How To Decode Your Genome, Unlock The Nitty-Gritty Details Behind Your DNA, Discover Your Good Genes, Your Bad Genes & More.

Ben Greenfield (0:01)

In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Show.

Joseph Cohen (0:04)

I am a big fan of self-experimentation. I do think there's a role for also understanding, you know, what's going on. And so once I knew that, I said, okay, I know these are the problems, let me just, you know, focus on these things.

A gene is, you know, a certain part of DNA, and the SNF, these single nucleotide variations, are basically composed of genes, right? So this area in the gene is going to be composed of SNPs.

SPEAKER_3 (0:36)

He's an expert in human performance and nutrition.

Voted America's top personal trainer and one of the globe's most influential people in health and fitness. His show provides you with everything you need to optimize physical and mental performance. He is Ben Greenfield.

Ben Greenfield (0:59)

Whatever it is for you that's the natural movement, get out there. When you look at all the studies done, studies that have shown the greatest efficacy.

SPEAKER_3 (1:11)

All the information you need in one place, right here, right now, on the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast.

Ben Greenfield (1:33)

Hey, folks, it's Ben Greenfield here. And if you're like me, you probably wonder what happens when you get one of these DNA tests. Like when you drip a bunch of saliva into a special tube and you mail it off to a company like, say, 23andMe or some other ancestry analysis type of website, what they're actually doing and whether there's, say, much of a difference between paying a couple of hundred bucks or a hundred bucks to a company like 23andMe or DNA Fit and paying like tens of thousands of dollars to one of these companies like the Human Longevity Project to do a full genome sequencing.

You might also wonder, if you're like me, if there's things like bad genes or bad SNPs, if those really truly are bad and if so, is there anything you can do about them?

And then kind of like the future of genetic testing and genetic interpretation and how to kind of like navigate the confusing world of all these different websites out there that promise to somehow interpret and spit out your gene results or give you data based on your gene results. So I figured it is high time that we actually do a podcast where we dive into the wonderful world of genetic analysis and some of the ways that you can get the most out of this pretty cool form of self-quantification. So I got my friend, Joe Cohen, on the show, and Joe's been on the show before.

He came on in the past, and we've talked quite a bit about things like biohacking and self-quantification and optimizing neural function. And I'll link to a previous episode that I've done with Joe on the show notes for this episode, and you can access the show notes over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/decode, as in decoding yourself, bengreenfieldfitness.com/decode. And Joe has actually now founded a company called Self Decode. It's a biotech company that helps you understand your genetics, and they use things like your genetics and your blood tests and symptoms and other health data to give you a ton of information about your body using the genetic information that you import to their website after you've done a test with a company like say 23andMe or DNAfit or any of these other companies that give you like your raw DNA data. So Joe works with a bunch of high-profile executives and biohackers and companies and mostly treats the body almost like a computer program, learning how to decode it. And this Self Decode, which you can check out over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/selfdecode is his brainchild that is a brand new website that lets you delve through all of your DNA results and get a ton of interesting information. I did it. We're going to go through some of my results here on this show, but we're also going to dive into DNA testing in general and how it actually works. So Joe, welcome to the show, man.

Joseph Cohen (4:35)

Hey, man. Glad to be here.

Ben Greenfield (4:37)

Well, just as a complete...

Joseph Cohen (4:38)

You got a great show.

Ben Greenfield (4:39)

Thanks. As a complete aside, I think I emailed you last week. I was actually watching a video that you shot because I was trying to mix up in my kitchen, much to the chagrin of my wife because I left blue stains all over the sink, methylene blue as a nootropic. And you actually have a video out there on how to do it, which I'll link to in the show notes if anyone ever wants to try basically like a fish tank cleaner for maximizing neural and cognitive function and mitochondrial health.