#126 | Precision Medicine via AI Health Simulations | Nathan Price PhD of Thorne HealthTech

Fullscript for WiseAthletes

Healthspan is all the rage now but beyond a healthy lifestyle what does that really mean? How can it be done? And what can I do now to ward off problems before the illness shows up?

Today on episode 126, I am joined by Nathan Price, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Thorne HealthTech and co-author of the book, The Age of Scientific Wellness (2023). If there is anyone on the planet who can tell us how we can make this shift from merely treating illness to keeping ourselves healthy for a long, active life......Dr Price is just that person.

Dr Price has been at the forefront of creating Precision Medicine as a co-founder of Arivale and Associate Director of the Institute of Systems Biology, and now he is helping Thorne to bring Precision Medicine to you and me.

In case you don't remember, Arivale was that way ahead of its time company that offered ongoing wellness and nutritional coaching tailored to the results of each person’s genetic, blood and microbiome tests. Actual personalized medicine.

Today, most doctors wait for clinical symptoms to appear before they act, and the ten most commonly prescribed medications confer little benefit to most people taking them. Nathan Price (and his co-author Leroy Hood) argue that we must move beyond this reactive, hit-or-miss approach to usher in real precision health―a form of highly personalized care they call “scientific wellness.” Using information from our blood and genes and tapping into the data revolution made possible by AI, doctors can catch the onset of disease years before symptoms arise, revolutionizing prevention. They say this approach is just getting started but has already had amazing results: diabetes reversed, cancers eliminated, Alzheimer’s avoided, autoimmune conditions kept at bay.

All right, let's talk to Nathan Price about the technologies emerging this year and his thoughts on what wise athletes can do right now to slow the rate of aging.

Bullet points

• Scientific Wellness -- a remaking of healthcare from reactive, reductionist reducing of symptoms ... to... figuring out how to keep people healthy while they are healthy...extend the span of time in health..."healthspan"
• Thorne Ventures...dedicated to launching a platform for health ventures
• Learned a ton from thousands of measurements over many years
• The most commonly prescribed drugs have a wide variety of effectiveness on individuals for many reason: microbiome, genome, etc.
• In 13% of prescribed drugs (including statins), the drug is transformed in the gut by bacteria before being absorbed. So the effect on each person is dependent upon the bacteria in the gut
• Once a person hits 50, a healthy person's gut microbiome begins to be less and less like anyone else's gut microbiome.
• There is no average person
• Examples:
• LDL cholesterol lowering:
  • Genome identification of individuals with predisposition for high LDL....no way to lower LDL by lifestyle alone...need medication
• Weight loss:
  • People with gut microbiome's (identified with fecal matter testing) that produced more SCFA lose weight more successfully
• Individual testing to find personalized health solutions:
  • Genetic testing
  • Normal blood markers for health
  • Metobolomics --- 1000 small molecules....chemical markers in blood
  • Several 100 Proteins -- Proteomics in blood (for discovery purposes)
• "Digital Twin" simulations -- a computer model of a human being that can comprehend status and changes in biomarkers to predict health issues and identify health interventions for individuals based on