The DNA of Things with Dr. Jeremy Koenig

In this episode of The DNA of Things, host Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Dean Volk, a dedicated sciatica relief expert and founder of Sciatica Relief Now, to uncover a groundbreaking, non-invasive approach to eliminating sciatic nerve pain without medication, injections, or surgery. Dean shares how a sudden health crisis in his family led to the development of his unique, highly effective methods that have helped thousands reclaim a pain-free life. From debunking outdated “generic” exercises to explaining why working the opposite side of the body can unlock healing, this conversation dives deep into the science, personal stories, and actionable strategies for long-term relief. Whether you’re an athlete, desk worker, or someone who’s struggled with chronic pain for years, Dean’s holistic, body-balancing approach offers a fresh path to recovery.

Key Takeaways:
✨ Why most traditional sciatica treatments fail and how Dean’s method flips the script
💡 The surprising role of the opposite side of the body in pain relief
🧠 How balancing the body calms the nervous system and accelerates healing
🏃‍♂️ Real-world success stories—from marathon runners to chronic pain sufferers
🛑 Why surgery should be your last resort for sciatica relief

If you’ve tried everything for your back or leg pain and nothing has worked, this episode may just change the way you think about recovery forever.

https://sciaticareliefnow.net/

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In This Episode of The DNA of Things 🎙️Functional nutrition counselor, trauma-informed coach, and MTHFR specialist Rhiannon Neuharth joins Dr. Jeremy Koenig to unpack how our genes are not life sentences but powerful stories waiting to be understood. Rhiannon shares her deeply personal journey navigating her daughter's health challenges, which propelled her into the world of functional nutrition, DNA testing, and precision health coaching. She reveals how understanding genetic methylation pathways, nervous system regulation, and ancestral patterns can unlock holistic healing—not just for ourselves, but for future generations.

From demystifying the MTHFR gene to offering actionable insights on histamine intolerance, DNA-driven nutrition, and functional wellness strategies, this episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking to decode their unique health blueprint and reclaim sovereignty over their well-being.

Key Takeaways ✨

🧬 Your DNA is a guide, not a verdict. Learn how genetic markers like MTHFR are clues to understanding deeper health patterns.
👩‍👧 Rhiannon's journey began with her daughter's immune deficiency diagnosis, leading her to challenge conventional medical paths and explore functional health.
🩺 MTHFR, methylation, and beyond — why methylation pathways impact everything from hormones to mental health and why most women are overlooked in standard care.
🍌 “That’s Bananas!” — A client’s life-changing lesson on histamine intolerance and how small dietary tweaks can make huge differences.
🧘 Precision health isn’t one-size-fits-all. Rhiannon explains how personalized DNA testing can optimize nutrition, lifestyle habits, and supplement choices.
⚙️ Coaching is high-touch, not high-tech. The art of guiding clients through gradual, sustainable health changes while honoring their individual capacity.
👩‍🔬 Passion-driven coaches are changing healthcare. Rhiannon encourages aspiring health coaches to leverage their personal experiences to create impact.

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode of The DNA of Things, we sit down with Dr. Steven Bennett—engineer turned functional medicine pioneer and founder of CardioMetaboliQ—to explore how understanding insulin resistance, inflammation, and personal health data can unlock the secrets to longevity and vitality. Dr. Bennett shares his transformative journey from mechanical engineering to developing innovative tools in functional medicine, including his at-home dried blood spot test designed to make advanced cardiometabolic insights accessible to all. He explains how muscle mass, personalized nutrition, and actionable biomarkers play a key role in managing chronic disease and enhancing quality of life.

💡 Key Takeaways:

🔬 Root Cause Matters: Understanding insulin resistance is the cornerstone to preventing most chronic illnesses like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and fatty liver.
📊 Data Is Power: Dr. Bennett's at-home blood test empowers individuals with real, interpretable data—bridging the gap between lab results and lifestyle change.
🧬 Personalized Medicine: The future of health is personalized and participatory—DNA, lifestyle, and environment must be considered together.
💪 Muscle vs. Bread: Lean muscle is crucial to glucose metabolism—maintain muscle to manage blood sugar and prevent metabolic diseases.
🔥 Inflammation Is the Silent Killer: C-reactive protein and other markers reveal inflammation's hidden role in accelerating disease.
🥗 Food as Medicine: Not all “healthy” foods are created equal. Whole foods > processed health marketing.
🧠 Rewire the System: Functional medicine isn't just about diagnosis—it's about empowering people to co-create their health roadmap.
📉 Low-Cost, High-Impact: Affordable, science-backed supplements and small lifestyle changes can create exponential long-term benefits.
🏠 Family Health OS: Consider quarterly testing and coaching for the whole family—proactive health starts at home.
🧘 Simplicity Wins: Tools like the “Cardiometabolic 10” and everyday movement (e.g. 10 squats every 45 mins) can drastically reduce health risks.

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode of The DNA of Things, Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with two-time Olympian and serial entrepreneur Simon Arkell to explore his incredible transformation from elite athlete to founder of Ryght AI, a generative AI company revolutionizing clinical trials. Simon shares how lessons from pole vaulting — resilience, repetition, and pushing past mental limits — shaped his approach to entrepreneurship, funding, and innovation in biotech and healthcare.

From selling ad space door-to-door as a student-athlete to raising over $120 million for multiple startups, Simon's story is a compelling blueprint for how grit meets vision. With Ryght AI, he’s tackling one of medicine’s most broken systems — the clinical trial process — using AI to reduce inefficiencies, eliminate bottlenecks, and potentially save millions of lives.

✨ Key Takeaways:

• 🧬 How Ryght AI is transforming clinical trials with generative AI
• 🏃‍♂️ The Olympic mindset that fuels long-term startup success
• 💡 Why door-to-door sales is the best training for a tech CEO
• 📉 How cutting trial timelines saves billions and accelerates drug approvals
• 🌎 The future of decentralized, data-secure AI systems in global healthcare
• 🧠 Everyone is in sales — and why that's a superpower in business and life

Whether you're a founder, investor, healthcare innovator, or someone passionate about the future of medicine, this episode is an inspiring look at how technology and tenacity can rewrite the rules of what's possible.

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode of The DNA of Things, Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Kristin Lee — a rising scientific thinker and bioethics advocate — whose unique academic journey is challenging the way we think about medicine, research, and the ethics of innovation. A graduate of Case Western Reserve University with an ambitious triple track in neuroscience, psychology, and bioethics, Kristin shares her evolution from mental health curiosity to becoming a bridge between research and the human side of science.

Together, they explore the ethics of potential: Who decides what technologies we pursue? How do we ensure informed consent in an age of AI and genetic data sharing? And what does it mean to be an “intermediate” cell — full of possibility — in a rapidly advancing biomedical world?

🧬 Key Takeaways
🔍 Rethinking traditional medical assumptions and diagnostic labels
🧠 How neuroscience and bioethics intersect to ask deeper "why" questions
🧪 The power of stem cell research and its metaphor for personal growth
🧭 Ethics of genetic data, CRISPR, AI, and patient consent
🤖 ChatGPT, medical literacy, and democratizing access to healthcare information
⚖️ The emerging role of clinical ethicists in complex medical decisions
📚 Advice for young scientists: follow your curiosity and try everything fully
🌍 Why the future of medicine needs to balance innovation with empathy and inclusion

If you're curious about where science, technology, and ethics collide — and how the next generation is redefining what responsible innovation looks like — this episode is for you.

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode of The DNA of Things, host Dr. Jeremy Koenig is joined by Dr. Heather Armstrong, a leading microbiome researcher and translational scientist at the University of Alberta. Together, they explore the dynamic interplay between gut microbes, nutrition, health, and performance—starting from birth and extending into peak human performance. Dr. Armstrong shares her unique academic journey, the science behind infant microbiome development, and how our daily habits—from breastfeeding to sleep—shape the ecosystems within us. Whether you're a parent, athlete, or health enthusiast, this episode offers invaluable insights on building a resilient and functional gut microbiome for lifelong vitality.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• 🧬 The gut microbiome is foundational to health, immunity, brain development, and performance.
• 👶 Early-life exposures (birth method, breastfeeding, antibiotics) shape lifelong microbiome “fingerprints.”
• 🍼 Synthetic HMOs in formula, environmental exposure, and diverse foods can help babies build microbial diversity.
• 🧠 The gut-brain axis links gut microbes to emotional well-being, cognitive function, and mental health.
• 🏋️‍♂️ A diverse microbiome may aid athletic recovery, decision-making speed, and injury prevention.
• 🧪 Testing microbiome function—not just composition—offers a more accurate view of gut health.
• 🌱 Whole foods, fiber diversity, lifestyle balance, and minimizing chronic stress are essential to feeding your microbes right.
• 🧑‍🔬 We’re still in the infancy of microbiome science—personalization and systems biology are key to unlocking its full potential.

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode of The DNA of Things, Dr. Jeremy Koenig dives deep into the invisible ecosystem shaping our health with Omer Ozkan, founder and CEO of ENBIOSIS. Originally an industrial engineer who launched Turkey’s first solar energy company, Omer is now at the forefront of AI-driven microbiome science. This episode unpacks how understanding and modulating our gut bacteria—rather than fighting them—could be the future of medicine, chronic disease prevention, and even human adaptation to future climates and space.

With insights from evolutionary biology, personalized nutrition, and systems thinking, Omer reveals how his company uses artificial intelligence to decode the microbiome’s language—offering evidence-based, individualized interventions for conditions like IBS, IBD, and more. This episode isn’t just about gut health—it’s about reimagining healthcare, resilience, and human longevity through data, philosophy, and precision nutrition.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• 🧠 The gut microbiome is not the enemy—it’s our operating system, shaping everything from digestion to mental health.
• 🤖 AI is enabling precise, scalable modulation of gut bacteria through targeted nutrition, replacing outdated “kill the bugs” approaches.
• 🧬 Chronic disease may be a signal of disrupted microbial communication, not just broken systems.
• 🌍 Omer’s vision includes adapting human health to future planetary challenges, using microbiome science to extend life and support survival in extreme conditions.
• 🚀 Digital fecal transplants—without the poop. ENBIOSIS matches individuals to optimal microbial profiles via AI-driven diet plans.
• 🧪 Real-world clinical success: measurable improvements in microbiome balance and long-term symptom relief in IBS and other conditions.

Visit: https://enbiosis.com/

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode of The DNA of Things, Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with legendary physician-scientist Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky to explore how exercise, nutrition, and genetics intersect to reshape the aging process. With over 500 peer-reviewed publications and decades of research in neurometabolic disorders, Dr. Tarnopolsky reveals groundbreaking insights into mitochondrial health, protein optimization, gene-environment interplay, and the future of therapeutics for aging and rare diseases.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the science of longevity, athletic performance, or functional health optimization.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• 🧬 Aging is not a sentence: Discover how cellular function can be reshaped through lifestyle.
• 🏋️‍♂️ Muscle as medicine: Resistance and endurance training are critical for aging well and combating neuromuscular disorders.
• 🥛 Protein timing & quality matter: Why whey, casein, and leucine-rich sources outperform trendy supplements.
• ⚡ Exercise mimetics: Learn about Dr. Tarnopolsky’s breakthrough supplements like Muscle5 and Trim7 that simulate the metabolic effects of exercise.
• 🧠 From elite athletes to mitochondrial patients: How training principles apply across the human performance spectrum.
• 🔬 Clinical-grade nutraceuticals: Why randomized, double-blind studies must back health claims—and how his startup is setting the gold standard.
• 🔍 Genetics vs. epigenetics: Why knowing your genome is just the start—methylation, glycosylation, and environment matter too.
• 💥 The future of healthspan: How brown fat, mitochondrial biogenesis, and smart protein dosing are changing the longevity game.

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode, Dr. Jeremy Koenig speaks with Deepankar Nayak, CEO of Deep Longevity, a pioneering AI health tech company revolutionizing how we measure and manage aging. With nearly two decades of global experience across AI, SaaS, and life sciences, Nayak shares the origin story and scientific foundation behind aging clocks—tools designed to measure biological age using biomarkers, epigenetics, microbiomes, and more. They explore how Deep Longevity’s models are helping individuals, healthcare providers, and entire organizations adopt preventative strategies and live healthier, more purposeful lives. Nayak also discusses his broader vision of decentralizing health data, democratizing access to longevity diagnostics, and ultimately reshaping global wellness.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• 🧬 Biological age vs. chronological age: Why it matters and how to measure it
• 🧠 Mind Age matters: Psychological wellness can impact longevity more than smoking
• 💡 AI meets wellness: How explainable AI is simplifying complex health metrics
• 📊 Blood, microbiome & epigenetic clocks: Diverse inputs, one healthspan outcome
• 🌍 Everyone is the target user: From infants to employers to entire nations
• 🛠️ Product philosophy: Simple, actionable reports rooted in science
• 🧪 Clinical & lifestyle applications: Aging clocks as tools for trials and daily health
• 🚀 Vision for the future: A global, scalable platform for personalized longevity
• 🧘 Purpose-driven life: How intention and health go hand-in-hand

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig

In this episode of The DNA of Things, Dr. Jeremy Koenig welcomes Dr. Kevin Perrott — a visionary in the fields of aging, longevity, and personalized medicine. From surviving thyroid cancer to launching OpenCures, Dr. Perrott shares his deeply personal journey and bold mission to democratize health data, accelerate biotech innovation, and shift the paradigm from treatment to prevention. Discover how empowering individuals to control their own biological data can revolutionize the way we approach aging, rare diseases, and human health.

Key takeaways:

🧬 Health data is power — Dr. Perrott discusses how individuals can leverage their biological data to drive research and innovation in real time.
💥 Aging isn't inevitable — We explore how AI and biological systems modeling can potentially halt or reverse the aging process.
📊 From passive patients to active participants — OpenCures aims to shift people from being healthcare recipients to empowered contributors in health tech.
🤝 Collaboration over competition — Learn why building healthtech ecosystems is crucial to accelerating cures and improving lives.
⚡ Speed matters — Dr. Perrott explains why reducing time-to-solution is the most important metric in healthcare transformation.
🧠 Prevention is the future — The conversation turns toward data-driven strategies that can help avoid disease before it begins.

VISIT: https://www.opencures.org/

 LINKS:

https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig