How AI Is Transforming Precision Medicine | Dr. Anil Bajnath, MD

Dr. Anil Bajnath joins the show to discuss the future of integrative medicine, artificial intelligence, multi-omics, and how personalized healthcare is transforming the way clinicians identify and treat chronic disease. Together, we explore why moving beyond symptom management to uncover root causes is essential for improving patient outcomes and advancing the next generation of medicine.

We dive into:

• What precision medicine really means and why it's reshaping healthcare
• How AI can enhance clinical decision-making without replacing the clinician
• The role of multi-omics in identifying the root causes of chronic illness
• Environmental toxins, lifestyle factors, and other hidden drivers of disease
• Why biomarkers and personalized data are the foundation of preventive medicine
• Pharmacogenomics and tailoring treatments to each individual's unique biology
• The concept of your "biological 401(k)" and investing in long-term healthspan
• Why clinicians need to embrace systems biology and pattern recognition
• The future of precision health education and preparing providers for the next era of medicine
• Practical ways patients and practitioners can begin applying precision medicine today

🕒 Chapters

00:00 Why Precision Medicine Changes Everything

01:35 Meet Dr. Anil Bajnath

04:20 The Biggest Problem with Modern Healthcare

08:15 Why Personalized Medicine Beats Standard Care

12:10 AI Is Changing Medicine Faster Than You Think

16:45 Multi-Omics: The Future of Healthcare

21:30 The Hidden Health Impact of Environmental Toxins

26:05 Investing in Your Biological 401(k)

30:10 The Biomarkers Every Practitioner Should Know

34:15 Why Everyone Should Measure Lp(a)

37:10 What's Next for Precision Medicine

38:55 Connect with Dr. Anil Bajnath 

🔗 Dr. Alex Carrasco, MD

https://nourishmedicine.com/

https://www.instagram.com/dralexcarrasco/

🔗 Dr. Anil Bajnath, MD

https://www.instagram.com/dranilbajnath/

https://anilbajnath.com/ 

https://longevityequation.net/ 

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Transcript

Why Precision Medicine Changes Everything

Dr. Alex Carrasco 0:10

Thank you so much for being here, Dr. Bajnath. I'm so excited for this conversation.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 0:14

Well, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 0:16

Yeah. Well, I have just been really fascinated by what you're doing in the field of medicine. It is cutting edge. I think that you are at the precipice of the AI movement. And I would like to kind of start with what's your story? How did you get to where you are? And what are you doing in the world right now?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 0:33

Oh, thank you. Thank you. So I've um, you know, been in this field, I think, since like high school, right? And um started exploring the healing arts um at a very young age by working at Whole Foods and getting exposed to all the nutraceutical supplements and

Dr. Alex Carrasco 0:48

that was your entry point.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 0:50

That was, yeah, that was, you know, um, you know, for better or worse. But I think it's a very good thing.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 0:54

I used to wander the aisles of Whole Foods and it was so interesting. It really was different options. It was.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 0:59

And as a high school student, I'm like, wow, yeah. There's a whole other nutritional system out there that could be used to help identify and replete um, you know, these micronutrient deficiencies that could be affecting somebody's health. And there's this whole world of botanical medicine and being Indian and having like that Ayurvedic kind of um association there and learning about, you know, the different herbs. So entered, you know, the field in, you know, through Whole Foods. Yeah. And then got into um microscopy, dark field face contrast microscopy.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 1:32

That is so cool.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 1:33

Which led me to study with the Paracelsus

Meet Dr. Anil Bajnath

Dr. Anil Bajnath 1:35

Clinic of Biological Medicine in undergrad. And I studied with uh Peter Diodamo and you know, his um at the time he was the blood type guy, but then he moved into the DNO, uh the DNA typing uh the or the genotyping diet. And um, so that influenced some of uh my trajectory along with um going on and formalizing it and getting like kind of like the conventional world with it, um, with my double major in molecular microbiology and medical laboratory science. That's really cool. All that before med school, and then finished, you know, residency in family medicine. Yeah. And uh from there, you know, just been, you know, with that background in molecular microbiology, that really is a totally different way of looking at, you know, human physiology and cellular biology. And um, that's what kind of influenced the way I practice medicine. Yeah, you know, leveraging, you know, these advanced molecular diagnostics. And that, you know, uh led me to study with the IFM, yeah, you know, the Institute for Functional Medicine and Jeffrey Bland, and you know, was very captivated by his narrative.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 2:39

Right.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 2:40

Um, because it to me it just makes sense. Yeah. And um, so after finishing residency, I was also doing, you know, during undergrad and residency and med school IFM training and A4M training and things of that nature. And I finished and sat for all those certifications and um, you know, was lucky to get a uh adjunct faculty appointment at George Washington University.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 3:04

It's amazing.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 3:04

And started teaching for their integrative medicine departments, essentially, like all the all the fun courses, you know, the hard science courses, and one of the classes that I teach uh was INTM 6205, the Omics of Medicine. So for those that are pursuing the fellowship in integrative medicine, you know, they're you know, we're giving the foundation to, you know, this kind of molecular framework of precision medicine.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 3:26

Right.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 3:27

Um, so and for the audience, um, you know, precision medicine is defined by the NIH as the interface of biology, lifestyle, and environment. It sounds like really good medicine. It sounds like the best medicine. It sounds like really good family medicine. So but, you know, it uses that really cool molecular network of, you know, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and so on. And, you know, what's also really cool about functional medicine is that it opened up the door to these different diagnostic companies, you know, including Vibrant Wellness, you know, and and leveraging these tools to enhance, I think, you know, our diagnostic capacity with our patients to, you know, look a little bit more upstream, downstream, and all the different things that could be influencing their physiological or phenotype output. Yeah.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 4:18

Yeah. When you were a resident

The Biggest Problem with Modern Healthcare

Dr. Alex Carrasco 4:20

and you were training in family medicine and you'd had this molecular biology background, what was the friction that you felt in between training and what you also knew kind of, you know, in your more basic science training?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 4:33

So, you know, just head down, you know, um, you know, know your audience, who you're speaking to. Just get through it. And just uh just get through it, you know, because I could tell you, you know, just when I would suggest um omega-3 fatty acids alone for, you know, what whatever it might be, even for hypertriglyceridemia based on the reduce it trial.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 4:54

Yeah. There was a little bit of friction there, you know. With which there were drugs we could prescribe that were omega-3s.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 4:59

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, you know, Visiba and Lobaza are the omega-3 um EPA concentrations. So, but it, you know, leaving residency. Um, my old residency program director is my best friend and his wife is my nurse in my clinical practice.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 5:15

So cool.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 5:16

And um, you know, so that's um, you know, we built a really strong relationship. And he always says, I don't know what you're saying, but I I, you know, I believe in you. Yeah, yeah, that's it. And when he goes back and does the research, he's like, Oh, you were right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's cool.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 5:33

Okay. So then tell me what you're doing. You're creating a new board because there's this gap in medicine. And tell me what you're trying to fill, you know, what you're trying to do with this new board.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 5:45

So, um, yes, I am the president and founder of the American Board of Precision Medicine. Okay. And we just defined what that was. I saw unmet need in medical education that I think needed a more formalized, you know, molecular framework to train physicians to start thinking about how to connect those molecular dots, very similar to the class that I teach at GW, but why do we limit to just those enrolled in that course? Whereas we could bring this to a larger, broader context and, you know, uh across academics as a whole.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 6:18

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 6:19

You know, I think this should be what is taught in medical school. We need to kind of re-evaluate the curriculum of what's being taught right now because it should be part of the basic sciences. It should be, you know, years year one, right?

Dr. Alex Carrasco 6:32

Yep.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 6:33

Um, and how do we really start leveraging the science and technology that we have here today?

Dr. Alex Carrasco 6:39

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 6:40

You know, it's it's nothing taboo.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 6:43

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 6:43

The research is moving in that direction using multiomic profiling. And multiomics again refers to the respected biological science study of, you know, the study of DNA is genomics and RNA is transcriptomics, proteins, proteomics, metabolism, metabolomics, and you know, environmental exposomics, microbiome, microbiomics. And, you know, putting it all together in a framework and look at those translational pattern recognitions associated with somebody's genome to phenome, you know, kind of experience, you know?

Dr. Alex Carrasco 7:14

So for the clinician that's like, this is a lot of long words, how does that look?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 7:19

So for the clinician, what you know, I'm not saying that my way of doing things is the best, but it's the way I process things internally. Yeah. But I do think, you know, there's if we don't have access to certain information, we're not really practicing right. Even pharmacogenomics, which is looking at, you know, whether or not you would clinically respond to a drug or intervention. It goes beyond more for an enclopitogril, but it also could, you know, lean into other neuropsychiatric agents. Yes. It could lean into even statins with, you know, Sloco 1B1. Right. So the pharmacogenomic application alone is very important at the personalization of medicine for the individual. You, you know, what we we claim to practice is evidence-based medicine, right? But at the true hierarchy of evidence-based medicine

Why Personalized Medicine Beats Standard Care

Dr. Anil Bajnath 8:15

is N of one profiling, right? Where you are at the center of your own kind of research clinical trial, you know, um, because my DNA is completely different than yours, right? Right. And um, so it's it's it's using that kind of N of one approach, multi-omic profiling to better understand, you know, our ability to dive deeper into somebody's health and physiology as a whole.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 8:42

Yeah. So then you basically will analyze all these different aspects of someone's, I guess we would say, physiology. Yes. Yeah. And then you would take that data and you would translate it into possible patterns that might be showing up in the body as symptoms. Is that kind of how you would do that?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 9:01

Yeah, we connect the dots, right? And um, you know, but the thing is, is, you know, technically speaking, multi-omics is at least three molecular layers.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 9:10

Okay.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 9:11

5,000 different data points. And I don't know about you, but I don't know if I'm smart enough to like really comprehend and identify everything. And that's where AI is going to be really leading the charge of being able to filter some of this for us.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 9:26

Right.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 9:26

You know, and be able to pull in the different uh data points and identify certain patterns of recognition. You know, there's certain things that we will see, right? And I think the biggest perturbations biochemically that are often identified is gonna be inflammation, oxidation, ischemia, and immune dysregulation.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 9:45

Okay.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 9:45

Those are the four main kinds of, I think, mediators behind proteomic shifts within the body.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 9:52

Got it.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 9:53

And um, you could oftentimes see those different factors, but what's triggering it? Is it environmental? Is it like dysbiosis and you know, in enhanced uh leaky gut or you know, enhanced uh gut permeability?

Dr. Alex Carrasco 10:06

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 10:07

Or, you know, is it uh a combination of the glyphosate wearing down the gut lining, leading to endotoxemia and then the other environmental factors. So it's it's this, you know, comprehensive, you know, all connecting translational process of what's going on in in your little bubble.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 10:25

Yeah, I often will use the metaphor of like a big bonfire for my patients when I tell them, you know, how are we kind of trying to assess them? So I'll say, okay, there's obviously some big issues going on. That's the big fire. And then you've got all these logs in the fire, and the logs are um, you know, your micronutrient levels, your hidden infections, your genetic profile, uh, trauma history, your environmental, um, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And then I'll say, and our job is to kind of assess each log and then try and pull them out.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 10:58

Yes.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 10:58

And then as we can work on each of those logs, then you diminish that fire and things kind of can come back into homeostasis.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 11:06

Oh, I love that analogy. Trauma's big too.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 11:08

Trauma's huge.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 11:09

Huge.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 11:10

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 11:10

You know, that's one of the things when we do transcriptomic profiling, I see oftentimes an upregulation in what's called the FKPB5 gene, which is associated with uh PTSD and trauma. And that I mean, that needs to definitely be addressed. And I think oftentimes a miss and link in this precision medicine approach is is really, you know, discovering that.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 11:31

Like I think everyone is saying right now that I mean nervous system regulation is having a moment, right?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 11:36

Yep.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 11:36

And so how do you see all of these different levers that you're kind of uh looking at people's health with play a role with nervous system?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 11:47

So the best proxy of that's gonna be HRV, right? So I asked my patients to at least collect some information on HRV.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 11:54

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 11:55

And there's so many different behavioral patterns that could be associated with low HRV, you know, um, especially as it r relates to chronobiology, circadian rhythms, not just stress, you know, perceived stress and maybe mindfulness or lack thereof, or

AI Is Changing Medicine Faster Than You Think

Dr. Anil Bajnath 12:10

mindfulness in the sense that mine is way too full of like craziness, right? Um, and and stressful things, the allostatic burden is high.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 12:18

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 12:19

Um, but I do think that um, you know, HRV and you know nervous system regulation is critical. And in my practice, we do brain mapping and auto-onomic nervous system testing to determine kind of that set point for the individual. And, you know, the the cue, um, uh quantified electroencephalography is going to be able to provide kind of a map into the brain, right? Right, the electrical circuitry associated with that. And with that, you could identify certain patterns associated with certain kind of, you know, um unfortunate, you know, ways of thinking and being and perception and you know, stress, anxiety, and so forth. Um, and one of the tools that, you know, that is tried and true, meditation, right? Mindfulness.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 13:08

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 13:09

And then if you want to get fancy with all the tech stuff, vagal nerve stimulation. Yeah, I'm a huge fan. Yeah. The science behind vagal nerve stimulation is profound, you know.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 13:19

Yeah, you know, I've always been kind of a lower HRV kind of gal. And I think that there are some physiological components and some outliers where that kind of can just be where you kind of stick. But when I started using my vagal nerve stimulator, it did increase pretty pretty dramatically.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 13:34

Makes a huge difference. Yeah, you know, and that affects everything, you know, systemically.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 13:39

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 13:40

Yeah. So I think it's a a critical component, you know, in the healing equation.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 13:44

Yeah. So you're coming out with a book. Yeah, I want to hear all about that. What are you, what are you talking about in your book? What's yeah, what's in it?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 13:54

So great question. Um, you know, in the book, um, you know, I make reference to this concept of biological 401k. And I believe that we all have this internal biological health savings account.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 14:07

That's great. That's a great metaphor.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 14:08

Yeah. And we're making, you know, different forms of, you know, deposits and withdrawals and different forms of bioenergetic currency, epigenetic currency. Um, and you know, there's certain things that, you know, um has governance within our system and these different bioregulatory kind of um, you know, um governing, you know, uh homeodynamic regulatory things, you know, and that could be immune system dynamics, um, microbial biodiversity dynamics, sleep dynamics, right? So mood energy, metabolism, all those things are going to be predicated on this 401k. And um essentially, um we know what we're doing, you know, um, in regards to making meaningful deposits, like getting to sleep consistently at the same time and avoiding alcohol and you know, you know, meaning and purpose and having loving relationships and diet exercise, sleep and nutrition, all those things are very important, you know, kind of factors that influence that 401k. But we also make withdrawals, you know, yeah, whatever that might be, you know, going out and having fun. Yeah. And, you know, whatever it is. Yeah. So um, so that's one of the concepts.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 15:16

Sitting behind our computer for eight hours a day. Oh, yeah. Is that bad? Well, it's like sunlight, right?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 15:22

Yeah. Yeah. So, so yeah, we have this biological 401k. We're and I think we could assess this on a multiomic level.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 15:29

Okay.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 15:29

And we're able to essentially then reverse engineer kind of the these threats to your longevity, you know, because there's, you know, different, you know, kind of um vulnerabilities. You know, your DNA is not your destiny, but it's kind of your predisposition.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 15:44

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 15:44

And if we're able to identify that reverse engineer, um, you know, kind of uh more targeted personalized approach to supporting your, you know, um physiological regulation and adaptive capacity. Awesome. So so in the book, we get into all the different technologies, everything from stem cells to hyperbaric medicine to, you know, um different uh blood filtration uh things to help deal with the environmental toxic burden that we have in our system.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 16:13

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 16:14

And um, so yeah, uh that's kind of the high-level overview. And we we get into like chronobiology and circadian rhythms and your chronotype, and you know, making sure that there's no mismatch and um yeah, how do you help how do you help people figure out what their chronotype is?

Dr. Alex Carrasco 16:29

I think that's really fascinating.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 16:30

Oh, there's this questionnaire. Yeah. Yeah, there's a questionnaire that's associated with that. Making sure that you're aligned with your appropriate circadian biology is actually, you know, very, very important at, you know, what what's called, you know, clock gene regulation.

Multi-Omics: The Future of Healthcare

Dr. Anil Bajnath 16:45

I'm not talking about biological aging clocks on an ampigenetic log level. I'm talking about clock genes in the body, you know, and the clock genes, you know, with the supercosmatic nuclei and even peripheral clocks.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 16:56

Gotta get that sunlight in your eye. But what if you're what if your like chronotype is, I don't know, what's the animal that wakes up really late? Yeah, yeah, no, that's it.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 17:03

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, night owl.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 17:04

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 17:04

Yeah.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 17:05

So um so then you don't get that sunlight.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 17:07

Well, not the first morning sunlight.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 17:10

Is it really important to get those first morning rays like everyone is saying right now?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 17:13

I think it is. You know, I think it is. As much as you could be in nature and align yourself with normal circadian biology and patterns, the better it is.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 17:21

Let me ask you this question. Okay. If you work contacts, obviously you have a UV filter, so then you're not getting the actual full light into your retina and then into your suprachismatic nucleus. Um, what happens if you have a corneal implant? Like a lot of people that are getting cataracts and are getting the lens, what happens to them? Can they get the right light?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 17:42

That's a great question.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 17:43

You know, I don't think there's been a I've been thinking about that for a couple of years now.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 17:47

That's a very interesting question because it will have a distortive effect, right? And you know, I think it'll be interesting to look at their melatonin kind of production as a proxy, you know, of whether or not they're having uh melatonin and cortisol to see if there's, you know, the appropriate um diurnal biphasic kind of pattern, you know, pre and post-intervention to see, you know, what that looks like. But I'm not too sure. Yeah. You know.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 18:10

Yeah, I know we always tell people to go outside with naked eyes, but it's like I have like very horrible visions. So when I do that, I go with my glasses and then I take my glasses off and then I hope that I don't trip.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 18:23

Yeah. Oh God. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of those things. Yeah, yeah, again, everybody, and there's certain factors that play a role on your tolerance to actually sun gazing, right? Um, you know, if there's uh macular degeneration and age-related change, you know, the the tolerance for that is gonna be very low. So that's where you do other things like avoid, you know, blue light, you know, on your phone and whatever.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 18:50

Blue light blockers on.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 18:51

Yeah, I've got some of those all over the place scattered through the house and you know, and yeah. But okay, yeah.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 18:58

It's hard to watch movies with them on. Yeah, no, it is.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 19:02

It is. Yeah. And it's you just you look like a unique person. You do. You know, it's very unique. So as long as the family doesn't judge you, because wifey um teases me whenever I'm I've got that on. Yeah, same with my family.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 19:15

They're like, oh great, mom's wearing her weird red glasses again and she can't see what's on the screen. Yeah, yeah. Um, okay, so tell, I guess, tell me a little bit about, you know, how you view this reverse engineering method. Because I think that at the end of the day, that can be very useful.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 19:36

Yeah. It's um so the the biggest thing is like, how do we get this form of testing? You know, everything that Viber does essentially covered by insurance, right?

Dr. Alex Carrasco 19:45

That would be the goal is to ultimately get the like covered by insurance or like, you know, because insurance often covers things but then kicks it back.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 19:55

Yeah. Yeah, these are bigger questions. Yeah. So that that's how do we get this more conventionally adopted into routine healthcare diagnostic and assessments?

Dr. Alex Carrasco 20:05

And taught in medical school.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 20:06

And taught in medical school. That's the big question, right? Because once we get this data, you're gonna soon see, oh, you got like a 40-something year old with like uh or even 20-year-olds with low testosterone.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 20:17

Oh, yeah, so many. Oh, why is that?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 20:19

Is it because you know the phone is near your testicles all the time? Is it because of endocrine disruptors in our environment?

Dr. Alex Carrasco 20:27

Because you sit behind a screen all day.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 20:29

Is it, you know, what is it? Yeah, you know, even though they're exercising and everything else. I've got like, you know, fighters that young fighters that, you know, have testosterone in the 200s.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 20:38

I have a lot of young men in the 300s.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 20:40

Yeah.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 20:42

It's in an epidemic right now.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 20:43

You know, what is it? And then, oh no, you went and you measured the organophosphates of microplastics, and then, oh no, it's hot.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 20:50

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 20:50

Then what? Right. What do you do? And you know, that leads us to the conversation. You know, there's um what's happening now, the human exposome project, you know, the moonshot trial uh project through the NIH and Gary Miller's lab at um Columbia University and Johns Hopkins. And um, they're attempting to really go in there and really define the exposome and how that's having, you know, direct impact on human health. Well, you know, what am I gonna do right now with the patient sitting in front of me? You know, that has, you know, end organ consequences associated with these, you know, environmental toxic body burdens, right? So it's it's one of those things.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 21:26

And that's something we really don't talk about in medical school. No. I mean, there's occupational medicine,

The Hidden Health Impact of Environmental Toxins

Dr. Alex Carrasco 21:30

but you know, that's like your you know, your board questions on asbestos, or like, you know, black lung, yeah, but not not much actual practical information where we should be looking at these things in all of our patients.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 21:42

I think that's gonna be the next frontier, you know. Yeah, because you know, the human uh well with your board, yes. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. We're part of that um research initiative. And that's the thing. If we're not assessing this, you know, New England Journal of Medicine just came out with microplastics and athromas, right? Yeah, you know, the the the plaque. Accumulation in the arteries, not good. Right. So the thing is, we live in a very toxic world. And, you know, what do we do with this information? And what kind of research is there to support, you know, this concept of detoxification, which is also kind of taboo within conventional circuits. But the reality is, you know, there's this environmental genetic mismatch based on your cytochrome P450 enzymes. Right. And there's this tendency towards bioaccumulation in those different um, you know, environmental toxicants. And but what do you do? Does identifying, mitigating, and eliminating alone, you know, allow for the um natural biotransformation, detoxification of it? Or do you have to go in there and provoke the system and help, you know, kind of stimulate it to get it out? Whether more aggressive measures, chelation. Yeah. I think it's individualized.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 22:48

Based on the person, you have to do a lot of pre and post-testing.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 22:50

That's right. And you know, you've got to be careful with chelation. Not everybody's gonna be suitable for it. Um, you gotta, and then, you know, is it IV chelation? And I know there was uh what is it, the match trial or match um, what is it, um blanking on the study from the NIH on chelation for atherosclerosis and you know, mixed results.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 23:10

Right.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 23:11

Again, you know, as we try to take with IV EDTA? Correct.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 23:15

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 23:16

As we try to you take these large randomized double placebo control trials and individualize it to the person sitting in front of us, yeah, we need to be like, you know, because we're so quick to say, well, this study, right, you know, um, you know, it had a positive signal, but then we went further and then it was kind of weaker. Okay, right. Let's take a step back. The reality is what we call evidence-based medicine needs to be re-stratified to the individual. And we need to use this multi-omic molecular approach. And if we're not, we could use all these studies to help guide and personalize it to our fullest capacity, but we need to filter it using using this.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 23:58

It's the personalized and precision medicine that we're gonna do.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 24:00

Correct, correct, correct. That's what so medicine really needs. And, you know, as we explore this new frontier of environmental components, you know, that we're, you know, living in a very toxic world right now. And yeah, you know, at the time of this recording, you know, it there's been some really big clawbacks on environmental regulation and everything with this administration, and unfortunately, that is leaving us even further exposed, right? Despite, you know, internal efforts to push, you know, uh a better agenda forward. Uh I don't want to get political, but what do we do with this information with the person sitting in front of you? Does getting in the sauna alone work? Does taking cilantro extract work? You know, what are the things that are gonna move the needle for the person?

Dr. Alex Carrasco 24:48

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 24:49

Yeah, it's gonna unfortunately be a little bit of trial and error, you know. But you know, first do no harm. So as long as we're not doing anything that could provoke the person into a crisis or anything, is is I think it'll be essential.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 25:04

Yeah. So yeah, and I think that you know, meeting meeting your patient where they're at, and you know and it's challenging because sometimes as a physician, you're like, okay, here is your body burden. We need to work on this. But sometimes there's limitations even on the physician on the patient end. Yeah. You know? There is. Like, what happens if you live in a moldy house? It's not that easy to just be like, well, I'll just sell my house and move away.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 25:30

Don't even get me started on mold. I did a lot of um, I worked with um my my dear friend and mentor, Dr. Andrew Heyman, who is one of the leading researchers in um chronic inflammatory response syndrome, mold-related injury. We saw the sickest of the sick.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 25:45

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 25:46

That's where we did a lot of the transcriptomic um testing and clinical practice. And I think mold exposure is one of my greatest clinical experiences in regards to precision medicine, because we're now seeing that, you know, on chromosome six or nine HLA haplotypes that predispose toward um individuals towards these

Investing in Your Biological 401(k)

Dr. Anil Bajnath 26:05

hyper immunological hyper-responsiveness to these environmental biotoxins. And, you know, so 22% of the population are genetically predisposed towards mold-related illness.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 26:16

And so that's why you can have a whole family of people living in a moldy house and one person is sick, the rest aren't, and then they get gaslit because they're having a horrible experience.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 26:27

I just had a family of six. I'm actually supposed to go to New York and um be a part of a uh uh expert witness in in this court case in that scenario. But all six had uh 4353, 11352B um dreaded haplotypes associated with um poor antigen presentation. So their adaptive immunological pass capacity is lower and their predisposition towards these biotoxins higher. And these are the same population that deal with chronic Lyme, right? You know, or post-Lyme syndrome, yeah. And COVID long haul syndrome, ding ding, ding. Right. So now we have this dysregulated immunological response due to these environmental exposures and you know, infectious agents and biotoxins. And it just leads to this whole crazy scenario.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 27:17

And do you have a kind of I know it's it would be individualized, but do you have like for those kinds of patients, like what do you think really helps them?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 27:25

Oof.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 27:26

Is there is there any is there any like home run?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 27:30

I yes, the home run is getting out of exposure.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 27:36

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 27:36

And not cross-contaminating your new environment.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 27:39

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 27:40

And once you are able to decrease that burden in the system, there is a evidence-based therapeutic protocol. And I know there's a bunch of different spin-offs on that, and I don't want to get political with that.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 27:52

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 27:52

But I do believe getting on the appropriate binders, yeah, right, and measuring neuroinflammation using the VCS test. The VCS test is clinically validated, right? It has been validated by the EPA, OSHA, and even um the Air Force as a tool for biotoxin screening and neuroinflammation, and being able to watch the improvement um of neuroinflammation decreased with your binder of choice. But I am of the camp that, you know, well-call and cholesteroline are going to have the quaternary ammonium needed to have that um charge needed to bind um the bile, right? And go in there and soak it up and prevent enterohepatic recirculation of those biotoxins in the system.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 28:41

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 28:42

And you use the VCS test to monitor and gauge their progress, and it works. I've seen it.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 28:49

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 28:49

You know, hundreds of patients, you know, if you follow that protocol, remove yourself from exposure, get on the right binder, monitor the VCS. That is um visual contrast sensitivity test is going to um be um a really strong starting point in this approach.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 29:09

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I think the that that has been such an amazing protocol for for patients.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 29:16

Yeah, yeah. Well, there's two randomized placebo control trials to validate this, you know. And right now I'm armed to the T because of uh the court case, you know, that uh with all the science, research, and literature behind this, I went through three infectious disease doctors that were trying to say mold-related injury is not real. Yeah. Well, it's not an infectious disease, it's an immunological dysregulated process. Right.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 29:38

Is there a specialty for that?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 29:40

Exactly, right? So it's uh it's just very interesting, you know, clinical scenario. And it's it's very common because over 50% of uh buildings in the US are water damaged. Yes, right. And um it's it and it's not just mold, it's polymicrobial infiltration of that water damage building. And what we found with our studies at George Washington University was that it's actually actinomyocetes that is more prominent in these um water damage

The Biomarkers Every Practitioner Should Know

Dr. Anil Bajnath 30:10

environments. And actinomyocetes, as we were discussing, is a gram-positive facultative anaerobic spore-forming filamentous bacteria. What the hell does that mean? It's a bacteria that looks and behaves like a mold, right? Right. And it's actually it could be colonized on your skin. And what ends up happening is, you know, you live in this environment, you're colonized with it on the skin, you're it it's it's it wrecks havoc. And ultimately, what happens with um, you know, this um this immunological provocation is that it activates this part of your immune system called complements. Right. And when complement is activated, right, and you can measure these biomarkers from ideally National Jewish in uh Colorado, um, you know, you get C4A, you know, complement activation four and four A. And um essentially that leads to something called MAC. What's MAC? Membrane attack complex. You're poking holes in your cell membrane, they're becoming leaky, and that's why you have atrophic nuclei and increased apoptosis in, you know, um programmed cell death with these leaky cells because they're weakened due to the immunological activation of complement through via MAC.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 31:24

And do you think that things like phosphatidylcholine can help leaky cell?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 31:30

Oh, yeah. No, that's a part of the protocol that comes later. But yeah, no, so PC and mix lipids, you know, so it's not just PC, it's gonna be PS, PC, PEA, and a few other things are gonna go in there and have a um, you know, they call it what is it, lipid exchange therapy, right? You know, go in there and and restore the cell membrane. Yeah, you know, some of the old school PK protocol stuff, you know, Patricia Kane's work with the Neurolipid Research Institute. Yeah. Yeah. It's fun. That's right. Isn't it fun? It's fun, it's complicated, but it's fun.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 32:02

And then it's often very hard to explain it to other people.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 32:07

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 32:08

It's I think it's amazing you're coming out with your book, and I think it's amazing that you're creating a board because it's like translating all of that brilliance that's in your mind, you know, and making it, you know, easy to understand. That's the hard thing, right?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 32:22

I don't know if it's gonna be easy, but we're gonna do our best, you know?

Dr. Alex Carrasco 32:25

Yeah, or making or simplifying it.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 32:27

Yeah, trying, you know.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 32:29

Because, you know, it's hard, it's hard to translate it. It is, it is a whole other language.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 32:33

And that's why, like, when people come to me, I have a whole like course. So as we're waiting for all your data to come back, that's awesome. I built out all these different modules for you to get access to because when the information comes back, it's like this thick, yeah. Right. At minimum, yeah. Of info. And it's like, what do you do with it?

Dr. Alex Carrasco 32:54

How do you do that with your patients? How do you go over the data with them?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 32:57

So I try not to get granular, right? And just big picture because we're here for the pattern recognition. Right. And the reality is genomics alone could take hours and hours and hours to unpack. But the goal is how do we use this for empowerment right now and identify these polygenic risks that could be associated with predispositions towards various disease processes, right? Whatever it might be. And then fine-tune some of the, you know, nutrient genomic associations and the right supplements and identifying deficiencies and plugging that up. And then, you know, also the gut stuff. Most people have gut stuff. Oh, yeah. Yeah, right. So gut and environment are like really important components to what we're looking at. And then, you know, unfortunately, you know, there's no standardized protocols for the gut stuff. There's no standardized protocols for the environmental stuff. We know it's there, and most docs ignore it. They don't know what to do.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 33:54

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 33:54

So now that's when you start leaning into some of these other, you know, investigational kind of interventions that, you know, are there to support the person.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 34:05

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 34:06

Yeah. Because, you know, I think it's still argued whether or not leaky gut is a real ICD 10 diagnostic code. Uh it happens and we see

Why Everyone Should Measure Lp(a)

Dr. Anil Bajnath 34:15

it, you know, and zonnulin is a very important biomarker and proxy of that situation, you know. And if we're not addressing it, what are you gonna do? Ignore it?

Dr. Alex Carrasco 34:24

No.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 34:24

Gotta figure out what's going on and do our best to heal. Right. You know? All right, drink some bone broth, you know, take some uh, you know, maybe some glutamine. I don't know, you know.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 34:33

So short chain fatty acids in there.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 34:35

Yeah, all that good stuff, right? So that's where the really good functional medicines comes into play, you know.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 34:40

Yeah, you know, it's definitely a multi-layered approach.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 34:43

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, but it's all these insults, and that's why I I really believe multiomics is a future of healthcare. It's not me saying that. It's like research. The research and the literature is all pointing towards multiomics right now. And that's where docs need to know this, lean into it, and realize this is the root cause of what's influencing their patient's clinical presentation.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 35:07

So, in the board that you're created or that you have created, are you going to teach these things? Or what's kind of how's that gonna work?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 35:13

I don't want it to be about me.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 35:15

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 35:15

Because I'm stupid, right? I I know really smart people, right? So that's why I've recruited the best that I can, you know, from academics and industry to be a part of this initiative. And we have two different educational verticals the precision health side, which is all the fun stuff we're talking about right now. Yeah. And then the precision oncology side, which is like the true application of precision medicine in its modern context.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 35:38

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 35:39

And um the precision onc right now, uh, oncology side is growing very rapidly with very important um big pharma organizations and industry alliances and things of that nature. And I'm, you know, on the precision health side here, you know, professing our conversation that we just had here today. So um I'm, you know, going to be m contributing to the material and content, but I don't want it to be my show. I want it to be everybody's show.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 36:08

Sure. But the board, will they educate? Will they, you know, kind of what's what what do you what is the trajectory of the board going to be? Like for any clinicians listening that might want to be a part of it. Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 36:18

So so it depends on which side you're coming in, oncology or not, right? Um, but our curriculum is divided into three tiers. And the first tier is multi-omics, the second tier is systems biology, and the third tier is network analysis. How do we connect those dots and identify the patterns associated with this? So uh right now the curriculum is uh approximately 200 hours. We're finalizing our first um round of education and gonna enroll our initial small cohort here in the beginning.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 36:46

Okay.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 36:46

And um we want to keep this very tight-knit and refined as we go because it is a emerging, new and emerging kind of um field of science and research. And uh we want to make sure that you know, our intention is to basically enhance the narrative, enhance clinical practice guidelines. Like the ACC AHA, American College of Cardiology and Heart Association, just updated

What's Next for Precision Medicine

Dr. Anil Bajnath 37:10

their clinical guidelines, what, six weeks ago or so?

Dr. Alex Carrasco 37:12

We got an APO B now and an L and a lipoprotein A. Yeah, yeah. How long have you been saying that? You know?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 37:18

Yeah, yeah. And um 12 years at least, if not longer.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 37:22

Yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 37:23

So it's and the NLA National Lipid Association's been standing on the roof, you know, on the mountaintop screaming, hey, you guys gotta measure LP little A. Yeah. You know, and it's like, okay, but that's gonna change the narrative of practice management because unfortunately it's pill for ill. So if what there's pelicarsin is on the horizon, I think it's in phase three B clinical trials right now, and that's gonna be a very important agent, I think, to come out for you know, targeting LP little A. Yeah. I think the next best agent is gonna be like Rapatha. Yeah, you know, I I I think Rapatha is a fantastic drug, especially for pretty amazing people like me, Southeast Asians that are predisposed towards that level of um, you know, uh dyslipidemia and the side effects that statins give you.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 38:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 38:03

That's it. So, you know, the goal would be how do we personalize these practice recommendations? Because yeah, we just got a couple of new biomarker endorsements, right? There's imaging endorsements, um, you know, to do a CAC or not a CAC, you know, and everything else. So um, yeah, I think uh as more doctors start embracing and adopting this new molecular framework of, you know, individualized medicine, we're gonna be finding these certain patterns and there's certain subset of the populations with genetic predispositions that are going to really move the needle at at enhancing the narrative within their respected field. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a goal.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 38:45

That is amazing.

Dr. Anil Bajnath 38:46

Yeah.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 38:46

Oh my gosh. It's like I feel like we could talk for hours about all of these things, but can you tell everyone how they can find you, how they can learn more

Connect with Dr. Anil Bajnath

Dr. Alex Carrasco 38:55

about you, how they can learn about your book?

Dr. Anil Bajnath 38:57

Yeah. So um I have, you just gotta Google my name and the badge math, right? I've got my website, my practice website, the Institute for Human Optimization. I've got um, you know, the board is the uh the abopm.org for the American Board of Precision Medicine. We have um a ton of other sites out there. So yeah, you know, very easy to find me and follow me on Instagram. I'm not that active, but at Dr. Anil Badgnath, you know, and um, yeah, I try my best to stay engaged with uh with everything. And I'm licensed in almost all 50, so I see patients all over the country. Wow, that's really cool. So thank you. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, no, thank you. Yeah, it's a pleasure.

Dr. Alex Carrasco 39:41

If you're a practitioner interested in exploring advanced biomarkers from vibrant, you can learn more about testing options at vibrant wellness.com. And remember to follow us on Instagram at VibrantWellness. See you next time.