Be A Proactive Patient: Using Your Genetic Blueprint For Heart Health -47

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Boots Knighton [: 00:00:02

Imagine having a blueprint to your body that you can access and find out a treasure trove of reasons why you might struggle with high cholesterol, or maybe you struggle with depression, or maybe you have no issues with binding biotoxins in your gut. All of that is now available at our fingertips and more. I am so excited to bring you my guest today, Elwin Robinson. Elwin is on a mission to change the world by empowering people with crucial self knowledge that helps them to understand and love themselves as they are and become aware of their body's unique needs based on their unique genetic blueprint. In this episode, I get raw and real with you all. I allow Elwin to take me through some of the really important parts of the report that he generates through his company, genetic insights. We go deep into several different things that are affecting my cardiovascular health. I share all this information with you so that I can empower you to get into the driver's seat of your health.

Boots Knighton [: 00:01:34

Elwin is so generous. He has provided an affiliate link to not only support the Heart Chamber podcast, but to also encourage you to get into the driver's seat of your health. So be sure to listen towards the end of the episode to hear how you can access these incredible reports from geneticinsights.com. So I am so excited. Let's dive right in with Elwin Robinson. Welcome to the Heart Chamber, hope, inspiration, and healing, conversations on open heart surgery. I am your host, Boots Knighton. If you are a heart patient, a caregiver, a Heart care provider, a healer, or Heart just looking for open hearted living, this podcast is for you.

Boots Knighton [: 00:02:29

To make sure you are in rhythm with the heart chamber, be sure to subscribe or follow wherever you are listening to this episode. While you're listening today, think of someone who may appreciate this information. The number one way people learn about a podcast is through a friend. Don't you want to be the reason someone you know gained this heartfelt information? And if you haven't already, follow me on Instagram, 2 different places, at Boots or at the Heart chamber podcast. You can also find me on LinkedIn as well as Facebook. But enough with the directions, without further delay, let's get to this week's episode. So, Elwin Robinson, thank you so much for joining the heart chamber today. And I am so excited for you to share with me and the listeners about the good work you're doing in the world of genetics through your genetic insights company as well as I was able to do my own report with you, which I have invited you to go through with me with my audience listening.

Boots Knighton [: 00:03:46

So thank you, and welcome.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:03:48

Thank you very much, and thank you for being willing to do that. I've worked with a lot of influencers, and, honestly, most of them wanna keep it a secret. Like, we we do it privately, so I'm always very, impressed when people are, happy to share it publicly. I mean, I have as well, but, you know, I just think it's it's really cool that you're happy to share that with, your audience.

Boots Knighton [: 00:04:06

Yeah. Well, I mean, I've been through heart surgery, and so every day is a bonus day now. And I have literally nothing to hide because my chest has literally been cut open. So I'm it's like no big deal to me. So, first, just set the stage for us of, like, how you came to do what you do now, explain this whole process to the listeners so they can have a, like, a concrete foundational understanding of what what we're gonna be talking about today.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:04:40

I'll do the quick version because as we said before we Heart recording, we wanna get straight into, the actual content of it. But I was struggling with some major health issues around 39, 40 years old. I, saw a lot of them people. I went to medical doctors, different specialists, private medical doctors. I saw all kinds of alternative practitioners. My shoes were not initially with my Heart, they were with my digestive system. I've had severe pain that no one understood and which wouldn't go away. Painkillers didn't work for it, so that was unfortunate.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:05:11

And it meant I couldn't eat much for a long time, so I lost a lot of weight. I am 6 foot 3, and I ended up being, was it, a 100 and 20 £5, £130? So I ended up being very, very thin, and had severe anxiety and all the rest of it. As I said to you when we spoke before, I could relay a little bit to your, your audience because, at one point during that, I had, like, a severe digestive episode. I went to the emergency room, and they did an ECG on me, and they told me that based on my e g ECG patterns, I had something called Brugada syndrome, which is a specific genetic heart defect, which means, basically, you could drop dead at any moment because of this irregularity in your heart. And I looked it up, it said the average age that you die if you have Bregardless syndrome is 40, and I I was, like, 39 and a half at the time. So I was like, wow. Okay. This was you know? And they said, you know, it's dangerous to fly if you have this thing.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:06:04

So I was like, I'm never gonna be able to leave the country again and all this kind of stuff. So and then luckily, you know, fortunately, I I went to see then a specialist who was, like, I don't know, attending physician or something. I don't know. The most senior physician, and they looked at it, and they said, actually, you've been misdiagnosed. But I had a little bit of time there of, like, you know, imagining what it's like to be given this kind of heart based death sentence, and it is very, very unpleasant. So long story short, after trying loads of different both mainstream and alternative stuff, literally no one seems able to understand what was going on with me. No one was able to help me. And I found out about this genetic testing service that if you have, ever done an Ancestry service before, and I had, I done 23 andMe back in, 2013, then you could upload that data straight to this platform.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:06:52

And within a few hours, they can tell you all kinds of interesting things about your health. And I've done loads of testing of all kinds, blood tests, urine tests, saliva tests, all that kind of stuff by then. And I love the idea of how quick that was, like, getting results so quickly. Normally, it takes a long time. You gotta go and see a doctor, all that stuff. So I was like, great. And I was looking for the results. And, honestly, Boots, I was blown away at how incredibly accurate it was and how incredibly helpful.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:07:18

Accurate in terms of it explained to me things about myself I hadn't even realized, and it also explained what was causing all of these health symptoms. Now genetics obviously can't diagnose you, but they can say you have a strong risk for this or you have a strong tendency for that, and then that's something that you can do your own independent testing to verify. And that's exactly what I did, and it allowed me to test for certain things that no hadn't occurred to anyone to test for because they were so unusual and rare. And because of that, I finally managed to work out what was going on with me. I wouldn't say that I'm in a perfect position now, but what am I? £180 without putting on any fat. So I feel in a good place. You know, I can eat whatever I want. I don't have pain.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:08:03

You know, I feel a hell of a lot better. And this is really after having lifelong digestive problems. It just got really, really bad when I was about 39 to 40 when I was in constant pain. So, yeah, a full resolution. And the thing that really blew me away about it was back when I did the 23 and me testing back in 2013, I didn't have any of these problems or I didn't have them, like, strong enough for me to really notice them. It was no big deal at the time. And yet so I was so impressed that it kind of knew like, if I'd have got my results back then, not this platform existed, unfortunately, but if I could have got my results back then, I would have been able to, first of all, know that I had a tendency to develop all these problems, and second of all, I could have prevented it. And so with that insight and understanding, I was like, right.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:08:48

I need to get this out to other people. And the platform I used was great, but the only downside to it were that it was very expensive, and it was also very complicated. And it was complicated for me as someone who's fully immersed in this world for over a decade. I knew it was a bit too complicated for the end user. So I ended up working with this company to create a version that was much simpler and also significantly more affordable. So really it's in the reach of anyone at least in the western world. So that's the short version.

Boots Knighton [: 00:09:17

No. I appreciate that. And I think it's just helpful for people to know where you come from. And honestly, for me, it adds credibility. Like, hey, you have, like, lived and breathed a really hard health challenge. And what I am hearing you say is you took charge of your health. You got in the driver's seat of your health care and said, hey, I'm gonna figure this out. And there are just so many people, especially in the United States, who still really believe they're in the passenger seat and that they're powerless.

Boots Knighton [: 00:09:51

And with this genetic test and the platform that we're about to go through with all my results, I mean, I feel more empowered now. And it's just like it's like reading a user manual to my own body.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:10:05

Yeah. Absolutely. That's a great way of putting it. Maybe we'll use that in marketing, if you don't mind. That does make sense. And, again, we can't diagnose anything, obviously, but as you just said, like, our goal is to empower you to know that you have these tendencies. And we don't just give you tendencies and risk scores, as you know, Boots. We also are able provide recommendations, lifestyle recommendations, dietary recommendations, supplement recommendations, which can, you know, make a significant difference.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:10:31

And every single thing that we recommend is backed by research, and, you know, has a substantial scientific evidence. There's many, many references to scientific, you know, papers. Almost for every statement we make, there's, like, a citation or a reference. So it's also something you can share with your medical doctor. Sometimes they're not open to it because medical doctors are very insular. You know, often, I've been to medical doctors and told them a different medical doctor has told me something, and they don't even wanna listen to that. So, you know, sometimes they're not gonna be open. But I've also worked with very open, you know, more open minded medical doctors in there.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:11:02

In fact, we work with, a couple of medical doctors who use our platform already, and they love it for their patients because most other genetic testing systems, they are kind of more technical, and the doctor has to kind of write a report explaining the results to the patient. Whereas, we kinda do it for them. So they they kind of enjoy it for that reason. So, yeah, at least open minded doctors, see it as valid and and like to use it. But as you said, it's mainly about self empowerment. It's mainly so even if you, you know, you don't want to, and I have some people like that. One of my best friends, he absolutely refuses to see a medical doctor even though how many times I tell him that he needs to. Like, he just won't do it.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:11:38

But so for someone like him, it's good that he can, you know, say, find out these indications about himself because he had his own health challenges, and then he can order his own testing, which is exactly what he did and and kind of work out what was going on for himself. So I always recommend people go to a medical professional, but, technically, it's possible to kind of do a lot for yourself as well with this platform if you if you're the kind of person who just won't.

Boots Knighton [: 00:12:04

Yeah. That's great. And this is such a dense level of material. I have still yet to read through it all, and I've had it for several weeks now. And you really have to be in a good frame of mind, I think. Not because, like, it's bad news or anything, but, like, we are not born perfect, and it's a lot to absorb. And you just really need to be able to regulate your nervous system and not go down the rabbit hole of going to doctor Google and diagnosing yourself. Like I said, it's like this user manual, and it's more for enlightenment and empowerment and not to, like, make you feel like you're gonna go to bed that night thinking, you know, you have some terminal illness.

Boots Knighton [: 00:12:57

So I just wanna stress that to the listeners. That that's my perception or perspective. So

Elwin Robinson [: 00:13:03

Yeah. I completely agree. It could be taken the wrong way if someone is very, you know, I guess, neurotic and, like, looking for things to be freaked out about. What I feel, particularly, what I hear a lot is people who have been to the doctor, they feel terrible in one way or another, and the doctors told them there's nothing you can do. And this is gonna be true for a lot of heart patients as well. Maybe they're already following the dietary advice and it's still not working, or maybe they struggle to follow the dietary and lifestyle advice, and often there's actually very good reasons for that. Right? Like, you're told that you need to exercise. Well, you know, some people are in a position where they can't exercise for all kinds of reasons.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:13:37

Right? You're told that you should eat, like, low levels of saturated fats or, you know, not don't have any foods containing cholesterol, you know, like eggs and and and meat and dairy and stuff like that. Well, that may not be the right advice for you. You know? For your genetics, you may feel like you're really missing something when you follow that advice. And I've seen cases of people where they follow all that advice and their cholesterol, their LDL cholesterol levels actually go up and get worse when they eat a supposedly good diet. And so, like, the answers for all those kind of things are in, your genetics. So I guess if you're already in the state of perfection, if you look at the reports, you could just freak yourself out of all the problems that you might end up getting. But what I see more commonly is people are already struggling with something and peep the one's really been able to explain it and help them. And so then it's like, oh god.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:14:20

At least I've got an explanation now. At least I know what's going on. You know?

Boots Knighton [: 00:14:24

Well, the cliche knowledge is power is a cliche for a reason. Looking at my report, so where should we start?

Elwin Robinson [: 00:14:33

I would choose cardiovascular health. So you said you haven't been able to go through everything yet. I'm not surprised because, we gave you limitless access, which is literally over 500 reports. That is too much for most people. Other people like me who wanna go very in-depth or people like yourself who are trying to show everything we do. But for a lot of people, we recommend that they just go for a collection, which is also significantly more affordable, where they just go for 1 category. So in your case, the cardiovascular health category would obviously be the one that would make the most sense, for most of your listeners. Maybe some of them would also be interested in weight loss, or some of them might also be interested in blood sugar if they have, you know, diabetes or something.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:15:10

Often issues like that are, correlate with, heart issues. But, you know, I would definitely start with cardiovascular health. Yes.

Boots Knighton [: 00:15:18

Okay. We are there. And, obviously, I don't have any varicose veins, but I'm obviously more likely to have them at some point in my life.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:15:31

And so just to explain, like, a risk score, what is it? Sometimes we're able to give you a percentage, and sometimes it's more binary. It's just you're either high risk or or low risk or medium risk or whatever it might be. You know, you can see it's a combination here. So, you know, you have a high risk of platelet aggregation, high blood pressure, you have a higher risk of homocysteine, you have a higher risk of high cholesterol. And so the reason why we're seeing all the high risk ones first is because you've, it's auto selected to have Heart by risk. So you see all the bad stuff at the top of the page. If you scroll down, eventually, you would actually see, like, you have a low risk for a bunch of stuff as well. You have high risk for apo b.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:16:09

You have high risk for blood clots. Your n o s three gene is lower functioning. That's the gene that creates nitric oxide.

Boots Knighton [: 00:16:18

Let's talk about that one. So I have a diagnosis of endothelial dysfunction. Mhmm. And taking nitric oxide has been one way for me to treat it. And I don't think I have actually looked at this report. So, yeah, I've talked to quite a few heart patients, particularly ones with my congenital defect of myocardial bridging, that once they've had their open heart surgery, afterwards, they struggle with endothelial dysfunction like I do. And so, like, it's super helpful for me to know that this is an issue for me anyway, genetically, and that it isn't necessarily likely tied to the fact that my coronary vessels were trapped in my heart muscle.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:17:09

Yes. This is probably a tendency that you've had your whole life. And, obviously, once things go wrong, then they become exacerbated, but it would have always been an issue to some degree if you have that specific gene, slow. And so, you know, we have a variety of different reports. Most of our reports are more talking about big picture stuff, like whether you have high blood pressure or high cholesterol or whatever, but we also do have a few reports that focus on specific genes, and that is one of them, and it's some of the most important genes. And so, yeah, the reason why that's one of the most important genes, it's, like, in our top 100 list there, is because it is, you know, the main gene that creates nitric oxide. And so if the gene that does that is functioning slower than average because you have a specific variant, they call we call them snips, which stands for single nucleotide polymorphism. But it basically means like a a mutation or a variant.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:18:01

It's where you just have a slightly different DNA code than the average person. Then that means that the gene runs more slowly, and then that means that you'll struggle to make enough nitric oxide. And so that's where, you know, taking drugs or supplements that support the production of nitric oxide, could be more appropriate for someone with your genes than maybe the average person who might not need them.

Boots Knighton [: 00:18:27

Okay. Thanks for that explanation. And can you see this report?

Elwin Robinson [: 00:18:31

Yeah. Yep.

Boots Knighton [: 00:18:33

Okay. Perfect. So notice I've got 2 S and Ps. Right? So how would you talk to me about this now.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:18:41

Yeah. So some of the reports are literally evaluating millions of, of these genetic variants called SNPs. Some of them only evaluate 1. And so in this case, because we're talking about a specific gene, there is only 2 SNPs that we're looking at that are relevant for the function of this specific gene. So genes control enzymes and enzymes most of us have heard of enzymes, but we might think of it as like digestive enzymes. That's what most people kind of familiar with, but enzymes are actually the controllers of every chemical reaction in the body. A chemical reaction is like turning one thing into another thing. So in this case it's turning, you know, Knighton, oxygen into Nitric oxide, so that's what this enzyme does.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:19:25

If your enzyme is fast then you're going to be create a lot of Nitric oxide, maybe too much. If your enzyme is slow then you're going to create not enough Nitric oxide And so, yeah, you've got 2 snips, and you can see the top one there, it says that you have genotype cc, and you can see it's written in red there. And so what that means is so that's the SNP. So genes are like a long line of codes with 4 letters. You know, binary, they have ones and zeros, if you're familiar with that. Like, everything that you see on a computer screen is all just comes from ones and zeros. So mine and your human code has four letters, a c t h. And so as it says there on the left, if you have a certain genotype actually, no.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:20:10

It didn't say it there. But if you have a certain genotype, that's kind of the normal one. But if you have the if you have 2 c's in that position rather than 2 g's, then that means that variation in your genes will make that enzyme run more slowly, which means that you will naturally struggle to make enough nitric oxide.

Boots Knighton [: 00:20:32

Well, it even is saying it can block the production.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:20:36

Well, yeah. I mean, if it goes far enough, yes. I hope that's possible. Block just means slowed down. Block doesn't mean a 100%, but it means reduce. Yeah.

Boots Knighton [: 00:20:46

Well and I'm just looking at and Heart, it says, however, the t variant at this polymorphism is the one associated with myocardial infarction.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:20:55

Mhmm.

Boots Knighton [: 00:20:57

That's terrifying to read.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:21:00

It is, but you don't have the t there. You have 2 c's. But, yeah, but it's saying that specific SNP, so r s 2070744, the c can be bounds that blocks the production, so it reduces it, whereas the t blocks it. But that's all about that one SNP.

Boots Knighton [: 00:21:16

Okay. Got it.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:21:17

But some of the other effects that it does mean, which are bad news as you as you're just scrolling, you're seeing now, high blood pressure, high vessel stiffness, increased risk of complications after heart surgery, and reduced effectiveness of conventional and alternative therapies. So they are unfortunate real issues that, you know, you need to be aware of. And it's one of those things you probably would have been better off having this information before you had, you know, required hospitalization just like I would have been better off having this information before I required hospitalization. But still, it's better now than not having it. Right? It, first of all, allows you to, you know, as you said, realize that the drugs you're taking are necessary, maybe supplementation as well, you know, like citrulline, for instance, can support nitric oxide and various other things, nitrates. Some people like to use beet root extract, stuff like that. That may actually be there in the recommendations. I can't remember.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:22:06

I'm just saying a couple of things off the top of my head. But, yeah, it's useful to Knighton, and I feel like also it allows you to have more compassion with yourself because a lot of people, we can blame ourselves, you know, we can go, oh, or we can be upset with the world or god, like, god, why would you do this to me and, you know, stuff like that. And you can just say, you know what? Everyone gets dealt some bad genes. Right? Whenever I meet someone who literally has no health problems, like, I never get I've never been sick a day in my life, if I dig in with them, they I try to find they always have mental health problems. They have depression. They have anxiety. They have psychosis. They have all kinds of issues.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:22:40

So it's like, there is no 100% healthy person out there. Right? If it isn't showing up at all in their body, then it's showing up in their brain with some or, you know, in emotional issues and stuff like that. So so everyone has problems somewhere. You have problems in your cardiovascular system. That's probably not a surprise. Right? But what can be helpful is to know what those problems are and what you can do to to mitigate the risk.

Boots Knighton [: 00:23:02

Well and I am frequent in the gym. I absolutely love to mountain bike. I love to climb mountains and ski them. And now I know why I'm just not that fast. Right? Like, it isn't just because I am only 5 feet tall. It isn't just because I've had open heart surgery. Like, I also have this nitric oxide issue. And you are absolutely right, Elwyn.

Boots Knighton [: 00:23:30

It helps me be more compassionate with myself rather than just, like, being down on myself. I'm not super critical of myself every time I need to use a stool to reach the top shelf in my kitchen. So it's about meeting ourselves with grace and radical acceptance. And I'm just really thankful now I can do what I can with, you know, with my body as it is. Like, it's such a privilege to be able to move my body the way I do. So which one should we talk about next?

Elwin Robinson [: 00:24:02

So that was like a specific gene. If we look at, was there, like, high cholesterol or high LDL cholesterol, maybe something like that? That's pretty important as well. Do you wanna look at one of those? So homocysteine is a specific blood test that's fairly easy to get. I think it's usually about $50. You can usually ask for it as an add on if it isn't included in, you know, what your insurance does. And it is an excellent predictor for various kinds of disease and also lifespan, but heart disease is really at the top of the list. And so homocysteine is a specific kind of toxic form of an amino acid called cysteine, and it builds up when your body has a problem doing something called methylation, which some people have heard of. It's become a little bit more of a a buzzword in the health world these days.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:24:48

And the great thing about homocysteine is if you have a tendency to high homocysteine and then if you test that, which as I say is not that difficult, and it turns out to be true, resolving it is actually very, very easy. Resolving high homocysteine, even though it's a major predictor of heart issues, is usually just a matter of taking a few b vitamins. And at the most, maybe sometimes, one other supplement as well, which has methyl donors like choline. So this is something that for 10, $20 a month, you can basically resolve a test that even by mainstream medicine is considered a good predictor for cardiovascular disease. So, obviously, it's not the only cause. It's not the only contributing factor to cardiovascular disease, but if it is one that for you, which it looks like it could be because you have a high risk, then it's something that is worth testing, or maybe you it was ready in a test that you've already done, but you just you know, you weren't aware that you should be checking it. And then as I said, like, lowering homocysteine is really, really simple. It's just basically about taking b 2, b 3, b 6, b 12, b 9.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:25:50

Just those b vitamins, if you take adequate doses of the right kinds, will significantly reduce it. So, yeah, that's a good one to to know about. You can see it there. It says, you know, up to 55% of the difference in homocysteine is based on genetics. So meaning, doesn't matter how healthy your diet is, doesn't matter how much you exercise, you know, all of those kind of factors. If you're just unlucky and you have that tendency for high homocysteine, you're gonna need a lot more of those b vitamins and maybe methyl donors to bring it back into a healthy range. And that's a very helpful thing to know.

Boots Knighton [: 00:26:24

The genotypes in red are the concerning ones. Is that how you would say say that?

Elwin Robinson [: 00:26:31

So, yeah, this one's based on 24 genetic variants because, again, this is a lab marker rather than something very broad like high blood pressure, so we're not testing that many variants for that. But, yeah, you have enough to have the high risk variant SNP that, you know, you are classified considered to be high risk. And you can see lifestyle factors also affect it, like stress, cigarette smoke, alcohol, certain medications. But actually, b vitamin deficiency is probably the biggest risk factor of all, and that's really, you know, the way to resolve it.

Boots Knighton [: 00:27:04

And luckily, I don't drink. I don't smoke. I try to stay away from stress. It's really empowering to read all of this.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:27:13

You can see with each recommendation, that it has, an impact score and an evidence score. So some recommendations we might we include it in there because it could be very, impactful, but, honestly, there isn't much research on it. So then we give it a much lower evidence score. Maybe there's only 1 or 2 papers. In this case, this recommendation number 2 here is dietary b vitamins, like we just talked about. There's loads of evidence that that is effective, which is why I said it so confidently. So we gave that one of the evidence score of 5 out of 5. And ditto, I also said it confidently because, as I said, not only is there evidence it'll work, but there is evidence it'll work a lot.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:27:50

Like, that's really all we would need to do is to take enough of these b vitamins, and it will bring your home assisting back into a good place. And so, again, we gave that an impact score of 5 out of 5. As we scroll down, we tend to get recommendations that have lower and lower research and impact scores. So at the bottom of the list, there might be a couple of things that for for those who are really committed, they wanna do everything, then you can try some things, but they may not have as much evidence, and they may not have as big an impact. And that's why, we tend to prioritize them for you based on the highest impact ones at the top and then the lowest impact ones at the bottom. And then, as I said, for those super dedicated people, they can go through and do them all, but the vast majority people who are busy like yourself, you would just kinda do the top 3. And doing the top 3 is probably more impactful than doing every other one put together. Like, that's those are really the ones you wanna focus on.

Boots Knighton [: 00:28:42

That's great. Okay. Let's move on to another one. High cholesterol?

Elwin Robinson [: 00:28:49

Let's get a lot of recommendations because there's a lot of studies about different things you can do for that. We're working on that actually to limit that because we wanted to give people the information, but we realized we were overwhelming people. So we are running an update soon that we'll be reducing that a bit. But yeah. So this is a good one for you you to see an example. So this you actually got a percentile score here because there is a lot of research about cholesterol. We're confident enough that we can say not just that that you're high or low risk or medium, but we can actually give a percentage. And so your 85th percentile, which is top 15%.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:29:23

So meaning, if you're in a room of 100 people, you would be in the 15 people with the highest cholesterol, or at least that's that's the genetic tendency. Having said that, the mainstream science is what it is, and everything in genetic insights is only mainstream science. As I said, every pretty much every sentence, you can see a little blue r there. Everything we say is backed up by research. I would say the more cutting edge research coming out these days is that high cholesterol, even at the top of the reference range, isn't necessarily a bad thing and is actually protective in some ways. It's more LDL cholesterol and challenging. But I would still say that high cholesterol is a sign of a problem. I just don't think it is necessarily the problem in itself.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:30:07

It's more a sign of a problem, if that makes sense, which is why I'm not a big believer in taking statins. I wouldn't personally take them if I had high cholesterol. In fact, I did have high cholesterol, and I chose an alternative strategy for lowering it, which was effective because cholesterol is also the building block for all the important sex and adrenal hormones in your body, like progesterone and estrogen and testosterone and cortisol and all these things that you need. So when you block your body's ability to make cholesterol, it's a double edged sword. Yes. It stops it from building up in your wall balls of your arteries, that is true, but it also leave you depleted in these hormones that actually make you feel like life is worth living, you know, with without exaggerating.

Boots Knighton [: 00:30:51

Can you dive in a little bit more on that? Because I know so many of my listeners are likely on statins before we go back to the reports.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:31:00

Well, I can tell you that a 100 years ago, if you walked into a doctor's office and you said, I'm overweight and I feel cold and I feel tired and I feel unhealthy and I don't feel like exercising, they would check your cholesterol. And if it is high, they would say, oh, you're hypothyroid. Your thyroid is underactive. So cholesterol is a building block on the way to other things. Your body makes vitamin d 3 out of cholesterol. Your body makes DHEA out of cholesterol, which is the, longevity hormone, some people call it, the youth hormone. Your body makes testosterone, which is the manly hormone. Your body makes progesterone and estrogen, which is the the female hormone.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:31:36

Your body makes cortisol, which is a stress hormone, but it's also what gives you energy. So all of these important hormones are built out of cholesterol. And when you just stop your liver from making cholesterol, yes, you will reduce the amount that's building up in the arteries and it may be life saving, so I'm not against it totally, but I would prefer to rather than reducing the production of cholesterol, to increase the conversion of cholesterol to the next thing, which is actually this hormone called pregnenolone, which is the master hormone that your body makes all the other hormones out of. And as I said, one of the main things that's required to turn that excess cholesterol into the hormones is thyroid hormone, which I believe that underactive thyroid is probably the most underdiagnosed medical condition in modern medicine. Actually, ironically, it wasn't, as I said, about a 100 years ago. It was very common. You go into doctor, you'd say, you know, I've got all these usual symptoms that almost everyone has. You know? As I said, low energy and, you know, gaining weight, high cholesterol, all of that feeling cold, all that kind of stuff, and they would just give you a little bit of thyroid medication.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:32:49

And then they and you'd come back, and you'd say, I feel better. Okay. Great. I don't feel any different. They give you a bit more, and they'd keep you giving you a bit more until you feel better. And then that's basically how they used to do it. And then for all kinds of reasons, which you could say it was an error, you could say it's a conspiracy. I don't really know, of course.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:33:07

I wasn't there. But for whatever reason, they decided to stop doing that, and they started to give people antidepressants, antidepressants, and they started to give people cholesterol lowering medication, and they started to give people weight loss drugs. You know, in the fifties sixties, it was like amphetamine based stuff, you know, diet pills. These days, it's Ozempic, but whatever. And as I said, the conspiracy theorists could go, maybe they're selling you all these other drugs because it's a lot more profitable than just giving you a little bit of thyroid glandular, which is what they used to do back then, which actually kind of resolves all of those issues in most cases. So the other thing is, yeah, statins are kind of based on mycotoxins, so they're something that's innately toxic. So that's another reason it's maybe not ideal. But to be fair, a lot of drugs are based on, you know, different plant compounds and toxins, so that's not, you know, super unusual.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:33:53

So, yeah, as I said, rather than stopping my body making cholesterol, I would prefer to encourage my body to convert the cholesterol into all kinds of other wonderful things that make me feel good.

Boots Knighton [: 00:34:04

That just sounds like the most gentle, healthiest way of of handling those issues. At the end of the day, it's it's a lot of marketing. It's a lot of who has an end with the FDA in the United States, especially. We hear about that all the time. And, again, I just wanna encourage my listeners to be proactive and really hone in on your intuition. And this is all backed by science, and I that's another thing that I really appreciate, Elwin, is that all these reports do link back to research. I have interviewed people in the past that don't live in the United States who have a very unique view of our health care system in the United States, or they would even say sick care instead of health care. And we also need to be mindful of, like, well, who's doing the research? And I'm sure you guys at Genetic Insights are probably looking at that.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:35:03

Yeah. As I said, genetic insights because we have to be FDA, FTC, everything compliant. We don't say the color stuff I just said in our reports because we have to, you know everything I just said is backed by research. Like, no biochemist would argue about the fact that cholesterol turns into pregnenolone, which turns into progesterone. Like, all of that is complete mainstream science. No one would argue that increasing t 3 with a com which is a thyroid hormone would increase the conversion of cholesterol to pregnant alone. So all of that is a 100% mainstream science, but for some reason, the strategy of doing that, even though as I said, it used to be done all the time that used to be the go to strategy has Chamber. Let's just say, you can just look at the motivation for that.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:35:43

Have they stopped doing that because they actually came up with a better way of doing it, or have they stopped doing that because there was more money in selling, you know, lots of pain to drugs rather than 1, you know, animal glandular, which at the time was very cheap. That's it's up to you for you to do your own research and decide.

Boots Knighton [: 00:35:59

Great little, side trail we just took there. Can we can we look at, like, maybe one more report?

Elwin Robinson [: 00:36:05

Yeah. Well, how about platelet aggregation? Because, you know, there's a lot of focus on cholesterol, but as I'm sure you know, Bruce, most actual heart attacks and strokes actually occur as a result of a clot breaking off and getting stuck, right, as opposed to, so the layer of cholesterol and calcium and other stuff, but those are the main ingredients that forms arterial plaque, obviously, is the thing that increases blood pressure in many cases, not in all, like in your case, actually, maybe something else going on, right, which is the nitric oxide deficiency, but arterial plaque is usually one of the main things that it's focused on. Boots, actually, arterial plaque breaking off and creating a blockage is less common than a clot Breaking off and creating clotches. So, anyway, this tendency for excessive aggregation of platelets is Surgery, super important, and it is definitely, you know, an early warning sign of cardiovascular incident, which I think is under focused on. So if you have a genetic tendency for that, that's something you should be aware of. And, you know, we haven't looked at recommendations yet, but straight away, off the top of my head, I would say take, you know, either foods like garlic and stuff, like blood thinners, or, you know, supplements like nattokinase, which I think is quite popular these days, lumbrokinase, any of these kind of enzymes which stops the aggregation of platelets can literally be like a life saving intervention. And I won't say anything too controversial on your podcast Boots, but there is an increase in myocarditis. I think everyone knows that, you know, these days for whatever reason and COVID side effects or whatever.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:37:38

And so this is becoming more of an issue now than it ever has been. There's all these people kind of dropping dead mysteriously, and platelet aggregation is a big part of that. So if you have a genetic tendency for it, then it's something you really I would say is a good idea to be aware of this. I mean, to test regularly. I would personally test it frequently if I had that genetic tendency. In fact, I do.

Boots Knighton [: 00:38:00

What do you test specifically for that?

Elwin Robinson [: 00:38:03

It's literally, platelets. You can do NPV as well, the mean platelet volume, but, yeah, platelet aggregate aggregation is a, is a lab marker. And you can see for this one, 45 to 60% of the differences are genetic. So, again, all the lifestyle and dietary stuff that you may be doing right isn't necessarily gonna be enough if you have that genetic variant. And it looks like, unfortunately, you do, Boots, so that's something to be aware of. If I were you, I definitely would be taking one of those enzyme kind of formulas, either nattokinase or maybe, you know, the natural ones like bromelain and, you know, something like that, the pineapple based ones. We'll see what the recommendations are here. I'm just all going off the top of my head right now.

Boots Knighton [: 00:38:44

Can we just do one more? This is so fun. So the LDL has a 176 pages. That's kind of amazing.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:38:50

And you can see in this case, we're evaluating 1,000,000,360 6,151 genetic variants. So there's a lot of a computation. Just to explain, you know, we have a team of several dozen full time scientists who are working on this, you know, evaluating the research, putting the research together, and then we have several dozen AI engineers. So they're the ones who are actually, you know, making the computations actually work, which is why our system really is better than others. Most genetic reporting systems not that your customers may be aware of any of them, your your listeners, but a lot of my customers, they're not aware of any of the others. But just like, you know, most of the others, they'll just say, oh, you have this variant. This means this. But they're not crunching the numbers of, like, millions of variants sometimes like like we are.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:39:34

Anyway, so, yeah, top 15%, APOE. You can see that gene there is at the top. That's probably one of the most famous genes because it is like one that can impact, honestly, unfortunately, longevity if you have a variant with it for this reason, among others, but I'd say that, you know, this is the main one because of, cardiovascular health. So the good news is, as I say, with this, there's gonna be a lot of recommendations for, how to reduce your levels of LDM. Just to explain with the recommendations, they are unique to you. So if you let's say your your husband or your brother or whatever, if they looked at their same report, your recommendations would be similar because, ultimately, the strategies to LDL to lower LDL are the same, but you would have it in a slightly different order because you have, you know, different genetics than than that person, if that makes sense.

Boots Knighton [: 00:40:26

Yep. It does. That's what I love. It's like it's like a mini medical school, Elwyn. This was interesting. Tell me about red yeast rice. That's super interesting to me.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:40:37

Yeah. I don't have a lot of experience of using it personally, but I am aware of it as being one of the top 3 kind of Heart. I mean, depends how you define Heart, but, you know, like natural plant based products that, are actually effective at reducing LDL cholesterol. There is a lot of research behind it, which is why, as you can see, it has, you know, 4 out of 5 evidence score. It's, it's pretty well researched and effective. So for me, I also had above reference range LDL cholesterol. I lowered it with, thyroid supplementation, personally, so I never went to that. If I hadn't have done that or if it hadn't have worked, then I that will be probably my next stop would be, red rice yeast.

Boots Knighton [: 00:41:16

Interesting. Obviously, like I said, we could go for the rest of the afternoon about this. I just feel so lucky that I've had the opportunity to meet you, that you let me have access to all the reports. I've only been focusing on heart in preparation for our episode, but I can't wait to read the rest of my own body's user manual. One of

Elwin Robinson [: 00:41:41

the things I recommend looking at is the nutrients category as well. That's really fun because, there are certain things like I don't know. I'm just guessing, but say if you have, an increased need for magnesium or if you have an increased need for vitamin k 2 or a few things like that, they can have a really big impact on heart health as well. Like, k 2 helps to pull the, calcium out of the arteries. Magnesium helps to, you know, relax the blood vessels, and, obviously, you have a tendency for them to be too constricted. So that's, like, that's a really fun one that I'd recommend looking at as well. Probably next would be my next recommendation after the cardiovascular one.

Boots Knighton [: 00:42:13

Yep. That's great. Thank you. And can people who choose to engage with this platform can like, for me, can I send this on to my health care provider?

Elwin Robinson [: 00:42:25

Yeah. Some people download the reports and forward them. Some people send their login information, you know, straight to their doctor. As I said, some doctors aren't open to anyone else's opinion, including other doctors, so it totally depends on how open minded your doctor is. But, absolutely, we have had plenty of people do that. Actually, I haven't had any negative feedback yet, but I'm sure it will happen. You know, I know a couple of medical doctors, not chiropractors or anything, but actual GP kind of doctors who are utilizing genetic insights with great success. So yeah.

Boots Knighton [: 00:42:55

Incredible. Any other parts of the reports that would be helpful that we didn't go over today that we want listeners to think about when they sign up for this, which I hope all of them will. Anything else you wanted to highlight?

Elwin Robinson [: 00:43:08

Yeah. So if you are happy to take the plunge like boots and go for the, the limitless, we call it, or the, you know, all access package, then you'll have access to everything. And, I mean, other categories I would suggest you look at, one would be blood sugar balance because there is a big correlation between insulin resistance and heart disease. And so we have reports on insulin and blood sugar and hypoglycemia and all that kind of stuff. Detoxification is an interesting one because one theory about cardiovascular health, which I very much subscribe to, I did cover this on an episode on cardiovascular health on my podcast, which I would recommend people watch, is that the reason why we build up arterial plaque on the, well, on the arteries is actually partly even though there's genetic component to it, some people are more likely than others and all that kind of stuff, it's often actually in response to toxicity in the bloodstream. And, you know, for me, it might be lead. For you, it might be micro toxins. You know, different people have different things.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:44:01

So working out if we have that challenge with detoxification so, basically, if your liver can't deal with the amount of toxins that it has to deal with or the type, then it will shunt it back into the bloodstream for the kidneys to filter. And in the meantime, it's damaging the lining of the arteries, which is why your body then, forms a protective layer of plaque and platelets to basically stop there being micro Heart like internal bleeding. So it forms this protective layer, but this protective layer can get so thick that the the blood pressure becomes too high and then chunks break off and kill you. So detoxification is another factor. Nutrients is another factor like I talked about. Like, if you you know, if you're low in magnesium, if you're low in k 2, if you're low in certain b vitamins, I mean, that's the best case scenario is, like, literally, you can prevent cardiovascular disease just by taking a few supplements or eating a few foods that are high in specific nutrient. That's like an ideal scenario. And in fact, that is often the case.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:44:51

It can be as simple as that, although it isn't always. So, yeah, I'd say those Heart the other things that are definitely worth looking at. And then lastly, so we're talking about the heart. You know, there's a reason why the heart is associated with feelings. Right? And one of my favorite categories is emotional well-being. And, know, there's a big correlation between stress and heartbreak and psychological trauma and all of these kind of issues, and we even have a psychological trauma report. And, of course, our genetic reports can't, predict whether you're gonna go through something traumatic, but they can predict whether it will affect you strongly. You know, and that's something I feel that has an impact.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:45:27

I feel that, you know, there's the placebo effect, which is that you can heal yourself of your mind or you can heal someone that believes you're giving them something. There's also something called the nocebo effect, which is how you can actually harm yourself of your mind, and I I've experienced it myself. I've seen people get into really negative emotional mental states who just drop dead of something that was unexplained by the doctors. Like, I've had that happen several times in my life to people I knew. So I really believe that the the power of the mind is really big, and if you do have a tendency for depression or anxiety or panic attacks or addictions or whatever it might be, to find out those genetic components of that and then to get some recommendations can be really helpful. So yeah.

Boots Knighton [: 00:46:06

Wow. It's incredible. And so 2 more things I wanna cover with you. Number 1, tell us all the ways we can find you. And then number 2, you and I are partnering up, and you want to offer up this incredible resource to the listeners. So start with bragging about all the great ways we can connect with you and listen to your podcast.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:46:31

Oh, thank you. So my podcast is called, the Rejuvenate podcast, with Elwin Robinson. You should be able to find it just through my name on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, and all the usual places. I do have an episode specifically on cardiovascular health, which I think would be of interest to, your listeners. I can maybe provide you with a link with that to to put in the show notes or something if you're interested. Other than that, if you go to geneticinsights.co, not.com, that would have cost a fortune, and we decided we'd rather spend the money on developing the the the technology. But if you're gonna go to geneticinsights.co, that will bring you to the, the limitless page that kinda tells you about everything. But you also see a drop down menu there on the genetic insights.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:47:12

You know, as I said, we have collections based on cardiovascular health or blood share or weight loss or whatever you're interested in. But I think what I'll do is I'll give you also the link to the cardiovascular collection because I think that would be, probably of the most, most interest to your listeners. And then, yeah, in terms of the partnership, very happy to say, you know, because, you know, I'm really a big fan of what Boots is doing and her mission to help you guys. I wanted to support it, and so, we're offering a special 25% discount exclusively for your listeners, and the coupon code is heart chamber. You can just apply that at checkout. Just to explain the technicalities just for a second, if you've ever done 23 and me or anything like that, like, oh, ancestry.com, like Boots and I had, then you can get your results within a few hours. If you haven't done that, then you can get a DNA kit from us, but it does mean it can take anything from a few weeks to even a couple of months until you get your result. If you decide to add, you know, our genetic insights collections to check out, a little thing will pop up saying, do you need a DNA kit? So make sure if you haven't ever done one of those tests before that you do add that because, that is necessary in order to, be able to get your results.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:48:20

So, yeah, fantastic insights dot co, coupon code, heart chamber.

Boots Knighton [: 00:48:25

Yay. Thank you so much. Because we heart patients, it's already so expensive to be us. And so thank you for giving us a a coupon code. And then because we're so empowered and knowledge is power, maybe it will cost less over time for us because we're all more proactive because we have this user manual to our bodies.

Elwin Robinson [: 00:48:48

Absolutely. Yeah. And on top of all the reports, there's a lot of other resources like further support and all the rest of it. We try and give you all the support that we possibly can. So yep.

Boots Knighton [: 00:48:58

Awesome. Well, Elwyn Robinson, this has been so fun. I mean, obviously, I kinda have a few things I need to work on with my genetics. But because I know about it now, I can be proactive, and I also am completely comfortable with the fact I won't live forever. While I'm living, I might as well live the best life I can. And that's why I'm so excited about this. I want to optimize the remaining days of my life, and I wanna feel great. And so thank you for giving me and our listeners a tool to achieve

Elwin Robinson [: 00:49:35

that. My pleasure. And thank you so much for letting me share it with your, listeners.

Boots Knighton [: 00:49:39

Well, you've heard it here, and go to the show notes to find Elwin. And thanks again, and we will be in touch. Thank you for sharing a few heartbeats of your day with me today. Please be sure to follow or subscribe to this podcast wherever you are listening. Share with a friend who will value what we discussed. Go to either Apple Podcasts and write us a review or mark those stars on Spotify. I read these and your feedback is so encouraging, and it also helps others find this podcast. Also, please feel free to drop me a note at boots@theheartchamberpodcast.com.

Boots Knighton [: 00:50:24

I truly want to know how you're doing and if this podcast has been a source of hope, inspiration, and healing for you. Again, I am your host, Boots Knighton, and thanks for listening. Be sure to tune in next Tuesday for another episode of The Heart Chamber.