Optimizing Health through Genomics Based Personalized Medicine PH172

“The model of medicine where you base treatment of patients on statistics and epidemiology- what works for most people- we felt like we could do better as a society and as a group of physicians, and that’s what took us down the route of creating Wild Health and focusing on precision medicine.”
- Dr. Matthew Dawson, Wild Health CEO

Can human performance be optimized by tailoring medical care to each patient’s unique genetic makeup?

Matt Dawson, MD and Mike Mallin, MD are the co-founders of Wild Health, a healthcare clinic using a genomics-based personalized medicine approach.

Dr. Dawson has been a life-long athlete focused on optimizing performance.  He received scholarships to play two sports in college even with self-professed "minimal talent" because of his voracious reading and implementation of any fitness or nutritional techniques that would give him an edge.  He continued that obsession into medical school at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, and as a physician he has won numerous national awards for education, innovation, and leadership.

Dr. Mallin has been in medical practice for 10 years, but obsessed with health, physical performance, and longevity his entire life. He attended the University of South Carolina School of Medicine and currently practices in Bend, Oregon. Dr. Mallin is board certified in emergency medicine and has completed a fellowship in point-of-care ultrasound.

Dr. Dawson and Dr. Mallin met during their Emergency Medicine residency in Salt Lake City, Utah, where they bonded over their life-long passion for optimizing performance.  Throughout their residency, they continuously self-experimented with nutrition, fitness, and recovery techniques to give themselves a competitive edge.

Together they have gone on to grow several businesses, create apps, and author two textbooks.  Most recently they founded Wild Health where they use a medical approach rooted in the lessons they learned during their time self-experimenting as residents.

Wild Health utilizes a team of medical professionals to look at an individuals unique genetics, lab results, microbiome, and lifestyle factors in order to craft a precision treatment plan that fits the patient's health, fitness, and longevity goals.

I recently had the opportunity to appear on Dr. Dawson and Dr. Mallin’s Wild Health podcast, and I was excited to catch up with them at their home base in Lexington, Kentucky to have them as guests on Pursuing Health.  We talked about how they became interested in genomics and personalized medicine, how using an objective Health Score can motivate patients to make lifestyle changes, and the processes they’re implementing to make precision treatment plans the future of medicine.

In this episode we discuss:

• Dr. Dawson and Dr. Mallin’s backgrounds in health and fitness, and why they decided to go into medicine
• How Dr. Dawson and Dr. Mallin met and some of the adventures they shared during residency
• The nutrition and biohacking they experimented with as they went through their medical training
• How Dr. Dawson and Dr. Mallin came to recognize that genomics were integral to practicing medicine
• What personalized medicine/genomics-based medicine means
• What the patient process looks like
• Using an objective Health Score to help motivate patients and give them a way to track progress
• How Wild Health uses health coaches to be more hands-on with their patients
• The Wild Health Fellowship
• The tipping point that allowed them to go all-in with Wild Health, and what their vision for the future looks like
• Three things Dr. Dawson and Dr. Mallin do on a regular basis that have the biggest positive impact on their health
• One thing they struggle to implement that could have a big impact on their health
• What a healthy life looks like to Dr. Dawson and Dr. Mallin

You can follow Wild Health on their website, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

Links:

• Gym Jones
• HIIT benefits for brain optimization with Physician and Crossfit athlete Dr. Julie Foucher.
• Jeff Volek on Ketogenic Diets and Athletic Performance
• The Effects of Sleep Extension on the Athletic Performance of Collegiate Basketball Players
• Oura Ring
• Ooler Sleep System
• Leif Heart Rate Variability Monitor
• Heart Math
• Ben Greenfield Fitness: Why Your DNA Is Worthless (& What You Need To Focus On Instead).
• ReWild Yourself Podcast with Daniel Vitalis

Related episodes:

Ep 78 - Lifestyle and Brain Health with Dr. David Perlmutter

Ep 109 - All About Functional Medicine with Dr. Elizabeth Bradley, Medical Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine

Ep 120 - All About Keto with Dom D'Agostino

 

If you like this episode, please subscribe to Pursuing Health on iTunes and give it a rating. I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below and on social media using the hashtag #PursuingHealth. I look forward to bringing you future episodes with inspiring individuals and ideas about health every other Tuesday.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for general information only, and does not provide medical advice. We recommend that you seek assistance from your personal physician for any health conditions or concerns.