August 29, 2024 • 49 mins
In this episode of the K6 Wellness Revolution podcast, we share a fascinating discussion with Dr. Yael Joffe, Founder and Chief Science Officer of 3X4 Genetic Testing. Dr. Joffe takes us on a journey from her beginnings in architecture to becoming a pioneer in nutrigenomics, where she now leads the charge in personalized health care. Throughout the episode, Dr. Joffe demystifies the critical differences between genetics and epigenetics, offering insights into how genetic testing can unlock personalized wellness strategies that address chronic health issues and optimize individual health outcomes.
Listeners will gain a deeper understanding of the life-changing potential of the genetic testing, which integrates genetics into practice by offering a pathway-based approach to health. Dr. Joffe explains how the test provides actionable insights into dietary changes, lifestyle recommendations, and supplement suggestions, all tailored to individual genetic profiles. We also explore how environmental factors like toxins and cultural practices influence gene expression, emphasizing the importance of understanding these impacts on overall wellness.
Real-world examples throughout the conversation highlight the practical applications of genetic testing, demonstrating how it can guide practitioners in developing future health solutions. From managing chronic conditions to optimizing fitness plans, genetic testing empowers individuals to shift from generic health advice to personalized health programs. This episode is packed with thought-provoking insights and actionable advice, proving that in the world of health and wellness, there truly is no one-size-fits-all approach.
DISCLAIMER:
This is not medical advice – we do not diagnose or prescribe. This conversation is for educational purposes only. Please seek advice from your health practitioner.
Interested in what we do here at K6 and want to learn more? Click the link below to book a Discovery Call!
DISCLAIMER:
This is not medical advice – we do not diagnose or prescribe. This conversation is for educational purposes only. Please seek advice from your health practitioner.
Interested in what we do here at K6 and want to learn more? Click the link below to book a Discovery Call!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the K6 Wellness Revolution podcast.
My name is Elena from K6Wellness Center in Dallas, texas
, and on this episode we have avery special guest, dr Yael
Jaffe, founder and chief scienceofficer of 3x4 Genetic Testing.
Today I will be talking with DrJaffe all about her company,
how the 3x4 genetic test works,why her testing is different
(00:22):
from other typical genetictesting on the market, and so
much more.
We talk about the 3x4 genetictest here at K6 Wellness all the
time, and it is definitely myfavorite test that we offer,
because you know, we strive toeducate our clients as much as
possible about every aspect oftheir health and wellness, but
when you take a 3x4 genetic testthrough us, we are able to dig
(00:44):
deeper and more specificallyinto your health than with any
other tool, in my opinion.
So this episode is for those ofyou who may want an even deeper
understanding of these genetictests and a full knowledge of
what these do for your health.
So with that, I'd like to saywelcome, dr Jaffe, and I'm very
happy to be here.
Yes, this is something I'velooked forward to because, like
(01:07):
I said, this is my favorite test, so I'm hoping to even learn a
little bit more as we go throughsome questions here, but I'd
love for you to share a littlebit about who you are and your
role at 3Genetics before we goeven deeper.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Great, it's a good place to start.
So I, amazingly enough, didn'teven start in genetics or in
science or nutrition.
I actually started inarchitecture and, as many of us
in this world have a moment, weeither get ill or we have
someone who's dear to us whogets ill mother, who died from
(01:47):
cancer, and I was like you know,it was some time ago um, why
did?
Why did you get cancer?
You know, why did you get it?
Why couldn't we have, um,prevented it?
Why couldn't we have managed itbetter?
And so I kind of leftarchitecture and went looking
for answers and I I studied tobe a dietician so I am a
dietician but was really, reallydisappointed in the answers, or
the lack of answers.
Now, granted, this was a coupleof decades ago, but still, you
(02:09):
know, it just didn't give me anyinsight into the why.
Why did she get cancer?
And so I kind of went on myjourney once I got my degree and
was lucky enough to be livingin London and met an amazing
woman, one of my first mentor,dr Rosalind Gil-Garrison, who
was a geneticist and shebelieved that the future of
medicine and health would begenetics and nutrition.
(02:31):
And I was like, reallySeriously Like, what is even the
relationship.
So that started my journey veryslowly and after a couple of
years working with her, wentback to university.
I got a PhD in genetics, butall the time specializing in
this area of what we callnutrigenomics, nutrition
(02:51):
genomics and and therelationships between our genes
and what we eat and the life welive, and we'll talk a little
bit more about that.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
And that was 24 years ago wow, wow, I I love you know
, I actually didn't start inhealth either.
I started in musical theaterand had a health crisis, and
that's what brought me to this.
And in all the years of all mysearching for myself so I could
do my job better and I couldlive better, once again, this
test was a turning point for me.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
But before we get into that, I think we probably
should begin by discussing acommon confusion that people
have when it comes to genetics.
You know what is the differencebetween genetics and
epigenetics?
Because I find that peopleoften think these two are
interchangeable.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yes, yes, and that's a great place to start and you
know, I think it's always goodwhen we have a podcast like this
is to make sure that we allhave our definitions right, that
we all know what we're talkingabout, because otherwise it gets
a bit messy as we go along.
So I'd love to just define whatis genetics, what is
epigenetics and what is therelationship between them,
(03:56):
because epigenetics has become avery big buzzword and I love
epigenetics, but I don't thinkanyone ever truly understands
what we mean by that.
So let's start with genetics.
So the best way to describegenetics is we all have a code
in our body, right, it's ourblueprint.
You've heard about chromosomes,and chromosomes contain our DNA,
(04:19):
and this DNA, in essence, isthe language of who we are.
So in English, we talk about 26letters of the language, and we
make words and we makesentences and we make stories
and paragraphs.
It's kind of the same withgenetics, except instead of
having 26 letters, we have fourletters A, t, g and C and what
(04:39):
we do with these letters is wemake them into words, we make
them into sentences andultimately what we're doing is
we're saying what are thesegenes, what are the proteins
they're making in our body andthe proteins they're making in
the body define who we are.
Now, 99.9% of that code isidentical between all of us, but
(05:01):
at 0.1% we are different fromeach other and that means that
three to four million places inour DNA our spelling is a little
bit different.
And this isn't a bad thing.
This is just who we are.
This is evolution.
But the amazing thing is thesespelling changes, which we often
call slips or polymorphisms.
I like spelling changes givesus insight into who we are and
(05:27):
how we respond to the worldaround us, to the food we eat,
the supplements we take, theexercise we do, the stresses we
have, the trauma we endure, thetoxins in our environment.
So genetics when we do agenetic test like 3x4, we're
gaining insight into thatresponse.
So that's genetics.
Now epigenetics.
(05:48):
So the word epi means above.
Epigenetics is above genetics.
So this is not about oursequence code.
This is not about our blueprintand our code.
This is about how genes switchon and off code.
This is about how genes switchon and off Every second of every
day of our lifetime.
(06:09):
Genes are continuously beingswitched on and being switched
off by the choices we make inour life, and we'll talk a
little bit about that.
And when we switch on a gene,we make a protein or an enzyme
or a hormone or a brain message,and when we switch them off, we
stop making that protein.
So what is the relationshipbetween these two?
(06:30):
So I always talk about geneticsas gaining insight into who you
are.
It's our code and it's thoselittle changes in code that make
us different.
Epigenetics is what happens whenwe make choices in our lives.
So when we're consuming a lotof toxins and we're living in
Beijing and there's a lot ofpollution and we're very
stressed, those environmentalthings are going to change the
(06:54):
genes that switch on and off.
By the same way, if we'remaking great choices, we're
meditating and cold waterimmersion and we're eating
beautiful foods and we have aconnection, foods and you know
we have a connection and love inour lives we are switching on
only the best genes.
So I talk about genetics andepigenetics as yin and yang we
(07:15):
cannot have one without theother.
They totally work together.
The one gives us insight andthe other one is the actions
that we take.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So you kind of have a little more control over your
epigenetics.
I mean, you do have controlGenes.
That's what you're born with,but epigenetics that's up to you
.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
And so that's a great relationship, right?
Yeah?
So people say oh, my genes areset in stone, there's nothing I
can do.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
So your genes are what youinherit.
They give you insight into whoyou are, and, based on your
insight and understanding of whoyou are, we then help you make
choices that will optimize theway those genes switch on and
off, and that's how we get tohealth or how we resolve disease
(07:56):
.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Exactly, I love it.
I just love it.
So, with all that in mind, whatled you to develop the 3x4 test
and why 3x4 as the name?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
okay, good, both good questions.
So I um, I have been in thisworld of genetics and for for 24
years and have built manygenetic testing companies and I
also built an education companyteaching clinicians like
yourself how to how to usegenetics in practice.
And then, about about eightyears ago I call it the dark
(08:28):
night of my genetic soul I justhad this moment where I looked
at everything I'd done in mycareer and I looked at what was
happening in the marketplace andthere are hundreds of genetic
tests.
I know I read a statistic of300 to 400 genetic tests in the
US marketplace.
That's like horrific, anyway.
(08:48):
And I was looking at them,right, and I was like, wow, I'm
like 15 years into my career ingenetics and we're doing a
shitty job.
Like we're doing a shitty joband I'm part of that journey,
right, so I'm part of thosecompanies.
I was was like, how did I workso hard for 15?
years and I get to this pointand I look back and I go, no,
like not good enough.
(09:10):
So I I had like a year toreflect on, on this
disappointment anddisillusionment, and this often
happens to me I'll get excitedabout something and do it and
then get disillusioned and thendo something else and I was like
, and I try to spend a yeartrying to figure out where did
we go wrong?
What are the things in thegenetic testing industry that
(09:31):
led us astray, that we not onlyfailed clinicians like yourself,
but we failed consumers, wefailed the public.
We just did not give them thevalue that genetics actually
offers, the potential.
So I spent one year kind ofthinking about it and then I
spent a year thinking about okay, I need to either step away, go
(09:53):
and find another profession, orI need to step in.
I love that was my mission toto step in and build a company
where everything that Iperceived we had done poorly I
would get an opportunity to fixand so so that is, that was my
mission behind 3x4.
(10:13):
we're now six years in, six plusyears in, and um, and obviously
it was my dreams have come true.
Um, and I'll.
I'll tell you briefly, youbriefly, that's part one of your
question, and part two is whythe name?
So no one ever guesses it, soI'll have to tell you.
So when I was teachingclinicians the courses, I built
(10:37):
a model of how clinicians coulduse genetics in their practice,
how clinicians could usegenetics in their practice and I
always say you know, if youcan't create a one-page summary
for your patient from a genetictest, then you shouldn't be
doing this kind of thing.
Amen, right, right.
So how do you do that?
How do you build a one-pager?
So I used to teach this methodand the method was that once
(11:01):
you've reviewed a genetic report, you need to identify what are
the three most important areasof health I need to focus on.
So it could be detox, could beglucose insulin, it could be
hormones right, what are thethree areas that need the most
attention?
The second would be what arethe three most important dietary
changes I can make in my lifethat are going to have the
(11:22):
greatest impact?
So we say, 20% change in your,in your diet or lifestyle, for
80% impact, right?
The third thing would be threelifestyle recommendations and
the last would be threesupplement recommendations.
So it's three, three, three,three, which is three X four.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
That's brilliant, Absolutely brilliant.
And you know I will say thatthat report is the easiest
report I've ever seen.
And the order of it, obviouslyit's your architect background
coming out.
There it is.
It's so neat and tidy, I loveit.
But OK, so with that, why wouldyou say it's important to test
(12:01):
our genetics?
I feel like you kind of hintedon that, but what would you say?
You know, why should peopletest their genetics?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
So there's I'm going to.
I'm going to give you what mykind of philosophy on is, but I
just want to tell you one thingabout genetics.
So genetics gives you your why.
So when you see thingshappening in your life and it
may be hormones, it may be hairloss, it may be exhaustion, it
(12:28):
may be that you can't achievewhat you're trying to in your
weight loss goals like when yousee things like that happen in
your life, genetics is your why.
Genetics gives us the insightabout the why of what is
happening.
Why and this and this goes backto my grandmother right why did
she go on to get cancer?
What was happening in her bodyover 10, 20, 30, 40 years that
(12:52):
she went on to get cancer?
So I always say genetics is thewhy.
That's the first thing.
Then, on a more practical level,why should you do a genetic
test?
Why not just go to a lab andorder every single thing in the
lab that you can order Bloodtest?
Why not just go to a lab andorder every single thing in the
lab that you can order bloodtests and neurotens and all
(13:12):
kinds of tests like?
Why do genetics and I dividedup like this I said we call it a
genes first approach.
Why test your genes beforeanything else?
So the first thing is knowwhere to start.
So if I come to you and I'vegot a whole lot of stuff
happening with me, we need tofigure out where are the most
important areas to focus on sothat I can get the greatest
impact.
Again, 20% intervention for 80%impact.
(13:32):
So we say the first thing isgenetics helps you figure out
where to start.
We have the genes having thegreatest impact that if I
address that with diet andlifestyle, I'm going to get a
great impact.
Okay, the second thing is knowwhat you don't know and I love
this about genetics.
There is always I call them theclinical gems.
There is always a gem in agenetic report and you've used
(13:55):
them so you can see it as wellthat you could not have guessed
that no matter how fabulous youare as a practitioner, there are
going to be things that youlearn about your patient or we
learn about ourselves that wecouldn't have guessed that.
So know what you don't know.
Third thing personization.
Personizing diet and lifestylerecommendations.
(14:16):
We want you to live your bestlife.
We want you to have the mostoptimal diet and lifestyle you
can have.
Genetics helps us reach thatlevel of optimal personalization
.
Next one precision testing.
So if I am going to order testsfor you, I want to order them
because I know they're going tobe valuable to me as a clinician
(14:37):
.
I don't want to just order thembecause I'm going to order
everything and see what comes up, what I call like a fishing
expedition, so we can usegenetics as a screening tool to
help us figure out what are thetests that we really need to do,
so we don't waste your money,that we use your money very
carefully by deciding what testswe need.
And the last one actuallyspeaks to the same point it's
(14:59):
targeted supplementation.
I want to use supplements foryou, but I don't want to order
every supplement just becausethe scientific literature says
it's valuable.
I want supplements that aregoing to do two things they're
going to be exactly what youneed and they're going to
optimize your gene expression.
They're going to optimize theway your genes switch on and off
.
So those are all the reasonswhy, as a once-off test remember
(15:23):
genetics is a once-off test.
Remember genetics is a once-offtest.
You do it once, you never payagain, you never swab again.
The value of it is so, so high.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
You know, when you think about the value, it's
incredibly cheap to get thistest and I have to tell people
because I don't know if even allof our listeners know I think
you've picked up by now.
You don't do.
If even all of our listenersknow I think you've picked up by
now.
You don't do this test againbecause your genes will not
change.
What will change is which oneshave been turned on or off, and
you'll know based on yoursymptoms and your point of
(15:53):
health.
But it never changes.
So it really is such a greatdeal for that specific
information.
And I've spent a lot of timewith the 3x4 tests.
I just love it.
I dream in 3x4 test results.
Not just me.
It's great to hear, and youknow I love exploring the
different genes that show up andexplaining them to people.
(16:13):
But I am sure to always explainthat this is, you know, here's
the specific genes.
That are only one part of it,and typically people are using
their genetic tests to eitherlook at their ancestry or
they're fixating on thesecertain genes.
And I think the most commonquestion we get from clients is
well, how is this different from23andMe or Ancestrycom?
And I'm not trying to slam them, but they just aren't as useful
(16:36):
to the consumer.
Well, they're a different test,right?
Right, different purpose.
And when I get those results,I'm like I still need you to do
3x4 so I can see the pathway.
3x4 is a pathway-based test, socan you explain for our
listeners the difference betweenthe gene-focused versus
pathway-based genetic testing,which obviously is what sets 3x4
(16:58):
apart from all the other tests?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
So, yes, yes and yes, preaching to the converted.
You know, when I was talkingabout that terrible year I had
where I was kind of coming,trying to come to terms with
where we had gotten wrong.
Um, and and this speaks to your23andme conversation and
23andme is a great ancestrycompany, and and ancestrycom is
(17:24):
a great ancestry company, yep,but they're not health companies
.
So what happened in theindustry over the last 20 plus
years is that we landed up withthese two kind of things
happening.
On the one side, there were alot of companies selling data
that's like come to our genetictest.
We're going to give you 100,000genes, or 50,000 genes, or
5,000 genes, and we're going totell you who your cousins are
(17:46):
and where you came from.
And we're going to tell youyour health and we're going to
tell you your disease.
And we're going to tell youhealth and we're going to tell
you disease and we're going totell you what drugs to take or
not to take.
And so it was like more isbetter.
If I test more genes, it'sbetter, and my, my test is
better if I can test more.
So that was happening on oneside of the industry.
On the other side of theindustry.
We had this complete oppositeidea, which is, if I only test
(18:09):
one gene I don't know if some ofyou are listening may have
heard of this gene called MTHFRor APOE or COMPT and what
happened is there were entireindustries it's like an
industrial complex that werebuilt around testing the single
gene, mthfr, and what happenedis all these companies had
(18:30):
supplement companies.
So you would test MTHFR, theywould make all these assumptions
about your health and yourdisease, often without using a
practitioner like Elena, andthen they would say and you need
this supplement and thissupplement, this supplement and
20 supplements later, not onlyhad you spent thousands of
dollars on supplements, but youwere probably feeling incredibly
(18:51):
ill, because the reality isthat's not how your body works,
right?
We don't want to do that.
So we had this single gene comeout overkill and we had this
data overkill, and so what I wastrying to understand is neither
of these actually answer thequestion what does?
So?
I built something calledpathway-based results, and the
(19:16):
idea is that when you look at apathway in your body and all of
you can relate to inflammation,detoxification, glucose and
insulin hormones right, thesepathways are not one gene.
If you ever see an article inTime or newsweek or cnn or
whatever it is.
You watch for your media,tiktok or instagram, and it
(19:38):
tells you that they found thefat gene or they found the brain
gene or they found.
It's just not true.
It's really just not true.
Too good to be true.
If it's too good to be true, itit usually is right.
So, how does it work?
There is no single gene that isgoing to determine any of that,
but when we look at thesepathways take inflammation as an
(20:01):
example there are many, manygenes that will contribute to
inflammation, and so what we doat 3x4 is we look at that
pathway.
We have five full-timegeneticists.
We don't use AI, we don't usesearch engines.
They're real humans and theyreview the scientific literature
and we determine what are thegenes that are going to give us
(20:22):
the greatest insight intoinflammation.
We group them together and wescore them for every single
patient.
We score them for every singlepatient and so by scoring them
like that, we're able todetermine if, for you, your
inflammatory genes are going tomake you more susceptible.
We don't know that youabsolutely have information, but
(20:45):
we know that you are moresusceptible to it and then,
having that information, youwork with your clinician, like
Elena, to be able to manage thatand see how that's playing out,
like Elena, and to be able tomanage that and see how that's
playing out.
So pathway-based analysis, justagain, is a polygenic score, a
grouping of genes that have beenscored together based on a
metabolic pathway that ishappening in your body, and we
do that in 36 pathways.
So we get 36 of these scores,which is what you get in your
(21:09):
report.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Well, and you know it's interesting that the
pathways can be surprising.
I know for mine.
You know, blood pressure showedup and I'm like all right, no
one in my family has that.
And yet all of us test for theblood pressure dysregulation.
But you know, once again forlisteners who are learning about
this test for the first time,just because it comes up as one
of your top three pathwaysdoesn't mean that it's actively
(21:32):
working against you.
It's just saying hey, if youdon't make the right choices,
this is what can happen and thisis going to be a weak spot for
you.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Can I tell a story about that?
It's such an interesting point.
So often I do feedback reportsand I was actually meeting with
a doctor one of the most highlyrespected doctors in the US and
I was doing his report.
I was actually meeting with adoctor one of the most highly
respected doctors in the US andI was doing his report.
I was quite nervous and I'mlooking at an image of him and
he looks ridiculously healthy.
I mean, he runs ultramarathonsand he's healthy and oh, he just
(22:03):
looks amazing.
And I'm looking at his reportand I'm seeing one of our
pathways is around mood right.
One of our pathways is aroundmood right, mood and behavior,
anxiety, depression, addhd,addiction, behavior all these
things I mentioned have a stronggenetic component to them,
right?
And so I'm looking at him andI'm going like you're the
(22:23):
picture of health.
I cannot figure out why I'mseeing what I'm seeing in the
report.
Right, remember, we don't knowwhat we don't know, right.
So I said to him like I'm alittle embarrassed, I'm seeing
this in the report, right,remember, we don't know what we
don't know, right.
So I said to him like I'm alittle embarrassed, I'm seeing
this in your report, buteverything I know about you is
like you're the healthiestperson I know.
And when I told him what I'dseen which actually some genes
(22:46):
around, anxiety, depression,some addiction he said to me oh
my gosh, I was an alcoholic whenI was 21.
Wow, yeah.
And he says I have alcoholismin my family, that's.
And he said my family's allobese.
There's a lot of drug andalcohol.
And I managed to find my way outinto the world of health and
(23:07):
functional health diet, he says.
And he says now I exercise alot.
So he said I I acknowledge thatI swapped one addiction
behavior for another, which iswhy I run endurance events, but
I managed to maintain my healthand I was like, oh, so that's
why I was seeing what I'm seeing.
So sometimes, when you don'tsee it manifest, it's because
(23:29):
we're making great choicesalready and also remember that
these chronic diseases, whetherit's cardiovascular or it's
diabetes or any of these, takedecades.
They don't happen overnight.
So while if you're young andnothing's happening, that's
great, but we're trying tomanage those next couple of
decades, Right right, all thechoices you make in your current
(23:51):
decade will determine your nextcouple.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Hopefully you have a couple more.
But you know, going back to acertain pathway or gene, you
know a lot of people arefamiliar with methylation or
MTHFR, but it doesn't stop thereand you know for those of you
listening who don't knowmethylation is one of the most
important processes happeningcontinually in nearly every cell
of your body that can influenceyour overall health and genetic
(24:14):
expression.
But this is only one piece ofthe puzzle and you could be
missing out on the full pictureif you fixate on this particular
aspect and a lot of tests onlytest methylation.
So what would you say is therisk of only looking at
methylation?
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, so I have the same attitude to only
methylation as I do to only onegene is that we can never look
at a single gene in themethylation pathway.
We need to look at all thegenes in the methylation.
And we can never look atmethylation without the context
of everything else that'shappening in our body.
So, you know, we talk about, asyou know, in 3x4, in those core
cellular systems.
(24:52):
Methylation is fascinating andimportant, so is inflammation,
and so is detoxification, and sois, you know, oxidative stress,
and so is histamine, and so ishormone.
So the reason we built 3x4 likeit is you don't get to choose
that I only want to domethylation or I only want to do
weight management, or I onlywant to do methylation, or I
only want to do weightmanagement, or I only want to do
(25:13):
sports or I only want to dobrain.
We don't actually give you theoption.
We give you everything, becausewe don't know what we don't
know right.
We don't know.
So someone, as another examplesomeone comes to you and they've
been battling to lose weighttheir whole life and we have a
lot of pathways around how weconsume energy, how we burn up
energy, how genetics impacts oureating behavior and our hunger
(25:36):
and appetite.
But sometimes someone will cometo you and they'll say I've
been battling with my weight mywhole life.
I've tried every diet to stopworking.
It must be because of mymetabolism or I'm hungry.
And when we look at the geneticreport, it's actually detox and
inflammation.
It's not about calories andenergy.
It's actually detox andinflammation.
It's not about calories andenergy.
It's actually happening indetox.
(25:56):
And if your detox and yourinflammation are not functioning
optimally, you're not going tolose weight.
So that's just another exampleof why we built it in the way we
built it and why we neverrecommend you.
Only look at one pathway likemethylation.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Thank you for that and I just wanted to bring that
one up, since that is one of themost well-known ones and people
.
You will be surprised.
I thought methylation was myproblem.
Then I did the 3x4 and realized, oh no, I have other problems.
That one was actually okay, butbecause I had all these other
things that I wasn't addressingappropriately, then methylation
had to work harder.
(26:32):
So you'll always be surprised.
But what I love too, that youknow, even though it's not a
specific gene focus, in the 3x4report there are what you call
the pop stars.
Can you explain what the popstars are in this test and why
it's important in this test?
And why it's important?
Yeah, so you'll see if you doyour own genetic report.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
You'll see on your reports some genes have a little
yellow star next to them and wecall them pop stars.
And the reason we call it popstars is what we do is, every
time we make a decision whichgenes to include in our report,
we obviously do a full review ofthe science, but it's not just
about is the science good enough?
We always ask the question willthis be useful to you, will
(27:16):
this help you make better andmore meaningful and more
personalized decisions?
And we score all thesequestions how good is the
science and how useful is thisclinically?
And every single gene that wereview, every single gene
variant, gets a score.
Every single gene that wereview, every single gene
variant, gets a score.
And some gene variants are justquite amazing.
(27:39):
The scientific literature isamazing.
Their impact on the body issignificant.
How useful they are.
For you to know about them isreally important.
And they score really high.
When you, when they score above90 which means they pretty much
ticked every box of everycriteria we were looking at they
(28:00):
get pop star status.
And so when what we teacheveryone is when you're looking
at a report and you see a popstar, pay attention, pay
attention.
It's not that by itself it's soimportant that you ignore the
pathways, but it is moreimpactful than most of the other
ones that we've included.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
It's a big player and I love how you keep it so
positive.
It gets this gold star and youthink, oh, I'm a winner.
It's like well, okay, you canbe, let's just work on these
things.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
You can be because you wouldn't like paying
attention to resolve somethingthat you could have ignored.
So Because you wouldn't likepaying attention to resolve
something that you could haveignored.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
So you know, Right, I love that.
Well, you know.
Yet another thing that I justlove doing with this test is
it's fun to compare test resultsbetween family members.
I have nine siblings and so farI've gotten almost half of them
to do their 3x4.
And I got my mom to do it, andmy dad's supposed to do it soon.
Four, and I got my mom to do itand my dad's supposed to do it
soon.
And it's just interesting tosee that my one sister and I
(28:54):
have almost identical results,whereas another sister and I
only have a few similarities,namely the blood pressure one.
But you know, aside from itbeing fun and interesting, how
important would you say it isfor family units to do the
testing together?
Speaker 2 (29:15):
do the testing together.
I get asked that question a lot, so I think it's valuable.
You know, I've worked with lotsof families before and what you
can do is you can have mom anddad done or whatever that
configuration is, and then youcan kind of guess which
combination of genes the childinherited.
Sure, but there's no way ofknowing if you're right.
(29:36):
So I've seen it in familiesLike again, you know, I know a
family where both parents arevery overweight, they're obese.
Three children, two are veryobese, one is like a string bean
, right, so genes aren'tinherited equally from parents,
and so you can guess.
But I always say, everyonealways asks me but we should do
(30:02):
a genetic test, and I'm like,really Everyone should do a
genetic test.
I'm so sweet, it's aonce-in-a-lifetime test.
So if you do it, if you're atone.
And the other question is howyoung is too young?
There's no too young, right?
Because the soonest you knowthat information, the soonest
you can start curating thatenvironment to optimize the
(30:24):
health and whether it's a childwith ADD or it's a child who
suffers from anxiety or hormonesin a teenager who you want to
think about.
What hormones are you know?
You know how many, how manyyoung girls are put on
contraceptive pills when wedon't understand the why of what
their hormones are doing.
Sure, there's never a bad ageto do it and there's never a
(30:45):
person who wouldn't benefit fromit.
So, you know, I know there'stimes where it cost is an issue
and you're like I'm going totest this one and this one in
the family and I'm not going totest that one.
But ideally you want to know.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
You want to know because you can't actually guess
what you're taking on in person, and knowledge is power.
I look at my one sister whotested her six-year-old and he
actually had some very similargenes to me and I've had a long
health journey.
My health crashed in college.
I had to start over, rebuild mylife and it took me years and
years to reach a point of stablehealth again.
(31:18):
So when I saw she did his testand his results, I'm like I'm
just so happy and grateful thatthis kid can be spared.
Or my little sister, the one whohad similar results with me.
She's 15 years younger than meand I'm like hey, sis, don't
worry, I'm 15 years older, I canhelp you do the right things,
Cause I did everything the wrongway first.
But now we have this genetictest and you don't have to spend
(31:41):
your twenties and thirtiestrying to get health back.
So it's so valuable.
So so valuable.
But would you say that thereare specific things you see more
often than not within a certainpopulation in regards to
genetic variants?
You know?
And if so, why do you thinkthat?
What do you mean?
Speaker 2 (31:59):
by a particular population or even cultures.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I should say, you know, in specific cultures do
you see certain things that aregoing to be reflected?
You know certain genes thathave been passed down.
Does that play into it at all?
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Well, look, I'm Jewish, me too, are you also
right?
So we know we didn't get thepot black of genes Right.
So we know that there aredifferent populations the Indian
population, the Jewishpopulation, some of the Greeks
who, we do, tend to inherit someof the genes that make health
(32:31):
more difficult, and we know that, around things like Crohn's
disease, ulcerative colitis,some around heart disease and
even some of the cancer.
So there definitely is aninheritance, and we know this,
about the frequency of the waythe genes appear.
But you know, I don't thinkthat's relevant to 3x4 actually,
(32:59):
okay, great, yeah, yeah, I lovethat when we build our test, we
don't look at just caucasiansor just hispanic or just asian.
We use something called aglobal frequency, um, and that
means we're looking across alldifferent populations.
Whether it's Asian, hispanic,jewish, caucasian, like it
doesn't matter, We've got tocover it.
And so it's more important aboutwhat is happening in this
(33:22):
metabolic process that yourgenes are impacting than what is
the culture I mean.
What's interesting, of course,is which is more cultural is
what are we eating?
Sure, sure.
Where are we sourcing our foodand what is the environment of
eating like?
Are we cooking?
Are we are we?
Are we cooking at home.
Some cultures are better thanothers, that are, we sharing
(33:42):
food amongst the family, havingbeautiful big family dinners
much better for our epigeneticsthan eating alone.
So I think the culture actuallycomes into the epigenetics of
those things that are.
You know, when you eat togetherin joy, with your family,
you're switching on the bestgenes.
When you're lonely and isolated, like in COVID, you're
(34:06):
switching on genes that canreally affect things, things
like mental health, your bodyand your health.
So it's interesting, it's likeit's always thinking about that
genetic epigenetic relationshipand I do think culture is a very
strong epigenetic conversationit's, it's hopefully usually a
positive thing, you know, and Iright, right, if it's not hate,
(34:28):
I've got a big table, call me.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
We have family dinners all the time, okay, so,
yeah, hey, everyone.
This is for absolutely everyone.
It does not apply to anycertain culture, gender, race.
This is for everyone, and Ilove when there is something
that is so useful that is foreveryone.
But you know, what I also loveis when I get to see a 3x4 test
(34:54):
result and a total toxin test,because we run a lot of those,
and when I get to see themtogether and compare them, it's
always spot on.
Yeah, the 3x4 test alwaysexplains why that particular
toxin is a problem, because if Isee a toxin test alone, I can
develop a targeted detoxprotocol and we get great
results.
However, we can go from greatto even greater, because when I
(35:18):
have that genetic information, Ican actually help address why
the body is holding on to saidtoxin in the first place, and
then you can do a lot more witha lot less.
You know, like your point, howmuch of this can we, or how
little this can we do for thegreatest gain and greatest good?
But I have to also wonder,though what are the long-term
impacts of our toxic exposureson our genetics?
(35:40):
Because we continue to live ina life that is bombarded with
toxins in every single area oflife.
What is your take on that Like?
How do you think our toxins inour environment are impacting
our genes?
Oh my gosh where to start.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Yeah, I mean, toxins are such a big problem and, um,
they're not going away, right.
So you're 100% right what yousaid.
You know.
Genes give us the why.
So why, you know?
We always go back to thatage-old story of someone you
know who smoked cigarettes untilthey were 110 and died from old
age you know, that's a detoxconversation, you know.
(36:18):
So, the way we metabolizetoxins will determine how
damaging they are to our body.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
That's methylation, right Like which genes are being
.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Yeah, it's methylation, it's detox, it's
inflammation, it's oxidativestress.
So someone who manages to getto 110 smoking has an incredible
detox system.
It means that any smokeparticle that's coming into
their body is being grabbedimmediately and got out of the
body super quickly.
Some people are really good atit.
Some of us are not so good atit.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
I'm one of those.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
That when a toxin comes into my body, I am not so
effective at clearing it.
So I need to do two things.
I need to do a genetic test soI understand where in my detox
profile am I having those blockswhere I'm not effectively
clearing toxins.
The second thing is I need tomake diet and lifestyle
(37:09):
decisions that are going toswitch on my detox genes to help
me clear toxins.
And, of course, the third thingis I need to reduce the amount
of toxins in my life and and youneed to get that combination.
So detox is so huge because theworld is getting, you know,
worse um microplastics and, andyou know I'm sure you also teach
(37:31):
us, elena that toxins aren'tonly about what is in our
environment, but also what ourbody produces.
Absolutely, our body producesour gut, our body produces
toxins and, of course, ourenvironment produces toxins.
And stress and trauma and allthese things.
So we really need to have a bigpicture idea about it.
Where are they coming frominside our body and outside?
(37:52):
How are we metabolizing thetoxins?
Genetics gives us insight.
And then, what is the toxins inour environment?
Whether it's mold or whetherit's pesticides, or whether it's
anything that we're living inin our house, the products we're
using?
How do we reduce that?
And so I do think that thereason we're seeing more cancers
(38:16):
and not less is because ourtoxin load is just going up all
the time, and it's especiallyhard in the USA.
I haven't lived in China orRussia, but I've lived in quite
a few countries, and I think theUSA for me, especially the food
system and the food productsyou can buy from the supermarket
, it's really hard.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Call it a first world problem, because here we have
all these conveniences, but it'sto our demise.
And it doesn't have to be thatway, because I always like to
look at where's the hope here.
And that is what I have foundwith the 3x4 genetic test.
And that is what I have foundwith the 3x4 genetic test.
It does give you hope tounderstand.
(39:01):
Hey, I can't remove all thesethings, but I can help repair
and support this pathway so mybody can be resilient.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
You know we Right Right One of your greatest
weapons to target toxins.
So it's totally doable and Ithink again coming back to my
knowledge is power.
If we know how we metabolizetoxins, if we know where the
toxins are coming from ourenvironment and we know how we
can make choices to improve theway we remove toxins from our
(39:24):
body, we now can do somethingabout it and that's our power.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
I love it.
We often have clients withchronic autoimmune issues and
sometimes well oftentimesundiagnosed conditions.
That's why they're here.
They're plagued with fatigueand weight gain and other
symptoms.
How could 3x4 influence theirhealing program?
I mean, I have my answer, but Iwant to hear your answer.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
You know, I've yet to see a condition that 3x4 didn't
add value to, and autoimmune isone of them.
I mean, autoimmune, again, isjust growing Rampant, rampant
Hashimoto's, thyroid, justinsane Rheumatoid arthritis.
And so, again, you know, why isone individual so much more
(40:14):
susceptible to developingantibodies?
You know, thyroid Hashimoto's,and another.
And genetics is a lot aboutresilience.
Why are some of us moreresilient against the toxins and
the stresses of our life andothers not?
And so, again, you know, 3x4doesn't give you one answer
(40:36):
about.
You got a thyroid issue becauseof x, right, it's not one thing
, not one thing, right.
But when we look at thosepathways, inflammation, detox,
methylation, oxidative glucose,insulin, it could be a hormone,
it could be histamine it givesus.
Every person who arrives atautoimmune arrives on a
different journey.
Every person who arrives atdiabetes arrives at a different
(40:58):
journey.
Same with migraines.
You know, migraines, again, sorampant.
No person gets a migraine forthe same reason or with the same
triggers.
And so 3X4 has been amazingwith migraine work, trying to
say, well, actually, this it'shistamine.
Histamine, right, right, brokendown, it's gonna, you're gonna,
(41:21):
have the most terribleheadaches and heights.
So, and guess what?
We can make some amazingchanges in your diet that can
help us with histamine and themigraines resolve.
So there isn't a conditionwhere genetics has not been
shown to be helpful.
Yeah, they all have raremedical conditions.
I should say, as a caveat, somerare medical conditions that
(41:41):
are and again the word rare thatare caused by genes, that there
is very little we can do withdiet and lifestyle, but but
there's aren't the genes that wetest for and that's not the
genes we're talking about that'snot the purpose, right, the
purpose of the 3x4 is here's theproblem and here's the solution
you aren't just giving.
That is the problem 99% ofconditions, so the 1% that are
(42:04):
caused by genes that that are sorare that the diet and
lifestyle is really notsomething you generally see in
practice.
Right and and that is, andthat's why I don't work in that
space, because I want to work inthe place where every gene we
look at we can do something, andI love that because I tell
people that this test is notgoing to give you all of your
(42:25):
genes.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
You don't need that for this.
There's genetic tests out therewith all your gene codes that
even the top geneticists in theworld don't know what to do with
, but this one is only going totest the genes we can actually
do something with, and that ispowerful, so powerful kind of
like.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
you know, go ahead I was gonna say you don't need me
on this podcast no, no, it'svaluable to have you know.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
have you getting it straight from the horse's mouth,
so to speak?
But you know, I've had so muchfun seeing genetic pathways that
have to do with weightmanagement, fitness and recovery
, because I can't tell you howmany people I see, specifically
women, who have been trained todo the exact opposite of what
their bodies need.
And I know for me, when Istarted following my
(43:11):
recommendations for fitness andrecovery, my weight fluctuations
and burnout went away, and forme that meant I actually had to
do a lot less than what I hadbeen doing, and that's
counterintuitive.
But it's amazing to know wow,I've been doing too much for all
these years and it's finallycatching up with me.
So it's just incredible whatcan happen when you follow what
(43:33):
your genetics need.
Yeah, but do you have afavorite pathway?
I mean, I was the same.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
I used to just do endurance training all the time,
like the more running, the morecycling, the more triathlon I
could possibly do.
I thought I was serving myselfin the best way, both from
weight but also from health.
Well, it couldn't be furtherfrom the truth.
And I battled with my weight mywhole life.
I also was exhausted and youknow, and what I realized was
(44:02):
and this is actually, I think, agreater awakening we've had
when I look at my geneticprofile, I need more recovery
than most people.
I cannot train five, six days aweek.
I need recovery.
Recovery for me is reallyimportant.
I cannot train five, six days aweek.
(44:23):
I need recovery.
Recovery for me is reallyimportant.
And what I realized is that, youknow, now we're starting to
understand the value of weighttraining.
And when I look at my geneticprofile, I'm saying, oh my gosh,
it was there all the time and Ineeded to be doing weight
training and with somecardiovascular, some
cardiovascular but not crazyperson cardiovascular which was
pretty much my life, you know, Ithought I was doing an awesome
job but actually I really wasn'tserving my body.
And it's incredible how, whenyou can find that potential that
(44:44):
lives within and get that idealand understand again your
weight journey.
You know every person's weightjourney is different.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Every person.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
There is no formula and there is no one diet.
So, whether it's keto or paleoor carnivore or low carb or high
carb, if you're reading anarticle and telling you this is
the best diet for everyone, it'sthe same as what I said before
it's a red flag.
It's just not true.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
Yep, yep, and you know, know we talk about weight
a little bit and weight isn'teverything, but that's just
something that you see on theoutside.
So I know a lot of people.
That is a big thing for them.
But I love what you said tooearlier about you know, with
weight it's not always weight,it's how are you detoxing?
So that's where it.
There's so much that plays intoit.
(45:30):
And I will say that once again,using this 3x4 genetic test,
it's completely transformed theway I practice as a holistic
health professional, becauseonce you have someone's specific
, never changing blueprint, ithelps me, as the practitioner,
hone in on their protocol.
Because I tell my clients hey,if you aren't having success and
you aren't doing better, it'sas frustrating for me as it is
(45:53):
for you, because I don't wantyou to keep spending your time,
money and energy without theresults you're looking for.
And you know, once again, notalways wait, that'll happen if
it's, you know, if everythingelse is in line.
But when we can target the whysof your health problems, then
you understand that the what'saren't as important.
You have to know the why.
I love it.
Yeah, so you know we've gonethrough the big points of it,
(46:19):
but is there anything that youthink of that our listeners
should know in regards to the3x4?
, like anything I hadn't askedyou or we haven't talked about,
I mean, I think we've covered ahuge amount and I would just say
that there's no reason to thinkthat you're not the right
person for genetic tests.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
It is.
It is something that everysingle person should know about
themselves, and it is a greatgift to know who you are, have
insight into you and stopbeating yourself up for how you
think you should be and whatshould work for you because you
saw it on Oprah or because youread it on in a magazine and saw
(46:57):
it on Instagram.
You know, know who you are, andthat's just an amazing, amazing
journey.
And then one more thing find aclinician like Elena, who knows
what they're doing with thisgenetic test and understands it
and can really help you worktowards your health goals.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Yep, Because hey, also, it's so fun.
People, I'm telling you it's sofun, but I've loved this
conversation, Dr Jaffe, this isjust so much fun and you know
you've shared some time with us.
How can people follow you andkeep track of the work you're
doing, Because I'm sure there'sso much more to learn?
Do you have a social mediapresence?
Speaker 2 (47:35):
I do.
I mean, I have a CL Jaffe, I'mmostly Instagram Okay, and
obviously 3x4 has its ownInstagram.
They're even better at it thanI am and 3x4 has a Facebook page
and I do have Twitter.
I never do it, so I thinkthat's probably the best bet and
we always having conversationsthere and I do a lot of videos
(47:59):
and questions.
I get asked about genetics andthen I do like a little one
minute video.
So if you, if you follow methere, you'll always get my
videos on new things that arehappening.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
I love it.
Well, this seems like theperfect place to wrap up.
We hope you have found thisinformation valuable and we'd
love to hear from you If youwatch the episode on YouTube.
Please like and subscribe toour channel, and also check us
out on Rumble Facebook andInstagram.
If you would like moreinformation about the 3x4
genetic testing or how to takebetter care of your health,
(48:30):
visit k6wellnesscom to schedulean appointment and, until next
time, take care of your health,because your health is worth
fighting for it is.
Thank you, thank you.
Welcome to the K6 Wellness Revolution podcast.
My name is Elena from K6Wellness Center in Dallas, texas
, and on this episode we have avery special guest, dr Yael
Jaffe, founder and chief scienceofficer of 3x4 Genetic Testing.
Today I will be talking with DrJaffe all about her company,
how the 3x4 genetic test works,why her testing is different
(00:22):
from other typical genetictesting on the market, and so
much more.
We talk about the 3x4 genetictest here at K6 Wellness all the
time, and it is definitely myfavorite test that we offer,
because you know, we strive toeducate our clients as much as
possible about every aspect oftheir health and wellness, but
when you take a 3x4 genetic testthrough us, we are able to dig
(00:44):
deeper and more specificallyinto your health than with any
other tool, in my opinion.
So this episode is for those ofyou who may want an even deeper
understanding of these genetictests and a full knowledge of
what these do for your health.
So with that, I'd like to saywelcome, dr Jaffe, and I'm very
happy to be here.
Yes, this is something I'velooked forward to because, like
(01:07):
I said, this is my favorite test, so I'm hoping to even learn a
little bit more as we go throughsome questions here, but I'd
love for you to share a littlebit about who you are and your
role at 3Genetics before we goeven deeper.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Great, it's a good place to start.
So I, amazingly enough, didn'teven start in genetics or in
science or nutrition.
I actually started inarchitecture and, as many of us
in this world have a moment, weeither get ill or we have
someone who's dear to us whogets ill mother, who died from
(01:47):
cancer, and I was like you know,it was some time ago um, why
did?
Why did you get cancer?
You know, why did you get it?
Why couldn't we have, um,prevented it?
Why couldn't we have managed itbetter?
And so I kind of leftarchitecture and went looking
for answers and I I studied tobe a dietician so I am a
dietician but was really, reallydisappointed in the answers, or
the lack of answers.
Now, granted, this was a coupleof decades ago, but still, you
(02:09):
know, it just didn't give me anyinsight into the why.
Why did she get cancer?
And so I kind of went on myjourney once I got my degree and
was lucky enough to be livingin London and met an amazing
woman, one of my first mentor,dr Rosalind Gil-Garrison, who
was a geneticist and shebelieved that the future of
medicine and health would begenetics and nutrition.
(02:31):
And I was like, reallySeriously Like, what is even the
relationship.
So that started my journey veryslowly and after a couple of
years working with her, wentback to university.
I got a PhD in genetics, butall the time specializing in
this area of what we callnutrigenomics, nutrition
(02:51):
genomics and and therelationships between our genes
and what we eat and the life welive, and we'll talk a little
bit more about that.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
And that was 24 years ago wow, wow, I I love you know
, I actually didn't start inhealth either.
I started in musical theaterand had a health crisis, and
that's what brought me to this.
And in all the years of all mysearching for myself so I could
do my job better and I couldlive better, once again, this
test was a turning point for me.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
But before we get into that, I think we probably
should begin by discussing acommon confusion that people
have when it comes to genetics.
You know what is the differencebetween genetics and
epigenetics?
Because I find that peopleoften think these two are
interchangeable.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yes, yes, and that's a great place to start and you
know, I think it's always goodwhen we have a podcast like this
is to make sure that we allhave our definitions right, that
we all know what we're talkingabout, because otherwise it gets
a bit messy as we go along.
So I'd love to just define whatis genetics, what is
epigenetics and what is therelationship between them,
(03:56):
because epigenetics has become avery big buzzword and I love
epigenetics, but I don't thinkanyone ever truly understands
what we mean by that.
So let's start with genetics.
So the best way to describegenetics is we all have a code
in our body, right, it's ourblueprint.
You've heard about chromosomes,and chromosomes contain our DNA,
(04:19):
and this DNA, in essence, isthe language of who we are.
So in English, we talk about 26letters of the language, and we
make words and we makesentences and we make stories
and paragraphs.
It's kind of the same withgenetics, except instead of
having 26 letters, we have fourletters A, t, g and C and what
(04:39):
we do with these letters is wemake them into words, we make
them into sentences andultimately what we're doing is
we're saying what are thesegenes, what are the proteins
they're making in our body andthe proteins they're making in
the body define who we are.
Now, 99.9% of that code isidentical between all of us, but
(05:01):
at 0.1% we are different fromeach other and that means that
three to four million places inour DNA our spelling is a little
bit different.
And this isn't a bad thing.
This is just who we are.
This is evolution.
But the amazing thing is thesespelling changes, which we often
call slips or polymorphisms.
I like spelling changes givesus insight into who we are and
(05:27):
how we respond to the worldaround us, to the food we eat,
the supplements we take, theexercise we do, the stresses we
have, the trauma we endure, thetoxins in our environment.
So genetics when we do agenetic test like 3x4, we're
gaining insight into thatresponse.
So that's genetics.
Now epigenetics.
(05:48):
So the word epi means above.
Epigenetics is above genetics.
So this is not about oursequence code.
This is not about our blueprintand our code.
This is about how genes switchon and off code.
This is about how genes switchon and off Every second of every
day of our lifetime.
(06:09):
Genes are continuously beingswitched on and being switched
off by the choices we make inour life, and we'll talk a
little bit about that.
And when we switch on a gene,we make a protein or an enzyme
or a hormone or a brain message,and when we switch them off, we
stop making that protein.
So what is the relationshipbetween these two?
(06:30):
So I always talk about geneticsas gaining insight into who you
are.
It's our code and it's thoselittle changes in code that make
us different.
Epigenetics is what happens whenwe make choices in our lives.
So when we're consuming a lotof toxins and we're living in
Beijing and there's a lot ofpollution and we're very
stressed, those environmentalthings are going to change the
(06:54):
genes that switch on and off.
By the same way, if we'remaking great choices, we're
meditating and cold waterimmersion and we're eating
beautiful foods and we have aconnection, foods and you know
we have a connection and love inour lives we are switching on
only the best genes.
So I talk about genetics andepigenetics as yin and yang we
(07:15):
cannot have one without theother.
They totally work together.
The one gives us insight andthe other one is the actions
that we take.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So you kind of have a little more control over your
epigenetics.
I mean, you do have controlGenes.
That's what you're born with,but epigenetics that's up to you
.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
And so that's a great relationship, right?
Yeah?
So people say oh, my genes areset in stone, there's nothing I
can do.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
So your genes are what youinherit.
They give you insight into whoyou are, and, based on your
insight and understanding of whoyou are, we then help you make
choices that will optimize theway those genes switch on and
off, and that's how we get tohealth or how we resolve disease
(07:56):
.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Exactly, I love it.
I just love it.
So, with all that in mind, whatled you to develop the 3x4 test
and why 3x4 as the name?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
okay, good, both good questions.
So I um, I have been in thisworld of genetics and for for 24
years and have built manygenetic testing companies and I
also built an education companyteaching clinicians like
yourself how to how to usegenetics in practice.
And then, about about eightyears ago I call it the dark
(08:28):
night of my genetic soul I justhad this moment where I looked
at everything I'd done in mycareer and I looked at what was
happening in the marketplace andthere are hundreds of genetic
tests.
I know I read a statistic of300 to 400 genetic tests in the
US marketplace.
That's like horrific, anyway.
(08:48):
And I was looking at them,right, and I was like, wow, I'm
like 15 years into my career ingenetics and we're doing a
shitty job.
Like we're doing a shitty joband I'm part of that journey,
right, so I'm part of thosecompanies.
I was was like, how did I workso hard for 15?
years and I get to this pointand I look back and I go, no,
like not good enough.
(09:10):
So I I had like a year toreflect on, on this
disappointment anddisillusionment, and this often
happens to me I'll get excitedabout something and do it and
then get disillusioned and thendo something else and I was like
, and I try to spend a yeartrying to figure out where did
we go wrong?
What are the things in thegenetic testing industry that
(09:31):
led us astray, that we not onlyfailed clinicians like yourself,
but we failed consumers, wefailed the public.
We just did not give them thevalue that genetics actually
offers, the potential.
So I spent one year kind ofthinking about it and then I
spent a year thinking about okay, I need to either step away, go
(09:53):
and find another profession, orI need to step in.
I love that was my mission toto step in and build a company
where everything that Iperceived we had done poorly I
would get an opportunity to fixand so so that is, that was my
mission behind 3x4.
(10:13):
we're now six years in, six plusyears in, and um, and obviously
it was my dreams have come true.
Um, and I'll.
I'll tell you briefly, youbriefly, that's part one of your
question, and part two is whythe name?
So no one ever guesses it, soI'll have to tell you.
So when I was teachingclinicians the courses, I built
(10:37):
a model of how clinicians coulduse genetics in their practice,
how clinicians could usegenetics in their practice and I
always say you know, if youcan't create a one-page summary
for your patient from a genetictest, then you shouldn't be
doing this kind of thing.
Amen, right, right.
So how do you do that?
How do you build a one-pager?
So I used to teach this methodand the method was that once
(11:01):
you've reviewed a genetic report, you need to identify what are
the three most important areasof health I need to focus on.
So it could be detox, could beglucose insulin, it could be
hormones right, what are thethree areas that need the most
attention?
The second would be what arethe three most important dietary
changes I can make in my lifethat are going to have the
(11:22):
greatest impact?
So we say, 20% change in your,in your diet or lifestyle, for
80% impact, right?
The third thing would be threelifestyle recommendations and
the last would be threesupplement recommendations.
So it's three, three, three,three, which is three X four.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
That's brilliant, Absolutely brilliant.
And you know I will say thatthat report is the easiest
report I've ever seen.
And the order of it, obviouslyit's your architect background
coming out.
There it is.
It's so neat and tidy, I loveit.
But OK, so with that, why wouldyou say it's important to test
(12:01):
our genetics?
I feel like you kind of hintedon that, but what would you say?
You know, why should peopletest their genetics?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
So there's I'm going to.
I'm going to give you what mykind of philosophy on is, but I
just want to tell you one thingabout genetics.
So genetics gives you your why.
So when you see thingshappening in your life and it
may be hormones, it may be hairloss, it may be exhaustion, it
(12:28):
may be that you can't achievewhat you're trying to in your
weight loss goals like when yousee things like that happen in
your life, genetics is your why.
Genetics gives us the insightabout the why of what is
happening.
Why and this and this goes backto my grandmother right why did
she go on to get cancer?
What was happening in her bodyover 10, 20, 30, 40 years that
(12:52):
she went on to get cancer?
So I always say genetics is thewhy.
That's the first thing.
Then, on a more practical level,why should you do a genetic
test?
Why not just go to a lab andorder every single thing in the
lab that you can order Bloodtest?
Why not just go to a lab andorder every single thing in the
lab that you can order bloodtests and neurotens and all
(13:12):
kinds of tests like?
Why do genetics and I dividedup like this I said we call it a
genes first approach.
Why test your genes beforeanything else?
So the first thing is knowwhere to start.
So if I come to you and I'vegot a whole lot of stuff
happening with me, we need tofigure out where are the most
important areas to focus on sothat I can get the greatest
impact.
Again, 20% intervention for 80%impact.
(13:32):
So we say the first thing isgenetics helps you figure out
where to start.
We have the genes having thegreatest impact that if I
address that with diet andlifestyle, I'm going to get a
great impact.
Okay, the second thing is knowwhat you don't know and I love
this about genetics.
There is always I call them theclinical gems.
There is always a gem in agenetic report and you've used
(13:55):
them so you can see it as wellthat you could not have guessed
that no matter how fabulous youare as a practitioner, there are
going to be things that youlearn about your patient or we
learn about ourselves that wecouldn't have guessed that.
So know what you don't know.
Third thing personization.
Personizing diet and lifestylerecommendations.
(14:16):
We want you to live your bestlife.
We want you to have the mostoptimal diet and lifestyle you
can have.
Genetics helps us reach thatlevel of optimal personalization
.
Next one precision testing.
So if I am going to order testsfor you, I want to order them
because I know they're going tobe valuable to me as a clinician
(14:37):
.
I don't want to just order thembecause I'm going to order
everything and see what comes up, what I call like a fishing
expedition, so we can usegenetics as a screening tool to
help us figure out what are thetests that we really need to do,
so we don't waste your money,that we use your money very
carefully by deciding what testswe need.
And the last one actuallyspeaks to the same point it's
(14:59):
targeted supplementation.
I want to use supplements foryou, but I don't want to order
every supplement just becausethe scientific literature says
it's valuable.
I want supplements that aregoing to do two things they're
going to be exactly what youneed and they're going to
optimize your gene expression.
They're going to optimize theway your genes switch on and off
.
So those are all the reasonswhy, as a once-off test remember
(15:23):
genetics is a once-off test.
Remember genetics is a once-offtest.
You do it once, you never payagain, you never swab again.
The value of it is so, so high.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
You know, when you think about the value, it's
incredibly cheap to get thistest and I have to tell people
because I don't know if even allof our listeners know I think
you've picked up by now.
You don't do.
If even all of our listenersknow I think you've picked up by
now.
You don't do this test againbecause your genes will not
change.
What will change is which oneshave been turned on or off, and
you'll know based on yoursymptoms and your point of
(15:53):
health.
But it never changes.
So it really is such a greatdeal for that specific
information.
And I've spent a lot of timewith the 3x4 tests.
I just love it.
I dream in 3x4 test results.
Not just me.
It's great to hear, and youknow I love exploring the
different genes that show up andexplaining them to people.
(16:13):
But I am sure to always explainthat this is, you know, here's
the specific genes.
That are only one part of it,and typically people are using
their genetic tests to eitherlook at their ancestry or
they're fixating on thesecertain genes.
And I think the most commonquestion we get from clients is
well, how is this different from23andMe or Ancestrycom?
And I'm not trying to slam them, but they just aren't as useful
(16:36):
to the consumer.
Well, they're a different test,right?
Right, different purpose.
And when I get those results,I'm like I still need you to do
3x4 so I can see the pathway.
3x4 is a pathway-based test, socan you explain for our
listeners the difference betweenthe gene-focused versus
pathway-based genetic testing,which obviously is what sets 3x4
(16:58):
apart from all the other tests?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
So, yes, yes and yes, preaching to the converted.
You know, when I was talkingabout that terrible year I had
where I was kind of coming,trying to come to terms with
where we had gotten wrong.
Um, and and this speaks to your23andme conversation and
23andme is a great ancestrycompany, and and ancestrycom is
(17:24):
a great ancestry company, yep,but they're not health companies
.
So what happened in theindustry over the last 20 plus
years is that we landed up withthese two kind of things
happening.
On the one side, there were alot of companies selling data
that's like come to our genetictest.
We're going to give you 100,000genes, or 50,000 genes, or
5,000 genes, and we're going totell you who your cousins are
(17:46):
and where you came from.
And we're going to tell youyour health and we're going to
tell you your disease.
And we're going to tell youhealth and we're going to tell
you disease and we're going totell you what drugs to take or
not to take.
And so it was like more isbetter.
If I test more genes, it'sbetter, and my, my test is
better if I can test more.
So that was happening on oneside of the industry.
On the other side of theindustry.
We had this complete oppositeidea, which is, if I only test
(18:09):
one gene I don't know if some ofyou are listening may have
heard of this gene called MTHFRor APOE or COMPT and what
happened is there were entireindustries it's like an
industrial complex that werebuilt around testing the single
gene, mthfr, and what happenedis all these companies had
(18:30):
supplement companies.
So you would test MTHFR, theywould make all these assumptions
about your health and yourdisease, often without using a
practitioner like Elena, andthen they would say and you need
this supplement and thissupplement, this supplement and
20 supplements later, not onlyhad you spent thousands of
dollars on supplements, but youwere probably feeling incredibly
(18:51):
ill, because the reality isthat's not how your body works,
right?
We don't want to do that.
So we had this single gene comeout overkill and we had this
data overkill, and so what I wastrying to understand is neither
of these actually answer thequestion what does?
So?
I built something calledpathway-based results, and the
(19:16):
idea is that when you look at apathway in your body and all of
you can relate to inflammation,detoxification, glucose and
insulin hormones right, thesepathways are not one gene.
If you ever see an article inTime or newsweek or cnn or
whatever it is.
You watch for your media,tiktok or instagram, and it
(19:38):
tells you that they found thefat gene or they found the brain
gene or they found.
It's just not true.
It's really just not true.
Too good to be true.
If it's too good to be true, itit usually is right.
So, how does it work?
There is no single gene that isgoing to determine any of that,
but when we look at thesepathways take inflammation as an
(20:01):
example there are many, manygenes that will contribute to
inflammation, and so what we doat 3x4 is we look at that
pathway.
We have five full-timegeneticists.
We don't use AI, we don't usesearch engines.
They're real humans and theyreview the scientific literature
and we determine what are thegenes that are going to give us
(20:22):
the greatest insight intoinflammation.
We group them together and wescore them for every single
patient.
We score them for every singlepatient and so by scoring them
like that, we're able todetermine if, for you, your
inflammatory genes are going tomake you more susceptible.
We don't know that youabsolutely have information, but
(20:45):
we know that you are moresusceptible to it and then,
having that information, youwork with your clinician, like
Elena, to be able to manage thatand see how that's playing out,
like Elena, and to be able tomanage that and see how that's
playing out.
So pathway-based analysis, justagain, is a polygenic score, a
grouping of genes that have beenscored together based on a
metabolic pathway that ishappening in your body, and we
do that in 36 pathways.
So we get 36 of these scores,which is what you get in your
(21:09):
report.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Well, and you know it's interesting that the
pathways can be surprising.
I know for mine.
You know, blood pressure showedup and I'm like all right, no
one in my family has that.
And yet all of us test for theblood pressure dysregulation.
But you know, once again forlisteners who are learning about
this test for the first time,just because it comes up as one
of your top three pathwaysdoesn't mean that it's actively
(21:32):
working against you.
It's just saying hey, if youdon't make the right choices,
this is what can happen and thisis going to be a weak spot for
you.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Can I tell a story about that?
It's such an interesting point.
So often I do feedback reportsand I was actually meeting with
a doctor one of the most highlyrespected doctors in the US and
I was doing his report.
I was actually meeting with adoctor one of the most highly
respected doctors in the US andI was doing his report.
I was quite nervous and I'mlooking at an image of him and
he looks ridiculously healthy.
I mean, he runs ultramarathonsand he's healthy and oh, he just
(22:03):
looks amazing.
And I'm looking at his reportand I'm seeing one of our
pathways is around mood right.
One of our pathways is aroundmood right, mood and behavior,
anxiety, depression, addhd,addiction, behavior all these
things I mentioned have a stronggenetic component to them,
right?
And so I'm looking at him andI'm going like you're the
(22:23):
picture of health.
I cannot figure out why I'mseeing what I'm seeing in the
report.
Right, remember, we don't knowwhat we don't know, right.
So I said to him like I'm alittle embarrassed, I'm seeing
this in the report, right,remember, we don't know what we
don't know, right.
So I said to him like I'm alittle embarrassed, I'm seeing
this in your report, buteverything I know about you is
like you're the healthiestperson I know.
And when I told him what I'dseen which actually some genes
(22:46):
around, anxiety, depression,some addiction he said to me oh
my gosh, I was an alcoholic whenI was 21.
Wow, yeah.
And he says I have alcoholismin my family, that's.
And he said my family's allobese.
There's a lot of drug andalcohol.
And I managed to find my way outinto the world of health and
(23:07):
functional health diet, he says.
And he says now I exercise alot.
So he said I I acknowledge thatI swapped one addiction
behavior for another, which iswhy I run endurance events, but
I managed to maintain my healthand I was like, oh, so that's
why I was seeing what I'm seeing.
So sometimes, when you don'tsee it manifest, it's because
(23:29):
we're making great choicesalready and also remember that
these chronic diseases, whetherit's cardiovascular or it's
diabetes or any of these, takedecades.
They don't happen overnight.
So while if you're young andnothing's happening, that's
great, but we're trying tomanage those next couple of
decades, Right right, all thechoices you make in your current
(23:51):
decade will determine your nextcouple.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Hopefully you have a couple more.
But you know, going back to acertain pathway or gene, you
know a lot of people arefamiliar with methylation or
MTHFR, but it doesn't stop thereand you know for those of you
listening who don't knowmethylation is one of the most
important processes happeningcontinually in nearly every cell
of your body that can influenceyour overall health and genetic
(24:14):
expression.
But this is only one piece ofthe puzzle and you could be
missing out on the full pictureif you fixate on this particular
aspect and a lot of tests onlytest methylation.
So what would you say is therisk of only looking at
methylation?
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, so I have the same attitude to only
methylation as I do to only onegene is that we can never look
at a single gene in themethylation pathway.
We need to look at all thegenes in the methylation.
And we can never look atmethylation without the context
of everything else that'shappening in our body.
So, you know, we talk about, asyou know, in 3x4, in those core
cellular systems.
(24:52):
Methylation is fascinating andimportant, so is inflammation,
and so is detoxification, and sois, you know, oxidative stress,
and so is histamine, and so ishormone.
So the reason we built 3x4 likeit is you don't get to choose
that I only want to domethylation or I only want to do
weight management, or I onlywant to do methylation, or I
only want to do weightmanagement, or I only want to do
(25:13):
sports or I only want to dobrain.
We don't actually give you theoption.
We give you everything, becausewe don't know what we don't
know right.
We don't know.
So someone, as another examplesomeone comes to you and they've
been battling to lose weighttheir whole life and we have a
lot of pathways around how weconsume energy, how we burn up
energy, how genetics impacts oureating behavior and our hunger
(25:36):
and appetite.
But sometimes someone will cometo you and they'll say I've
been battling with my weight mywhole life.
I've tried every diet to stopworking.
It must be because of mymetabolism or I'm hungry.
And when we look at the geneticreport, it's actually detox and
inflammation.
It's not about calories andenergy.
It's actually detox andinflammation.
It's not about calories andenergy.
It's actually happening indetox.
(25:56):
And if your detox and yourinflammation are not functioning
optimally, you're not going tolose weight.
So that's just another exampleof why we built it in the way we
built it and why we neverrecommend you.
Only look at one pathway likemethylation.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Thank you for that and I just wanted to bring that
one up, since that is one of themost well-known ones and people
.
You will be surprised.
I thought methylation was myproblem.
Then I did the 3x4 and realized, oh no, I have other problems.
That one was actually okay, butbecause I had all these other
things that I wasn't addressingappropriately, then methylation
had to work harder.
(26:32):
So you'll always be surprised.
But what I love too, that youknow, even though it's not a
specific gene focus, in the 3x4report there are what you call
the pop stars.
Can you explain what the popstars are in this test and why
it's important in this test?
And why it's important?
Yeah, so you'll see if you doyour own genetic report.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
You'll see on your reports some genes have a little
yellow star next to them and wecall them pop stars.
And the reason we call it popstars is what we do is, every
time we make a decision whichgenes to include in our report,
we obviously do a full review ofthe science, but it's not just
about is the science good enough?
We always ask the question willthis be useful to you, will
(27:16):
this help you make better andmore meaningful and more
personalized decisions?
And we score all thesequestions how good is the
science and how useful is thisclinically?
And every single gene that wereview, every single gene
variant, gets a score.
Every single gene that wereview, every single gene
variant, gets a score.
And some gene variants are justquite amazing.
(27:39):
The scientific literature isamazing.
Their impact on the body issignificant.
How useful they are.
For you to know about them isreally important.
And they score really high.
When you, when they score above90 which means they pretty much
ticked every box of everycriteria we were looking at they
(28:00):
get pop star status.
And so when what we teacheveryone is when you're looking
at a report and you see a popstar, pay attention, pay
attention.
It's not that by itself it's soimportant that you ignore the
pathways, but it is moreimpactful than most of the other
ones that we've included.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
It's a big player and I love how you keep it so
positive.
It gets this gold star and youthink, oh, I'm a winner.
It's like well, okay, you canbe, let's just work on these
things.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
You can be because you wouldn't like paying
attention to resolve somethingthat you could have ignored.
So Because you wouldn't likepaying attention to resolve
something that you could haveignored.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
So you know, Right, I love that.
Well, you know.
Yet another thing that I justlove doing with this test is
it's fun to compare test resultsbetween family members.
I have nine siblings and so farI've gotten almost half of them
to do their 3x4.
And I got my mom to do it, andmy dad's supposed to do it soon.
Four, and I got my mom to do itand my dad's supposed to do it
soon.
And it's just interesting tosee that my one sister and I
(28:54):
have almost identical results,whereas another sister and I
only have a few similarities,namely the blood pressure one.
But you know, aside from itbeing fun and interesting, how
important would you say it isfor family units to do the
testing together?
Speaker 2 (29:15):
do the testing together.
I get asked that question a lot, so I think it's valuable.
You know, I've worked with lotsof families before and what you
can do is you can have mom anddad done or whatever that
configuration is, and then youcan kind of guess which
combination of genes the childinherited.
Sure, but there's no way ofknowing if you're right.
(29:36):
So I've seen it in familiesLike again, you know, I know a
family where both parents arevery overweight, they're obese.
Three children, two are veryobese, one is like a string bean
, right, so genes aren'tinherited equally from parents,
and so you can guess.
But I always say, everyonealways asks me but we should do
(30:02):
a genetic test, and I'm like,really Everyone should do a
genetic test.
I'm so sweet, it's aonce-in-a-lifetime test.
So if you do it, if you're atone.
And the other question is howyoung is too young?
There's no too young, right?
Because the soonest you knowthat information, the soonest
you can start curating thatenvironment to optimize the
(30:24):
health and whether it's a childwith ADD or it's a child who
suffers from anxiety or hormonesin a teenager who you want to
think about.
What hormones are you know?
You know how many, how manyyoung girls are put on
contraceptive pills when wedon't understand the why of what
their hormones are doing.
Sure, there's never a bad ageto do it and there's never a
(30:45):
person who wouldn't benefit fromit.
So, you know, I know there'stimes where it cost is an issue
and you're like I'm going totest this one and this one in
the family and I'm not going totest that one.
But ideally you want to know.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
You want to know because you can't actually guess
what you're taking on in person, and knowledge is power.
I look at my one sister whotested her six-year-old and he
actually had some very similargenes to me and I've had a long
health journey.
My health crashed in college.
I had to start over, rebuild mylife and it took me years and
years to reach a point of stablehealth again.
(31:18):
So when I saw she did his testand his results, I'm like I'm
just so happy and grateful thatthis kid can be spared.
Or my little sister, the one whohad similar results with me.
She's 15 years younger than meand I'm like hey, sis, don't
worry, I'm 15 years older, I canhelp you do the right things,
Cause I did everything the wrongway first.
But now we have this genetictest and you don't have to spend
(31:41):
your twenties and thirtiestrying to get health back.
So it's so valuable.
So so valuable.
But would you say that thereare specific things you see more
often than not within a certainpopulation in regards to
genetic variants?
You know?
And if so, why do you thinkthat?
What do you mean?
Speaker 2 (31:59):
by a particular population or even cultures.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I should say, you know, in specific cultures do
you see certain things that aregoing to be reflected?
You know certain genes thathave been passed down.
Does that play into it at all?
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Well, look, I'm Jewish, me too, are you also
right?
So we know we didn't get thepot black of genes Right.
So we know that there aredifferent populations the Indian
population, the Jewishpopulation, some of the Greeks
who, we do, tend to inherit someof the genes that make health
(32:31):
more difficult, and we know that, around things like Crohn's
disease, ulcerative colitis,some around heart disease and
even some of the cancer.
So there definitely is aninheritance, and we know this,
about the frequency of the waythe genes appear.
But you know, I don't thinkthat's relevant to 3x4 actually,
(32:59):
okay, great, yeah, yeah, I lovethat when we build our test, we
don't look at just caucasiansor just hispanic or just asian.
We use something called aglobal frequency, um, and that
means we're looking across alldifferent populations.
Whether it's Asian, hispanic,jewish, caucasian, like it
doesn't matter, We've got tocover it.
And so it's more important aboutwhat is happening in this
(33:22):
metabolic process that yourgenes are impacting than what is
the culture I mean.
What's interesting, of course,is which is more cultural is
what are we eating?
Sure, sure.
Where are we sourcing our foodand what is the environment of
eating like?
Are we cooking?
Are we are we?
Are we cooking at home.
Some cultures are better thanothers, that are, we sharing
(33:42):
food amongst the family, havingbeautiful big family dinners
much better for our epigeneticsthan eating alone.
So I think the culture actuallycomes into the epigenetics of
those things that are.
You know, when you eat togetherin joy, with your family,
you're switching on the bestgenes.
When you're lonely and isolated, like in COVID, you're
(34:06):
switching on genes that canreally affect things, things
like mental health, your bodyand your health.
So it's interesting, it's likeit's always thinking about that
genetic epigenetic relationshipand I do think culture is a very
strong epigenetic conversationit's, it's hopefully usually a
positive thing, you know, and Iright, right, if it's not hate,
(34:28):
I've got a big table, call me.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
We have family dinners all the time, okay, so,
yeah, hey, everyone.
This is for absolutely everyone.
It does not apply to anycertain culture, gender, race.
This is for everyone, and Ilove when there is something
that is so useful that is foreveryone.
But you know, what I also loveis when I get to see a 3x4 test
(34:54):
result and a total toxin test,because we run a lot of those,
and when I get to see themtogether and compare them, it's
always spot on.
Yeah, the 3x4 test alwaysexplains why that particular
toxin is a problem, because if Isee a toxin test alone, I can
develop a targeted detoxprotocol and we get great
results.
However, we can go from greatto even greater, because when I
(35:18):
have that genetic information, Ican actually help address why
the body is holding on to saidtoxin in the first place, and
then you can do a lot more witha lot less.
You know, like your point, howmuch of this can we, or how
little this can we do for thegreatest gain and greatest good?
But I have to also wonder,though what are the long-term
impacts of our toxic exposureson our genetics?
(35:40):
Because we continue to live ina life that is bombarded with
toxins in every single area oflife.
What is your take on that Like?
How do you think our toxins inour environment are impacting
our genes?
Oh my gosh where to start.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Yeah, I mean, toxins are such a big problem and, um,
they're not going away, right.
So you're 100% right what yousaid.
You know.
Genes give us the why.
So why, you know?
We always go back to thatage-old story of someone you
know who smoked cigarettes untilthey were 110 and died from old
age you know, that's a detoxconversation, you know.
(36:18):
So, the way we metabolizetoxins will determine how
damaging they are to our body.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
That's methylation, right Like which genes are being
.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Yeah, it's methylation, it's detox, it's
inflammation, it's oxidativestress.
So someone who manages to getto 110 smoking has an incredible
detox system.
It means that any smokeparticle that's coming into
their body is being grabbedimmediately and got out of the
body super quickly.
Some people are really good atit.
Some of us are not so good atit.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
I'm one of those.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
That when a toxin comes into my body, I am not so
effective at clearing it.
So I need to do two things.
I need to do a genetic test soI understand where in my detox
profile am I having those blockswhere I'm not effectively
clearing toxins.
The second thing is I need tomake diet and lifestyle
(37:09):
decisions that are going toswitch on my detox genes to help
me clear toxins.
And, of course, the third thingis I need to reduce the amount
of toxins in my life and and youneed to get that combination.
So detox is so huge because theworld is getting, you know,
worse um microplastics and, andyou know I'm sure you also teach
(37:31):
us, elena that toxins aren'tonly about what is in our
environment, but also what ourbody produces.
Absolutely, our body producesour gut, our body produces
toxins and, of course, ourenvironment produces toxins.
And stress and trauma and allthese things.
So we really need to have a bigpicture idea about it.
Where are they coming frominside our body and outside?
(37:52):
How are we metabolizing thetoxins?
Genetics gives us insight.
And then, what is the toxins inour environment?
Whether it's mold or whetherit's pesticides, or whether it's
anything that we're living inin our house, the products we're
using?
How do we reduce that?
And so I do think that thereason we're seeing more cancers
(38:16):
and not less is because ourtoxin load is just going up all
the time, and it's especiallyhard in the USA.
I haven't lived in China orRussia, but I've lived in quite
a few countries, and I think theUSA for me, especially the food
system and the food productsyou can buy from the supermarket
, it's really hard.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Call it a first world problem, because here we have
all these conveniences, but it'sto our demise.
And it doesn't have to be thatway, because I always like to
look at where's the hope here.
And that is what I have foundwith the 3x4 genetic test.
And that is what I have foundwith the 3x4 genetic test.
It does give you hope tounderstand.
(39:01):
Hey, I can't remove all thesethings, but I can help repair
and support this pathway so mybody can be resilient.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
You know we Right Right One of your greatest
weapons to target toxins.
So it's totally doable and Ithink again coming back to my
knowledge is power.
If we know how we metabolizetoxins, if we know where the
toxins are coming from ourenvironment and we know how we
can make choices to improve theway we remove toxins from our
(39:24):
body, we now can do somethingabout it and that's our power.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
I love it.
We often have clients withchronic autoimmune issues and
sometimes well oftentimesundiagnosed conditions.
That's why they're here.
They're plagued with fatigueand weight gain and other
symptoms.
How could 3x4 influence theirhealing program?
I mean, I have my answer, but Iwant to hear your answer.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
You know, I've yet to see a condition that 3x4 didn't
add value to, and autoimmune isone of them.
I mean, autoimmune, again, isjust growing Rampant, rampant
Hashimoto's, thyroid, justinsane Rheumatoid arthritis.
And so, again, you know, why isone individual so much more
(40:14):
susceptible to developingantibodies?
You know, thyroid Hashimoto's,and another.
And genetics is a lot aboutresilience.
Why are some of us moreresilient against the toxins and
the stresses of our life andothers not?
And so, again, you know, 3x4doesn't give you one answer
(40:36):
about.
You got a thyroid issue becauseof x, right, it's not one thing
, not one thing, right.
But when we look at thosepathways, inflammation, detox,
methylation, oxidative glucose,insulin, it could be a hormone,
it could be histamine it givesus.
Every person who arrives atautoimmune arrives on a
different journey.
Every person who arrives atdiabetes arrives at a different
(40:58):
journey.
Same with migraines.
You know, migraines, again, sorampant.
No person gets a migraine forthe same reason or with the same
triggers.
And so 3X4 has been amazingwith migraine work, trying to
say, well, actually, this it'shistamine.
Histamine, right, right, brokendown, it's gonna, you're gonna,
(41:21):
have the most terribleheadaches and heights.
So, and guess what?
We can make some amazingchanges in your diet that can
help us with histamine and themigraines resolve.
So there isn't a conditionwhere genetics has not been
shown to be helpful.
Yeah, they all have raremedical conditions.
I should say, as a caveat, somerare medical conditions that
(41:41):
are and again the word rare thatare caused by genes, that there
is very little we can do withdiet and lifestyle, but but
there's aren't the genes that wetest for and that's not the
genes we're talking about that'snot the purpose, right, the
purpose of the 3x4 is here's theproblem and here's the solution
you aren't just giving.
That is the problem 99% ofconditions, so the 1% that are
(42:04):
caused by genes that that are sorare that the diet and
lifestyle is really notsomething you generally see in
practice.
Right and and that is, andthat's why I don't work in that
space, because I want to work inthe place where every gene we
look at we can do something, andI love that because I tell
people that this test is notgoing to give you all of your
(42:25):
genes.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
You don't need that for this.
There's genetic tests out therewith all your gene codes that
even the top geneticists in theworld don't know what to do with
, but this one is only going totest the genes we can actually
do something with, and that ispowerful, so powerful kind of
like.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
you know, go ahead I was gonna say you don't need me
on this podcast no, no, it'svaluable to have you know.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
have you getting it straight from the horse's mouth,
so to speak?
But you know, I've had so muchfun seeing genetic pathways that
have to do with weightmanagement, fitness and recovery
, because I can't tell you howmany people I see, specifically
women, who have been trained todo the exact opposite of what
their bodies need.
And I know for me, when Istarted following my
(43:11):
recommendations for fitness andrecovery, my weight fluctuations
and burnout went away, and forme that meant I actually had to
do a lot less than what I hadbeen doing, and that's
counterintuitive.
But it's amazing to know wow,I've been doing too much for all
these years and it's finallycatching up with me.
So it's just incredible whatcan happen when you follow what
(43:33):
your genetics need.
Yeah, but do you have afavorite pathway?
I mean, I was the same.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
I used to just do endurance training all the time,
like the more running, the morecycling, the more triathlon I
could possibly do.
I thought I was serving myselfin the best way, both from
weight but also from health.
Well, it couldn't be furtherfrom the truth.
And I battled with my weight mywhole life.
I also was exhausted and youknow, and what I realized was
(44:02):
and this is actually, I think, agreater awakening we've had
when I look at my geneticprofile, I need more recovery
than most people.
I cannot train five, six days aweek.
I need recovery.
Recovery for me is reallyimportant.
I cannot train five, six days aweek.
(44:23):
I need recovery.
Recovery for me is reallyimportant.
And what I realized is that, youknow, now we're starting to
understand the value of weighttraining.
And when I look at my geneticprofile, I'm saying, oh my gosh,
it was there all the time and Ineeded to be doing weight
training and with somecardiovascular, some
cardiovascular but not crazyperson cardiovascular which was
pretty much my life, you know, Ithought I was doing an awesome
job but actually I really wasn'tserving my body.
And it's incredible how, whenyou can find that potential that
(44:44):
lives within and get that idealand understand again your
weight journey.
You know every person's weightjourney is different.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Every person.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
There is no formula and there is no one diet.
So, whether it's keto or paleoor carnivore or low carb or high
carb, if you're reading anarticle and telling you this is
the best diet for everyone, it'sthe same as what I said before
it's a red flag.
It's just not true.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
Yep, yep, and you know, know we talk about weight
a little bit and weight isn'teverything, but that's just
something that you see on theoutside.
So I know a lot of people.
That is a big thing for them.
But I love what you said tooearlier about you know, with
weight it's not always weight,it's how are you detoxing?
So that's where it.
There's so much that plays intoit.
(45:30):
And I will say that once again,using this 3x4 genetic test,
it's completely transformed theway I practice as a holistic
health professional, becauseonce you have someone's specific
, never changing blueprint, ithelps me, as the practitioner,
hone in on their protocol.
Because I tell my clients hey,if you aren't having success and
you aren't doing better, it'sas frustrating for me as it is
(45:53):
for you, because I don't wantyou to keep spending your time,
money and energy without theresults you're looking for.
And you know, once again, notalways wait, that'll happen if
it's, you know, if everythingelse is in line.
But when we can target the whysof your health problems, then
you understand that the what'saren't as important.
You have to know the why.
I love it.
Yeah, so you know we've gonethrough the big points of it,
(46:19):
but is there anything that youthink of that our listeners
should know in regards to the3x4?
, like anything I hadn't askedyou or we haven't talked about,
I mean, I think we've covered ahuge amount and I would just say
that there's no reason to thinkthat you're not the right
person for genetic tests.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
It is.
It is something that everysingle person should know about
themselves, and it is a greatgift to know who you are, have
insight into you and stopbeating yourself up for how you
think you should be and whatshould work for you because you
saw it on Oprah or because youread it on in a magazine and saw
(46:57):
it on Instagram.
You know, know who you are, andthat's just an amazing, amazing
journey.
And then one more thing find aclinician like Elena, who knows
what they're doing with thisgenetic test and understands it
and can really help you worktowards your health goals.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Yep, Because hey, also, it's so fun.
People, I'm telling you it's sofun, but I've loved this
conversation, Dr Jaffe, this isjust so much fun and you know
you've shared some time with us.
How can people follow you andkeep track of the work you're
doing, Because I'm sure there'sso much more to learn?
Do you have a social mediapresence?
Speaker 2 (47:35):
I do.
I mean, I have a CL Jaffe, I'mmostly Instagram Okay, and
obviously 3x4 has its ownInstagram.
They're even better at it thanI am and 3x4 has a Facebook page
and I do have Twitter.
I never do it, so I thinkthat's probably the best bet and
we always having conversationsthere and I do a lot of videos
(47:59):
and questions.
I get asked about genetics andthen I do like a little one
minute video.
So if you, if you follow methere, you'll always get my
videos on new things that arehappening.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
I love it.
Well, this seems like theperfect place to wrap up.
We hope you have found thisinformation valuable and we'd
love to hear from you If youwatch the episode on YouTube.
Please like and subscribe toour channel, and also check us
out on Rumble Facebook andInstagram.
If you would like moreinformation about the 3x4
genetic testing or how to takebetter care of your health,
(48:30):
visit k6wellnesscom to schedulean appointment and, until next
time, take care of your health,because your health is worth
fighting for it is.
Thank you, thank you.
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