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Biomarkers

Episodes

Posted on April 28th 2025 (about 2 months)

Dr. Rhonda Patrick covers lithium microdosing, reducing homocysteine, aluminum's link to cancer, and beta-alanine and alpha-lipoic acid supplements.

Posted on January 21st 2025 (5 months)

In this clip, Dr. Rhonda Patrick highlights key biomarkers for metabolic health, inflammation, omega-3 status, thyroid function, and gut health assessments.

Posted on October 11th 2023 (over 1 year)

Dr. Rhonda Patrick explores supplemental tyrosine, lion's mane, cordyceps, aging tests, and sunscreen's efficacy and safety in a Q&A.

Topic Pages

  • Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs)

    SSB-derived high fructose loads elevate plasma glucose, insulin, inflammatory cytokine, and triglyceride biomarkers via hepatic de novo lipogenesis stimulation.

News & Publications

  • Drinking your daily cup of coffee or tea might do more than give you a boost—it could lower your risk of developing multiple serious cardiometabolic conditions simultaneously, like diabetes, heart disease, or stroke. A recent study found that moderate coffee or caffeine consumption may cut your risk of cardiometabolic multimorbidity by as much as 50%.

    Researchers analyzed data from more than 172,000 participants enrolled in the UK Biobank who had no cardiometabolic diseases at the start. Participants reported their coffee, tea, and caffeine consumption; about half provided blood samples for metabolic marker analysis.

    They found that people who drank about three cups of coffee daily (or consumed 200 to 300 milligrams of caffeine daily) were 40% to 50% less likely to develop multiple cardiometabolic diseases than those who drank little or no caffeine. They also discovered that specific blood markers, such as certain lipid components, were linked to coffee and caffeine consumption and a lower risk of cardiometabolic conditions.

    These findings suggest that moderate coffee or caffeine intake reduces the risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases but also slows their progression if they occur. Other evidence points to the many health benefits associated with coffee and caffeine, but it’s crucial to remember their effects on sleep. Learn more in this Aliquot featuring Drs. Guido Kroemer, Satchin Panda, Elissa Epel, Matthew Walker, and Rhonda Patrick

  • From the article:

    The researchers, including Barbara Kahn and Timothy Graham of Harvard Medical School and Matthias Blüher of the University of Leipzig in Germany, showed that “retinol-binding protein 4” (RBP4) is produced in much greater amounts by visceral fat compared to the subcutaneous fat that lies just beneath the skin. Moreover, they report that blood serum levels of RBP4 jump in people who are obese, who have double or even triple the concentrations found in individuals of normal weight.

    […]

    The only known function of RBP4 was to carry vitamin A (also known as retinol) in the blood, Kahn said.

    Large gene expression changes in visceral fat:

    n a study of 196 people, the researchers now reveal that RBP4 is indeed preferentially produced in the deep fat that covers organs of the belly. RBP4 gene expression activity levels spiked about 60-fold in the visceral fat of viscerally obese relative to lean study participants, they found. By comparison, visceral fat RBP4 concentrations were increased just 12-fold in obese individuals with a preponderance of subcutaneous fat.

  • The circadian clock coordinates behavioral and circadian cues with the availability and utilization of nutrients. Proteasomal degradation of clock repressors, e.g., cryptochrome (CRY)1 maintains periodicity of the clock. Whether autophagy, a quality control pathway, degrades circadian proteins remains unknown. Here we show that circadian proteins BMAL1, CLOCK, REV-ERB, and CRY1 are lysosomal targets, and that α macroautophagy (hereafter autophagy) specifically degrades CRY1. Autophagic degradation of CRY1, an inhibitor of gluconeogenesis, occurs in a diurnal window when rodents rely on gluconeogenesis, suggesting that degradation of CRY1 is time-imprinted to maintenance of blood glucose levels. CRY1 contains several light chain 3 (LC3)-interacting region (LIR) motifs, which facilitate the interaction of cargo proteins to the autophagosome marker LC3. Using mutational analyses, we identified two distinct LIRs on CRY1 that exert circadian control over blood glucose levels by regulating CRY1 degradation, revealing CRY1 LIRs as potential targets in regulation of glucose metabolism.

    Toledo, Miriam and Tarabra, Elena and Batista-Gonzalez, Ana and Merlo, Paola and Feng, Daorong and Sarparanta, Jaakko and Botrè, Francesco and Pessin, Jeffrey E. and Singh, Rajat, Autophagy Regulates the Liver Clock and Glucose Metabolism by Degrading CRY1 (2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3155564 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3155564

  • BACKGROUND. The circadian clock is a fundamental and pervasive biological program that coordinates 24-hour rhythms in physiology, metabolism and behaviour, and it is essential to health. Whereas time-of-day adapted therapy is increasingly reported to be highly successful, it needs to be personalized since internal circadian time is different for each individual. In addition, internal time is not a stable trait, but is influenced by many factors including genetic predisposition, age, gender, environmental light levels and season. An easy and convenient diagnostic tool is currently missing.

    METHODS. To establish a validated test, we followed a three-stage biomarker development strategy: (i) using circadian transcriptomics of blood monocytes from 12 individuals in a constant routine protocol combined with machine learning approaches, we identified biomarkers for internal time; (ii) these biomarkers were migrated to a clinically relevant gene expression-profiling platform (NanoString), and (iii) externally validated using an independent study with 28 early or late chronotypes.

    RESULTS. We developed a highly accurate and simple assay (BodyTime) to estimate the internal circadian time in humans from a single blood sample. Our assay needs only a small set of blood-based transcript biomarkers and is as accurate as the current gold standard dim light melatonin onset method at smaller monetary, time and sample number cost.

  • Although gut microbiota profiles differ remarkably between healthy individuals, several features have been suggested to define a “healthy gut microbiome”. First of all, our gut microbiota can be understood, in many cases, to be redundant given that many bacterial species have similar functions. Furthermore, a healthy gut microbiome is temporally stable and resistant to perturbations and, over time, is more similar to itself than to that of another healthy person. Finally, a healthy gut microbiome is resilient, which means that it returns to a healthy state after a perturbation. For example, after antibiotic treatment, our gut microbiota usually recovers to its previous state a few weeks or months later. As such, a plausible definition of microbial health does not comprise a single static state, but rather a dynamic equilibrium. Meanwhile, when a perturbation stimulus becomes chronic and leads to an altered stable gut microbiome that causes harm to the host, this is called dysbiosis. Also see the following for detailed discussion of microbiome as emerging biomarker of health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3577372/