Don’t Die from Something Stupid: My 4th Longevity Practice

Most of us have *no idea* what’s really going on in our bodies.

Eventually, we will all be wearing sensors that feed our AI assistant, in a fashion that constantly and accurately monitors our health.

But until that future arrives, it’s important to use advanced diagnostics to evaluate our health on an annual basis, with the goal of finding disease at stage 0.

This is why I co-founded (and now chair) Fountain Life, a global platform that provides advanced diagnostics and vetted therapeutics to promote a longer, healthier, and more vital life.

In today’s blog, Part 4 of my Longevity Practices Series, I’ll discuss the Fountain Life platform and how I use it to increase my longevity and avoid dying from something stupid.

Let’s dive in…

NOTE: We’ll be visiting Fountain Life’s New York Center as part of my upcoming Platinum Longevity Trip. Members will gain early access to advanced diagnostics, health products, and treatments—all included as part of the Trip. If you’d like to learn more, go here.

My Fountain Life “Annual Upload”

Every year, I go through a Fountain Life “Upload” as part of their Apex Membership program.

The Apex diagnostic program gathers 150GB of data about you to determine whether you currently have, or are at risk for developing, any of the leading causes of a shortened health and lifespan, specifically cardiac disease, cancer, aneurysms, metabolic disease, and neurocognitive function.

Should any dysfunction be discovered, a Functional Medicine-trained team will employ a systems-based approach to uncover the molecular drivers and provide an ongoing plan to restore cellular health.

The Apex Membership is designed for individuals who desire access to the most advanced comprehensive testing and to a Longevity Physician trained to interpret your results and implement a roadmap based on your advanced testing. 

APEX MEMBER DIAGNOSTIC TESTING: Following are the major imaging and blood tests conducted as part of this Membership offering: over 80 clinical biomarkers, Brain MRI, Full body MRI, Cleerly CTA (looking for soft plaque), GRAIL Liquid Biopsy Cancer Testing, DEXA Scan, Metabolic Testing, Whole Genome Sequencing, Microbiome Analysis, and TruAge Testing. 

A listing of “What’s included in a Fountain Upload” is provided below.

WHY SHOULD WE LOOK?: The body is amazing at hiding disease. We are all optimists about our health. We think we’re doing fine until that moment when you’re rushed to the hospital.  

The truth is that we don’t know what’s going inside our body until we actually look. As it turns out, 70% of all heart attacks have no previous symptoms, no shortness of breath, nothing. And 70% of cancer-related deaths come from cancers that are not routinely screened for. The only way to really know your health is to use modern technology to screen yourself and look.

The numbers tell the story.  

Out of 100 seemly healthy adults who go through a Fountain Life screening, 2% have a cancer they didn’t know about; 2.5% have an aneurysm; and 14.4% of seemingly healthy members have a serious life-threatening finding they need to address. 

So, when do you want to find out about disease? Would you prefer to find out ASAP? Or at the end when it’s too late?  

You will eventually find out!

Given the advances in medicine, there is a lot that can be done about cancer, heart disease, neurocognitive and metabolic diseases when detected early. Please look early when you have the greatest chance of taking successful action!

The good news is that modern medicine has given us to the tools to be able to prevent and in some cases reverse heart disease, metabolic disease, and mild cognitive dementia.

NOT DYING FROM SOMETHING STUPID: I call this Longevity Practice “Not dying from something stupid.”

This goes along with wearing your seat belt, not texting while driving, and wearing a helmet when you ski.

What’s Included in the Fountain Upload?

Following is a more complete, yet still partial, list of all the testing done at Fountain.  

All data is organized and evaluated by our AI systems and your Functional Medicine-trained Longevity Physician.

You can find more information here: www.fountainlife.com

IMAGING:

• Full Body & Brain MRI with AI Overlay: Generating a quantitative 3D visualization looking for tumors, masses, aneurysms and other anomalies in the brain, neck, chest, kidneys, liver, spleen, pancreas and other abdominal organs as well as the bladder, uterus, prostate and other pelvic organs.

• CCTA with Cleerly AI Overlay: Characterizing any stenosis and soft plaque that is prone to rupture.

• DEXA Whole Body Scan: Measuring bone density (osteoporosis) and body composition (muscle and visceral fat). 

• Retinal Scan with AI Read, Electrocardiogram (EKG), Skin Cancer Screening.

GENOMICS:

• Whole Genome Sequencing: Decodes 100% of your DNA, all 6 billion letters (other tests, just 0.02%), generating over 100GB of DNA data. Polygenic Risk Scores: Provides a measure of your risk for developing common chronic diseases, based on the total number of genetic changes related to the disease. Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms Test (SNP): Identifies over 700,000 common genetic variations in your blood that affect everything from drug and toxin metabolism to efficiency of biochemical pathways. 

• TruAge Epigenetic Testing: This epigenetic test looks at methylation markers on your DNA to predict your biological age in comparison to your chronological age, and further determine how these changes will affect your body and overall health. It also determines your pace of aging (i.e., how fast you are aging each year).

BLOOD BIOMARKERS, GRAIL & TOXINS:

• Over 80 Blood Tests: These tests contain an extensive and comprehensive set of clinical biomarkers looking at kidney and liver function; vitamin, mineral and hormone levels; vascular and full body inflammatory markers; complete lipid and cholesterol panel; blood cell characterization; extensive metabolic health markers; autoimmune disease screening markers; cell membrane analysis; and a full set of heart disease risk factors.

• GRAIL Early Cancer Detection Blood Test: This is effective in finding cancers at early stages so they can easily be treated.

• Toxins Testing: Tests for the presence of environmental toxins which can cause acute or chronic toxic overload, and may manifest in a variety of biological organ, tissue, and cellular-level dysfunctions.

This represents just a fraction of the testing I do every year at Fountain Life. Here’s a partial list of the additional testing I do to understand what’s going inside my body:

• Microbiome Sequencing: Full Sequencing of your microbiome.

• Oral Pathogen Test: Quantitative test for the most critical bacterial pathogens that confer the highest risk for infection, inflammation, cardiovascular, immune, and cognitive diseases.

• Functional Movement Testing: Using 2D motion capture and machine learning to assess human movement with pinpoint accuracy.

• Strength Test: Combination of upper and lower body strength measurements. Strength is a key indicator of overall longevity.

• Sleep Apnea Test: FDA-cleared Digital Home Sleep Test for Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). Undiagnosed sleep apnea is common and is a driver of all chronic diseases.

METABOLIC, MITOCHONDRIAL & NEUROCOGNITIVE TESTING: 

• Continuous Glucose Monitoring: Providing real-time glucose readings day and night. 

• Nutritional Test: A blood and urine profile that evaluates over 125 biomarkers and assesses 40 antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, amino acids, digestive support. Assesses all of the key metabolites in mitochondrial function. 

• Mitochondrial Function Test: Testing lactic acid generated by a brief workout (treadmill or stationary bike) to determine your Zone-2 heart rate, estimate your VO2 and the presence of any mitochondrial dysfunction.

• CNS Vital Signs Neurocognitive Test: Series of computerized neuropsychological tests to evaluate neurocognitive status and covers a range of mental processes from simple motor performance, attention, memory, to executive functions. Screens for mental health and mood disorders.

Why This Matters

In 2004, my dear friend Ray Kurzweil wrote a milestone book called Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever. 

In the book, Kurzweil described bridge one as a set of near-term life-extending solutions (e.g., a sugar-free diet and muscle-mass-increasing exercise) that should be followed until eventually bridge-two interventions—like cellular reprogramming, synthetic organs, and stem cell therapies—are safely and routinely available in the clinical setting. 

Your job is to stay healthy and free of accidents long enough to intercept many of the bridge-two therapies expected later this decade. 

Helping you cross “bridge one” is also the goal of Fountain Life. 

If this is of interest to you, and I hope it is, check it out at www.fountainlife.com.

Fountain Life is a “Long-Life, Life-Long” Membership.