20 Dec 2018
Insights into longevity
By Brad Church
During our recent training and professional development trip to America, James Goodman and I were privileged to join a field trip to Human Longevity Inc in California. Here I share with you what we learned.
Human Longevity Inc
The program is the brainchild of founders Craig Venter, Peter Diamandis and Robert Harari who boast an extraordinary list of achievements.
Craig Venter is an American biotechnologist, biochemist, geneticist and businessman. He was part of the Human Genome Project and was included on the list of Time's 100 most influential people in the world.
Peter Diamandis is an American engineer, physician and entrepreneur. He is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Abundance.
Robert Hariri is an entrepreneur, visionary surgeon, scientist and aviator. He has pioneered the use of stem cells to treat a range of life threatening diseases. He is also a jetrated commercial pilot!
What is genomics?
If, like me, you are not exactly sure what genomics is, let me share the results of my Wikipedia research:
Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of science focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes.
Health Nucleus
The Human Longevity Inc centre in San Diego offers a service called Health Nucleus which is open to anyone (willing to pay the fee). This is a clinical research and discovery centre that evaluates your health and gives personal insights into both your present day and future health. Think, your annual health check of the future ... only it is available today.
Their assessment as a minimum includes whole genome sequencing by analysing your DNA, a whole body MRI scan, laboratory testing, including microbiome and a number of other diagnostic tests. The results are analysed by clinicians and scientists, but they are assisted by machine learning and masses of research data.
You spend about half a day in their clinic and within a couple of weeks you receive your personalised report which gives you an opportunity to plan for a healthier future. It is important to note that by agreeing to do the testing, you also agree for data to be retained. Essentially you become part of a long-term research study.
Interim CEO David Karow shared with us some of the success stories from the 2,000 plus clients who have been through Health Nucleus. As many as 40 percent of people who have come through the program as "healthy adults" were in fact found to have a health issue requiring referral and 14 percent were subsequently diagnosed with a serious condition. The good news is most of these were found in early stages which meant the people had a high probability for successful treatment.
The facilities we visited were impressive - it felt more like a day spa than a diagnostic centre. The MRI room for example, featured mood lighting, aromatherapy, your choice of music and a TV screen.
If you would like to know more about the Human Longevity Inc please feel free to ask us.
Some lessons learned
For James and I, there were a number of key takeaways from our field trip. One key takeaway was the data reinforced the importance of getting your annual health checkup. When it comes to leading a high quality of life, prevention is most definitely better than cure. But, if it does come down to cure, the sooner you know the better.
The second, from a financial point of view, is the advances in medical science that are coming are simply mind blowing. The outcome means in the future we will be living longer and longer. So, we had better make sure our money can last that long.
At Goodman Private Wealth one of our key deliverables is your Lifetime Capital Projections which helps us understand many things, including the longevity of your capital. Our field trip reinforced the importance of this key deliverable.
One of our commitments is to do everything we can to help you achieve your goals, so that you live the quality of life you aspire to. Our trip to the US has given us new insights into just what will be required in the future to deliver on this promise.