Unlocking Your Genetic Blueprint to Optimize Your Health

Introduction to Debbi Bryk and MaxGen Labs 0:00

Hey, everybody, I want to welcome you to the Peptides and Bio Regulator Summit. Today we have a real special treat. We have Debbi Bryk with us from MaxGen Labs. This is a lab that I've used in the past. A lot of my clinician friends have used their lab panels to help patients overcome a myriad of conditions. You can't treat what you don't know. And so I just love that they provide a cost effective way for us to have the ability to look at markers that are literally life changing. Abby is a functional medicine queen.

That's how I'm going to overarching because she has so many certifications in such a dynamic story to get us kicked off with. Debbi, I'm going to let you give your own rap sheet of the certs you have and then tell us that incredible story you just shared with me about your husband to get us kicked off. Thank you. Michael. You're so welcome. So I'm a board certified holistic nutritionist. I'm also certified in functional genomics, autoimmune paleo, even heart mass. But I got into nutrition because not only of my own health struggles, but my husband suffered from ulcerative colitis, and it was had gotten so bad that he was put on medications that they put cancer patients on to suppress his immune system.

Otherwise, he had body diarrhea coming on the house and it scared me. I'm like, you're going to end up in the hospital and not coming home. It's definitely a system. So that's what inspired me to get into holistic health and functional medicine. I'm happy to report that after a little period of time convincing, he listened to me because he got sick of being sick. Let's calm down. About 13 years he's spent 100% not free and in remission. He has like the only science he has that even had ulcerative colitis was just some staring at something incredible.

Debbi's Health Journey and Functional Nutrition Path 2:00

Let's go. What an amazing story. What an amazing wife. I feel like that even just in the man's sphere of living. So many of my male patients had a hard time receiving treatment. So I'm so glad that he was open to an alternative way. I feel like there needs to be like a resurgence of of the male species, not just trying to pour whiskey on their wounds and think they're okay, but like, actually take our health seriously because something like ulcerative colitis is such a painful, you know, existence.

I had diverticulitis, so I can imagine how just that acute pain that I experienced to have something on the chronic side must have been horrendous for him. So kudos to you. Way to be a super wife out there and and treat your husband. I feel like that's such a powerful story and and hopefully inspiring others to get, you know, on the path of healing for sure. And I'm curious to be on your, your certification path, because that's a really unique blend of certifications. What got you in the paleo sphere?

The autoimmune kind of what what led you down that specific route? Was that just you studying or your own feeling on being on a paleo diet, or you dealing with autoimmune and seeing, you know, changes kind of. I'm really curious because I've been through the similar thing. I'm on like a cert path when I was an integrative health coach, and I just made one specific to the form of healing, I wanted to practice. Yeah. So when I first started, they're always there for you, 7 to 7 inch. And I would take everybody on.

And my niche was going to be inflammatory bowel disease because I was very good about it because of my husband, many people that came to me, most people that came to me were really, really sick. They had been to many physicians, conventional doctors. They were getting no power. If they were told it's all in their head, sent back home with medications, feeling very hopeless. These were actually my favorite clients because they were at a point where you have to be willing to make the change. You have to be a point where you're sick of being sick and you're willing to do it because it's all gut health and diet and lifestyle changes makes the biggest impact.

And so I wanted to learn how best can I serve the autoimmune community. And that's what I signed up for the Autoimmune Paleo program and had wonderful, wonderful results from that helping. I'll never forget. One of my favorites was a client with multiple sclerosis, and she had like the shocking in her hands and her feet and face, and she couldn't take a warm, cold shower. She couldn't exercise, and she was unwilling to be that restrictive to go on because it's restrictive. Initially. But now we have to do it for 30 to 90 days, and then we can start eggs and speak in any way.

She she said, you know, I don't want to give up my eggs. And no, it's not eggs. But then eventually she made some improvement, but not a lot. And then she decided to do the autoimmune paleo and which removes eggs. And then one of the first things she added back in after is all her symptoms went away. She was feeling great and then, added eggs back in and the shock came back in her face. She never thought it would have been eggs, but it's just a great way to elimination to pinpoint what standards are affecting a person negatively, because even foods that can be healthy might not be the best choice for some people based on their, their genetics, their their disorder of their disease.

So it's just why I went down that path of auto paleo because of the wow, that's awesome, I love that. I can't believe how many people are so affected by eggs. It's unbelievable. I read all the studies where like, eggs would feed viral replication, or some people didn't have the ability to break down sulfur correctly, and so they can just be wreaking havoc on your health. And it's one of those things where you would never imagine. Because on the flip side, everybody says eat, you know, a dozen eggs a day and it'll balance

Autoimmune Paleo and Client Success Stories 6:00

your brain neurochemistry and help omega three balancing all that kind of stuff. And it's like, if it's toxic to you, it's going to really mess you up. And so you got to know, you know, you got to have the right proper testing, the proper, you know, elimination style of eating. You've got to really put in the work to know, like what's affecting my body. So I love that. That's actually a beautiful segue. I'm curious. Debbie. So you're you're on this incredible path. You're helping people heal, just like the story you shared.

What led you all the way to Max Jinn, or how did you find their labs? Or, you know, I love Chad, the founder. He's been a great friend of mine for a very, very long time. And I've spent countless nights with him nerding out and having fun in Vegas and wherever our conferences were. He's just the best human man on the planet. And, so I'm curious, how did you get connected with that crew? Well, I'm on a private Facebook group for functional medicine practitioners. And and it was basically when he first started out with Max Gen, I saw a post on there about genetic testing.

You know, and I was super intrigued and right from the get go. So I've pretty much been using them since a very since he launched, pretty much like within six months of when he wants I, I'm like, I want to do this in my practice. And when I started using it in my practice, it was it was a game changer. I mean, I went from working with people for months and months and months on end to having a blueprint of their DNA so that I had a direction this, you know, you know, when you bring people in, there's so many different dietary paths.

And even like autoimmune Talia was great, but it's not. Well, it's to me so that didn't work for everybody. And so, you know, you're spending time. Let's try this way of eating. Let's try that way of eating. Let's try this supplement. Let's. And maybe that didn't work. And supplements are expensive. And so when when my clients would purchase supplements and they didn't work or they reacted negatively to on that, I was like, I didn't want to waste their money. And so the genetics takes all that guesswork out.

And now we have a blueprint of now I can see where there's food intolerances, I can see where there's toxins, where there's, you know, potential oxidative stress, food fire on issues. And it shows you like the path of the direction of which to go. And also supplementation when people are genetically predisposed to low levels of folate, B12, vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin E, and it's in the test will we'll show you along with symptoms to look for foods that include those nutrients. And it's set up in order of importance.

So like when somebody gets the next gen test or practitioner uses it in their practice, it's beautifully designed where it's all laid out a foundational section. You start with the foundational section. What's in the foundation. Sleep diet access. That's what you have to focus on. Then it gets into, you know, oxidative stress. And then in that situation sometimes people jump right to methylation. Yeah. If you're working with somebody that's very ill or very toxic and you jump right to elation, it can really backfire.

I like that staged approach. It's a powerful way to kind of remove it or take the guesswork out as a practitioner to sort of stop top of funnel going down, because that's I've seen it time and time again. Practitioners wrecking a patient's body on the methylation side and pushing pathways before removing things that are basically starting to break down. And you can't go backwards in healing. You've got to to follow a correct path. And I'm curious, is the panel called the Works? Is that like the one for everybody, or is there different ones at max Gen that you guys offer?

I know the works personally because Chad allowed me to to run the works on myself

Why Genetic Testing Changed Her Practice 10:00

and and just like you said, look at that breakdown for me was enlightening. So but do you guys offer different ones or how does that work. Yeah. So the works is is the most popular one. It actually contains three panels the function panel, the food panel and the fitness panel. Okay. So they also offer the function panel by itself. That's the largest part of the test. And that's going to show methylation oxidative stress hormones, histamine intolerance, neurotransmitters Alzheimer's disease risk cardiovascular.

And then a food section. And I believe you can get the food section separate I believe that yeah food is separate. And the fitness I don't think that on a separate okay I know they change a little bit, but you can just get one or the other. The best value really is the is the works because you're getting everything. And when I work with people, I, I do the works because I want to see the food section. And also I believe it's very empowering. It's great. The functional parts, obviously it's the most important.

But the food part I like because people that are unwilling or don't want to give up gluten, and then they see that they have genes associated with celiac disease or inflammatory bowel disease consumption. So it's like, okay, you know, it's not making me feel great when you eat it. If you keep eating it, you might end up with celiac disease. Do you want to take. So it's it's motivating. So that's why I love that. And it also looks at lactose intolerance. Peanut allergy. That one's actually an allergy. And then there's there's insulin resistance markers how the body responds to fats.

Whether they can. And then it really was so cool as it gets specific as to which dietary path would work best for that person based on their DNA. So what's it takes? The whole algorithm. And so the test tests for around 220 genes, gene snaps. So but in the beginning pages lays it out where it puts the person's results based on those 220, you know, the sections of the genes in each section. And it will actually show them. What would a keto diet work well for that? Wow. Maybe, Mediterranean would be best.

And even a hunter gatherer. And you can adapt diet for people that have, predisposed to high blood pressure. You know, when keto was really there, it's still probably pretty big. But now there's there's many different pathways or dietary paths that people can go on. But I had people come to me where it's like my husband did keto and lost all this weight, and he feels fantastic. I tried it and I gained weight and I felt terrible. Oh yeah, I say, because genetically she did not respond well to a keto diet.

So that's that's cool. So that's the food. And then the the fitness part, we'll look at shows the how people respond to exercise and their risk for injury. So as far as blood sugar inflammation, it's progressed. And I'm curious what's the because I've used all kinds of labs over the years in and out of different functional, you know, medicine practices that have worked as an integrative health coach and Red labs for a long, long time. But what do you find is the difference between just drawing out a blood serum and going and basically spending the price of a small car to get markers that I feel like when you run something like the works on the genetics side, you still get a really clear layout, but you're not literally laying up half your life savings to purchase a test.

Do you find that the accuracy or the efficacy over the years that you've used it? It's it's, you know, similar, if not even better than having to run these, you know, if you ran 220 markers on a standard lab, I mean, it's going to cost you, you know, ten plus thousand, it's going to cost you a lot of money. So I'm curious the the difference. And also what's what's the technology. And you do not have to get complex for us. But what's the technology that max gen is using in order to, to run so many markers but keep that cost so low?

Yeah. So to answer the first part, what's amazing about genetics is they never change. So your DNA is your DNA. So it's a one and done. So somebody so you put the money out. You don't have to do it again. Unlike lab work it's only going to show you. And I love I love lab work I love blood work and all that. But it's showing you a snapshot in time. And so I've had either clients come to me with like a lot of gut issues and inflammation, and they're like, I'd like to get stool testing and organic acid testing and hormone testing.

And this testing, I'm like, okay, that's going to cost you probably over $1,000 minimum or just those tests. And as great as they are, and I love those tests,

MaxGen Test Panels and DNA Privacy 15:00

they're showing you how you're already you already know you're not feeling well, where we run the genetics and now we have your DNA. Now let's let's do that first and change your diet, lifestyle, environment. If you get your feeling based on your DNA. And then we'll go from there. I never run those other tests. Wow. Because they're already feeling better. Because we're making the changes based on their genetics. So I feel that it well, at first it's very affordable, but it saves them so much time and money and frustration because of, you know, their genetics.

But the testing it is great like lab work. So I do recommend specific markers being tested, but most of them are covered by insurance. They're usually covered by insurance. So yeah genetics are not diagnostic. They're a predisposition. So when people look at their genetic tests and it says you know, potentially like low vitamin D, low folate, low B12, that's not saying they are low. It's genetically predisposed to that. So what do we do. We so I recommend we do the dietary lifestyle changes and maybe some basic supplements.

Nothing crazy. And then I recommend that they get tested like about three months down the road to see do we need to boost up these nutrients. I said, you know, is that gene expressing where we need to give you extra when I go or if they have symptoms too? That can also give us a clue as well. Their genes expressing wow. And then this virus, the way the test, the way the testing is done, it's just saliva, a simple cheek swab. And they have a, three of it's called, but there's a little vial with some liquid that preserves the sample.

So it's just a swab. They swab the inside their cheek 20 times, and then you snap off the head into the vial, send it to the lab. And that's. Jen owns the equipment. So the DNA never leaves the facility. It's never goes to a third party or sold anything like that. Yeah. So the security team that promotes the security is extremely important. The next gen. And one of the reasons why chance started this tournament was because he was working in a functional medicine practice, and they were using like 23 in me. And they were selling it on the back end.

And that's why they can sell the tests for like whatever, like is $69 or, you know, cheap like that because they're making money selling the person's DNA. And that's like your blueprint. I mean, that is your fingerprint that's like, you know, and so the other thing, too, is it's funny how saying we can have a probably about a thousand SpongeBob's in the system if there's any. He doesn't care. He doesn't. You can put whatever name you want. In fact, I do practitioner consults for months. Jen. And when a practitioner signs up for a consult with me, it asks for the vial number if or the sample ID number if they put the person's name.

I can't even look it up. I'm like, I'm I'm as they're in the system as a number. I need that number. I can't look it up if you don't give me the number. See I love that. I respect that so much that you literally lead right into my next question, which was with data privacy and DNA. Like there's all kinds of new stories coming out about 23 and me and all them selling our information. And just like you said, it's the blueprint of who we are. It's like, I don't want that going to some random company or some human longevity project or whatever they tout.

It's for that's so sacred to us, you know. So I appreciate that was one of the first things Chad told me where he was like, I'm going to change it up, Mike. I'm going to do something completely different now. A lot of people in the industry don't do this because they want a kickback from what's being sold. And so I just I really appreciate that because he pushes the the savings still on to us compared to a standard blood test. But we know that our DNA is safe. We know that every test ran through Maxton.

So I'm curious if if it's a one and done and were like, if I ran the works for you to utilize Max gen, is it really like a one time snapshot? And then that's what you look at. Then you move to blood test and you kind of play with that lab. Do you ever come back to max Gen for a retest in any sort of period of time, like is there epigenetics that shift with different dietary supplements? Because I know that like peptides can up and down regulate gene expression. Same with bio regulators. There's certain substances in nature that have the ability to cut in and off of genetic expressions.

Even if, let's say we make those dietary changes and oxidative stress markers go down or we're not as overreactive, can you see shifts in the test over a period of time, like, do you do it every couple of years or do you have a recommendation for that? So the only thing that would change would be like updating the tests and adding different genes. But as far as like so for example, I got tested for me, if I test myself again, it's going to always be the same result, no matter if the gene is, no matter what my health is at that moment, because it's just genetic predisposition. So.

So in that sense, no, the only time that so like like I've been with them for eight years. So eight years ago the test was much smaller. Like there wasn't as many gene snips that there are now we've we've come a long way with genetics as far as like helping and honing in on the ones that are really can really make an impact on health. And that's the other thing I respect about Max John and like, and what Chad has done is that, you know, he hired a geneticist. That was from day one, and that's all the genes on his test are evidence and research fits.

So there's some companies out there that they'll have, oh, we test for 2000 and 200,000 or something like that. And I've looked at those tests. I actually have accounts with several other genetic companies that I've never used. They make you set up an account to even look at the task.

How to Access MaxGen Labs and Final Takeaways 21:00

That's my thing. That drives me nuts. You can go on next gen website and you can see a sample of all the reports. Right on. I love that hiding anything. Yeah. I'm like, why do I have to, like, give you my firstborn child? We can attest for a sample task report, but anyways. But that's fine. But you go through those and not those. Most of those, they're not evidence based, they're just noise. And all it does is, in my opinion, it just confuses people because it's not really they're not really valid.

They're just putting them in there to make it look like you're getting more bang for your buck, but you're really not. Gotcha. Yeah. I can see that. Well, so I love this. So we have a cost effective way to look at extremely relevant things to our health. It really seems like it'd be the top of funnel for us to look at a genetic snapshot first. So if any practitioners listening or any potential client or patient out there, if you've never done genetic testing, this is a great entry point. Debbie, is there a way for them to find out how to get the tests?

Like if I'm a practitioner and want to sign up or, if I'm just a client and I want to purchase, like, where do we go? How do we get in contact with your. Yeah, you can just go on whether you're a practitioner or, a consultant where you can go on next gen labs.com, their website, a place for practitioners that they can go on and on. And there's also for, you know, can purchase the task right from there. There there's also a list of practitioners on the website for people that want further. And help with not only.

It's designed to make it easy to understand, but it's I always recommend people to sign up with, functional medicine practitioner, especially if they have a lot of health issues to help guide them through and work through the tests with them. And there's a list of practitioners on their website they can contact. There's also education on the their YouTube channel. We did a live chat and I did a live Q&A last month of the most common. Asked questions about the test. And then we're also going to be doing a follow up to that, because there was a lot of questions we didn't get to.

I'll be doing that one. That one will be posted soon. And then next month we have another one. We're going to try to make it more regular, but more education out there for people so that they feel comfortable with it. There's also a private Facebook page, Next Gen Labs private Facebook page that's public on a private one, group where there's one for practitioners and there's ones, one for consumers where they can join in the next questions and post education out. There is education on the website.

So there's a lot of resources that people can use to get clarity if they need it. The test, I love that. And I will tell you guys just from someone who's worked in the lab and from someone who's been a part of that whole community, there's so much lack of transparency. And so choose people like MaxGen who are completely transparent, even to the point of having access through those platforms. To the founder to ask questions is literally unheard of. So especially in the lab world, there's so much things shrouded in mystery that they don't allow you to have access.

That just makes you feel uncomfortable. When this data is so relevant to how we can change our health and change our life. So I appreciate your time today, Debbie. I appreciate all the information. This was super enlightening and it just is such powerful education for our audience today to be able to empower themselves to, you know, we've said it time and time again, I know through my entire career, but test don't guess. Like just look at your markers. Don't be afraid to take a step in. Reach out to one of your functional medicine practitioners who use MaxGen and just let this be a launching point to your health and wellness journey.

And yeah, we're we're just happy to help. And I just appreciate you, Debbi, for taking the time to give us all the MaxGen goodness today. Yeah, it was my pleasure, Michael. Thanks for having me Nikki dear. Awesome. Thanks everybody, and we look forward to seeing you on the next one.