Unlocking the Epigenetic Causes of Heart Attacks

DO YOU HAVE A FAMILY OR PERSONAL HISTORY OF HEART DISEASE… AND MAYBE EVEN HEART ATTACKS? In today’s episode, I’ll be sharing the results from a major study in epigenetics research related to the the exact epigenetic causes for heart attacks.

SHOW NOTES
2:27      Did you know that  mental processing speed doesn't actually decline until our late 60s?
5:30      Have we found the holy grail for Heart Disease?
7:41      Genes found that are likely responsible for causing coronary heart disease & heart attack.
 8:06     Genes found that increase predisposition to cardiac disease
18:57   If you're struggling with chronic nagging challenges and haven't been able to get answers 
 19:02  Are you Doctor Hopping hoping to find answers to your symptoms? 

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Transcript

 ITZ_EP64_UNLOCKING THE EPIGENETC CAUSES OF HEART ATTACKS

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

genes, coronary heart disease, epigenetic, genetics, optimizing, research, information,  profile, processing speed, aging

Dr Brian G Brown  00:00

The mission is simple: to help high achievers naturally eliminate emotional and physical obstacles, so they can optimize their life for higher achievement. 

Welcome, you just entered the Genesis zone. Good day and welcome to the Genesis zone show. This is Dr. Brian Brown. Thank you for taking time out of your busy, busy schedule to join us on this beautiful Thursday. Do you have a family history or personal history of heart disease, and maybe even heart attacks? 

In today's episode, I'll be sharing the results from a major study and epigenetics research related to the exact epigenetic causes for heart attacks. But before we get into today's topic, I've got something fun for you

In aging medicine, it's long established that mental processing speed slows down as we age. And it's typically expected that this starts to decline in the early to mid-adulthood years. In other words, around age 30 or 40. But some recent research is challenging this accepted thinking. 

You see no one has actually challenged this notion that mental processing speed actually declines in any earlier than the middle-aged years. And it's just been clinically accepted as fact. And it was only based on just kind of clinical observation that became accepted somewhere along the way.

Well, researchers from the Institute of Psychology at Heidelberg University in Heidelberg, Germany, led by Dr. Misha von Krauss have discovered some pretty interesting things in relation to age related mental processing speed decline. They looked at the raw response time data from about 1.2 million participants in their study, which is a huge study by the way. And found this, mental processing speed actually starts declining earlier than previously thought. Hmm. So, previously, it was thought that it started in the 30s or 40s and got worse as we aged. But now according to Von Krauss and his colleagues, when they conducted their research, they found that this mental processing speed actually starts declining around age 20!

But that was not the biggest finding. They also found that this apparent decline in mental processing speed was not related to age at all, it was actually related to maturity of thinking processes. In simpler terms, 

they discovered that what appears to be slower mental processing speed related to age is actually an increase in decision making caution. 

So jokingly, I asked myself this question. You mean, growing up actually causes you to think more cautiously? I mean, imagine that. I do have to add, growing up, causes most of us to think more cautiously. I can think of at least a half a dozen examples of people that I know in my life who never grew up and never developed an ounce of caution. Do you know anybody like that? That never grew up? I'm sure you do.

Seriously, Dr. Von, Krauss and his colleagues did find that slower mental processing does actually occur. But it only occurs well after age 60. So, I thought that was interesting, just fun facts about, you know, aging and age-related changes, and things like that. 

So now on to the main topic for today's show. Do you know someone who's had a heart attack? Well, odds are you've either been directly or indirectly affected in some way by heart disease. Now, whether you call it heart disease, heart attack, coronary heart disease, these are all related terms. And they all seem to do one thing consistently. They all seem to strike fear into the minds of adults, in most cultures throughout the world.

Dr Brian G Brown  04:44

In the United States alone, the direct financial burden of health care cost of coronary heart disease is $216 billion per year. Now, the indirect cost associated with lost work productivity is an additional $147 billion. And when you look at the global statistics, the burden, indirect healthcare cost is 863 billion, and it's expected to be greater than 1 trillion in the next eight years. 

Now, needless to say, these numbers are staggering. And they place an economic and financial burden on societies as a whole. Have researchers actually uncovered the holy grail of heart disease through genetics and epigenetics? Well, one could only hope. 

So, let's dive into the to the information that this study that I'm going to bring to you actually shows. The study I'm referencing today was published, actually on December 28 of 2021. So, a horrible time to publish a study by the way, people are busy for the holidays. And I have to admit that I actually missed this one due to the holiday shuffle. But being the being the research geek that I am, the epigenetic geek, the preventive aging geek that I am always kind of thumb back through my digital resources from the past few months around this time of year to make certain that I didn't miss anything. And lo and behold, this little nugget was just lying there waiting to be picked up. 

Now, this was an international study with participants from all across the United States and all across Europe. Now this study was conducted by the research team at New York's Mount Sinai, Victor Change Cardiac Research Institute. Now they looked at 600 participants. And when you think about a global study, a multi–Country Study, 600 participants isn't a lot. But it's a beginning. And it opens the doors for further research. These are what we call pilot study. So, when you see an international study with these small numbers, typically their pilot studies and they're getting geared up to do a bigger study so they can actually get funding. 

Anyway, and I think that's probably the direction they're going with this. Well, anyway, the researchers looked at 600 participants who had known coronary heart disease, and 150 participants who did not have any coronary heart disease. 

Now, the amount of data that they had to analyze was so massive, that they had to call in a supercomputer named Minerva, in order to crunch all the numbers. Now from this group of 750 participants, they were able to make some amazing discoveries. 

1)    They were able to discover a cluster of genes that are likely responsible for causing coronary heart disease and heart attack.

2)    They were able to identify nine exact areas of the body and cardiovascular tissue, where the main effect of these genes takes place.

3)    They were able to identify which genes had the most significant impact on causing coronary heart disease. And they were subsequently able to place these genes in in rank order. 

Now, all total, there were 162 genes that they identified and subsequently placed in rank order. Interestingly, the top two genes on the list, one of these genes had been suspected for quite some time as being somewhat linked or maybe even partly responsible for coronary heart artery disease or coronary heart disease. But the other was a bit of a dark horse. 

Now, the technical names don't get hung up on this, because they really don't matter right now. And I'll explain that in a minute. CDKN2B was the genetic code ification or code for that dark horse. That one that just kind of like, okay, where did this one come from? We really didn't kind of, we didn't expect this. Yeah, we've thought that there may have been some linkage, but we really didn't think it was that important. It was actually the number two most causative for coronary heart disease. 

And then PHACTR1 was the code for the number one gene that was the top suspected gene initially before they even did this study, and it turned out to be the number one so it actually did carry the weight and the importance that they thought it was going to, but now they have study, research proof to back that up. 

Now, why is this important? Why don't why are these gene codes these names for these things? Why do they even matter? Well, we have 162 genes now and we now have the top two culprits for  what actually causes this coronary heart disease process to take place. Once we understand the genetics, which remember, I've said this before, and I'll say it again, your genetics are the building blocks of everything that makes you, quite frankly, you. So, if we're born with these genetics, does it mean that we're going to have coronary heart disease? No, it doesn't, doesn't mean we have a tendency toward that, yes, because remember, epigenetically, these genes are like switches, okay, some bad switches are cut on, and we need to get them cut off. And some good switches are cut off, and we need to turn them back on. 

Now, we're not quite sure, in the PHACTR1or the CDKN2B genes, we're not quite sure what their complete roles are. We do understand now what tissue they seem to affect. So, we're getting closer. Now I have access to an extremely large genetic database, that gives all the current research and information for specific genes and the disease processes that they're that they're linked to, if there are any. Sometimes you'll type in a search for a specific gene, and it won't pull up anything and there's no data available. That's not unusual. It happens all the time. 

Because the words the human genome is huge. And we're constantly unlocking these linkages between these genes and chronic illness and aging and how we interact with our environment. And so on, so forth. So, it's not unusual to pull one up and not get anything. 

But since CDKN2B was the dark horse, it wasn't surprising that when I actually did a search in that database, that that there really wasn't that much information available on that gene. And even though there was some information on the one that they actually expected, the PHACTR 1 I found that information quite lacking. I scrolled through every page that was there. And it was just really basic, rudimentary stuff that we kind of already knew about that particular gene. So, there's not much new information, this particular study from December that information has not made it into the database, yet it will eventually it will trickle in. But all that to say this, there's so much that we don't know about these genes, can we currently check genes for the specific two genes out of the 162? Can we check the whole 162 genes that were identified in this study? The answer is yes, we can check those.I

Dr Brian G Brown  12:52

I don't recommend doing that right now. Because we don't actually understand what the full clinical outcome of these genes is. Nor do we understand what the intervention is. And I don't like really talking about incorporating a new gene into a profile that I do clinically in the office, until I understand what kind of outcome I can get if I make this change with this person. 

Now you could extrapolate and say, Listen, if you eat healthier, if you exercise, you're going to modify these genes and lower your risk. Well, we know that globally and generally. But there have been no studies non to actually show that there is decreased expression of these particular two genes that we just talked about, related to coronary heart disease. 

So, you see what I'm saying there needs to be a pathway, there needs to be some studies that are done in order to show that, okay, when you eat right when you exercise, when you take this supplement. When you remove this from your environment, when you meditate, you actually improve the outcomes of these two genes, or the expression of these two genes. And we just don't have that yet. So, keep doing what we've always been doing, keep exercising, keep hydrating, keep eating right. Keep watching the things that you put into your environment that are unhealthy and toxic. Try to remove those as much as you possibly can. And try to you know, just do the general principles of what we know in order to stay healthy, and I until we can get some more information on these two genes. 

Now, I will say this, I do check on inflammatory profiles and I have seen this where a person has a family history of cardiovascular disease or personal history of cardiovascular disease, their outcomes actually improve when we're working with them and they if they have some form of mild moderate cardiovascular disease When we do epigenetics, and we do their inflammatory profile, and we see that, oh my gosh, they're highly inflamed and we start working epigenetically on those supplements and things like that and lifestyle measures that can change those epigenetics, we actually see improved cardiac outcomes with those patients, holds true for anything. Again, you know, my mantra is that inflammation is directly linked to immune system and the immune system and inflammation are directly linked to chronic disease. I went over that last week. 

And you'll hear me say that over and over and over again, they're all related, all links, so we can think if we can take care of inflammation, we can start taking care of some of these processes. And I think over time, we're going to see that those inflammatory genes that we know so much about right now that we know what interventions we can use to take care of those, they're going to be directly related to these new genes that are coming up, like the CDKN2B and the PHACTR1. 

It's just a hunch, but I think we're gonna see that, at this point, it looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer, probably about 18 to 36 months, I'm being really, really hopeful, it could be closer to five years, but I'm hoping it's 18 to 36 months, before we get some really targeted information about these two specific coronary heart disease genes. You know, I'll keep digging in and see what I can find out. And when I do find something new, I'll actually report back to you. It's  very encouraging, though, that we are beginning to understand what certain chronic diseases look like, genetically and epigenetically. 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, this is the future of medicine, whether it be for chronic disease management, or it be for longevity, and preventive aging medicine, it's the future of medicine, mark my word, there will come a day where we will be running comprehensive genetic profiles on everyone starting in pediatrics, it's going to start with adults first, trust me on that, it will trickle down to pediatrics, where we will actually be able to run a comprehensive genetic profile on a kid at a very, very early age, we'll be able to see their inflammatory risk, their neurotransmitter risk, their methylation risk, their detoxification risk. 

And we're going to be able to put measures in place early enough, where we're going to start seeing these chronic diseases on the decline, including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and so on so forth. 

Because epigenetically, we're supporting that human that has that certain profile that puts them at risk for those things. Remember, it's about turning switches on and off. So, mark my word, there will come a day where we're running comprehensive genetic panels on everyone, and it'll be just as routine as your annual laboratory work.

Dr Brian G Brown  17:52

It's coming, it's not here yet. So, until that time, there's the Genesis zone where I actually do just that, I routinely check epigenetic profiles on all my one-to-one clients that I work with now. And then I let those genetics, that's epigenetic profiles, I let that dictate where we go from there, what lab work we do, what clinical interventions we put in place, and I'll let that guide me.

What that usually translates to, that usually translates to, whereas it used to take me six to 12 months to get somebody back to feeling quote, unquote, normal, I can now get that usually in around three months, with most conditions and most people, again, this is brand new, burgeoning field. 

There's a lot of information we have, but there's even more that we don't have. We're just working with the tip of the iceberg. And the tip of the iceberg is exciting. I'll be honest with you, it's exciting clinically, for me to be working with clients like this. So, if you're struggling with chronic nagging challenges and haven't been able to get answers, maybe you've Doctor hopped everywhere, and been told the same answer. Everything's normal, everything's normal, we don't know what to do. 

Oh, by the way, here's a prescription for an antidepressant. That's a really common one. If I had $1 for every time, I heard that, I'd be a very wealthy man. And that by the way, that's code language for we're not quite sure what's going on. So, it must all be in your head. Therefore, we're gonna victim blame you and say, You're crazy. Here's an antidepressant.

Or you may be a biohacker. And you simply want to take your biohacking journey to the next level, whichever scenario you fall into, whichever type of person you are. Maybe it's time to learn more about how epigenetic profiling could be the answer. 

If you're curious about that, I've created a five day bootcamp called the Gene Hack Boot Camp and by the end of that five days, you will have a keen understanding of exactly where you need to focus your wellness journey for health recovery, and you'll learn or if you're, again, if your bio hacking,  you'll learn where the potholes in the road are, that you had no idea even existed. And you'll be able to have a detour map around those. 

You'll learn about the exact genes you need to have tested in order to address any hang-ups that you have. And you'll learn some of my favorite genetic modifying natural supplements that I use every day in clinical practice. And, you'll have all this, you'll  learn this in the bootcamp also. All just so you can begin to feel better and feel fully optimized, and ultimately, so you can live the life you want. 

Right now, we're running a promotional special with our boot camp. It's free. Normally it's $47. But right now, it's free. I can't promise you how long it's going to be that way. But right now, you can get a really good deal. It's free. I mean, what better deal is that? To enroll in the boot camp, go to 

 htps://drbriangbrown.com/genehack/bootcamp 

 There, you'll be able to register and take the first step to getting the answers you deserve.

 Tune in next Thursday, at noon EST. For our next In The Zone segment, where I'll be sharing my insights about the latest research as it relates to optimizing your genes, optimizing your and optimizing your physical and emotional wellness journey.

 Most informed, most trusted and most grateful you spent this time with us today. Until next time, stay in the zone. I'm Dr. Brian Brown.