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#064 Dr. Michael Snyder on Continuous Glucose Monitoring and Deep Profiling for Personalized Medicine

May 27, 2021 1h 15m 17 insights
<p><strong>Michael Snyder</strong></p> <p>Dr. Michael Snyder is the director for the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford and a pioneer and advocate of "deep profiling." Deep profiling seeks to apply intelligent analysis to large data sets to yield specialized clinical insight, ranging from common consumer-grade wearables like Apple Watches to whole-body MRI, continuous glucose monitoring, and metabolomics.</p> <p><strong>In this episode, we discuss:</strong></p> <ul> <li><strong>(00:00)</strong> Introduction to Dr. Michael Snyder</li> <li><strong>(12:51)</strong> Continuous glucose monitor use in people without diabetes</li> <li><strong>(31:04)</strong> A smartwatch helped diagnose Dr. Snyder's Lyme disease</li> <li><strong>(34:00)</strong> Predicting other illnesses with smartwatches</li> <li><strong>(40:41)</strong> Detecting airborne pollutants in the exosome </li> <li><strong>(51:04)</strong> Genetics and metabolism tell us our Ageotypes</li> <li><strong>(58:05)</strong> Exercise is most important for longevity</li> <li><strong>(01:03:11)</strong> Dr. Snyder's lifestyle habits</li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you're interested in learning more, you can read the <a href="https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/michael-snyder">full show notes.</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Join over 300,000 people and get the latest distilled information on personalized medicine straight to your inbox weekly:</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://www.foundmyfitness.com/newsletter">https://www.foundmyfitness.com/newsletter</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Become a FoundMyFitness premium member to get access to exclusive episodes, emails, live Q+A's with Rhonda and more:</span> <a href="https://www.foundmyfitness.com/crowdsponsor"><span style="font-weight: 400;">https://www.foundmyfitness.com/crowdsponsor</span></a></p>
Actionable Insights

1. Proactive Disease Detection

Undergo longitudinal deep molecular profiling (e.g., genomics, proteomics, metabolomics) to establish your personal health baseline and detect subtle shifts that may indicate early disease onset before symptoms appear, enabling proactive management.

2. Wearables for Early Illness Detection

Regularly wear a smartwatch or other wearable device that tracks resting heart rate and skin temperature, as a sustained elevation in these metrics can indicate early signs of illness (e.g., viral infections, Lyme disease) even before symptoms appear.

3. Personalize Glucose Management with CGM

Wear a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to understand your unique blood glucose response to different foods and lifestyle factors, allowing you to personalize your diet and habits to keep glucose levels under control and detect prediabetes early.

4. Prioritize Daily Exercise for Longevity

Engage in daily exercise, including weight training, to maintain muscle mass, combat sarcopenia, promote immune health, and improve overall longevity and health, especially as you age.

5. Tailor Interventions to Your Ageotype

Understand your personal “ageotype” (e.g., kidney, liver, immune, metabolic ager) through deep profiling to implement targeted lifestyle interventions, such as increasing water intake for kidney aging or consuming immune-boosting supplements for immune aging.

6. Avoid Personal Glucose Spiking Foods

Identify and avoid specific foods that cause significant blood glucose spikes for you, such as white rice, cornflakes with milk, or foods with hidden sugars (e.g., sugary barbecue sauce), based on personal CGM data.

7. Walk After Meals to Reduce Glucose Spikes

Engage in a brisk walk or exercise shortly after eating foods that typically cause glucose spikes to significantly suppress those spikes and improve glucose regulation.

8. Increase Daily Fiber Intake

Aim for a daily fiber intake of around 30 grams (from sources like carrots or fiber supplements) to support gut health and overall well-being, as most people consume significantly less than recommended.

9. Sweat to Excrete Toxins

Engage in activities that promote sweating, such as exercise or sauna bathing, to help excrete certain xenobiotics and heavy metals like mercury from the body.

10. Sulforaphane for Pollutant Detox

Consume sulforaphane, found abundantly in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli sprouts, to enhance the body’s excretion of airborne pollutants like benzene and acrolein by activating the NRF2 pathway.

11. Personalize Diabetes Treatment

If diagnosed with diabetes, seek deep profiling to understand the specific underlying cause (e.g., insulin resistance, insulin production, insulin release) to ensure you receive the most effective, personalized treatment.

12. Monitor Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

Monitor your heart rate variability (HRV) using a smartwatch or wearable device, as it is a key measure of heart health, and significant changes or a constant heart rate could indicate underlying issues like atrial fibrillation.

13. Personal Microbiome Analysis for Diet

Explore personal microbiome analysis to understand your gut composition, which can inform personalized dietary choices, especially regarding fiber intake, as different microbiomes degrade fibers differently.

14. Psyllium Husk to Lower Cholesterol

Consume psyllium husk, which contains ispaghula, to help lower cholesterol levels.

15. Identify Personal Environmental Allergens

Use exposome tracking (if available) or careful observation to identify specific environmental allergens that trigger your allergic responses, allowing you to make informed decisions like removing a problematic plant.

16. Contribute to Wearables Illness Detection Study

Enroll in the Stanford Innovations Lab’s wearables study at innovations.stanford.edu/wearables to contribute data that helps improve algorithms for real-time illness detection (including COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses) and receive alerts if your heart rate jumps up.

17. Embrace Personal Health Data Collection

Adopt a mindset of collecting more personal health data through wearables and molecular measurements to establish your health baseline and monitor shifts, enabling a deeper understanding of your health and early detection of issues.