The Tenpenny Files with Kashif Khan

A supplement does not do the same thing in every body. Neither does a diet, a hormone, a toxin, or even the advice we casually call “healthy.” We’ve spent decades asking whether something is good for us without asking whether our bodies are capable of handling it the same way.

That is the problem Kashif Khan has spent years trying to understand through functional genomics. Why can two people eat the same food, live remarkably similar lives, or follow the same health protocol and end up with completely different outcomes? Khan believes part of the answer can be found in genetic instructions most of us have never seen.

Then he tells me about a case that makes this much harder to dismiss.

When Kashif Khan looked at a woman’s DNA, he found something nobody had been looking for. One of the supplements she was taking specifically to help her body detox was, in his assessment, contributing to the very symptoms she was trying to fix.

That’s where this conversation changes the question.

Before asking whether a supplement works, whether keto is healthy, whether you should take hormones, or which detox protocol is best, Khan argues there is something much more personal to understand:

What instructions did your body start with?

Khan learned to ask that question because his own body forced him to.

At 38, he says his health suddenly began unraveling. Severe eczema and psoriasis appeared. Migraines drove him to seek medical help. Gut problems and depression followed. Yet his business partner, who lived five houses away, drove to work with him and ate many of the same meals, remained healthy.

Medical imaging didn’t explain what was happening. Khan’s search eventually led him to genetics, where he discovered something about his own detoxification biology that made him reconsider foods he had thought were healthy and why another person living so similarly could apparently tolerate what he could not.

That discovery became part of a much larger investigation into how genetic differences may influence the everyday functions we tend to take for granted.

Weight is one example. We argue endlessly over keto, vegan diets, calorie restriction and now GLP-1 drugs as though there must eventually be one winning answer. Khan describes genetic differences related to insulin response, metabolism, hunger and satiety that he believes can help explain why one person’s success story can become another person’s frustration.

Then we get into something I wasn’t expecting from a conversation about DNA: relationships.

Khan explains how genetic differences involving dopamine helped him understand years of friction with that same business partner. They approached achievement, reward and satisfaction very differently, yet each had been interpreting the other’s behavior through his own experience.

Once Khan saw their genetic profiles, he says their relationship began to make more sense.

I immediately thought about married couples.

How much conflict begins because we assume another person should experience urgency, stress, satisfaction or even the world around them the same way we do? Khan’s explanation adds a fascinating dimension to that question without reducing human behavior to a genetic test.

Sleep opens another door. Khan discusses why one person may be extremely sensitive to light at night while another can stare at a laptop before bed and seemingly sleep without difficulty. He also explains why falling asleep and repeatedly waking during the second half of the night may involve very different biological signals.

The point isn’t another list of sleep hacks. It’s understanding which problem you’re actually trying to solve.

Khan says his work eventually included tracking approximately 7,000 people struggling with a wide range of health problems and looking for patterns in their genetic profiles. What emerged led him into questions about chronic stress, nervous-system regulation and women’s health that go considerably further than what most people imagine when they hear the words “DNA test.”

His book, The DNA Way: Unlock the Secrets of Your Genes to Reverse Disease, Slow Aging, and Achieve Optimal Wellness, gives readers the room to understand those genetic pathways in much greater depth. Our conversation takes the research into real life, including stories and observations that aren’t developed in the same way on the page.

The interview gives you pieces you won’t get from the book. The book takes you places we couldn’t possibly reach in one conversation. You need both to understand the full scope of what Khan is presenting.

There was still one question I wanted answered.

If you’re going to send a company your DNA, what happens to it afterward?

Khan doesn’t avoid the privacy issue. He explains why genetic information has become valuable and describes safeguards he says are built into his testing process. According to Khan, physical samples are destroyed after processing, while customers establish their own accounts connected to anonymous barcodes so the laboratory processing the sample does not need to know whose DNA it contains.

His DNA 360 testing is now transitioning to Signal Health, where he plans to focus on functional genetic and biological signals people can use to better understand their individual health.

After hearing this conversation, the next time someone tells you a supplement, diet or health protocol is “good for you,” you may find yourself asking something else first.

Good for which body?

Website

https://kashkhanofficial.com

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Kashkhanofficial 

DNA kits: DNA.DrTenpenny.com – use code DRT

Book link: https://amzn.to/4wiMOsi