Whole Exome Sequencing with Dahlia Attia-King: Rational Wellness Podcast 384
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Dahlia Attia-King discusses Whole Exome Sequencing with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
Dahlia Attia-King is the Founder and CEO of Panacea and she has a BS in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Miami. Panacea was founded with a mission to reduce barriers to access for clinical genetic testing so that people can get in control of their health and prevent disease. Panacea now offers residents of almost every state the ability to receive at-home clinical genetic testing called Whole Exome Sequencing and expert medical guidance in just a few clicks, empowering people to potentially save their own lives. The website is SeekPanacea.com.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.
Podcast Transcript
Dr. Weitz: [00:00:00] Hey, this is Dr. Ben Weitz, host of the Rational Wellness Podcast. I talk to the leading health and nutrition experts and researchers in the field to bring you the latest in cutting edge health information. Subscribe to the Rational Wellness Podcast for weekly updates, and to learn more, check out my website, drweitz. com. Thanks for joining me, and let’s jump into the podcast. Hello Rational Wellness Podcasters. Today we’ll be discussing something we’re probably not that familiar with, which is whole exome sequencing, which is a type of DNA testing. And this is another entry into the preventative field of trying to screen for chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease. We currently have a number of tests on the market for that. We have a full body MRI. We have a blood test for [00:01:00] circulating tumor cells known as the Galleri Early Cancer Detection Test. And, of course, we have all our biomarkers that we run as part of our normal functional medicine screens. But this new genetic test is another way to screen for possible cancer risk, given that up to 25 percent of cancers may have a genetic origin.
Today we’ll be speaking with Dahlia Attia King, who’s the founder and CEO of Panacea. She has a BS in biology and chemistry from the University of Miami. And her experience working for genetic labs exposed her to the reality that few patients were able to access Valuable Preventative Genetic Testing. She learned quickly that the lack of insurance coverage for genetic testing led to physician hesitancy to order testing. And these barriers [00:02:00] led her to develop her own company that could offer genetic testing at a more reasonable price that patients could order directly. So, her company, Panacea, offers whole exome sequencing, along with expert medical guidance. And this is another way to help us find out about risk for various chronic diseases, especially diseases like cancer, heart disease, and neurodegenerative diseases. So Dahlia, thank you for joining us.
Dahlia Attia-King: Thank you. Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Dr. Weitz: So what is whole exome sequencing and why is it better than say 23andMe or Ancestry?
Dahlia Attia-King: Sure. So, before I get into the specific details about whole exome sequencing, let’s take just a step back and kind of understand the differences in general, among genetic testing. So that of course, you as providers can kind of know what you’re getting into when you’re talking about genetic testing. So there’s two major things that you have to consider when you’re sort of assessing a genetic test. Number one is what technology is being utilized in order to review the individual’s genes. And number two, What laboratories, what are the quality of the laboratories that are actually utilizing this technology and essentially delivering these results to you?
So when we talk about whole exome sequencing versus the type of genetic testing that we might get from 23andMe or Ancestry. We’re really talking about the comprehensiveness of the genetic review. And that is typically allowed by different [00:04:00] technologies. The technology that’s utilized by companies, by these commercial direct to consumer companies, is something called microarray. And what microarray tech does, it’s a very simple analogy, is a search and find mechanism, right? And if we’re writing a digital document, and we’re looking for specific words, word, maybe a word that we misspelled we would activate the search and find function and the document will automatically highlight where the misspelled word is, right? It’s kind of comparable to what microarray does. Microarray doesn’t actually read your gene. It doesn’t review your gene. It looks for a very specific variation in the gene. And if you don’t have that variation, then you kind of turn up. negative for that particular for that particular variation. The problem with that is you don’t always know. What you’re looking for, right, as the provider. Patients could [00:05:00] have all kinds of variations that are not very obvious, and if you don’t know what to look for, then you’re probably missing a ton of information. So microarray is really only useful when you’re very specifically looking for something.
Dr. Weitz: So in other words, what you’re saying is, my understanding, 23andMe picks out a set number of genetic SNPs that they’re looking for. Right. You know, maybe it’s 50, and that’s just what they’re looking for.
Dahlia Attia-King: Exactly. Exactly. I don’t know the number, so I don’t quote me on that, but that’s exactly right. There’s a predetermined list of things that they’re searching for. And they search for those things using that technology. And if those things are not present, then the patient is essentially negative for those things. It’s not completely useless. It’s actually wonderful. It’s a cost effective technology. It’s a quick technology, but it is not thorough. And so if you really want a [00:06:00] thorough analysis, of an individual genome. What you’re really going to want to utilize is a technology called next gen sequencing. Next gen sequencing is typically the technology that’s used in medicine, although microarray is also used in very specific cases. But in general, next gen sequencing is really the big daddy technology. What you, what next gen sequencing does is it literally reads. every letter of the genetic alphabet. It’s very comparable to me telling you, Doc, read me this book but don’t read me every word. Read me every letter. of every word in every sentence of every paragraph on every page. It is incredibly thorough and it’s very helpful when you’re not always sure what you’re looking for because it is a full detailed analysis.
So this type of technology, next gen sequencing, is really what allows for deep and thorough analysis [00:07:00] of an individual’s genes and their potential disease risk. Now taking it a step further, there’s different kinds of tests. That are utilized or utilize next gen sequencing. You could cherry pick and say, you know, you only want to sequence gene 1 and gene 2 and gene 3, right? That’s all you’re looking for. You could cherry pick a hundred genes and run next gen sequencing on a hundred genes, right? You can pick very specific genes that you’re reading each letter of the genetic alphabet for. But what whole exome sequencing does is it reviews all every gene, right? Your entire gene library from the first gene to the last gene. That’s 20 plus thousand genes. And the reason why that’s so valuable is because you’re not missing anything. You’re not leaving any stone unturned, right? And again, when you’re looking for a comprehensive review of an individual’s genome, you’re really wanting to do that full, [00:08:00] thorough search. Now, the other thing that’s really important to understand, which is kind of what I mentioned in the beginning, is the type of laboratory that’s utilizing this technology. Anyone can wake up tomorrow, buy sophisticated machinery that runs next gen sequencing, and call themselves a lab, and they sell whole exome sequencing to the public.
The difference, and the thing that’s really important that providers understand, is when you’re looking for true quality, reliable medical genetic testing, you really need to a laboratory that has TAP and CLIA certification. These certifications Basically ensure that the laboratory is operating at very high standards. These laboratories are the laboratories that are used by hospitals, by doctors and even the insurance reimbursements for laboratory testing typically have to come from CAP and CLIA certified labs. So again, when you’re looking for Quality, Medical, Genetic Testing, [00:09:00] What kind of technology are they using? Is it microarray? Is it next gen sequencing? And what kind of laboratory is being utilized? Is it a true CAP and CLIA certified medical laboratory? If you know those two things, then you can reliably order genetic testing from these laboratories or these institutions because you know they are truly using high quality tech and they are operating at the highest level standards when it comes to medical genetic testing.
Dr. Weitz: So what is an exome? So,
Dahlia Attia-King: Great question. I should have clarified that. So there’s two really like super comprehensive big tests. There’s whole genome sequencing and whole exome sequencing. Whole genome sequencing is, again, the reading of every single letter of your genetic alphabet. Every little thing. Whole exome sequencing is a little bit more specific. Your exome is [00:10:00] your full gene library. Now some people say, wait a minute, you just said whole genome, it sequences your whole genetic library, your whole genome, but whole exome does the same thing. Not quite. There’s actually genes in our genome, right? These are very specific information packets. They deliver instructions to the body. And then there is actually genetic information outside of those genes, outside of the gene packet. Those areas of genetic information don’t actually actually instruct the body to do something directly. So, it’s genetic material, it’s information, but it is not necessarily translated into useful information by the body, right?
So, genes are those packets that give it, give the body instruction, and then the genetic information outside of the genes really support the genes themselves and don’t actually, you know, give instruction to the body. So what we’re [00:11:00] focusing on with exome is just those gene packets, those genetic areas in your in your genome that instruct the body to do something.
And again, the reason why that’s so important is because most diseases are caused by variations in the gene packet, inside the gene packet, not in variations outside of the gene packet. So we only focus on sequencing the genes themselves, those information packets, and that is what whole exome sequencing is.
It’s more cost effective, it’s a lot more affordable than sequencing every little tidbit of genetic information, and it’s more juice for the squeeze, because again, you’re looking at the areas that are instructing the body to do something. And not any other areas.
Dr. Weitz: Is that additional genetic material that’s not part of the DNA? Isn’t that the epigenome?
Dahlia Attia-King: Not quite. Okay. Not quite. Yeah. The epigenome [00:12:00]
Dr. Weitz: is important, right? Those are the Switches that turn off and turn on our genes, right?
Dahlia Attia-King: Yes, and I so I’m not an expert in that area to be honest. I’m not a geneticist, so I don’t want to speak. But I think epigenome really mostly focuses on the the turning on and turning off like I think you mentioned of the genes themselves. And that can can be impacted by other things, right, the environment of the DNA and not the DNA itself.
Dr. Weitz: Okay, so, tell us about your experience when you ran this test on yourself, what you found, and then also if you can give us any detail on what steps you took afterwards.
Dahlia Attia-King: Yeah, absolutely. So I have a very ironic story with the founding of my company. Normally, I hear a lot of entrepreneurs they face a problem themselves and then they say, you know what, this is a problem I’m experiencing. I bet a lot of people are [00:13:00] experiencing this problem. Let me create this company or let me solve this problem. You know, and hopefully help a bunch of people.
I never considered. genetic testing as a problem for myself. I never even thought about genetic testing for myself, which is so insane. I worked for a group of laboratories, as you mentioned in the beginning, and I recognize how few people were able to access this potentially life changing, life saving test. And because of that problem that I observed, I decided to create a solution and make this testing a lot more accessible and affordable to people so that more people could get access to this information and potentially save their own lives. It wasn’t until I launched the company that I decided, hey, I could get genetic testing.
I’m the founder of this company. I would be a total fraud if I didn’t actually get this genetic test for myself. And so, I was patient number one, and I dragged my poor sister, my poor guinea pig sister into this as [00:14:00] patient number two. And ironically, we found out that we both have a genetic mutation that makes us nine times more likely to develop ovarian cancer than the average woman.
Mind you, my sister and I do not fit the traditional healthcare guidelines for genetic testing. We’ve even asked our physicians to If we needed to get genetic testing, and because we have no family history, we have no personal history of any related disease we really were sort of guided to not worry about it and not get genetic testing.
And so it wasn’t until we did it anyway, right, because again, we made this company to make this type of testing more accessible and affordable, that we realized that we both carry this, you know, kind of, hidden genetic mutation that makes us more at risk for this type of deadly disease. Now, what we’ve been able to do because we have this information is we’ve both been able to take it to our doctors and say, hey, listen, [00:15:00] we actually are at higher risk for developing this disease.
What can we do? And although ovarian cancer is one of those insidious types of cancers that really doesn’t any symptoms until very late stage there are a few things that can be done in order to hopefully catch the problem at early stages, or maybe even eliminate it completely. We get certain scans every year, of course, because, We have this risk that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
In fact, this gene also increases your risk a little bit for a little bit more than the average woman for breast cancer as well. And so I get annual mammograms even though I’m under the age of the annual mammogram recommendation. I get mammograms, I get MRIs, and I get ultrasounds as well. So that we’re able to kind of monitor any, you know, any disease progression. And all of that is possible because of this genetic risk that I have. And that’s exactly what can be done for millions of other people that have these types of risks. This information [00:16:00] can empower you and allow you to identify any of these problems before they even become full blown problems so that you can hopefully save your own life.
Dr. Weitz: By the way, we talked off air about what is functional medicine, and so from a functional medicine perspective, apart from the scans to look for the beginnings of ovarian cancer, I would recommend that you look at your estrogen metabolism by taking a urinary estrogen test that looks at how you metabolize the estrogen, because depending upon whether you metabolize it along the four or the 16 hydroxyestrone pathway will determine to some extent whether you are at increased risk. And number two, you should be tested for environmental estrogens because there are many endocrine disrupting substances in the environment, like bisphenol [00:17:00] A, like pesticides, like phthalates, like, there’s a whole series of chemicals that. have an estrogenic effect and can also increase your risk of estrogen related cancers like breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
Dahlia Attia-King: That is great guidance and that is obviously your area of expertise and so I will leave all of that to you but that sounds phenomenal and even personally something I should probably look into so thank you for that.
Dr. Weitz: I do recommend that you look into that. So What are some of the diseases that patients, besides ovarian cancer might find on one of your tests? And and then it seems like the test is focused on cancer, heart disease, and neurodegenerative. Is that right? Or are those just the biggest most prevalent killers?
Dahlia Attia-King: Yeah, so genetic testing, medical genetic testing is really [00:18:00] as advanced as our scientific knowledge of genetics, right, and how our genes are playing a role in our disease. So the more we understand with scientific research the more these tests will be able to tell us. And so, to your point today, these tests really focus on those areas of knowledge that we sort of have a decent grasp on. And those areas are the areas of cancer, of cardiovascular diseases and conditions, and neurological disorders. There’s also a whole group of diseases that are sort of lumped into this group called rare diseases. There’s thousands of rare diseases, and they are just that. They’re quite rare. In aggregate they occur, I think, in, in 10 percent or more of the population but each individual rare disease is quite rare and could affect, you know, very few number of people. Those diseases can also be identified, I think, 80 percent of the time with with genetic testing. But the areas that I think will [00:19:00] concern the vast majority of people are those areas that are, you know, the big killers, right? The big problem problem makers. And so, scientific research is you know, sort of uncovering that one in eight cancers, is actually potentially linked to very specific identifiable genetic changes and in those areas, these tests are very helpful because those specific individuals will be able to understand where their risks are, again, before problems arise.
And they could reduce their risk and in a lot of cases even eliminate their risk completely. So yes, so cancer is definitely one of those spaces. And it tends to be one of the most attractive spaces because of how you know, our lifetime risk of developing cancer in the United States is almost one in two, right? So there’s basically a 50 percent chance in your lifetime that you will develop some sort of cancer. And so [00:20:00] having a risk assessment, Before you develop these problems, it’s incredibly, incredibly effective.
Dr. Weitz: What percentage of patients who get this test will have a negative result?
Dahlia Attia-King: That’s a phenomenal question. And actually the fantastic news is it is the majority of people. Most people will have a very boring test result and that’s what we want. We don’t want a riddled result, right? We want it to be as boring as possible. And the good news is that most people will actually be negative for the vast majority of mutations that science understands to increase your risk for disease. So it’s fantastic. And what we like to say is, you’re going to walk away with one of two things once you get this guy. You’re either going to walk away completely empowered because now you have information that will help you make smarter, more targeted decisions, and it will, you know, [00:21:00] potentially reduce your risk for developing any problems in the future. Or you will walk away with a tiny bit more relief, right? A little bit more comfort because you don’t have an increased risk. of developing any of these problems. So it is a win win situation with everybody you know, taking this test. But the good news is that the good majority of people will actually have very boring test results.
And no matter what your results are at Panacea, you get a one hour free post test session with a genetic counselor. And the reason why that’s so powerful is because genetic counselors are actually the experts. on genetic testing. In fact, they have more training on this than physicians do. And so, sitting down with a genetic counselor, no matter what your results are, is really helpful in helping you understand what your results mean and what your results don’t mean. And they also help you think about potentially beneficial next steps as well, and [00:22:00] what you should be talking about with your doctor. So, that’s something at Panacea that everybody gets, no matter what the results are.
Dr. Weitz: That’s great. I’ve really been enjoying this discussion, but I’d like to pause for a minute to let the listeners know that we have a special offer for those listening to this podcast. If they would like to order this genetic test through Panacea, they should go to the website seekpanacea. com and use the affiliate code Weitz15 and you will save 150 off your purchase. Now we’ll get back to the discussion.
Dr. Weitz: So, for practitioners who have their patients get this test, can they call in and talk to somebody from your staff to get some questions answered as to how they will work with their patients?
Dahlia Attia-King: Yeah, so, the genetic counselors that, that we work with are lovely and they will answer and [00:23:00] consult with the physician should the physician have any questions about any next steps or any, you know, they need any clarifying about the results themselves. Absolutely. So this is really a handholding experience, not only for the patient and the user, but also for the providers that, that might be helping the patients as well.
Dr. Weitz: Since a percentage of my listeners are functional medicine practitioners, how can this testing complement a functional medicine approach to patient care?
Dahlia Attia-King: Yeah, so again, I think what we’re all trying to do here is we’re all trying to reduce risk, and we’re all trying to do that by preventing Massive catastrophic problems from happening in the first place. I think disease prevention and as you mentioned to me offline Root cause based medicine, right, which is what functional medicine is is you know, a perfect pairing with this [00:24:00] type of preventative genetic testing. Our goal is to help individuals and providers really I understand where their risks are so that they can sort of continue a very targeted and personalize plan for for themselves and for their patients, because that truly is one of the best ways to identify an early problem.
And I mean, I hear it all the time, scientists and doctors talk about how you know, the real true problem with cancer is this, is when it’s discovered in very late stages, because that is when it really becomes a deadly issue. If you are able to discover cancer in very early stages, you really increase the risk, or increase the likelihood, excuse me, for you know, these types of problems to not be as deadly.
And so, what we’re hoping is to sort of put more people, into that early discovery category, or even the prevention category, where these problems don’t even happen in the [00:25:00] first place. And so with that mission of ours and the mission of functional medicine providers, I think we’re all really on the same boat here. We want to be able to utilize this technology to stop problems before they even start.
Dr. Weitz: Now, apart from these big diseases like cancer and heart disease, can your genetic testing also give us some guidance as to how patients metabolize their food, how they, you know, their propensity to gain or lose weight, or can it tell us anything about whether or not they’re more likely to do well with one type of diet over another or things like that.
Dahlia Attia-King: Yeah, so our testing specifically focuses on disease susceptibility at this time. We are obviously reviewing the entire genome and our laboratory partners. Obviously, they’re [00:26:00] Kaplan Clio, you know, certified laboratories. They certainly have the ability to run all kinds of genetic tests using all kinds of technologies. And in the future, we likely will be able to offer reporting on those specific things that you just mentioned. But to be clear, today, our whole exome sequencing is solely focused on inherited disease risk. That’s really the areas that we’re able to guide on. But stick around because we’re always adding different functions and different reports and are able to reveal all kinds of different information for our users and our providers.
Dr. Weitz: Now, what about for fetuses? Parents, you know, who are pregnant, are concerned about the propensity of their newborn to have certain genetic diseases. Can this test be done in that setting?
Dahlia Attia-King: So prenatal genetic testing is probably one of the biggest fields in genetics. And of [00:27:00] course, as parents, you know, we all want to do what is best for our child and our children. Today, prenatal testing focuses on very specific diseases. And whole exome and whole genome is not typically run or utilized in prenatal testing. I’m a little biased, obviously, but I believe, that’s exactly the direction or where the direction should be for prenatal testing. But believe it or not today, they only focus on very specific diseases.
We, we don’t do whole exome or whole genome in prenatal. But I think it’s certainly an excellent observation and an excellent question because it makes the most sense. And it also will set the child up for, you know, their health future, once they, you know, once you have an idea of what this child is at risk for, you can certainly start from very early stages and you know, help guide that child on a really healthy trajectory. It’s just not something that is being [00:28:00] done today. It’s wild to even think that we have this technology and we can use it in this way, and it’s actually not being utilized. So, hopefully we’ll explore that in the future.
Dr. Weitz: Are lifestyle interventions discussed by the genetic counselors with respect to some of these disease risks?
Dahlia Attia-King: In certain cases, yeah, absolutely. I mean, listen, in general, no matter what your genes are, I think the guidance still stands, right? Eat a healthy diet reduce your stress, be active, build muscle, right? All, all of these got these key guides or guidelines are important no matter what your genetic makeup is. But what’s interesting is if you actually Find that you have an increased risk for XYZ. That might be a really great boost into getting you, you know, into these lifestyle habits and patterns that you may have been flacking on or avoiding, right? And so sometimes it’s a great reminder that, you know, [00:29:00] in for us all to say, Hey, you know, we really do need to reduce our stress. We need to, you know, we need to sleep better. We need to do whatever. And so it could be a fantastic reminder. However, those things are important, no matter what your genes are. Right. And I don’t, I don’t think anybody would argue that. But yeah, that’s it.
Dr. Weitz: You know, the thing, unfortunately, is those of us who live in this world of diet and lifestyle and nutrition and what seems like a simple recommendation, you need to eat a healthy diet might seem a sort of a simple thing for maybe somebody who’s not in that world.
But once you get into that world, you realize that you have Ideas of what a healthy diet is. And you have people recommending eating meat only. You have other folks saying you should eat vegetables only. We have the ketogenic diet. We have the Mediterranean diet and they’re all [00:30:00] completely different. And, and so, we argue back and and forth and everybody has their opinion.
I have my opinion. And I try to use biomarkers to determine if people are doing well on a specific diet and if those biomarkers are not looking good on that diet. I use that as a basis for saying we need to try a different type of diet. But it would be nice if the genetics also could guide us as to, you’re the type of person you need who might do really well on a really low carb diet, even if it were, say, a ketogenic diet as opposed to somebody else who’s more likely to do really well on a, on a vegetarian lower fat diet.
Dahlia Attia-King: Right, absolutely. And we, we hear, we hear this all the time and I think That type of information could be very useful for people, obviously. And again, it’s something that, [00:31:00] that we can very easily sort of add on, right? We’re already looking at the genes very deeply. And there might be some different types of testing or, or technologies that might need to be utilized in order to drill down into those specifics that you’re, you’re referring to. And like I said, it’s very likely we’re going to do it. It’s funny because that area of genetics is not as. As, as studied, I should say in the scientific community, as much as the disease causing areas, right, of of genetics and so we sort of started out with the area that we have the best grasp on in, in, in science and our scientific understanding, but it’s certainly something we, we’re strongly considering and, and we could, you know, pretty easily add into our reporting abilities.
Dr. Weitz: Right. Okay. Can you give us any other examples of some patients who’ve run your test and discovered certain types of diseases so we have some concrete examples?
Dahlia Attia-King: Yeah, [00:32:00] so, clearly the, the, the areas of cancer are probably some of the, the, the most prevalent, I should say. We’ve had individuals that have an increased risk for colon cancer and that’s, that’s an interesting area because, Colon cancer is ideally one of the most preventable cancers because we have such good screening methods like colonoscopies. And the power of this type of testing is that it could alarm you to these risks before any of these recommended screening methods are actually recommended. There’s typically an age in which these screening methods are recommended. And if you have a genetic mutation. That puts you more at risk. You could start the screening methods earlier, again, to increase your risk or increase your likelihood of finding these problems or reducing your risk overall.
Dr. Weitz: And that would be especially important because recently we’ve heard about an increased risk of colon cancer in younger [00:33:00] people.
Dahlia Attia-King: Absolutely. And so, and colon cancer, your risk for colon cancer obviously, again, can be identified earlier in life, but it’s another really great area of where, you know, changing your diet, right, could help decrease your risk, even if you do have a genetic risk. A high fiber diet you know, They say try to avoid high fats and, and process, you know, meats, etc. Ideally, those things will reduce your risk for colon cancer, but especially if you have this genetic risk for colon cancer. But the best thing to do when you do have an increased risk for something like colon cancer is to start screening earlier, right? The colonoscopies. I think the recommended age for just got reduced from 50 to 45, for, for
Dr. Weitz: Yeah, but 45 is still pretty old when we’re having 25 year olds with it. So, if you got this test and it showed you had an increased risk, would that increase the likelihood of your insurance company to approve a [00:34:00] colonoscopy?
Dahlia Attia-King: Yes, so, yes, it does. And the good news is that there’s also a law called GINA and GINA is the Genetic Information Non Discrimination Act. And what that act does is it essentially requires the insurers to not drop you. as a member because of any of your genetic mutations that could be identifying these tests. And they also can’t hike up your premiums because of your genetic test results. And in most cases, yes, they do cover a lot of these services. Myself personally, my insurer does cover a lot of my screenings because of my genetic mutation. I wouldn’t have been able to get a breast MRI had I not had this.
genetic mutations. And my doctor obviously pushed for my insurer to cover these MRIs because of my genetic mutation. And I’m protected by Gina because now my insurer can’t drop me or change my premiums because of my, my genetic mutation. So that’s something luckily we, we don’t have to [00:35:00] worry about. And in, in most cases, or in, in some cases, maybe you will be able to, to get covered for these, these things.
Dr. Weitz: Now, I’ve heard you say that some of the patients don’t want to get these tests because they don’t want to get the negative results.
Dahlia Attia-King: Yeah, so one of the biggest hesitancies that we hear from people is they’re afraid. I don’t want to get this test because I don’t want to know. What, what if I do have an increased risk for colon cancer or breast cancer or, or whatever, I don’t want to know. And I understand that fear, of course, we, you know, it, it is always overwhelming to learn something about yourself that, that maybe is not that great, right?
But, the power of this test, and the whole reason it exists, is because it helps us change our trajectory. And it helps us get in control. of our past and our future. It would be [00:36:00] useless if these things were written in stone and you get this result and you literally have to sit there and wait to get sick, right?
It would be a useless task. Nobody would buy it. I would never endorse it. I wouldn’t buy it. I wouldn’t sell it. It would be just an absolute disaster. But that is not These tests give you an idea of where your red flags are, and because of that information, you can now be in control. You can now understand exactly how to target your healthcare with your provider and change the trajectory of your healthcare future because of this information.
And so again, this is, the purpose of this test is to empower you so that you can be better off with this information than without it. So fear is a very normal thing, but once you walk yourself through the reality and the logic of what this test can do for you, then it becomes a no brainer. Then everybody wants to do it because they realize how powerful it is.
Dr. Weitz: [00:37:00] That’s great. Okay, I think it’s time for us to wrap. If you have any final thoughts, otherwise tell us about how patients can find out about this testing.
Dahlia Attia-King: Yeah, so just as you said you can visit our site seekpanacea. com. That is where you can purchase a test within a few seconds.
Dr. Weitz: You want to spell that out exactly?
Dahlia Attia-King: Sure. Yep. So it’s seek, S E E K. Panacea, P A N A C E A, com, and that, like I said, that’s where you can purchase a test. We accept all major credit cards, and we also accept FSA and HSA, so if you have those insurance dollars that you need to spend, use them or lose them, you can certainly use them with our genetic testing. A lot of people do that, and they’re basically able to get this test for free, which is amazing. Thanks. And you also will be able to schedule your genetic counseling session once you purchase your test with us as well, but you can buy a [00:38:00] test within seconds online, and don’t forget to use Dr. Ben’s discount code, save you 150 on the test.
Dr. Weitz: Great. Thank you so much.
Dr. Weitz: Thank you for making it all the way through this episode of the Rational Wellness Podcast. For those of you who enjoy listening to the Rational Wellness Podcast, I would very much appreciate it if you could go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and give us a five star ratings and review. As you may know, I continue to accept a limited number of new patients per month for functional medicine. If you would like help overcoming a gut or other chronic health condition and want to prevent chronic problems and want to promote longevity, please call my Santa Monica Weitz Sports Chiropractic and Nutrition office at 310-395-3111 and we can set you up for a consultation for functional medicine. And I will talk to everybody next week.
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