We can test our genes left and right today, and we can test for environmental exposures likeheavy metal. That's the only thing that we can test, but there's so many other exposures, you're talking about air quality, you're talking about toxic chemicals, none of these is available. And that's mind-boggling why this day and age that we can't even do anything about it. It's pretty frustrating that we just don't have answers. And I also think partially that we don'thave answer is that we don't have the data. Now, that you can see that precision medicine is advancing, we have big data in medicine, in genetics, in digital health, and then we have all these, but there isn't really a way to integrate these data, and there haven't been enough study to actually focus on this kind of thing. - Jenna Hua
Jenna Hua is the founder and CEO of Million Marker, a health-tech company that empowers people to detox their lives through mail-in test kits, lifestyle audits, and counseling. Harmful chemicals are present in food and drinks, plastics, and everyday products. These chemicals have been linked to infertility, IVF failure, child development, obesity, diabetes, and cancer. Million Marker is the first and only company that makes it easy for everyday consumers to learn about their toxic chemical exposure, and provides scientific and actionable solutions to minimize future exposure.
A registered dietitian and environmental health scientist by training, Jenna completed her Bachelor's of Science in Nutrition, Master of Public Health and PhD in Environmental Health Sciences at UC Berkeley, and postdoctoral fellowship in chronic disease prevention at Stanford Medicine. Jenna's past research has focused on how our surrounding environment impacts our behaviros and health. An ardent believer in disease prevention, Jenna wants to provide personalized preventive strategies to everyone to lead a healthier life.
This episode is produced by Kyle Ong.
Jeremy Au (00:00):
Hey, Jenna. So, good to have you on the show.
Jenna Hua (00:02):Thank you so much, Jeremy. I'm excited to be here.
Jeremy Au (00:05):
Well, I'm really excited to have you because you're doing something so important. This mission to really help people understand the exposure to environmental toxins and be able to remediate that, right? Which is amazing because you're just giving power back to people to be able to be in control of their own health. And I'm so excited to have gotten to know you, but also to be backing you as an angel investor. And I can't wait to share with the world what I heard from you.
Jenna Hua (00:33): Thank you. Thank you. I'm really glad that you're our angle investor and maybe one day we'll go to
Singapore. We'll go to the rest of the world.
Jeremy Au (00:41):
Oh, yeah. And I'll be hopefully be back in California and swing by sometime once this pandemic is over. So, Jenna, I mean for those who don't know yet, could you just share a little bit about your professional journey?
Jenna Hua (00:52):
Yes. So, my name is Jenna. I'm the founder and CEO of Million Marker. At Million Marker, we're on a mission to empower people to take control of their environmental exposures and make healthier lifestyle decisions. So, together we can build a more sustainable future.
The reason I came to build Million Marker was partially because my professional career as an academic researcher in environmental health, I was through my research I realized that we actually don't have data to allow people to study, to actually study these environmental exposure and no personalized data to make it actionable for people to know, "Okay, what is my exposure and how do I mitigate these exposures?" Because if you and I have different genes, even if we have the same environmental exposure, same amount of environmental exposure, we would respond very differently, and we just simply don't have data for that. And that was part of the wall that I ran into in my research.
The second reason was because my own fertility struggles. I had four late stage miscarriages and the doctors couldn't figure out what's going on with me, because I studied this. I knew environmental culprit could lead to infertility, miscarriages, a lot of fertility issues. When I asked the doctor, "Could I get a test just to make sure that this is not one of the reasons?" Doctor was like, "No. There's no such tests available."
We can test our genes left and right today, and we can test for environmental exposures like heavy metal. That's the only thing that we can test, but there's so many other exposures, you're talking about air quality, you're talking about toxic chemicals, none of these is available. And that's mind- boggling why this day and age that we can't even do anything about it. If you test your genes, there's not much you can do about it, but the environment you can actually do something about it, and there isn't such a test, and there's nothing we can do. So, that prompt me to start Million Marker.
Jeremy Au (02:57):
Thanks for sharing that personal journey and I think there's two parts to it. Like you said one is obviously the coming together of your professional side, understanding that this doesn't exist for consumers, which is a shame, but also that personal journey of being someone who couldn't get access to that in your own fertility journey.
So, let's talk about that a little bit. So, when you think about fertility and you start a thing where you wanted to get and figure out why you couldn't proceed, what was it like to get stonewalled I guess by the doctor and the medical system to be like you can't test for this? Which is something that you and your professional career could do all the time at a lab, but you couldn't do as a woman and a person who wants to be a mother.
Jenna Hua (03:46):
It was very frustrating. So, you'd think like human has been procreating for thousands of years, science would have figured out all the fertility issues, but not really. You get standard tests. Yes, doctor tells you eat well, don't smoke, don't drink alcohol, but there are still so many things we have not figured out and the doctor kind of just tell you, "Good luck next time." And there was no diagnosis. Even now that I actually have diagnoses of my conditions, they still couldn't figure out like why I'm getting these conditions, how can people actually prevent these conditions. If there's another Jenna like experiencing this, how can we prevent her from going through what I went through?
So, it's pretty frustrating that we just don't have answers. And I also think partially that we don't have answer is that we don't have the data. Now, that you can see that precision medicine is advancing, we have big data in medicine, in genetics, in digital health, and then we have all these, but there isn't really a way to integrate these data, and there haven't been enough study to actually focus on this kind of thing.
Jeremy Au (04:59):
So, how big is a problem for environmental exposure or toxins? How is that intersecting with fertility/infertility for those who don't understand science at a higher level?