Mar. 14 Hannah Went, Co-Founder TruDiagnostics
LEXINGTON, KY – The Rotary Club of Lexington held its weekly meeting on Thursday, Mar. 14, at The Mane on Main, Chase Bank building on Main St. The program’s guest speaker was Hannah Went, Co-Founder, TruDiagnostics. For a review of her presentation see below!
This meeting will also be on Zoom. For the Zoom link please email, [email protected].
If you would like to have lunch, please contact [email protected] to reserve your meal.
Hannah Went has a lifelong passion for longevity and breakthrough, disruptive technologies that drive radical improvement to the human condition. She attended the University of Kentucky and graduated with a degree in Biology. During that time, she had multiple research internships studying cell signaling and cell biology. After graduation, she worked for the International Peptide Society as their Director of Research and Content. Through work in the integrative medicine industry, Hannah saw an opportunity for methylation-based age diagnostics and started TruDiagnostics in 2020. TruDiagnostic is a company focusing on methylation array-based diagnostics for life extension and preventive healthcare serving functional medicine providers. TruDiagnostic has a commitment to research with over 30 approved clinical trials investigating the epigenetic methylation changes of longevity and health interventions. Since TruDiagnostic’s inception, they have created one of the largest private epigenetic health databases in the world with over 35,000 patients tested to date. Hannah has since created Everything Epigenetics where she shares insights on how DNA regulation has an impact on your health.
Rotary in Review
“HOW TO STAY YOUNG FOREVER”
Our speaker on March 14 was Hannah Went, Co-Founder and Director of Operations for TruDiagnostic™, based in Lexington, Kentucky. Her topic was an introduction to epigenetics and insights to the number one risk factor for chronic disease and death. Epigenetics means “above the genome.” TruDiagnostic™ was started in 2020 and now has its own facility and lab on Harrodsburg Road. The company specializes in health data and has completed clinical trials with such institutions as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Penn, Duke, UCLA, UCSH and Ohio State.
Went said that age is the biggest risk factor for all chronic diseases and death. Age trumps heart disease, cancer and even COVID-19. The purpose of epigenetic modification is to control how your genetics are expressed. She said that genes need only be tested once – they will never change. The goal is to manipulate the DNA, similar to an on-off light switch. For example, you want the tumor suppressor gene on and the cancer gene off to address that particular disease. Went cited the famous Agouti Mouse Gene Study. When the healthy genes were turned off there was a profound change in the mice.
She said that the major aging factors are stress, exercise, diet, sleep, alcohol and smoking. Bio-aging is aging at the cellular level. Bio-aging is also a quality of life issue. If certain aging factors are not altered, bio-aging will accelerate. If a healthy balance can be achieved or certain habits changed then a decrease in bio-aging will occur, resulting in a longer life span. Went showed a graph where disease diagnoses skyrocketed for those in the forty to sixty age group. When an individual reaches sixty-five there will typically be a gradual decline in activity over the next decade. Retirement can slow down bio-aging since there will be a reduction in stress, one of the key aging factors. There are several simple tests that TruDiagnostic™ has developed to determine bio-aging. Went said that several insurance companies are interested in the clinical research, but currently none are covering the cost of the clinical tests. Even with epigenetic mortification, the key to “staying young forever” is seeking a healthy life style balance and managing the aging factors.
-Paul B. Chewning
