Personalized Medicine

Personalized medicine (PM) is a powerful tool for the future. While there are varying definitions for PM, I'll be discussing the use of a person's genetic code or other biological markers to tailor treatment to that person.

In a personal example, there is a strong family history of dementia in my family, and I know that I carry one copy of the ApoE4 gene. This one copy is known to increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease 3-4 fold compared with another man who has no copies of this gene allele.

I'm very interested to understand, knowing this genotype, what specific recommendations would be useful for me for prevention of dementia?

Why it matters:
Scientists are just beginning to understand how to use this type of information to help people live longer and healthier.

• In a very broad stroke, recently recommendations for diabetes treatment have been tailored to the individual based on other medical issues present (heart disease, kidney disease, fatty liver, overweight) for the first time
   
• For ApoE4 carriers, a suite of nutritional and lifestyle interventions may be helpful to prevent or delay cognitive decline - including limiting alcohol, working on exercise and sleep, and considering supplements like DHA, B vitamins, vitamin K, and quercetin - based on the understanding of how ApoE4 increases risk
   
• Cancer prevention and treatment increasingly is using genetic information to personalize recommendations
   
• With time, I believe personalized medicine will become more common and useful for prevention and treatment of all of the major threats to lifespan and healthspan - cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia, kidney disease, diabetes, etc.

In the future, I hope to have more discussions with you about how we might use personalized medicine to improve your health.

Have a great week,

Dr. Topher Fox

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