Biohacking and You
If you’ve been in the health and fitness world, you’ve probably heard of biohacking, but what is it? Biohacking is the process of making changes to your lifestyle in order to “hack” your body’s biology and feel your best – to make yourself into the absolute best version of you with effective and practical advice. You don’t just deal with your health when it becomes a problem. The main thing that separates a biohacker from the rest of the self-improvement world is a personalized approach to your own biology.
My Top Biohacks to Increase Your Energy and Feel Great
Whether you’re brand new to biohacking or an experienced pro, the below list has biohacks for everyone. Everything on this list has a huge potential impact on your health and wellbeing.
1. Improve your diet
- Eliminate toxins – Toxins are found in many crops including grains, vegetables, and even coffee. These toxins give you brain fog and place a huge burden on your brain’s ability to perform at the level you want.
- Try going gluten free – Gluten can cause learning problems, focus and memory issues. Gluten can cause your body to become inflamed by forming cytokines. Cytokines are found in patients with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, and autism — all neurological diseases.
- Limit histamines – Histamines are a neurotransmitter which means they send messages between your body and your brain. High histamine levels can cause headaches, sleep issues, and anxiety, and you can get histamines not just from your allergies, but also through food — particularly aged, smoked, or cured foods.
- Eat more healthy fats – Your brain is mostly made up of saturated fats and cholesterol, which is why people supplement with DHA and EPA (both fatty acids) to support brain health. Your mind uses fat to recover and repair itself, resulting in improved memory, increased cognitive skills, and better moods.
2. Meditate
Meditation has such a profound impact on your health and happiness it’s the favorite of even the most seasoned biohackers. Meditation has been shown to reduce inflammation, boost immune cell count, reduce immune cell aging, and even influence gene expression.
3. Fast
Intermittent fasting is when somebody goes between 12 to 16 hours without food. This may sound difficult, but if you stop eating at 8 pm at night and don’t have breakfast until after 8 am, you’re already doing it. To make intermittent fasting easier, you’re going to have to cut back on sugar and carbs. Intermittent fasting is a great biohack because it improves your body’s insulin sensitivity, which is one of the best markers of overall health.
4. Sweat
Sweating is crucial to your detoxification and can even help your body flush toxins. You can sweat more by exercising or by using a sauna (an infra-red sauna is preferable). Using an infra-red sauna is like three biohacks in one: You sweat in the sauna, infrared light provides therapeutic benefits, and it enables you to relax, unwind, and even meditate.
5. Get quality sleep
While you probably already know it’s good to get 8 hours of sleep, it’s just as important (arguably more important) to get high quality sleep. The glymphatic system only runs in the deepest stages of sleep. The glymphatic system is what clears neurotoxins from the brain. Because of this, deep sleep has neuroprotective [1] effects.
To improve the quality of your sleep, make your bedroom a sanctuary (e.g. light blocking curtains, no ‘screen-time,’ and an air purifier). I recommend making your bedroom EMF free by unplugging your Wi-Fi and keeping your phone in another room at night. Excuses like “My phone is my alarm clock” won’t fly here – go buy an $8 alarm clock.
6. Replenish nutrients
- Magnesium: Increases your memory and cognitive function. Magnesium is also vital to ATP production, so low magnesium means low energy.
- Vitamin D: Many don’t realize that vitamin D acts like a hormone in the body. Nearly every tissue has receptors for vitamin D and uses it for vital processes. Vitamin D helps with energy levels, fights disease, and reduces depression.
- Omega 3s: Healthy fats are essential for a healthy brain, and omega-3s are one of the best. Fish oils contain EPA and DHA, which are anti-inflammatory and protect cell DNA from damage.
- Curcumin: Curcumin is an antioxidant that travels easily from your blood to your brain and, like vitamin D, it helps protect your brain from free radical damage.
- B Vitamins: B vitamins help fight off the amino acid homocysteine, which may lead to Alzheimer’s Disease. B vitamins aid in methylation which is responsible for gene regulation, biotransformation, neurotransmitter synthesis, building immune cells, energy production, building and maintaining cell membranes, and DNA synthesis.
7. Drink pure water
The average adult body is about 70% water. Every bodily system needs water to run smoothly. High quality water is an important building block for your body. Be sure to choose glass over plastic when drinking water. Drinking clean water is one of the best biohacks you can do for your health.
8. Minimize blue light
Blue blockers are glasses that protect your eyes from blue wavelengths from screens and other artificial light sources. Blue blockers can help regulate circadian rhythms, which can improve your sleep and increase your energy levels. This is an excellent biohack for anyone who has to look at computers all day or watches TV at night. You can also check out a product called f.lux which makes the color of your computer’s display adapt to the time of day. When the sun sets, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. In the morning, it makes things look like sunlight again.
9. Exercise gratitude and forgiveness
Taking a few minutes out of your day to do a gratitude and forgiveness exercise can be unbelievably beneficial. Either stop everything you’re doing and consider what you are grateful for, or write your thoughts about gratitude and forgiveness in a journal. By doing this, you can increase your happiness and recover more easily from stress (how much stress do you carry around from your anger and hurt?). In fact, gratitude exercises are shown to increase decision-making abilities and encourage productivity.
10. Get outside!
Getting sun exposure every day keeps your body’s clock, or circadian rhythm, working properly. Sunlight tells your body to postpone making melatonin, the hormone that makes you tired and helps you sleep. In addition, sunlight makes your body produce vitamin D. When you make vitamin D from the sun, as opposed to taking a supplement, it lasts two to three times longer in your body.
If we want better outputs—to have more energy and focus, to be free of disease, to have a better memory, to perform optimally in business and athletics—then try tweaking the things you put into your body and mind to stack the deck in your favor
References:
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4651462/
