DNA TESTING, best known for solving crimes and tracking down our ancestors, could also be the key to healthier lives.
Now, Dr Aamer Khan, an expert in aesthetics and wellness, specialising in cellular and regenerative medicines, says DNA combined with genetic testing can help us extend our current health-span and wellbeing, making our final years healthier and more active, and even influencing the health and welfare of our descendants.
Dr Khan, already well known as a principal and co-founder at London’s prestigious Harley Street Skin Clinic, has set up the Cellular + Regenerative Clinic in nearby Devonshire Place to advise private clients on how best to manage their wellness.
He told Monaco Voice: “If you can’t see it, then how can you treat it, and if you don’t see it coming, how can you avoid it? DNA and genetic testing can solve that problem.
“I am sure there are many Monégasque and others who live in the Principality who would welcome this type of intervention.
“It is estimated that many of us alive now will live to well over 100, but my work is more about filling our years with life rather than filling our lives with years,” says Dr Khan, who spent 24 years with Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), before going into private practice fully in 2010 to follow his passion for cellular and regenerative medicine.
He now aims to build private sector partnerships with the NHS to promote early diagnosis that is evidence based and data driven, to extend health and wellness, and so avoid people needing premature treatment for chronic conditions, thereby saving billions in costs and releasing resource for an overstretched NHS.
His passion was ignited as a GP in Birmingham’s Bournville community, established by the Quaker chocolate producers, Cadbury, whose ethos helped create a large and healthy elderly population in that area.
“They didn't smoke, they didn’t drink,” said Dr Khan. “And the houses had enough land for their own produce and livestock – so they were also getting exercise and healthy food. We had the highest percentage of elderly patients in their over 80s in the whole country, of which many were centenarians.
“It confirmed that health risks and longevity, can be determined by modifiable factors like diet, exercise, and stress, and the avoidance of certain environmental and ingested contaminants, which can alter gene expression then risk diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and dementia.
“There was also a good sense of community and most of the population were in gainful employment, which helped maintain good mental health. Bournville village also had open spaces, trees and a community lido swimming pool, making it a beautiful place in which to live and work.
“It also suggested that early detection and lifestyle changes can switch off harmful genes, a theory that has been reinforced by large studies of long-lived and healthy communities globally.
“The problem for the NHS is that intervention often comes too late in the cycle and treatment is expensive, resource hungry and often simply delays the inevitable outcome.
“This doesn’t mean the NHS system should be torn up; its ethos – healthcare for all – is the best in the world but currently not deliverable. Covid was the straw that broke the camel's back.
“My organisation, Cellular + Regenerative, aims to lift the huge burden of mid and later life, and end of life care, by integrating with health and social care systems to improve wellness earlier in life so that the risk from current epidemics of heart disease, diabetes and dementia can be dramatically reduced.
“The resource savings could be huge. For instance, chronic wound management costs the NHS £10 billion (11.9 billion Euros) a year, with associated social care adding another £3 billion (3.5 billion Euros). If our wound healing clinics could save half of that £13 billion (15.4 billion Euros), that’s a lot of money and resources freed up to relieve strain across the NHS.”
Dr Khan agreed that the NHS and its GPs had moved towards an early intervention/wellness scenario, but this approach has to battle with the need for resources in the here and now:
“If your GP notes you’re a bit overweight, they can try to address that. On the other hand, I spoke recently with someone whose family had a history of prostate cancer at a very young age, and went to see his GP, but the doctor was unable to have him screened because NHS protocols decreed that he was too young.
“Like me, I’m sure many GPs want to intervene earlier, but the NHS is simply not set up for it, and cannot be, under the current model.”
And this is where the private sector can become involved, in this ‘pre-primary care’ field.
Dr Khan wants to begin to build a partnership with the NHS to reduce healthcare costs and improve overall health.
“The start is DNA testing,” he says. “We’re not really interested in whether you’re 20% or 2% Neanderthal, but the information on that DNA, they're called ‘snips’ (SNPs specific nucleotide polymorphisms), are the genetic flags raised when environmental stresses cause DNA damage and are then repaired, potentially changing those genes for better or worse.
“A person’s genetic profile is a unique record of how their health span can change due to lifestyle, including diet, medication, stress, and environmental exposure.
“Once identified, implementation of changes in lifestyle choices and interventions can help change the expression of genes associated with conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and neurodegeneration relating to the onset of dementia or Parkinson’s Disease
“This can also be allied with fast-moving and future interventions, including emerging highly sensitive cancer screening and breakthroughs in technologies such as CRISPR (gene editing), personalised pharmaco-genetic and next-generation cancer treatments, including cancer vaccines.
“We also know far more now about the relationship between our gut health and how that can be adjusted to enhance our wellness, both physically and mentally. This knowledge is behind the growth in a new specialised field in medical development. We are able to test and relate findings to mental, physical and immunological health issues, and take action to correct any imbalances that we find.
“It’s an exciting and brighter future beyond the current health crisis where many people of today can enjoy active and healthy lives into their 120s if they choose to.
“Every journey starts with the knowledge of your personalised unique blueprint, from which we can help produce your roadmap to optimal health, vitality and longevity.”