooftops every day on social media. Anybody who's willing to listen, to, you know, practitioner is, you know, like you and I getting that message out there, that's and the more that we shout and stuff and the more that we have the freedom to shout this stuff on, on platforms like X and others.

Well, I'll other people to to, you know, to be aware of, of what's going on and really make a difference, which is so exciting about the work you're doing. Let me ask you one, you know, one more question here. You know, one thing, you know, you talk about is kind of we call ourselves the home of the 100 year heart. But you like the number 120, for people to live, and live well, until 120. And I don't want to put limits on anybody. And you don't want to put limits on anybody. But how do we get to 120, with, with our brains and our body intact?

So I can tell you why I say that number first? First of all, I'm not out there to live forever. I there's no vanity or I'm not trying to extend my life I believe in I have a better place to go after I die. So I'm not worried about dying. I am worried about maintaining quality of life and doing what? I'm worried about returning this body in the condition I got it right and just that's for me, is a form of worship doing what I'm supposed to do, right? So now, why 120? If you look. So what is aging?

Aging is everything that we do to ourselves. The DNA literally oxidizing and getting damaged. So the DNA starts to unravel. The cells then start to follow that, and then you get the white hair that speckled around your head, and you start to get wrinkly skin. That's the aging, right? So there's still some black up here. I don't know if that's dire what's going on here. But you know, so there is. You know, it's not dying. No. Not dying. My eyebrows. Thank you. I. Irrespective of what you know, how we we see it on the outside.

It starts with the cell, right. The cell oxide gets damaged. There's caps, these protective bumpers that are called telomeres, that are designed to prevent that wear and tear from happening to your DNA. And those protective bumpers we now know are designed to last 120 years. So that tells me that we, as a human form, are designed to last 120 years. And if you look at the places where people do have habits aligned to their ancestral genetics Okinawa, Sardinia, acreage, etc., 110 115 140 consistently right all the time.

100 is a short life. They're they're always getting over there because it as much as we can ask questions, what do I need to do to add to live longer? The more important question is what am I doing that's taking years away? I already have 120 God given gift. It's part of me, right? I literally physically wired for the things we do. Take years away. And to show you how easy this is, you know, there's a study by Harvard, where they it's one of the longest, I think it is the actual longest ongoing health study.

The world. The scene where they started, the 1930s, it's still going on. And what they were trying to determine is what causes longevity. How do people get to 100? And what are Americans specifically? Americans. And the average American life expectancy, I think, for women is 78 and for many 76. They dropped for the first time. We can have a whole other conversation about why, but it dropped anyway.

Longevity, aging, and the path to 120 21:38

So why then are we getting to 78 if the life expectancy is 120 is a hardwired. So the here's the five things that Harvard found consistently across these tens of thousands of people that they studied. They didn't smoke. They had less than three drinks per week. They ate clean whole foods. They were not obese. And they exercise more than three times a week. That's it. They like the simple stuff that any child knows. Why does it matter? Because this takes you from 78 to 90 justice and 78 to 90 with good health.

So it's not the average 78. Who's the average American spends their last 15 years of their life in treatment versus chronic disease by 55, seven by second by 65. And then your treatment for a decade plus versus 90 just dying of old age. So just these simple things get you there. What if you actually start to implement by individual bio hacks and getting everything right and being optimal about dynamic alcohol, about supplementation and learning how to breathe and removing all the nonsense that's taking years away.

That's why 120 does not seem like an aggressive number to me. It seems like what we should all be doing. Yes. No. Fantastic stuff there. And, and thank you for noticing my eyebrows. I do have I do have a couple. I do have a couple of grays that are creeping into the eyebrows. And candidly, I don't pluck them, but I do trim them a little bit. And, I was I was blessed by my mother with, naturally premature gray, if you will. I am I am 54 years of age. But, hey, listen. What, talk about, talk about, because, you know, you mentioned those five things, and I know you feel the same way as what I'm about to say, but, the mental health, the mental emotional wellness, happiness, spirituality, purpose, gratitude.

And then how does that playing with our DNA? Huge. So there isn't anyone that I work with. And it doesn't matter what the problem is that they came to talk about. I always start with their brain, executive function, mood and behavior. How they think doesn't matter what they want. I say, if we're doing this, unless we start here, it's very hard today to not be in fight or flight. It's very hard today to not be in a state of elevated cortisol, cortisol addiction. In fact, how many people feel guilty when they're not productive wake up in the middle of the night?

Like, what am I supposed to be stressed about? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That that okay. Go to stress. No. Right. And that's how we live. No, we're not supposed to. Right. So, Yeah. So we always start there and there the uniqueness of how we actually perceive stress, anxiety, trauma is there. It's genetically wired. So for example example I did some work with the the Navy Seals. Right. And the question was why are some of these guys and gals coming back with PTSD and some are not? Simple question. So I showed them that there's a gene called ardor to be the regulate your adrenaline response.

So when you're in that moment of negative impactful stimulus, you're meant to your biology drives this adrenaline for two reasons. To give you the exact biology you need to deal with that thing. Also, to create an imprint. So did you remember it? So you never make that mistake again, right? So there's two reasons, some people that have good idea to be genetics do what they're supposed to do, and they create intellectual memory so that they can avoid that problem in the future. Remember caveman genetics trying to survive, right.

Some people have bad ad repeat to add your to be genetics. And so not only do they create the intellectual, but they also create an emotional imprint where the next time they're reminded it feels like it's happening again, they remember the feeling trauma right now, the second layer to this, even then, some of these guys that were wired like this still didn't have a problem. Second layer, which equals the total net problem. There's a gene called BDF which drives brain derived neurotrophic factor.

The fertilizer your brain makes new neurons with. And if you have bad enough genetics, you don't do a good job of developing new neural pathways. So when you experience that big deal bomb going off, some people immediately start working on it. Run. Help people, guide everybody. Some people shell shock frozen. What is happening here can't function because they lack the ability to process because they don't have good neurogenesis, right? That means that thing means way more to them. There's a lot of weight they experienced it with a lot more meaning.

Now combine these two things. You're wired for PTSD and trauma. This same person could be an incredible coach,

Stress, trauma, and brain genetics 26:18

could be an incredible parent, could be incredible brother or sister. The person you know you can lead on emotionally intelligent. This same person that got injured got hurt, that is now dealing with a clinician is experiencing trauma every time they see an email, right. Every time they hear a podcast. Is that me? So I deal with that too. And they get stuck in this fight or flight loop. And when you're in fight or flight rest in recovery, you shut off. It's just not happening. Your body thinks you're going to battle.

It's driving all the blood to your fists and your feet to go fight, not to your organs to supply nutrition and, you know, detoxify and all of a sudden you wonder why nothing's working. So every single person I talk to doesn't matter if it's autism, hair loss, weight gain, white eyebrows, whatever. The problem is, we always start with fighter flight, trauma, anxiety, and stress before we deal with anything else. You know, it makes it makes perfect sense. And unfortunately, it's just people are not hearing that from the medical doctors, medical community and, you know, listen, you're not formally trained, from what I understand, in the medical world, which I think is a blessing, which makes you open and your mind open to all these, you know, various, other healing modalities, which is great.

And I love when people insult, those, in the, around the world who don't have a medical degree for making these comments. And it's just like, it's it's so beautiful to be able to be, you know, so, you know, like you've done it diving into the medical literature and using that information against them and to the medical doctors, hey, if you looked at these certain genes that have these certain things as opposed to, well, if someone has PTSD, then the answer is Prozac as opposed to you, you know, going after, you know, cause and kind of starting with that DNA foundation and helping people heal.

Yeah, that's the whole name of the game. As we understand that bio individuality is the real answer for root cause, you know, and I understand that the pharma, you know, medical research is funded by pharma and everything is done in a disease centric setting. So if you're only studying sick people, you're only ever going to learn how to mask sickness. They don't study healthy, healthy people. Ask them, why did you not get sick? Because the same gene profile, two different trajectories based on your habits.

So that's what we did. I spent three years studying 7000 people. Some were sick, some were healthy to understand what the exact same gene profile. Why did we have different outcomes here? And then I learned how these genes equal the behavior and then what the choices should be epidemiologically. And some people, like I said, obvious and clear, some completely and counterintuitive. There's some people where I had to tell them that their cardiovascular training, their running on a treadmill is what gave them cardiovascular disease.

Some people go do your cardio, you're wired for it, and you'll thrive, right? So that bioengineering actually is like a shortcut. No more trial and error. More, no. No more one size fits all. Just do what your body needs. All right? Explain what's happening over at the DNA company. Like, what's the process? So, you know, the question that I get, would I, you know, do anything like with this nature is like, how do people work with me? Which is challenging because how do I do that with the many thousands of people out there?

So for this purpose, because there's a very specific need and topic here, which is heart health, I'm going to make sure that I create something that allows people

How to work with the DNA Company and closing remarks 29:28

to work with me, which is a it's probably going to be a group, and that way. So the DNA company, you get to test, you get a report, you get information there. There's only so much the FDA will let us say in a report, right. What I'm speaking to someone through education, quote unquote. I will have to say whatever I want. And so I'm likely going to because it's such a specific topic, set up a masterclass that will, allow people to dive in for a full day with me. So I will set that up. I'll give you all the links and all that stuff, and we'll make sure that it can go far beyond just the report.

And that will be on my personal website, cash call official.com. All right. So we'll make sure we have all those links for everyone to get and involved with and to check that out. And I think, again, you're just such a, you know, benefit to all these people who are struggling and suffering from all diseases. And again, I would encourage everyone to follow you on social media because the stuff you're putting up there really about all things health and wellness and even geopolitical events is just so beneficial.

So thank you again. Kashif Khan for and it's, cash. You said Kashif Khan official or as a cash crop official. Yeah, both my website and, Instagram is cash Khan official account actually. And cash Khan official account. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much, cash for being on this episode. We'll come back with another exciting guest on the Heart attack and stroke prevention Summit. We will.