Dr. Edward Layne.
Dr. Layne was the first African American / Barbadian American Gastroenterologist to settle in the Atlanta area. He is the founder of Gastroenterology and Nutrition Clinics LLC, an international referral practice in Digestive Diseases and Nutrition and Integrative Medicine. A graduate of Harvard College, Tulane Medical School, Harvard Medical School Post-grad, he is also currently the Medical Director at AgeMeter. He operates 3 gastro and nutritional clinics in the Atlanta, GA, area.
Q: Why did you get the AgeMeter for your medical practice?
A: I was excited about the AgeMeter because I’ve been in the field of preventative health for some time. And this was the first truly noninvasive [technology] that came along to measure and monitor functional age. Functional age being how old your body is behaving, as opposed to how old you are from the date of your birth. So, you could be 50 but your body is behaving as if it’s 30.
Q: I wish that we’re the case…
A: [Laughter]. Many of my patients were very excited to learn their functional age was a lot less than their chronological age. We were just beginning to generate that excitement and interest with other doctors when Covid hit. And we had to just battle it. Because [using] the device involved bringing people into the office and we weren’t bringing patients into the office. But once Covid passes, I think this is an exciting device.
Q: Tell me about your practice and how the AgeMeter fits into it.
A: My medical practice is bifurcated – gastroenterology and nutrition. Nutrition has always been a big part of it because, you know, you are what you eat. All my patients wanted to be young, sexy, and healthy. And I was looking for a way to help these patients understand their functional age, but wanted a noninvasive method. Because the ones that were being offered were all invasive – they wanted blood or something else. Patients don’t want to be stuck. The exciting thing about the AgeMeter is that you can measure, and also monitor the functional age. So, the patient comes in and gets the measurement and then 3 months later, they want to know how they’re doing, 6 months later they want to know how they’re doing. So, as a doctor, you put together these “packages” – routines the patient can follow after they had their functional age measured – kind of, “OK, here are things you can try to improve your nutrition, fitness” and so on. And then, we can measure your progress in a few months. So, it’s a continuous revenue source for the doctors and a continual way to keep patients tied into your practice. It’s a fantastic way to keep your patients healthy and happy.
Q: How would you sum up the potential for the AgeMeter in terms of aging research?
A: Well, I think the data gets better and better. Because, at first, you may only have a few hundred 40-year-olds, but by the time you get to a thousand forty-year-olds, you’ve got incredible data. So, you can look at all the parameters we’re measuring and you can see how they stack up. That’s the nice thing about this. As your volume of data increases, your data gets better and better.
Q: When did you first develop your medical practice?
A: I’ve been practicing gastroenterology since about 1980. I’ve had a practice since 1976. In fact, I was the first black gastroenterologist south of Washington and east of LA. So, I’ve been doing this for a long time.
Q: Do your recommend patients do a biological age test and then validate with the functional age test to validate it?
A: My feeling is that there is no such thing as a “biological age” test. Biological age (to me) is when you’re born and then you die. [laughter]. But I know there are several tests around the U.S. and around the world that say they will measure your biological age. But I’d rather use your functional age as to how well your body is behaving and your chronological age as markers. I have no difficulty with folks who are monitoring what we call “biological age,” because what we want to do is correlate what we’re doing [with functional age] with other research available in the field. George Church at Harvard is the big guru in the business and he’s an old classmate of ours. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to compare the two – biological age and functional age – and see where they stack up.
Q: How accurate is a biological age test? Especially if you don’t do a functional age test to validate it?
I can’t answer the question of how accurate it is. There is a lot of promising research in the area of what’s happening inside the cell. But whether you can translate that into a “biological age,” I’m not sure. And don’t think anyone is sure. We’re feeling our way around at the moment. That’s why I’ve settled on functional age versus chronological age and I’m watching to see where the field of “biological age” goes.
Q: What’s the biggest need in the area of preventative health, especially in terms of lowering patients’ functional age?
A: The four areas are really nutrition, nutrition, nutrition and nutrition. We have to understand that we are what we eat. If you can maintain your BMI in an area around 20 to 25, chances are your functional age will improve significantly. So, the number one area is nutrition. We eat ourselves to death in America. For the first in our history, we have more food than we need. That’s the number one problem. Fitness is another thing. But you don’t have to pump iron to be fit. Fitness can be just walking, simple exercises that are age-appropriate. The big elephant in the room, though, is nutrition.
Q: Are you patients older or younger when comparing their functional age to their chronological age?
A: Generally younger. The patients who come into your office are usually health-conscious. There are two age groups. One, those who get to be 40, and they ask: “OMG, something is happening.” [laughter]. Or, the group that gets to be 65 and 70, those who have enough income to be comfortable then, and they say: “You know, I better start taking care of myself or I’m not going to be able to spend this money.” So, those are the two groups that we began to see before Covid. As we see this rollout again [post-Covid], I would imagine it would be the same two groups.
Q: What role does genetics play in aging? Are there ways to reverse what you’re genetically determined to do when it comes to aging?
A: This is a fantastic question. Obviously, genetics plays a huge role. If your parents live to be 100 years old and your grandparents lived to be 100 years old, there’s a good chance, you’ll likely have a good long lifespan. But you can modify that by the environment. You can modify the pre-determined genetic set. You find that people in developed countries tend to live longer, if they take care of themselves, than people in developing countries. Usually, it’s a natural diet of fish or seafood, and fruits, grains and vegetables. It’s the basis for the nutritional regimen that I put my patients on – a combination of seafood protein, which seems to be better managed by the body, and greens and vegetables. I recommend a lot of green smoothies because hemoglobin and chlorophyll are very close molecules. Look at the elephant – it creates hemoglobin from chlorophyll. It doesn’t eat meat and it’s one of the strongest animals in the forest.
Q: How About the New HealthMeter for Covid-19 Monitoring?
A: What the HealthMeter did was take that [existing technology we had with the AgeMeter] and use it to monitor some of the key vital signs of Covid-19. We can now use it in a static or remote monitoring environment the temperature, heart rate, pulse rate, blood oxygen, lung function – some of the key vital signs for Covid-19.
What’s one reason you think other medical practices should get the AgeMeter?
In the year 2021, most patients are not interested in emergency type medicine – that is, I get sick and you treat me. Most patients want you to tell them how they can remain healthy. So, it’s an opportunity to say to them: “OK, I want to know where you are right now, so I can keep you healthy. To keep you even more healthy than you are right now.” We now have the capacity to treat you well, to find out where you are, and show you how we can help you. If you want to be young, healthy and sexy, the AgeMeter allows us to do that. It’s the only noninvasive way that we can do that. And it’s an incredible revenue source. The way I calculated it – I’ve laid out a model for this – the medical practice pays $5,000 for this device. The average practitioner would make over $200,000 per year using this device. The object is to help the doctors earn revenue.
Learn more about how functional age testing works or order your AgeMeter today.