← The Everyday Millionaire and Mindset Matters Podcast
The Everyday Millionaire and Mindset Matters Podcast
TEDM – Kashif Khan – Unlock the Secrets of Your Genes! (Episode 207)
01:18:22
Loading summary
Transcript59 lines
- [00:04]
Patrick Franci
Hi there and welcome to the Everyday Millionaire podcast. My name is Patrick Franci and I am your host and I want to begin by saying thank you for listening. On this show I am having conversations with seemingly ordinary individuals who have achieved some amazing and extraordinary results in both their life and business. My intention is to inspire and help you learn and grow by having my guests share their journey of how they face and overcome their challenges, but also how they celebrate their their many wins. And now let's get on with this show and have a conversation with today's guest. My guest today, Kashif Khan, is a biotech disruptor, a TEDx speaker and the best selling author of his book the DNA Way, which is about unlocking the secrets of your genes to reverse disease, slow aging and achieve optimal wellness. As the founder of an international biotech company, he uncovered his genetically predisposed entrepreneurial neuro wiring. Cash's journey to functional genomics hit home while navigating his two sons homework challenges stemming from a very distinct what he found to be genetic factors affecting their motivation and their focus. With a few small individual lifestyle tweaks, the issues were completely circumvented which highlighted the power of personalized approaches and fueling Cash's passion to support more parents in decoding their children's genetic blueprints. Between Genetic Coaching, which is revolutionizing personalized parenting through DNA testing, and White Bottle Project, which leverages the latest advancements in functional genomics to offer personalized supplement solutions for children. Cash pioneering the way for parents to feel empowered and equipped with a roadmap and tools to support their kids to thrive. Kashif's work has been featured in Founder, ABC News, well and Good and on top podcasts like Ben Greenfield, Life Impact Theory podcast with Tom Bilyeu and Dave Asprey, and now with the Everyday Millionaire, an absolutely fascinating conversation. Listen in. Enjoy, enjoy. Let's get this show started. Kashif Khan, welcome to the Everyday Millionaire podcast. Thanks so much for joining me.
- [02:45]
Kashif Khan
Pleasure. It's awesome to be here with you.
- [02:47]
Patrick Franci
You know, Kashif, is that generally I open with my guests, you know, the fact that their bios never seem to do justice. And so I often say, well for listeners when somebody walks up and says, so Kashif, what do you do? What's your answer? I'm going to change it up today because you know, in the bio that I received, you know, there's a thing here says I want to read this. Between Genetic Coaching, which is revolutionizing personalized parenting through DNA testing, and the White Bottle Project, which leverages the latest advancement and functional genomics to offer personalized supplement solutions for children. Cash is pioneering the way for parents to feel empowered and equipped with a roadmap and tools to support their kids to thrive. And I went, and then there's another statement in here. And fueling Kashif's passion to support more parenting in decoding their children's genetic blueprints, I went, holy shit, this is like, what the hell are we talking about here today, Kashif? And so I was fascinated by all of that. So back to your, you know, I guess maybe the question is. So when people ask you, what do you do? What's your answer to that question, given the highlights of that bio?
- [04:13]
Kashif Khan
Yeah, it takes a while to answer. You know, that's a problem. There's a lot going on, as you know. And the way you talked about in terms of parenting is more so taking the science and all of what we learned and applying it to a place where we really know it's needed. Meaning if I can predict through your human genome, disease risk, and not only risk, but the reason, meaning that there's action and you know what to do about it, well, then the earlier you start, the better. And so whereas in our research, we spent three years with 7,000 patients with the genome in one hand and everything about their nutrition, lifestyle, their habits, their healthcare records, and another hand trying to figure out why they got sick. And we then unraveled really complicated cases like Lyme disease, women that are struggling with menopause, can't get things kept at bay, people with autoimmune conditions. And we kept finding that there actually is a root. And the root usually has to do with some broken biology, some genetic construction that just isn't working. So picture your DNA as an instruction manual. Every one of your 50 trillion cells encompasses this instruction manual and reads the relevant pages to do jobs it needs to do. And if the instruction isn't written properly, the heart cell doesn't know how to be a proper heart cell, the kidney cell doesn't know how to do its job. You don't make hormones properly. You don't clear toxins properly. So if I can read the book and I know what pages are missing, what paragraphs are incorrect, what's misspelled improperly, I know what your body is doing wrong, and I therefore know what I need to add, what I need to delete, and disease becomes optional.
- [05:48]
Patrick Franci
So this, in what I'm hearing, and just to keep it really simple for me, is that if I'm kind Of interpreting what you just said, it would be like the software in a system, that there's a glitch. It may be in the software. The intention of the software is this. But somewhere along the line, maybe when you're uploading that software, there's a glitch. Something caused a glitch in the software, so it's not fully doing what it's intended to do. Therefore, we have to get in and troubleshoot, kind of trace it back to what is the issue with that software, and then put in some kind of correction or figure out what. Or if there is a correction that can be put in, would that be a kind of a way to describe it?
- [06:32]
Kashif Khan
Exactly. And let me give you an example to your point. In my software, which wasn't really written properly. So how did I get down? I was actually pretty sick. And I had never really been to a doctor, didn't have health concerns. And a few years ago, like hitting a brick wall, all of a sudden, everything all at once. And so my question to these multiple doctors with multiple pills, what did I do? Like, this can't be a coincidence. The serendipity of like five chronic diseases all at the same time. What happened? And the answer I kind of got, if I paraphrase, is we don't do that here. We diagnose, we prescribe, and we manage, but we don't ask why. That's what drove me down this sort of rabbit hole of figuring out why. And one big aha moment for me was just like you said about the software, there's a line of code you're supposed to have called GSTM1. GSTM1 drives glutathione activity in your gut. And glutathione is an antioxidant. So when we eat along with the food, we take in pesticides, chemicals, packaging, preservatives, things that are not meant to be part of our bloodstream, our organs, et cetera. And there's an assumption that we filter those things out, pee them, poop them, sweat them, right? This code, GSTM1, I don't even have, it's literally blank. It's missing from my genetic code. So no wonder that I would go to lunches with my business partner and he would have no issue, and I would struggle and have to go home. Because the same thing that was not a problem for him, that Health Canada approved as clean and clear meant a lot to me because I have zero first line of defense to block it from causing me inflammation. So that became a big aha moment in terms of what do I prioritize and what do I have this look like?
- [08:18]
Patrick Franci
So, Kash, when you look at what you went through and they don't ask the question why, how did you get to. And why. How did you determine that this is what was in fact happening for you, that there was some kind of software glitch, if you will, if we use that kind of thought process, how did you get to that understanding that is it because of your own background that you figured it out or what led you down the path going, I have to figure out why this is happening?
- [08:44]
Kashif Khan
Yes. When you find most, let's say, great functional medicine stories, they kind of come from the same place where I was struggling. I needed answers, couldn't get the answers. I knew that the answers I were getting couldn't be the only answer. There must be more. And so people start self discovery outside of their conventional allopathic medical office. And you'll see a lot of people where I was struggling for Lyme disease for five years. I cured myself. I was dealing with mold toxicity. I didn't know that's why I felt so bad and I had depression. It was actually mold. So because we have a medical system that's really good at acute care, break your arm, stage four something, deal with the emergency. Great. That same toolkit is used for chronic disease management, which is reply and react to a red warning sign of a symptom as opposed to asking, why did it happen? Functional medicine is why did it happen? Root cause. And so I had to do that myself. I didn't come from the space. I didn't have a PhD. I wasn't. In fact, prior to this, I rarely went to a doctor's office, Right. And so I explored traditional Chinese medicine. I explored chiropractic, homeopathy, naturopathy. And it wasn't until I discovered deep biology, human genetics, the gut microbiome, things that were measurable, that I started to get empirical data like this is actually broken. There's no guesswork, there's no trial and error. Your unique answer is this. There's an instruction that just doesn't work. And you need to fortify the biology here. And that's that central hub of a biological failure. And then all the spokes of all these symptoms go away. There are years and years of your body struggling, trying to resist the symptom, but eventually loses the battle. And that's what happened to me. Five chronic diseases, five medications gone.
- [10:32]
Patrick Franci
So when you consider this, I mean, this sounds pretty groundbreaking. Now, when you use the example of lyme disease. Is that the case for anybody that has Lyme disease or is it very specific to each patient? Because when you look at it and you go, okay, well you had five different things going on for you. You bust through all of them and you got it handled and figured out. So first off, does it apply right across the board or is it unique to each patient?
- [11:06]
Kashif Khan
So the vast majority of our healthcare spend is on chronic disease management management. In fact, the actual number is 90%. So 10% is on rare genetic conditions and acute care. And those rare genetic conditions, you have them. There's a genetic code that's broken that directly causes it. But the vast majority of what we struggle with, the big problems, we're not innate. You're not born with them. They're caused from your habits, environment, nutrition, lifestyle. On top of broken biology equals the problem. You have to do something wrong, usually not your own fault, unknowingly, Right. When it comes to Lyme disease as an example, we participated in what we think is Canada's largest Lyme study. I haven't heard of anything bigger. Where we went through 800 Lyme patients to understand why do some of them not even know that they're sick. Why do some of them have a basic flu and then they recover? And why are some been ridden for months, the same bacteria entering the same human species, why the different outcome? And what we found was their unique genetics led to a different outcome. Because what does Lyme do? It causes inflammation. And your body has different levels of response to fight that inflammation. And genetically, if you're not wired to fight the inflammation, it's going to linger and you're going to struggle. So as opposed to dealing with the Lyme itself, you need to deal with the body's ability to already deal with that bacteria. We are the body's resilient. It rejuvenates, it repairs. There's certain broken code. So certain threats mean more to certain people. The really mind blowing thing that came out of that study was when it came to the women that were in the study, we found that 26% of them didn't even have Lyme. Now keep in mind that this is a bunch of clinics that put together a bunch of Lyme patients, handed them over to us, said let's go study and figure out what's really going on, why the variable outcome. And we had to come back and say, thank you for the diagnosis. It was wrong. These women actually made a toxic estrogen. So estrogen is a female sex hormone. Men make it too. And they made A version that caused inflammation that led to the exact same symptoms as Lyme. So they were misdiagnosed. And it's no surprise that the number three cause of death in, in the United States is medical error. Literally, you know, doctors making mistakes because they have to reply to symptoms. So, yeah, so any chronic disease can be unraveled at the biologic level, and you can understand what to actually do at the root cause to thrive through it.
- [13:37]
Patrick Franci
So when you look at something, for example, like dementia or Alzheimer's, which is a big topic now, and I think that has a lot to do with just the fact that boomers are aging and a lot of those things are happening, and boomers, parents, of course. Now, would that apply for something like that? Because there's often talk about certain aspects of lifestyle that contribute to dementia or Alzheimer's, or there's a risk of it because of that. Is that something that falls within your plate of. Of research and the work that you're doing?
- [14:08]
Kashif Khan
You know, I literally just a week ago, hosted an entire masterclass and workshop on Alzheimer's and dementia. And the first thing I told the people, there was literally hundreds of people that either had a family member or they were interested in prevention, just knowing how to not go there. Right? And so the first thing I told them is, let's stop calling it Alzheimer's and dementia as if it's a disease that's coming. Let's stop saying, my mom had it, my grandma had it. We gotta understand that if mom had or grandma had it, then it's a priority. It's not a prescription. So there was a show on Netflix a couple years ago called Limitless that was hosted by Chris Hemsworth. Thor. Right. So Thor, Chris Hemsworth hosted the show. At one of the episodes, he was told that based on the APOE gene, which was referred to as the Alzheimer's gene, that he has an elevated risk of dementia. Based on this gene, if you have a certain version, you're told you have a null risk of dementia. Another version, you have an 8 to 10 times elevated risk. And another version, you have a 17 to 25 times risk. Now, if I ask you, the scientists, to tell people that, what does that gene do? There's nowhere in that answer that it causes dementia. What it does, it's responsible for the movement of lipids, cholesterol in your body. So it's responsible for the efficiency in which you transport lipids in your body. So how does that get us into this dementia path? And this gives us a sort of. So if somebody Came to me saying I had one of those two bad versions. And we did, by the way, consult the Chris Hemsworth show. I was back and forth with the producers telling them how to work on things genetically and how to interpret it. They didn't use any of that because there was no drama for the TV show. We actually solved the problem which they want. Right. So going back to it, if you're told this, then you know you don't transport lipids efficiently. If you have inflammation in your brain, your body will deploy cholesterol to your brain as a hormone to fight the inflammation. That's why it's sent there. Something caused the inflammation, usually some form of a toxin. Toxin causes inflammation. Cholesterol is sent. The same toxin that causes inflammation in the brain also oxidizes the cholesterol. And now the cholesterol starts to build up because it's been damaged. And if you have the bad APOE gene, you don't do a good job of movement of that cholesterol. So you start to build what's called an amyloid plaque in your brain. And that blame that plaque chokes of the brain cells, kill brain cells, and eventually leads to a condition you might call dementia. Right. So my question is, why was the brain inflamed? Isn't that the first step, right before the cholesterol only went there to fix a problem? The cholesterol wasn't the problem in itself. So that APOE gene shouldn't be part of the equation. We know why the brain gets inflamed. There's a gentleman named Dr. Tom O'Brien who's a pioneer of the functional medicine sort of movement. And he said that in California, where he is, 66% of dementia is inhalation based. Based on what people are breathing because the air is so polluted and we are genetically wired for a certain level of pollution. But it's gone far beyond that. So much getting in, causing inflammation in the brain. And now genetically, we filter at different levels, so it may mean more to certain people. In Canada, where you and I are, Health Canada refers to Alzheimer's as type 3 diabetes, meaning that it's a metabolic issue. Because the vast majority of Canadian dementia is based on I ate too much sugar and I could have got, you know, the standard conventional diabetes we know, or I could have gotten inflammation in my brain that led to this plaque issue. Right. Two of five. Number three is stress and cortisol. If you're in chronic stress and anxiety and trauma, for example, where trauma, your body gets stuck in a fight or flight. And it won't actually heal. It wants to go to battle and think that that's what you're doing. Instead of rejuvenating, that cortisol and elevated hormone can cause brain inflammation, which then leads to this trigger of the cholesterol. Then there's what you're eating in terms of causing damage to the gut itself. So meat. Remember I said I'm missing that GSTM1 gene, so I have no protection to my gut. So for me, the gut lining getting disrupted, leading to what we call leaky gut. The toxin can then leak through your gut wall, which becomes permeable directly into your bloodstream, crossing the blood brain barrier, causing brain inflammation. So from people, it's their leaky gut that causes it. And the last one, and this is why 80% of dementia cases are in women. You know, the research dollars all go on studying male cases, but the cases are mostly in women because hormones that you make can cause inflammation. And women, some women are genetically wired to produce excess estrogen metabolites which are highly inflammatory, and those can cause inflammation to the brain. Right? So now you have these five buckets of root cause. And that's what I meant by functional thinking. Science is this gene causes Alzheimer's. If you see a marker, you're going to get. And it's true, the correlation is there, but it doesn't tell you what to do. And in that episode with Chris Hemsworth, he was just kind of walking around looking out into the sky saying, am I going to be able to recognize my grandchildren? That's what he was left with. Like, here you go, good luck. Let's see what happens versus let's go look at these five things. Find the root cause and just make sure you never have inflammation in your brain. It's a priority, not a prescription.
- [19:33]
Patrick Franci
So as I'm kind of listening to what you're describing and you know, there's of course a number of things that fall into that. Something that showed up for me is I believe you're on Tom Bilyeu podcast and we're discussing this kind of topic and having a conversation with Tom, and only because I follow Tom, he's very entrenched in this whole thought process about the gut and the impact of the gut and the understanding. And there was a book some time ago that I read, and this is many years ago, called the Second Brain. I think that was the title of the book, the Second Brain being about the gut. And so what I'm hearing, and I'm not saying this is what I'M hearing, how I'm hearing this is that when we look at all of these, you know, stories that we tell ourselves because of what the system is today and what medical kind of science has said to us is that we believe in many cases that we have a genetic predisposition to be this way. Back to your point. Grandma had it, grandpa had it, whatever the story is, you know, it's been, it runs in the family. And so. But what I'm hearing you say is that much of this can be tracked back to just how our diet as an example, what's going on in our body. And although we may have a out of sync software in our running in our system, most of that we can work around, given those kinds of considerations, diet, that kind of stuff. Our medical system right now is read, react, not why. It's in other words, okay, well, we'll give you a drug for this. It's kind of that we've got a drug that will fix this or hide the symptoms or cure you or whatever the story might be. And what you're saying, and what I'm hearing you say is that, no, we have to step back from that and ask the question of why. And more and more you're finding is that in your research and in what the work that you've done a lot of over the years is that it could be a, it's a software disruption. I'll use that language for lack of better things. And that, that can in fact either work around or a correction put in. So if I recap that.
- [21:38]
Kashif Khan
Okay, yeah, right on. Because that's, that's exactly it. Find out the broken code. Right. It's not about waiting for what's coming. It's why would it come? Like, what am I doing that would. I wasn't born with dementia. People don't get dementia in their twenties for the most part. You know, by the time you get to 50, 55, the average north American who gets their first chronic disease of 55 and 2 by 65, that's unfortunately the current story. The last 15 years of life are spent in treatment. That's literally the average today. It's worse in the United States than it is in Canada, but it's around there. So all of that is based on the assumption that disease comes with aging and we just accept it. It's part of the aging process. So why does it come with aging? Did we not ask what, what about aging causes that? Well, the same inflammatory insult that you are fighting in your youth eventually crosses a threshold where the Inflammation wins. Why? In your cells, there's something called mitochondria. Mitochondria are the energy production center of the cell. Every one of your 50 trillion cells has one. As you age, they deplete, they shrink in size, they reduce the number, they're not as potent. So you are having this Alzheimer's disease your whole life, but you were keeping it at bay because you had the cellular energy to fight the inflammation. You had the cellular energy to push the toxins out. You had the cellular energy to manage the metabolic dysfunction caused by the diet. Then all of a sudden the energy level drops and the disease and inflammation went. And that's why it usually hits around 55. So there's things to do. Maintaining the health of the cell, removing all the toxins that cause inflammation, and then knowing based on your unique genetic wiring what is the priority. You don't need to do everything. And this is where we struggle. Watch these biohackers online that take literally. Dave Asprey takes 120 supplements a day. 120 a day. Brian Johnson spends $2 million a year to live longer. If you knew what the actual threat was, you didn't need, you wouldn't need to do any of that. You know, it's, you can make some very expensive pee by taking 120 supplements a day, right? Because most of it your body's not using if you didn't need it. But the things you actually need, your body really wants and will utilize. Then you would ask like, why does the body even have these unique traits and variable outcomes in your genome? Well, the same thing. And this will. If I were to say one thing, context is the key. It's all about context. Why do I say that? So the same thing that I said. The APOE gene that causes cholesterol to go to your brain as a result of inflammation used to be, which is now considered the bad version of the gene, used to be the good version of the gene. Why? Because our ancestors didn't have chronic inflammatory insults like pollution and bad food, et cetera. Everything was good. And then once in a while they went to battle. Once in a while they dropped a hammer on their foot. And the person that could actually deploy cholesterol effectively and fight the inflammation fast would survive. So what used to be a survival gene, the person that I would actually win in an ancestral context which hasn't changed, same genetics now becomes a chronic disease causing gene. Because your context has changed, the inputs have changed. Which brings me back to if you nude your genome and you just had the right inputs, chronic disease becomes optional.
- [25:17]
Patrick Franci
So what I love about what you're saying, and again, I want to just really for me have to keep it simple, is that there's a lot of science that is behind all of this. I mean, in what you've learned and the testing and all the things that you do. But what we're looking at is a very naturopathic or very holistic way of staying healthy. And, you know, that's through management of diet, management of stress, probably maybe some supplements that need to fit into that category, depending on what you've got going on. And you know, I use myself as a bit of an example in this cash because, you know, health has always been my, one of my highest values, you know, staying healthy. And I lost two sisters to cancer. You know, both of them passed before they were 60. I'm 66, but I've always had. There was a fundamental. And I'll just share a quick story with you. Years ago, you know, somebody said that when we look at our stress levels, for example, and, or our thought processes, that our physicalness is a manifestation often of how we think, of how we carry stress, of, you know, and, and then they, and I was, I remember specifically, and they gave an example which was really straightforward. They go, if you don't believe that our physical, what's happening to us physically is some form of a manifestation of how we think or the stress that we carry, how we operate our operating system, how we see life, consider an ulcer. An ulcer is a physical manifestation of anxiety, stress and all the rest of it. And in that moment I bought into it, in other words. So I've lived really my life a couple different ways. Number one, managing my diet, number two, managing my stress. And number three, being aware of my thought processes. And I think I've lived a pretty healthy lifestyle. I don't get sick. I can't even remember the last time I had a cold. I can't even recall if I've had sick days over the past 20 plus years. So my point is that I really understand that aspect of it and I don't want to put words in your mouth is that when you consider. And it's. I guess it's not to negate the medical profession in terms of pharmacare, but really what you're saying is we need to step back and really consider that based on where we are today and what we know now is that there's more proof that saying, no, you need to look at it and go back to why and then understand what changes you have to make in your lifestyle, in your environment, maybe even your thought process. Is that a fair statement? That's kind of how I. Maybe that's how I'm hoping to hear it. But is that in fact the base cash?
- [28:12]
Kashif Khan
Right on. Health is your habits, right? Health is nutrition, environment, lifestyle. And I guess all I'm saying is that there's some hyper personalization and bio individual individuality needed there where the same answer isn't true for everybody. That's where people get stuck. Like I am eating right, why can't I lose weight, I am exercising, why can't I lose weight? Those types of comments. And that's where there's unique nuance in the genome that needs you to do something different. And if I use an example of we, we work on a lot of professional athletes. So I'm in Toronto, it's the mecca of NHL hockey training. So I work on a lot of NHL players, right? And so what we learned was I'm exercising, I'm meeting all best coaches, best trainers, best everything. Why are some of these athletes getting cholesterol issues in their 30s when they should have been like they had the best of everything right? The holistic right. And why do you see these soccer players drop dead at 35 on the field? Heart failure. Why do you see these Olympic printers dropped at a 35? Why is it in their mid-30s that all of a sudden things go wrong when they are in the perfect and prime shape? So just about the brain. The same thing happens with your cardiovascular system where your body will deploy cholesterol and build a plaque if there's inflammation. But the actual physical hardware of the arteries around the heart, they vary in quality depending on your genetics. So if I have your DNA, I can tell you, do you have resilient and you know, stainless steel arteries that can take a beating or do you have paper thin arteries that can get inflamed pretty easily which would lead to a plaque buildup because your body will use cholesterol to fix it. So this goes back to what you were talking about. And when you think about, okay, I'm going to start, I'm going to go exercise, I'm going to get on the treadmill. That treadmill may be the thing that makes you sick because if you do have hyperthin arteries, the not so good quality, and you're into what we call oxidative stress, taking in a lot of oxygen and you don't have the genetic ability to filter those oxidants. So every time you breathe, you take an oxygen, your mitochondria converts that into energy and it makes something called an oxidant, which is the, like the smoke of burning the fuel, right? And those oxidants are meant to be cleared genetically. Some people don't clear them. So now you have that soccer player who's running, running, running, training, training, training, running, running, running, training, training, training in oxidative stress all the time. Without the genetic ability to clear the oxidants, which some people don't do with the bad hardware, cardiovascularly causing inflammation, and all of a sudden, nobody, for a prime soccer player in their late 20s is checking for cardiovascular disease. And 32, 33, they collapse of heart failure. So this extreme, why do I bring this up? Because you are absolutely correct. Your habits will define your health if you want to maintain health as opposed to fight disease. But they're not always obvious. There are certain things that you think are correct. And if I can speak about diet, I'll give you another example. You know, a lot of people today are choosing to eat a vegan diet because it's clean and it's good for the cardiovascular system, et cetera, things of that nature. And for some people, we see them thrive. For some people, we see this is the cause of the chronic disease they have. So I did the work, I put in the effort, I made a choice and I strictly followed the plan. But I still got sick. Why? The enzymes required to break down plant proteins, beans, lentils, chickpeas, legumes, variable in how we produce them genetically. The enzymes required to break down green plants, kale, broccoli, spinach, different how we do them. The gut lining and what is designed to handle in terms of food input, different for different people. Your body's ability to turn starch and carbs into fuel. Vegan diets tend to be heavy on the carb side. Also highly variable, the insulin response. And how your body handles insulin genetically, highly variable. So if I have your DNA, I can tell you if by choosing the vegan diet you're going to thrive and feel incredible or you're going to slowly get over time. So, yes to what you're saying now, let's take that decision that I'm going to make this a priority. I'm going to do the right stuff. What does that mean? What is the right stuff? That's where there's bio individuality needed.
- [32:45]
Patrick Franci
So what do we do in the environment that we are today? I mean, let's face it, our medical system is wired to drug us to generally, and I don't want to speak for all docs out there, but I mean, ultimately it really is a read and react kind of scenario. Being preventative is not really the operating system of our medical system. I don't think anywhere in North America you're looking at a very holistic approach. So what does somebody do that listens to this podcast and has something going on? Do they then break it down and go, okay, I'm wired personally, and this is why this topic is so fascinating for me and why I've got such a high interest in it. Because if I'm feeling out of whack in those occasions when I have gotten sick where I'm not feeling well, the first thing I do is I go, what's going on for me? I ask the question, what is going on for me? If I go up and I have a big night of eating too much, I wake up with a food hangover. There are certain aspects of I always take responsibility for whatever is physically manifesting for me. I mean, short of getting hit by a car. Right? You know, you know what I'm saying? So the point of it is, is that what does somebody do that's listening to this that has something going on? And because you're in Toronto, what does somebody do that's in, you know, Punachai, Saskatchewan? You know what I'm saying? How do we kind of do we self diagnose? Do we. How do we handle these situations? Cash?
- [34:10]
Kashif Khan
Yeah. There's two answers. One is like, how do you do? What do you do if you don't have access? I'll answer that. And the second thing is, how do people do what I'm talking about? It's global. So we have patients and clients literally all over the world.
- [34:23]
Patrick Franci
Okay, great.
- [34:24]
Kashif Khan
That's the beauty of the world we now live in. Inasmuch as Covid wrecked things, it also created a new reality where. Look what we're doing right now where you're. I've never met the vast majority of the thousands of people that we've helped because it's all online, right? So it's testing. Your DNA is literally sending a saliva sample in the mail. It's so easy now. It used to be going to clinic, drawing blood, having to wait there. And now it's like ship you a kit, spit in a tube, ship it back a few weeks later. There's thousands and thousands and thousands of line of code telling you exactly how you were designed and brilliant people that know how to read it and tell you what it means. Right? So in terms of I'll let you know, like, how to reach us and how to do that. But that's number one, which is like, this is the one thing that I don't understand. Why Health Canada or the FDA doesn't say that every single citizen needs their DNA sequenced as step one to healthcare. Because why should we ever make a mistake? Why should we trial and error? Why shouldn't anyone just know exactly how their body is designed and know what to do? And that's why I speak about children so much. Because the earlier we start, the better off the outcome is going to be. So step one, DNA sequenced. I now know exactly what to prioritize and focus. I know what choices to make. I can see what's coming in the future because my DNA is telling me and I can now take a detour. It's like this GPS for health that will allow me to go in a different direction and avoid that calamity. And I also now know the things that I'm struggling with. Why did they happen? What broken biology in plus my habits in combination led to the way I feel. And if I now know that forget about the pill, I'm going to start working on the root cause and eliminate the reason it happened. And the body will regenerate, the body will heal. The body is designed to heal. If you get rid of the threat. There's no such thing as detox if you don't get rid of the tox. Right? You got to get rid of the source and then heal. So now the second answer is if somebody doesn't have access to DNA, doesn't want to, doesn't want, like, okay, don't want to do it, don't understand it, nowhere near it, whatever. We need to know that the reality that we're in 20, 24, things have changed. It's no longer grandma's healthcare system of I can go do whatever I want and when I break something, it's a doctor's job to fix me. That doesn't work anymore. There's no such thing as. Sometimes people get sick. 60% of North American children now have a chronic disease. When you and I were in school, a child with a chronic disease was a very rare thing. It's now the majority, 60%. Right. So the children haven't changed. You know, three generations ago, one in 10,000 children was autistic. Two generations ago, one in 500. Now the center for Disease Control says it's one in 36. How do those numbers, where did that come from? It didn't come from because the children changed. It became camera from the environment Changing it came from 144,000 chemicals being added to humanity since the 1970s. It came from our food changing it came from. There was a study that just came out of Holland last month that says that indoor air quality in North American homes is now four to five times worse. Outdoor, we used to come home to escape the pollution. Now, between your fabric softener, laundry detergent, dry cleaning, cosmetics, sunscreen, perfumes, etc. All the fragrances and chemicals that are trapped in this drywall box are overburdening your ability to detoxify them. So just knowing that all of what you're now dealing with, take any one of them as a single siloed thing and the medical research is true, it won't hurt you put them all together in the practical reality of how you actually live, it is far too much. So step one is get it out. Purge. Know what the threats are, you know, between your cosmetics, between your personal care products, between the off gassing of your brand new furniture and the new car smell. And one of those things standalone, no problem. There's too many of those things all at time, all in one human form causing too much inflammation. So I would go there and clean things up. Like what you've done for yourself. Right. But to know where to prioritize is most people can't do everything. Most people can't live the lives their kids, their family, their mom won't allow them to eat clean. Right? It's like no dinner. You gotta do what we're doing. So at least being able to prioritize and that's what your DNA will do for you. And I can share a link on where to get that done if you want to truly know at a unique individual level.
- [39:15]
Patrick Franci
Yeah, 100%. I would love for you to share that link and understand it. So you had an experience with your own children and you want to share a little bit about that insight in terms of what. And I'm assuming that that's also what drove some of you know, what opened up a door even wider for you to go, I got to go down this path and I got to check into it because you did have an experience with one of your kids or all your kids in terms of just their learning and where they were being blocked. Is that a. Is. Am I got that? I think in your bio. Yeah, yeah.
- [39:45]
Kashif Khan
And that's where, you know, it took me from. This is you. When we think of health and wellness, we think of it as an adult activity. Right. Unless a child has an issue like asthma, autism, skin issues, which are the big ones. There's nothing done about children's wellness and prevention. But I realize that's the most powerful place to apply this because you start early and then you set somebody on a path, the trajectory changes. Imagine 20 years down the road where they end up when you switch the directory just a few degrees. Right. So I'll start by telling you about my niece, which really would encompass how you go from genetics to functional genomics. And she is the reason why we went from being a research company which was studying the human genome, to teach clinics, hospitals, et cetera, what they need to know to actually this epiphany of what everyone needs this. And we became a consumer company selling tests to the directory of public. That wasn't happening on day one. So my mother, my niece and my sister lived together. And my mother called me saying, your niece can't breathe. Get over here. So I, we. We live 10 minutes apart. I got there to help them out, and to me it looked like an anxiety attack. So I called a friend who's a pediatrician, he's also one of our investors in our research. And I said, what's going on here? He said, I think it's an anxiety attack. He said, let it pass. If it happens again. She was near the end of it by that time. He said, if it happens again, let us know. Right. Speaking of children, I don't know if you hear the screaming in the background. I know you said you can edit, right? So I was going to tell them to be quiet.
- [41:19]
Patrick Franci
We got some background noise, but that's fine.
- [41:21]
Kashif Khan
So now I figure it's resolved anxiety. Okay, Maybe she needs some medication. You know, I'm busy deep in my research, not even thinking that this should apply to my own family. Right. Fast forward. It happens again. The second time my mother calls me and she says, this time your niece fell over, she couldn't breathe and passed out. And we think she broke her leg because she can't walk. She actually hit a table and she came down. And so they said, help us get over here. Take her to a clinic. And when they said, help us, they knew that my friend was a pediatrician and that I could call him. Right. Given that the Canadian healthcare system that you're quite aware of, go to emergency room for a broken leg, it's going to take you eight hours. Right? So I call my pediatrician friend. He tells me where to go. I head over there, a hospital, and we did still spend about six hours there. Blood tests X rays, all this stuff. Doctor comes back and says, seems like an anxiety attack. There's no issue, no broken bone, blood work is normal. If it happens again, let us know. He said the exact same thing that my friend said. And I realized at that moment that meant if it happens again, she's getting a diagnosis and we're going to tell you what pill she has to take. And so I figured I need to now work on this, drive her home, go back to work. I did nothing. I just. Like any other busy uncle, bother, whatever, I literally went back to work and I forgot sometime later. Yeah. And because I was so busy working on healing all these people in our research that I forgot about my own family. Right? And so I. My mother calls me again. This time she's bawling in tears. And she says, your niece is not here. And there's a note saying, I can't handle it anymore. I'm leaving. And if you met my niece, she's a sweet, innocent girl that by her own choice doesn't leave home on her own. She always wants mom or grandma to go with her. That's how innocent she is. So running away, completely out of character. So I said, okay, running away from her means she's probably just like outside somewhere. I'll find her. I drive over there. Literally, she's down the street just standing there and not knowing what to do. So I pull her in the car and I said, what, what is this, a bullying boy? Like, online stuff? Like, tell me what's happening, I'll help you. And I realized she had no idea. She was just running away from that feeling of being in that space. And so it was literally at that moment I called my office and said, email me her DNA report. I had her DNA report already. And I looked at it, and I wasn't looking for what I saw, the symptom of anxiety. I just looked at what are the big red flags in her biology that just don't work. And how could that potentially equal the way she feels? Because it wasn't happening forever. It just happened now three months in a row. I said, wait a second, three months in a row? What about our menstrual cycle? So I texted my mom and said, can you tell me what day of her cycle she was on around these episodes? She said, you know what? Like clockwork. You're right. It happened right in the beginning. Okay, clue. So I look at her hormones and what do I find? Some women make a lot of estrogen. Some women make very little estrogen. Some women make a Lot of testosterone. Some women make a little. So what we assume men are testosterone, women are estrogen. Isn't true. There's a lot of variability. She was highly androgen dominant, meaning that she'd made far too much testosterone and didn't make enough estrogen. The beginning of the cycle is when women get rid of all the hormones. The period eliminates it all. So she just went to a much deeper valley because she was already low. So now she goes very, very deep. Slim to none when it comes to hormones. But then this problem. She had been cycling for two years. Why now? Like, why all of a sudden this anxiety issue? This happened during peak Covid in Toronto in the winter where we had literally the world's longest lockdown, where she hadn't been outside in five months. So another clue. I look at her. Vitamin D genetics. You need a minimum of 20 minutes of daylight exposure a day to get the vitamin D you need. And if you're not supplementing, it's going to ruin everything. Why? Of the 22,000 genes that make up the human genome, 2500 more than 10% require adequate vitamin D to do their jobs. It's the single most important nutrient in your body. It's actually a hormone. It's not a vitamin.
- [45:40]
Patrick Franci
Well, and let's just put a. Let's just like, you know, I think that, you know, because I've taken, you know, I've, I've supplemented vitamin D for 30 years. I mean, it's an inexpensive. And to your point, it is. I think everybody should be taking vitamin D. I'm not a doctor, but that's what I believe and I've done it for, you know, many, many years. And to your point is, people don't understand what vitamin D actually is, which you just stated, which is it is actually a hormone that we need in our bodies and we often, especially in Canada, don't get enough of it in a natural kind of way. So supplementing it is just making perfect sense. Anyways, I digress on that, but I wanted to point that out.
- [46:20]
Kashif Khan
You're right on which is people don't understand. We think of it as cold and flu immunity booster.
- [46:25]
Patrick Franci
Yeah.
- [46:26]
Kashif Khan
You don't ask why again. 2500 of 22,000 biological processes need it. So if you take it out, 2500 11, 12% of your biological processes fall apart. Hair, skin, hormones, food, everything. Right. So when you look at the vitamin D genetics, there's a gene called CYP2R1 that takes D2 from the sun and converts it into the active D3 form you need. Then there's a gene called VDPP that takes that activated D3 and transports it to the cell where you actually need it. Then there's a gene called VDR that binds it and gets it into the cell which is where it starts to work all three of these genes. She had the worst version and she was indoors in Toronto in the winter with zero sunlight. So she had a hormone valley. She had this key nutrient which caused all other processes to go into total shock and chaos. But why did it express as a mood and behavior issue? That's the third thing that I looked at. So when I looked at her mood genetics. Dopamine is a chemical that allows you to experience pleasure, eat some food, achieve something at work satisfaction. You need a dopamine hit. There's a gene called DRD2 that determines the density of dopamine receptors in your brain. She has the lowest possible density of receptors so it's very hard to feel the intensity of pleasure. Then there's a gene called compt which gets rid of the dopamine. Eventually you need to get back to your baseline default non reward seeking moment. She had the hyper fast comp super fast clearance. So she feels a way down here and it's gone like that super fast clearance. So she's already teetering on the world sucks. I can't get no satisfaction. Which also equals I'm highly achievement oriented because I'm always seeking reward. Right. So it's both perfect storm hormones, vitamin D and mood and behavior equaled in this context. Remember I said context is key of a lockdown equal an anxiety crash on that specific day in her menstrual cycle. So what would have been an anxiety pill prescription which she likely still would have been on. It's been a couple of years instead became I gave her high dose vitamin D10000IU. But I split it three times in the day because she doesn't transport it and bind it effectively. So if she took that 10,000 I in the morning, she probably only got 2,000 into the cells. So split it into three doses. The second thing I did was I got her L Theanine which is a supplement that's known to boost dopamine levels. And that was it. Literally those two things. I did those two things. The next month she was fine and it never happened again.
- [49:13]
Patrick Franci
Wow.
- [49:13]
Kashif Khan
Whereas she would have literally still been on a pill to, you know, imagine how many young women, imagine how many mature women are dealing with hormone imbalances which if I had your DNA I could tell you, this is actually what's going on. It's not the symptom. It's not the anxiety. It's this solve the root cause. And not only will this symptom go away, but other things that you don't even know are going on will also go away.
- [49:36]
Patrick Franci
You know, I love that it's so interesting. I mean, we could talk all day. This is, you know, one of my areas of fascination, you know, and trying to understand and, you know, you bring up so many great points, Cash in that when we think about just the evolution of where we are as a society and what's going on, you talk about dopamine and we look at what, you know, what social media is creating in terms of the constant engagement that we have and many people have and the dopamine that's being produced and the addiction. Is there such a thing in your world as an addiction to dopamine, given what's happening? And we talk a lot about social media, you know, versus your niece, for example, who whatever, doesn't click that button for her. But in general, is that. Are you seeing that as an issue as well? I mean, again, it's like the environment that we have kind of evolved into over the years has totally changed, and what's showing up is all of these other symptoms and. Or illnesses. And I think we have to pay attention to that. But back to the dopamine question, because it's a popular kind of topic, I guess events are selling dopamine. You know, it's like that kind of thing.
- [50:46]
Kashif Khan
Yeah. So, you know, it's true. We now understand. Let me give you an example. So when, when we, when we were doing our work in our research and helping people, we couldn't get people to actually comply and get the work done because it's like, hey, I learned and then I move on to the next thing. But some people would over comply and do too much on burnout. And we realized that the way they perceive and structure, it's like it's all different based on the neurochemicals of the brain. And so I worked with a gentleman named Dr. B.J. fogg. So he runs the Stanford University Behavioral Change Lab. So he's a guru when it comes to implementing human behavior change. And his students who had studied behavior change under his guidance, that understood how dopamine causes people to pursue things. It's not a pleasure chemical in so much as it is a driver motivator. This is why we build crazy things and seek reward and keep progressing, progressing. His students built Instagram because they learned how human behavior is a business and how addiction is profitable, right? So they use human behavior change to put people onto a platform where they just can't stop scrolling. And what I've learned genetically is there's some people that are wired, like my niece, that are addicts. Meaning that I can't get enough. So I structure my day around it. I use it as a coping mechanism, I use it as a tool. Then there's people that are the opposite. The very high expression of dopamine, a very slow clearance, so they're content, things are good, I don't need anything. But when they enter the pleasure loop, because the clearance is so slow, they end up binging, they get stuck. It's also a form of abuse, but a very different one. I don't need it, but when I get what I want, I can't stop versus I need it. And I structure my day around it. I'll stop, you know? So even just looking at the word addiction and breaking it up into more precision, there's a gentleman I work with named Charlie Engel who doesn't mind me talking about his story. So he's a New York Times bestselling author about his journey of. He went from drug addict in prison to world leading ultra marathon runner. He now runs across deserts and up and down mountains. And this is why he writes books and speaks on stages about it. And so he thought that he was an addict, which is why he had so many drug issues. And I showed him that he's not an addict at all. He's a binger and he's now doing the binging with his running. We all need pleasure and we all need reward and we cannot live without it otherwise. The opposite is depression, right? So in his case, the reward overpowered the pleasure and you don't need both. The human brain does not need pleasure and reward. It needs a dopamine hit. And it can get it from either source. And the source of reward is far more satisfying for the brain than pleasure is. It's harder to start, but it's also harder to stop. And this is why you'll see high performance people, CEO celebrities, athletes, doing the best you could possibly do when things change. Suicide, addiction, substance abuse, it's the other side of their story. Because the same exact neurological pathways lead to both. It's a context question once again.
- [54:08]
Patrick Franci
So when you look at what's going on in the world today, and I like to study it, I like to look at health, it's one of those things that's an Area of interest to me when we start to, I mean, you make so many great points, not the least of which for me that's standing out right now is how much our environments have changed over the years, how we operate. When we consider, you know, the controversy even of vaccines. When you start to look at the escalation with kids and if you listen to, you know, an RFK junior, he's going, we don't need most of the vaccines, vaccines that are being administered to our kids. As a matter of fact, since we've been vaccinating our kids, this and this and this is happening now. It's a very controversial topic. I don't know why it's so controversial. Like I, you know, it doesn't have to be right or wrong. I think people need to question it. If you're going to be doing that, I don't think you just carte blanche go, yes, that makes sense in the reality. And of course, those who are pushing the vaccines most seem to have an agenda behind it at some level. But I won't generalize. Given the controversy of it and what your own research has shown, is that a topic that you can touch on and give parents some insights into that?
- [55:22]
Kashif Khan
I've done a lot of work on behavioral development. I've worked with Sick Kids Hospital, Autism Speak, Autism Hope alliance, and I keep telling the same thing, that there's no needle in the haystack magic gene that they're going to find to turn it off. Yes, for the real deal of autism, there is a thing called autism which children are born with, but that is a tiny fraction of what we're dealing with today. Why did it go from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 36? Not because more kids have autism, because more kids have behavioral development issues due to things like vaccines that cause the same symptoms of their delayed in their behavior development. So why. So let's use that argument over vaccines, yes or no. And why is there so much controversy? Because both sides of the argument are correct. So how do we justify either side? Well, the pharmaceutical company is correct that we've tested these molecules, we've tested this medication. It does not cause any problem. And the chemistry doesn't lie. The parents are also correct. That's the day my kid changed. I don't care what you're saying, they do not behave the same happened. Well, when you test and clinically study medication, it's also a context question. You're testing the active molecule. You're not testing all the mercury and aluminum and lead and heavy metals. That are in the serum, the adjunct that delivers the active molecule, there's no concern over that stuff. And when you take the schedule of 86 vaccines that the United States government now has on the schedule for children and you add up the heavy metals and mercury and aluminum and lead, and you see that it's many, many, many fold over the Environmental Protection Agency's upper limit of what's considered safe. But when you silo and separately suggest each vaccine in comparison to that EPA upper limit, the each one stands alone is safe. Add them all together and you're way far beyond. You can't even see the line anymore. You're so far gone in terms of how you've overdosed these children. So why then 1 in 36, not 100%, then you had the pharmaceutical arbitrary, if that was true, that all kids would have a problem. Well, not all kids are missing the GST1 gene, which is a primary first line defense to remove aluminums, toxins, things of that nature. Not all kids have a suboptimal version of the GSTP1 gene, which is also responsible for clearance of these sorts of toxins. The kids that are are likely going to suffer from neuroinflammation, brain inflammation from having those heavy metals in their system for too long. Not all kids methylate poorly. So methylation is a genetic process of fighting the fire of inflammation, especially in your neurological system, as we're talking about. So if you had that perfect storm of a kid got all these shots, they have bad glutathione genetics, so they don't detoxify. They have bad methylation genetics, so they don't fight the inflammation. The brain is underdeveloped and it's getting inflamed, leading to literal brain damage. They don't have a disease called autism, they have brain damage. Right. And now the good news is catch it early, you can fix and reverse. We do this with a lot of kids. The longer you wait, the harder it is and the more it progresses. And you feel like you have this degenerative behavioral development disease called autism, but you don't. You have something else. And the last thing I'll say about this is then you add into the mix that this child that has bad glutathione genetics, bad methylation, and too many insults of heavy metals entering their body, they get a fever and the medical response is go take some Tylenol.
- [58:55]
Patrick Franci
Yes.
- [58:56]
Kashif Khan
Acetaminophen, which is the active molecule in Tylenol, uses the exact same glutathione pathway to be processed that Your body's trying to use to get rid of those heavy metals. So you now add something at the exact time that there's a little bit of hope left to get rid of this stuff and not have the inflammation that now usurps and uses that pathway, and you have nothing left to fight the heavy metals. And they then ended. What did your body do with heavy metals? Likes to store it in bone, in fat. Where do you have fat in your brain? Right. So you have this perfect storm. And if you just look at it functionally and practically, the context in which things are actually happening, and this is why context is so key, there's no surprise that there's one in 36 kids now. Right. And it's not a disease per se for most of them. It is literally neurological and brain damage, which can be prevented and reversed if we catch it early enough.
- [59:49]
Patrick Franci
So when we look at what's going on in the world today, I guess part of what I'm hearing here is that within the context of health and what we have bought into over the years, or what we've believed over the years, is it's time to have a shift. So, in other words, if you've got, I don't know, something chronic and the answer isn't necessarily that this is my genetic predisposition, this is, in fact, I've got this going on. I need to work backwards from what could be happening. So short of getting, I guess if they send, you know, get a test result from you, that would open up a whole different door. When they get that test result back, are you then making some kind of recommendations with what they should change, maybe in diet and environment, something to consider. Does it come with recommendations in that regard? Kash?
- [60:45]
Kashif Khan
Yeah. So there's two answers there. Some people get a test with a report with recommendations that are, yes, they are built in the report, and they go to work on their own. Many people go through programs where data is dumb unless you know what to ask. Right. Insights are what people need, not the data. I don't need a report. What is the typical thinking? I got a report, now someone's got to tell me what it means. Why? Because the data is dumb. Someone with experience has to be able to interpret how that applies to your context. So the majority of people that I work with actually come in the context of programs where we spend days, if not sometimes weeks with them, sometimes months, depending what they're dealing with, to implement those findings and kind of do the job of fast tracking the shift on their biology. Right. Let's let's quickly make up for lost time and get everything right and come up with your personalized action plan. So that's what most people do, but a lot of people do also just buy a test and report and go through it. It's a budget question, it's a level of concern question. Right. What are you actually trying to deal with? So it's both of those.
- [61:48]
Patrick Franci
So is there a fundamental, I guess when it comes back to a lot of what we're dealing with right now, diet matters. Quit eating processed food, avoid sugar like the plague. Get out, get walking, get some sunshine. Those are all kind of, you know, the foundation of good health. And in spite of all that, people continue to have different chronic illnesses. And that's. Those are the individuals that, like, if you've cleaned up your diet, if you're paying attention to what's going on in your environment, if you're being aware of the impact of social media and mindless scrolling, maybe that would be an indicator for you, like, based on what you said, if you've got that going on, you have to look at it and go, where. What category do I fall into in terms of my own addictions around those kinds of things? And, you know, what is that? You know, is, am I a binger? Kind of. Is that the self diagnosis kind of space? But ultimately it really is about stepping back from it and going, don't look for a reactive pill to fix the problem. Step back and go, what part of it do I have control over that I can change? That is, I guess, ultimately the first step. Because regardless of the test, if you come back to me with a test and I see whatever results I see, ultimately I'm going to have to make some changes. I'm going to have to make some changes to that. Whatever aspect of my life that is, whether it be diet or exercise or what I'm doing on social media or how I'm living my life. I mean, ultimately it takes a commitment to your health. I mean, that seems quite straightforward. Is that an accurate statement?
- [63:28]
Kashif Khan
Yeah, it's a question of, you already eat, you already move, you already have relationships. What do they look like that are best for you? Right. It's about your habits. Health is from habits. Health is not from reaction. Right. So every single thing you do all day, every day, is a choice to walk towards health or away from it.
- [63:51]
Patrick Franci
Probably not. You know, I just. Because I like to kind of look at different aspects of things. Cash, is that when we look at what you're talking about, you know, when we consider Our demographic, you know, when you consider that, let's say that lower middle or lower income and then even below that, I mean, this would be probably one reason why when we look at the health of society in general, it really does become a boat in a large degree. There's a lot of it that people are in the environment that they have because financially they can't be outside of that environment. You know, there was a time when eating McDonald's was far cheaper than buying groceries. But ultimately McDonald's is not a great food source. I mean, let's face it, you're really, it's toxic. So is that a fair statement? Is that what you're seeing in your experience as well? And I mean, and you're in the industry.
- [64:50]
Kashif Khan
Yes, we see that. And you'll definitely see that there's more. Go lower, it's sort of in financial tier and you'll see an increase in healthcare issues. Right. But what we believe about nutrition and cost, if you have nutrient dense food, you're not eating as much when you're eating plus you're eating a lot. And so for example, a box of pasture raised organic eggs is eight or nine dollars. And somebody might say that's a lot of money to spend on eggs. I can buy eggs for $3. Right. But eating two eggs is $2. McDonald's is not $2. The choline you're going to get to build your brain, the protein you're going to get to fuel your body. The vitamin D, the selenium, the nutri, the vitamin E. All these nutrients that fuel your body so that you don't need to buy all the expensive supplements. Right. If you really dig in, you'll find that going back to basics and we're looking for a level of complexity that nutrition wasn't supposed to be. It's like I can uber eat Thai food for breakfast and sushi for dinner. That's the level of people are coming and trying to resolve that and saying this doesn't fit my budget, of course, because no one is supposed to eat with that level of complexity. Our ancestors would farm something, pickle it, store it and eat the same thing for six months. Which is why their gut was so healthy. They would have an animal that they would milk, they would have a chicken that would give them eggs. So if you bring it down to simplicity, the basic staples give us a lot of nutrition and they're not that expensive.
- [66:26]
Patrick Franci
Yeah, I mean we've even in our own lifestyle over the past 10 years, we're growing a lot of our own food, we're raising our own beef. I mean, we're doing a lot of those things. And when you consider that what we receive in stores, I mean, if you look at the research and understand that even the food sources that we have in terms of fresh fruits or vegetables, if, you know, whatever page you're on in that is that, you know, our soils have been so depleted in terms of nutritional value that they actually bring to the plants that, you know, even that is lacking. So, I mean, the reality of this conversation for me is that the environment is the environment. What can we control? And we can't control a lot of the things that are going on in the world and what's happening again in our agricultural world and processed foods and all the things that are starting to shape how we eat and what we have to eat. And so it really is about taking responsibility and understanding that you do have control over it. You don't have to be at the effect of certain diseases that seem to be unfolding. There are solutions, and most of them are really a lot of it's going to be in terms of even what we eat and maybe what we supplement. That would be my kind of recap of it in terms of what we're facing in this world. And I just love the fact that you've done the research you've done and that you offer at least a glimmer of insight into what we might be facing as an individual because of the tests you're doing. And it would. And that is literally. Would we call it genetic testing or DNA testing? What would you call that? Cash?
- [67:59]
Kashif Khan
Yeah, it's functional genomics. So genetics is what version of what gene do I have? Functional genomics is the systems in which the body already exists. So it's just a. It's a unique category under genetics.
- [68:12]
Patrick Franci
I'm going to ask you a question, and as we start to wind down, and I appreciate all the time that you've given us here today. I just love this conversation so much and what you've shared because. And I'll tell you, one of the reasons that is, before I get to my question, is that I actually am in control of my health. And as much as we want to make excuses for all the things that we make excuses, I made a decision to quit drinking. And I. And that decision came from a goal I have for, you know, when I'm 70 years old. And that doesn't matter at this point. But a credible doctor made a statement. He goes, we drink because we drink. But he says, understand one thing is alcohol is a toxin. That's it. And the fact that we can get away with it because it's, you know, it is what it is. Our body and our livers process it and da da, da, it says it doesn't matter, that's all. If that's what you want to do, that's great. But understand it's a toxin and you're actually putting a toxin in your body. And I went, you know, that's a really good point. I don't even know why I drink anyways. And I just quit drinking. So I did it from a social point of view. Hasn't affected my social life one bit. And I'm happy to sit with a group of people and they can drink their wine or do what they do. And I just don't, you know, that's a decision for me. But my point is, is that what you're pointing out here is we have far more control over our health than maybe we've come to believe, certainly.
- [69:40]
Kashif Khan
And it's, it's the choices you make on a daily basis and priority. Why? Why are you making the choice you're making? Because, you know, I need to do what everyone else is doing, have the drink. Right. And here's what's really powerful in what you just did for yourself. And I said this earlier, dissatisfaction your brain gets from reward is far more satisfactory, satisfying than pleasure. So once you start saying no, once you start saying yes to the right things and the intention behind your decision is your health as a priority versus what people think or what feels good or what's easy, you continue to do more of that and that becomes addicting. That in itself becomes a source of. I can't stop in this path of like I'm always going to choose what's best for me.
- [70:32]
Patrick Franci
You're hitting it right on the head for me because it does. It feels great to be. And I would have to say my moods are better. I don't know, I can't put my, I didn't drink that much, so I can't put my finger on and say that's it. I just have a much better feeling of well being, I guess because of it is what I would determine that to be. And you know, and there's another fundamental is I like to eat. And so I love food, I love good food and I'm going to. And I always look at it going, well, if I'm going to take in an extra 2 or 300 calories, I want to do it with food that I enjoy rather than Alcohol, which is kind of. Yeah, okay, it's nice, but I, you know, I'd prefer to have some real calories. That's how I look at it. Pretty simple.
- [71:14]
Kashif Khan
I guess, to your point, it's like step one, step two, step three might be challenging, but after that, step four or five are actually rewarding. And you forget the challenge you got from step one, two and three. And then the reward becomes more and more satisfying. And so you need to fight through the first little bit and then it becomes who you are. Your identity changes.
- [71:35]
Patrick Franci
Yeah, it is such a great. You make a really good point. It becomes a thing of identity. And I think that's so important to not just gloss over, because it really defines you and it starts to become who you are. And I think it's really important for people to understand that and making those shifts. I do have one question for you, and only because it's been showing up over the past few years more than ever. And that is around migraine headaches I have come across and I know people that struggle with migraines. Any research on that, just out of curiosity?
- [72:07]
Kashif Khan
That's one of the things that I had to cure myself from. I had debilitating migraines where I would literally be vomiting for the pain because the gut and the brain are connected through the vagus nerve and I couldn't function, couldn't go to work. So I would say the vast majority of chronic migraines are gut related. So first of all, headache, your. Your brain can't feel pain. There's something called a dura, which is a membrane in between your skull and your brain, which can shrink or expand based on hydration levels. So hydration is usually the first place to go. And salt, good, healthy mineral salts in your water with the right level of water. And if you're hydrated, you shouldn't have this variability in dura. But the ongoing migraine is usually your gut. So when the gut isn't, it's sending signals up to the brain through the vagus nerve. Like you said, the gut is the second brain. It literally has brain cells in it that can think. That intuition you feel is a form of thought. It's just not the form of words. It's in the form of a feeling. And so that's what happened to me. I had leaky gut, I had a damaged gut. And I had crazy intense migraines, chronically ongoing for a long time. But I also, I also had eczema. I also had psoriasis, which is an autoimmune form of a skin condition. I also had depression. The list goes on. All related to bad gut health. Right. So this is to something you said earlier. If you're going to work on one thing, go fix your gut. It's very difficult to find somebody that has a chronic disease that doesn't also have a gut issue. It's almost impossible to find someone that doesn't have cardiovascular disease, dementia, diabetes, cancer that doesn't have a gut issue.
- [73:48]
Patrick Franci
Wonderful. So, Cash, as we wind down, you know where and how do people get ahold of you? Let's. Let's do a shout out here. I'm already going. Okay, I'm looking forward to spitting in that tube. You know, what are we doing?
- [74:00]
Kashif Khan
Well, there's two things I would say. One is on Instagram, I talk about a lot of this stuff and it's really just me ranting and venting about things that we see in the clinic that people need to know. So it's the Cash Con Official, which I'll share with you and you can share K A S H A N Official. That's my Instagram. That's also my website. And what I would say there is, there's the DNA testing and if anyone wants to know, there's some programs that are listed on there. But if you want to get more personal, just send an email to the website or message me on Instagram. Right. But if you just want to get the test and start exploring, go to my cashcon official.com website. And the DNA 360 test is there.
- [74:41]
Patrick Franci
Beautiful. You know, it's interesting in that on this particular podcast, the Everyday Millionaire, I often am really interested about the journey of my guests. So in other words, how did you get here? How the hell did you actually grow up in this environment? Like, what took you on this path and what got you there? But I've been so into the work that you're doing, so it's all to set you up for I've got to have you back. We got to do a part two. I want to hear about Cash Con and how you went on this journey and as a young man and going through all of the struggles that you had physically and becoming the man you are today and the business that you've grown, because I think there's a lot of important story in behind all of that as well, Cash. So I hope I can twist your arm and get you back on the show. This has been absolutely fantastic conversation and I appreciate it.
- [75:36]
Kashif Khan
We can do that. And I can tell you how my DNA, every single step of that story was inevitable because of my DNA. And it really puts everything together. It's crazy when you actually see it at the personal level, but it's all true.
- [75:49]
Patrick Franci
Okay, folks, you heard it here. Look forward to part two. Kash, I'm going to end with one question that I like to ask all my guests, and that is, what are you grateful for today?
- [76:00]
Kashif Khan
Grateful? Well, I'm grateful that I've learned. So this is Japanese practice called ikigai, which means sense of purpose. Right. And that's what I'm doing now. It doesn't feel like work. Right. And very grateful that what I do is every time I speak, sell anything, do anything, somebody gets healed. Right? And in my religion, we believe that you heal one person, it's like healing all of humanity. Right? So that's what I'm grateful for.
- [76:28]
Patrick Franci
So thank you. And I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to have this conversation, as I almost always have with my guests. You know, there's a. An acronym that I came up with many years that is success is simple. And a simple acronym was significantly impact many people's lives every day. And when I come across and somebody goes, well, I don't impact many people's lives. And there's, you know, really, when you think about significantly impact many people's lives, many is a relevant term. It could be one or it could be 100 or it could be a hundred thousand. But ultimately, when I think about what you're sharing and what you're doing, the impact and the ripple effect of that impact on the health of the kids and the parents understanding it, and then the lifestyle shift that that creates. Because through education, we learn to change how we operate and we learn to change our eating habits. We learn to shift and understand how we think about disease. And I always break the word disease down to dis ease, which really comes back to that mental capacity, emotional how we handle all of those things. And you did a brilliant job today of shining a light on all of those things. So for you, success is simple. You're living your passion. And I want to say thank you so much again for all that you shared today, and look forward to our next conversation. Tash, Pleasure.
- [77:46]
Kashif Khan
I'm looking forward to part two.
- [77:49]
Patrick Franci
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening. If you found value in the podcast, please take the time to rate and review and share with others. Share with your friends, as it is my goal to always improve and to provide the highest value for you, the listener. If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions you'd like answered, please email me@ceooncanada.com that's CEO@reincanada.com I look forward to hearing from you. And until next time, Patrick O.