Advancements in Artificial Intelligence are reinventing medical care and changing the way we diagnose illnesses. As Fountain Life co-founder Peter Diamandis points out in his book The Future is Faster Than you Think, “convergence of sensors, networks, and AI is upending medical diagnosis.”

One of the areas Fountain Life is most excited about is our full body MRI with AI. Our non-invasive MRI provides a head-to-toe scan, using a powerful magnetic field that allows doctors to see a 3D rendering of your body and brain. Unlike an X-ray, there are no negative effects on your body. Through convergence Fountain Life can link the MRI imaging with artificial intelligence (AI) to scan for any abnormalities or irregularities.

MRI with AI allows doctors to see, with unparalleled precision, the body, and spot abnormalities at their earliest – and usually treatable – stage. It can reveal cancer tumors before they arrive at stage 3 or 4, and even find small aneurysms in the brain. It can also show neurodegeneration and signs of blood vessels narrowing in the brain and heart, and offers imaging of all organs in the body, such as the liver and kidneys.

Annual MRI with AI Testing for Fountain Life Members

Fountain Life members can use this valuable tool annually to find illnesses in their infancy before they can cause harm. While no one wants to hear that they have cancer, finding it early saves lives. You can start treatment for cancer while it’s still at an early, highly treatable stage. Alternatively, based on findings, you may be instructed to change medications or modify your lifestyle to help prevent or reverse heart disease or even dementia!

All Fountain Life members receive an MRI scan with AI annually as part of our precision diagnostics preventative tests. Together, these annual tests play a key role in helping you live to 100 – while feeling like you’re 60.

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Do deadlines make you particularly anxious? Do you constantly worry that you’ll be late for appointments? If so, you have been experiencing a condition called time anxiety, and it can rob your productivity. Time anxiety is a general sense of stress or unease related to time. It involves feeling pressured, overwhelmed, or anxious about time-related factors like dates, appointments, and being late. While time anxiety presents itself in many ways, there are also solutions and treatments for this often-debilitating condition.

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‍Identifying Time Anxiety

‍Most people experience anxiety when they are late, or if they have missed an important meeting. However, when you live with time anxiety, your feelings about time-related concepts often exist without concrete reasons or triggers. Time anxiety is accompanied by various features that manifest in an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in the following ways:

• Constant Worry: People with time anxiety often experience continued worry about the passage of time. They often feel pressure when faced with deadlines, often worrying that they won't have enough time to complete tasks. This worry can extend to worries about lateness and about missing appointments, or manifest as an overall unease about the day getting later.

• Fear of the Future: There is often an underlying fear of the future associated with time anxiety. People may worry about potential negative outcomes of planned or unknown activities. Those with this feature of time anxiety may worry about specific events in the future or may deal with existential dread, a generalized worry about the passage of time and the unknowable future.

• Sense of Urgency: The average person feels motivated to complete time-limited or urgent projects. However, people with time anxiety may feel a heightened sense of urgency in their actions. always rushing to complete tasks or meet deadlines, even when the situation might not require immediate attention.

• Procrastination: Though they are obsessed with lateness and deadlines, some people with time anxiety may also engage in procrastination. The fear of not having enough time can be overwhelming, and that fear can lead to avoiding tasks until the last minute. Unsurprisingly, procrastination feeds on existing anxiety and causes further worry.

• Feeling uneasy when you don’t get around to everything you had planned to: ?When Alex Lickerman, MD, described this factor of time anxiety, he used a vacation as a metaphor. When you go away, you make plans and create timelines. Before a trip, you may look at upcoming plans with pleasant anticipation. However, if you don’t complete all your plans, you may become more preoccupied with the sites and attractions you missed than with those you could see. This dwelling on the negative can turn into obsession with what was missed, and a self-renewing cycle of anxiety and regret.

• Impaired Time Management: Paradoxically, even with their intense focus on time and time-related concepts, people with time anxiety may struggle with effective time management. The anxiety may interfere with their ability to plan and prioritize tasks efficiently. Procrastination falls under this umbrella, as do misjudging the time it takes to complete a task or misunderstanding the tools needed to keep an effective schedule.

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Treatment is Available for Time Anxiety

The good news is that time anxiety can be treated with intervention by mental health professionals and others who treat mental and emotional maladies. Treatments for time anxiety are like those for other types of anxiety. They range from the clinical to the recreational. The Cleveland Clinic notes that these four treatments are effective for people with time anxiety:

• Talk therapy - A licensed therapist will help you uncover the source of your condition and provide a safe space to explore the lifestyle components of your time anxiety.

• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) – CBT deals with identifying the thoughts that trigger compulsive activities, and then “retraining” the brain to choose healthier responses to anxiety.

• Hypnotherapy – A licensed hypnotherapist uses focus and breathing to bring you into a calm, dream-like state. In that position, you can feel safe to explore experiences and trauma that may have led to time anxiety. A hypnotherapist can also give you a post-hypnotic suggestion, which will replace anxious thoughts and behaviors once you wake up.

• Meditation – Many people use meditation to treat various forms of anxiety, and it can be used to treat time anxiety. Meditation trains you on how to breathe and focus your mind in a particular way that calms your mind and reduces your stress response. In a calmer state, your anxiety will lessen.

Time-related mental conditions like time anxiety can be very debilitating. Fortunately, once it is identified properly, you can receive treatments to make it less of a disruption to your life.

We all know that increasing muscle mass boosts our metabolism and improves body composition. New research published in Endocrine Reviews has found that skeletal muscles play a pivotal role in optimizing numerous areas of your health. Skeletal muscles maintain your posture, facilitate voluntary movement, protect your joints and are essential for breathing and body temperature regulation. What’s more, emerging evidence shows that skeletal muscles can secrete hormone-like proteins, like an endocrine organ, which can communicate with cells, tissues and organs throughout the body. This muscle-based, molecular messaging system can help keep your body and brain in top condition and can improve liver and blood vessel health and even have an anti-aging effect on the skin. Here’s a look at how muscles can positively impact your health.

Move to release myokines

‍For the first time ever, researchers are beginning to understand the biochemical mechanisms that make exercise so beneficial. While there is still much to learn in this area, it’s clear that movement triggers skeletal muscles to release myokines. They are a group of hormone-like proteins that may have autocrine (talks to different parts of the same cell), paracrine (signals adjacent cells), and endocrine effects. The latter makes it possible to “talk” long-distance to tissues and organs throughout the body, including the brain, adipose tissue, bone, liver, gut, pancreas, vascular bed and skin. The result is relaying messages to take a specific health-protective action. For example, after a workout, your skeletal muscles secrete a myokine called IL-10, which sends a message to the immune cells in your liver to lower inflammation.

Muscle boosts brain function‍

Regular exercise and building muscle mass reduce anxiety and depression, bring more blood flow to the brain, and can even improve and preserve cognitive function.
In fact, researchers at McGill University found that low muscle mass is associated with faster cognitive decline.
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Movement encourages skeletal muscles to release two myokines, irisin and CTSB, that communicate with, and increase, levels of the molecule brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the brain. BDNF promotes cell survival and regulates plastic changes related to learning and memory.

The muscle-immunity connection‍

Contracting muscles boost your immune system. They secrete several myokines, including IL-6 and IL-1RA, that help to regulate the function of immune cells such as macrophages and monocytes. IL-6 and IL-15 also regulate the maturation and distribution of natural killer (NK) cells that take action on tumors.
That’s not all: Active muscle produces an amino acid called glutamine, which is consumed by immune cells such as lymphocytes and macrophages to enhance their energy and performance.

Muscle benefits bone health‍

From a mechanical standpoint, moving your muscles regularly helps to maintain bone density, reduce your risk of fractures and improve bone healing. Additionally, exercise releases myokines Irisin, IL7 or IL15 from your muscles. These are associated with overall bone health, including formation, mineralization and recovery from fractures.

Your exercise prescription‍

It’s clearer than ever that fitness should be a priority in your lifespan and healthspan plan. How should you pump up? Research suggests that overall myokine levels are lower in moderate physical activity and abundant after workouts that are longer or high-intensity. Speak with your Fountain Life Health Coordinator for assistance in creating a fitness regimen that will bring out the best in your body, so you can live a long and healthy life.

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SOURCES
https://muhc.ca/news-and-patient-stories/news/ri-muhc-study-shows-association-low-muscle-mass-cognitive-decline#:~:text=Muscles%20also%20secrete%20molecules%20that,greater%20risk%20of%20cognitive%20decline.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2018.00698/full

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7288608/
https://www.nature.com/articles/nrrheum.2014.193

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/21787-skeletal-muscle
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2020.582258/full
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncel.2019.00363/full

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The human microbiome refers to the trillions of microorganisms present in the body. When it’s in balance, it contains only healthy microbes that support and maintain a healthy body. Microbes in the mouth and stomach contain genetic materials that sends signals to the body in health and in illness. When the microbiome is unbalanced, the presence or absence of any type of microbe can have an effect on many systems in the body, and lead to several diseases. That negative state is called microbiome dysbiosis.

Microbiome Dysbiosis has Both Internal and External Causes

Microbiome dysbiosis affects both the oral microbiome and the gut microbiome. As you would expect, the foods you eat can affect your microbiome in both positive and negative ways. For instance, a diet heavy in sugars and low in fiber can cause dysregulation of the microbes that control digestion and cause conditions like diarrhea, constipation, Irritable Bowel Disease and other ailments of the digestive tract.Dysbiosis can also be caused by host-specific factors such as genetic background, health status (infections, inflammation), and lifestyle habits or—more importantly—environmental factors such as diet (high sugar, low fibre), xenobiotics (antibiotics, drugs, food additives), and hygiene. Just an aging body can cause microbiome dysbiosis. “One of the newest hallmarks of aging is what we call gut dysbiosis”, says Dr. Helen Messier, Fountain Life Chief Medical and Science Officer. “We know that as people age, their microbiome begins to change, and it changes for the worse.” The diversity of the gut microbiome is a cause of this worsening, which means that the gut is missing some of the microbes and metabolites necessary to carry on the body’s processes.

The Oral Microbiome is Linked to Several Illnesses

Several studies have linked both the oral and gut microbiomes to cardiovascular disease. It has been shown that affect compounds like short-chain fatty acids and metabolites that process lipids make this connection between mouth and heart. As expected, the oral microbiome dysbiosis also leads to periodontal disease and other oral conditions. Gut microbiome is also connected to cardiovascular disease. One study revealed that gut microbiota can produce trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), a metabolite linked to arterial stiffness and coronary artery disease. This production is triggered by certain foods, like beef, pork and eggs. The microbiome is also linked to other diseases like depression (as it is thought to control the production of serotonin) and even COVID. It is very important, then, to make sure that microbiome dysbiosis isn’t present.

Microbiome Dysbiosis Can be Treated

The good news is that microbiome dysbiosis can be treated, and the first steps to treatment are diagnosis and prevention. Fountain Life provides a test of the gut microbiome as part of the APEX and EDGE memberships. Dr. Messier explains the diagnostic process: “[W]e look at the gut microbes specifically by doing a stool test, and sequencing what microbes are there and what their activity is. And then we also look at metabolites that are released from the microbe, that are floating around in your blood and show up in your urine. ”Once your microbiome test is complete and evaluated by a Longevity Physician, APEX members will have access to a host of treatment options designed to address the specifics of your microbiome dysbiosis. Your entire Fountain Life Health Care Team – including a health care coordinator, nurse, nurse practitioner and health care coach – will be with you throughout your entire APEX membership, helping you understand your results, and making sure that you get the exact care you need. If you do not have a microbiome deficiency, your team will make sure you get any preventative treatments to keep your body as healthy as possible. You can be sure that with Fountain Life, your health care plan will be designed to give you the preventive care you need, with the personalized service that you want.

APEX Membership from Fountain Life

Taking care of your health doesn’t just benefit you. Your health is important to your loved ones who want you to live long and live well. Fountain Life programs are designed to help you do just that – extend your lifespan and healthspan – with advanced diagnostics and personalized treatment plans that detect and prevent major illness before it manifests as symptoms. Our Chief Medical and Science Officer, Dr. Helen Messier, spoke with us about how one Fountain Life program, the APEX membership, provides members with the kind of proactive healthcare that can find and detect disease and lead to increased performance and vitality.

Personal, preventive, proactive care

APEX is Fountain Life’s yearlong program that addresses the top causes of morbidity and mortality: cardiovascular disease, cancer, metabolic disease and neurocognitive disease. APEX does this with a series of diagnostic tests that combine the latest, scientifically vetted preventive methodologies with the personalized attention of a team of longevity healthcare professionals.

APEX starts with brain and body scans – like EKG, MRI and CCTA – and blood and urine tests that detect the presence of disease as well as assess your risk for developing life-limiting disease. These procedures can detect the early signs of cancer, pulmonary embolism and cardiovascular trauma even before symptoms present. This allows you to get preventive and restorative treatment before your medical condition becomes more serious.

But the APEX membership doesn’t stop there. The next level of testing provides a more comprehensive look at your disease risk, not just the presence of disease. As Dr. Messier notes, “we look at those 4 biggest risks of death and disability, but we go deeper and look at maybe why you have those… in additional testing that looks at not just the what, but the why.

”The “why” entails obtaining genetic information for diseases like heart attack, dementia and various forms of cancer, and assessing your risk of developing these conditions. This advanced level of testing combines genetic information found in your organs and bloodstream to statistics on disease incidence using AI tools. This allows for disease prevention through medical treatment and/or lifestyle modification.

The preventative aspect of APEX is its most compelling, as our existing healthcare system is predicated on treating diseases that you have, rather than preventing disease outright. Dr. Messier emphasizes that “you want to find those early because those take a long time to develop, and by the time you have symptoms for any one of those 4 diseases, it’s really late and it gets very difficult to do something about it. But if you find them earlier, it’s much easier.” With APEX, you can trust that you’re finding disease and illness at the best stage for treatment.

APEX is more advanced than your PCPs office

You may be thinking that blood tests and scans in your primary care physician’s office can give you the same information provided by the APEX program. While your primary doctor may order bloodwork and body scans for you with an annual physical, they cannot provide the level of technology and advanced analysis that is possible with the tools used in APEX.

Many of APEX tests integrate artificial intelligence, using AI tools to get a more detailed view of your test results, and enabling us to analyze your test results in comparison with millions of data points from other individuals. This process makes testing more accurate, which gives you a greater chance of targeting precisely what and where disease may lurk in the body.

AI overlay and analysis is available for the following APEX tests:

• Full body and brain MRI
• Coronary CTA
• Low-dose lung CT
• Retinal scan
• Skin cancer screen
• Early cancer detection blood test
• Genetic blood testing
• Whole genome sequencing
• Cardiovascular risk blood test

…and several other advanced and genetic evaluations.These types of tests, as well as their highly technical analysis, simply are not available from your primary physician. As experts in longevity and preventive medicine, Fountain Life can bring you a level of care to which you ordinarily would not be exposed.

Concierge-level of care

The differences between APEX and your regular doctor also extend to the personalized care we provide you during your year of membership. “Not only do you get a Longevity Physician, [but] you [also] get a [Health] Care Team. You have a nurse and a nurse practitioner, a health coach, a nutritionist, to really make those changes that are needed to optimize your health,” notes Dr. Messier.

Your Longevity Physician is available to read out the results of your tests and provide you with a treatment roadmap to correct any illness and reduce disease risk. Your dedicated Longevity Physician is available to meet with you four times during the annual APEX membership to gauge your progress and make any necessary changes.

During the year, your Health Coach and Nutritionist are on hand to help you make any lifestyle changes necessary to improve your condition, and to monitor your progress through your healthcare journey. Finally, you have a Nurse and a Nurse Practitioner to provide medical guidance when your Physician is not available. A Health Care Coordinator works with you and your team to streamline communication and coordinate your contact with Fountain Life staff.

There are many reasons to choose Fountain Life and APEX to advance your healthcare goals and take control of your lifespan and healthspan. Our preventive treatments, AI-enhanced methodologies and personalized care make APEX the best choice to find underlying disease and restore your body to health and vitality.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a very hot topic in healthcare, and it has become a buzz word in both medical and popular media. For some, the idea of an artificial intelligence may bring to mind science fiction scenarios of robots controlling humans. However, AI is a tool that can make it easier for physicians to detect and diagnose disease, and does not involve a secret robot brain to accomplish this.

AI machine learning powers data analysis in preventive medicine

Machine learning is a subset of AI that focuses on developing algorithms and statistical models that enable computers to learn from and make predictions or decisions based on data without being explicitly programmed to perform specific tasks. It can make predictions based on a larger number of data points than is possible through human cognition. As AI datasets get larger with more inputs, machine learning algorithms become better able to provide fast, accurate analysis better than humans.

Dr. Helen Messier, Chief Medical and Science Officer at Fountain Life, believes that AI is a critical part of practicing medicine: “AI helps us take a deeper view of what’s going on, we can see it with more clarity. We don’t use AI exclusively to make decisions, obviously, we have a physician that helps interpret that. It’s a tool that we use, that doesn’t take the place of the physician. It’s a very critical component” in providing advanced medical care.

Using AI for brain scans at Fountain Life

Fountain Life’s brain MRI diagnostic employs machine learning techniques. Utilizing images already taken of your brain, this assessment provides you with information on the key indicators of overall brain health. It also uses a machine learning algorithm to connect brain structure with the genes that affect your brain health. This process helps to get a more well-rounded picture of how genetics impacts your brain’s symptomatology.

Dr. Helen Messier: “We can now quantify all of the different volumes in your brain in the different regions of your brain. We can get an assessment of their size," which can reveal the presence of dementia, tumors, infections or blood clots. MRIs can detect brain anomalies before any symptoms occur, which could mean treating a condition in its early stages when interventions are more likely to be successful.

Fountain Life uses AI-assisted CCTA to predict heart disease

If you are at risk of a future heart attack, Fountain Life’s AI-guided approach to Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CCTA) provides heart imaging, along with an AI overlay that analyzes your heart in comparison to hundreds of thousands of data points that improve the accuracy of the results.

According to Dr. Messier, “We use an AI overlay that helps us characterize any plaque that you might have in your coronary blood vessels, the blood vessels that feed oxygen and the blood supply to your heart. We can see if you have hard plaque that’s calcified. We can [also] see if you have soft plaque.”

By accurately identifying the presence of soft plaque — a less dense and more vulnerable type of arterial buildup that is more likely to rupture and cause blockages — we can offer a precise assessment of your current heart disease risk. This enables early intervention and timely preventative measures reducing the likelihood of life-threatening events. Heart disease is still the leading cause of death in the United States, often manifesting as heart attacks without prior symptoms, so early detection and intervention are very important in saving lives.

The future of AI in medicine?

The future of medicine will likely be driven by artificial intelligence. Large tech companies, medical companies and hospital systems have invested time and money into harnessing the power of AI for the healthcare industry. Organizations are tasked with finding AI solutions to disease diagnosis, emergency room triage and medication reconciliation. There are many areas of inquiry within healthcare that could benefit from, still, Dr. Messier doesn’t believe that AI is a danger to the practice of medicine. She believes that “doctors that don’t use AI will be replaced because it gives them a much better toolkit and allows us to see things in a much better view…so it’s really an important component. We’re always on the lookout for new AI technology that we can incorporate the appropriate vetting. And a lot of these technologies are FDA approved, so they’re very, very helpful, and I think they should be adopted and used much more widely.”