Debbie @ Genetic Lifehacks @GeneticLifehack

🔬 NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has launched a clinical trial to help people with alpha-gal syndrome, a condition caused by tick bites that triggers an allergic reaction to a sugar in red meat. ➡️Learn more: bit.ly/4xSiZiS

Mendelian randomization study found NO association of physical activity, whether self-reported or measured, and sedentary behavior, with heart disease, heart attack, or stroke. Crazy, no? But it just might be true. Causality may be that healthy people exercise, not that exercise makes people healthy. Identical twin studies suggest this, though other Mendelian studies have found differently. link.springer.com/article/10.100…

BDNF is the protein that helps neurons grow, survive, and keep learning. The common Val66Met variant changes how well BDNF gets shipped out of the cell when you need it. Met carriers often show more stress sensitivity and a higher depression risk in the literature, plus links to introversion in some studies. Lifestyle still moves the needle a lot. Exercise is one of the most consistent BDNF raisers. If you have genetic data, this is another one worth checking alongside COMT. geneticlifehacks.com/bdnf-genetic-v…

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Hearts from young donors age rapidly in the bodies of older recipients, and older hearts are rejuvenated inside young people go.nature.com/4rzzsHf

This is an interesting article on neuroinflammation and psychosis. "The “artificial divide” between the body and the mind that separates the fields of psychiatry and neurology is starting to break down, says Michael Zandi, a neurologist at University College London. Psychosis, for example, can be caused by a mix of mental and biological factors, from psychological trauma to drug abuse to physical diseases or infections (such as syphilis) that alter brain activity. Around 3 percent of people will experience a psychotic episode in their lifetime. Brain inflammation caused by the body assaulting itself, as in autoimmune encephalitis, has been recognized for the past couple of decades. In the early stages of this condition, many patients develop the core features of psychosis –– hallucinations, delusions and agitation –– and so are initially sent to psychiatric services." knowablemagazine.org/content/articl…

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Melatonin isn’t only a sleep pill. Levels fall with age as the pineal gland changes and calcifies. Animal studies links supplemental melatonin to longer survival in some models, better mitochondrial function, and immune effects. One diabetes-linked melatonin receptor variant (MTNR1B) even interacts with when you eat dinner and diabetes risk. Sleeping in the dark, blocking blue light in the evening, and getting bright morning light still do more for most people than a melatonin gummy. Find out more - geneticlifehacks.com/melatonin-key-…

Slow COMT here, this is helpful info 👇

Debbie @ Genetic Lifehacks @GeneticLifehack

6 days ago

COMT clears dopamine, norepinephrine, and some estrogen metabolites. The common Val158Met variant changes the amount of available enzyme. Slow COMT can mean better working memory and more stress sensitivity. Fast COMT often flips that, and it is sometimes called the warrior

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When an older heart is transplanted into a younger person, it doesn't stay "old." Vadim Gladyshev's lab shows the heart actually starts aging on the timeline of the body it's now living in — its biological age shifts to match the recipient, not the original donor, at the molecular level. biorxiv.org/content/10.648…

This is an interesting new study on PANDAS - group A strep infections that cause BBB dysfunction and affect the basal ganglia. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13… I’m updating my IL-17 article with this information: geneticlifehacks.com/chronic-inflam…

I also write at Longevity Lifehacks for people building a longevity stack who want the “why” behind each bottle/supplement. Here’s an example: NAD+ can fall by about 50% by midlife, partly because inflammatory CD38 burns through it. Pairing NMN/NR with a CD38-leaning flavonoid may be better than either one alone. longevitylifehacks.substack.com/p/boosting-nad…

COMT clears dopamine, norepinephrine, and some estrogen metabolites. The common Val158Met variant changes the amount of available enzyme. Slow COMT can mean better working memory and more stress sensitivity. Fast COMT often flips that, and it is sometimes called the warrior gene (dumb name). Slow COMT + a sudden influx of methyl donors (e.g. methylfolate, methyl-B12, SAMe, TMG) can feel like mood whiplash - irritability, anxiety, irrational anger. Quercetin/luteolin can inhibit COMT. Check your genes to know (or ask your spouse AITA...) geneticlifehacks.com/comt-genetic-c…

PANS/PANDAS mechanism just published: (They studied strep but it's not limited to strep, I've seen many cases from bartonella) Strep → IL-17A → microglia → leaky blood-brain barrier → sudden personality changes, OCD, tics, & many more. For 20 years parents were told it was psychosocial. It was inflammation due to an infection. It always was.

A Mayo Clinic team just built the cleanest causal test I've seen for NAD's role in aging. They engineered mice whose NAD synthesis depends entirely on dietary niacin, then pulled the niacin. Result: kyphosis, muscle and bone loss, cataracts, frailty, cellular senescence, shortened lifespan. Put niacin back and most of it reverses, without fully restoring NAD. That partial-restoration gap matters. It says NAD depletion triggers senescence programs that do not simply snap back when the cofactor returns. We flagged senescence as a load-bearing hallmark in the Biomarkers of Aging Consortium work (Moqri et al., Cell 2023); this is a rare in vivo model that makes the causal chain from cofactor to senescence to phenotype explicit and reversible. Nat Commun, Benitez-Rosendo, Chini et al. doi.org/10.1038/s41467…

The blood-brain barrier isn’t just about Alzheimer's. An MRI study in long Covid patients with cognitive symptoms showed BBB leakiness years later. Systemic inflammation plus local barrier failure shows up as a pattern in brain fog research in general. Claudin-5 (CLDN5) holds tight junctions together, but stress and inflammatory cytokines can decrease CLDN5. APOE4 also ties in via MMP9 and barrier wear. Supporting the barrier (decreasing inflammation, sufficient DHA/EPA, metabolic control) is good for everyone. geneticlifehacks.com/blood-brain-ba…

Today I met a new patient. She has been treated for Crohn's disease since 1996 without any remission. For the last two years, she has been on Glp-1, and she is in remission, Completely symptom-free. Is it due to reducing pro-inflammatory cytokines, supporting epithelial barrier function, and promoting mucosal repair from Glp-1? We need more research on GLP-1s and their effects on inflammatory bowel disease. #Crohns #Glp1 @BeckyQuick @ScottGottliebMD

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Diet soda isn’t always the right move for everyone. In a large cohort, >2 L/week of artificially sweetened drinks tracked with about 20% higher AFib risk (sugar-sweetened drinks raised risk ~10%). Importantly, people already at higher genetic risk for AFib saw a much steeper increase in risk. Separate research found ~30 days of sucralose linked to ~20% lower insulin sensitivity in lean adults, with gut microbiome shifts. To be clear - the risk from diet drinks isn't huge or acute. But it may be worth weighing if AFib, stroke family history, or insulin resistance is already on your radar. geneticlifehacks.com/artificial-swe…