Biohacking: are you ready to “upgrade yourself”?
Have you ever felt that you are not nearly using 100% of your physical, mental and intellectual capacities? That there is a huuuge room for improvement and “optimization” when it comes to your general state of health, physique or stress management skills?
How can one tackle these issues and become a better version of yourself?
The answer in simple — biohacking.
I first discovered this interesting concept for myself after hearing the talk from Teemu Arina, a well-known Finnish biohacker, author and tech-entrepreneur, at the European Innovation Academy in Portugal in July 2017.
It was hands down one of my favourite key-note speeches from this overall amazing summer program, most likely due to 2 main reasons:
- Given my biomedical background (your girl just graduated from Karolinska Institutet with a Bachelor degree in Biomedicine), many of the concepts Teemu was talking about made much sense from a scientific point of view.
- Great public speaking skills and interaction with the audience in combination with informative slides = remarkable lecture for all of us!
The talk and the whole idea behind it seemed so fascinating to me, that I can no longer hold myself back from sharing it with all of you!
So, let’s get things started here! What is Biohacking, essentially?
Biohacking is a growing international trend.
It is defined as better living through science, technology and nature. What distinguishes it from modern medicine though, or simply from “a healthy lifestyle”?
A biohacker sees his or her body as a complex system that can be probed, analyzed, understood, and put under the test. There are an enormous amount of diseases and undesirable health conditions that could be prevented if a people would put more effort in trying to understand the biology of self, often through accessing information obtained from various biomarkers, investigating about how certain diseases develop, and how one can prevent and “fix” them before there is a need to actually turn to the doctor.
Biohackers believe that by challenging and improving such aspects of human life as physical exercise, nutrition, sleep and stress management, the point of “peak performance” for everyone can be achieved.
The importance and reliability of such life “upgrades “, though, should be based on a substantial body of research and evidence-based studies.
I will now describe my impressions from Biohacker Summit 2018 that took place in Stockholm, Sweden in May and I had the chance to attend thanks to Teemu.
Biohacker Summit is the largest biohacking event in Europe that connect wellbeing companies with medical professionals, technology experts, investors, entrepreneurs, health and nutrition enthusiasts, and other pioneers. The aim of the conference is to make the world healthier and happier place, prevent disease, and extend human capabilities and lifespan.
There were quite a number of remarkable speakers and interesting lectures featured at the Biohackers Summit 2018, but instead of acting as an individual reporter for all of them, I will try and summarize this whole experience into 5 main take-home messages. So….
What are the different ways of becoming your best , most efficient self?
As can be seen above, one can enhance self-performance and improve many aspects of body-mind “relationship” by acting from different fronts. But how do we know that there is something to improve, “upgrade” or take better care of inside of our body? The answer is to TRACK📊📈 and MEASURE📲
- There are plenty of useful wearable devices, or simply wearables nowadays available on the market, for every need, purpose & pocket. Starting from a simple heartbeat monitor and finishing with more fancy and sophisticated Apple watch and Fitbit wrist bands. These devices can help you to monitor your body to see what you’re actually doing with it. The importance of such feedback is hard to underestimate — it makes it much easier to gather “biohacking data” on the go, whether you’re at work, out and about running chores, eating, sleeping, exercising or doing any other jazz really. A number of apps nowadays make it incredibly easy to track your health and fitness levels, as well as sleeping patterns and what not. Even such readily available platforms like Apple Health offer a decent list of useful “health trackers” like: Step Tracker (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.), Nutrition Tracker (caffeine, sugar, folate, even copper), Sleep Tracker (it merges with Sleep Cycle for all your data in one place), Reproductive Health (ovulation, menstruation, and more), Fitness and Vitals, among others.
These are not the only ways to keep up with your own “biological data”. Wanna know more of the molecular and cellular state of yourself? Lab tests are at your service💉🔬👩🏼🔬
2. Before we dive into all this lab-related stuff, first things need to be made clear FIRST! Ever heard of biomarkers?🔍
According to Nature, a biomarker is a biological characteristic that is objectively measured and evaluated as an indicator of normal biological or pathological processes, or a response to a therapeutic intervention. Examples include patterns of gene expression, levels of a particular protein in body fluids, or changes in electrical activity in the brain.
Many of these biological molecules that can be found in blood, other body fluids, or tissues are the signs of a normal or abnormal processes occurring in your body, or of a condition or disease.
Every biological system (for example the cardiovascular system, metabolic system or the immune system) has its own specific biomarkers. Many of these biomarkers are relatively easy to measure and form part of routine medical examinations. Such well-known biomarkers as elevated levels of LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood are associated with increased risk of heart-related problems and atherosclerosis (you’re welcome to read more about this here); hemoglobin (Hb) and ferritin can show if one is developing iron deficiency and possibly anemia, whereas C-reactive protein (CRP) is the best studied of the inflammatory biomarkers in coronary arthery disease. CRP has been shown to be a marker of systemic inflammation, elevated in response to injury, infection, and other inflammatory.
These are just a few examples of the biomarkers that can be accessed by performing a simple biochemical analysis / blood test available in pretty much every clinic nowadays. They can be done for free if prescribed by your GP / family doctor, or done private labs like Nordic labs (Scandinavia) or Synlabs (Estonia).
One can also go further and perform a genetic testing to check for a specific mutations (if there is any suspicion) and for diagnostic purposes. Genetic tests are often done on newborn babies and infants, but there are also commercially available genetic test from different companies such as 23andME that allow everybody to not only find out such “fun” facts as your global ancestry by percentages, but also get a more comprehensive understanding of your genetics by getting to know specific genetic variants (and whether YOU are the carrier of it) associated with increased risk for certain health conditions, and check for other possible conditions such as celiac disease (gluten) or lactose intolerance. Go and try it yourself!
3. Correct nutrition. It’s probably one of the most important aspect of them all. Nutrition is the KEY for a good life quality!🍏
If you you think about it, we are literally what we eat. Obviously, you won’t turn into a hot-dog after devouring one, neither will your head turn into a pumpkin post a large bowl of pumpkin soup. However, it’s good to always keep in mind that processed and refined food, as well as particular groups of products such as meats and dairy might not be the optimal source of “fuel”.
Our body uses the nutrients, micro- and macro-molecules we obtain with every meal we ingest, to built literally every cell of every tissue and every organ that is present there. That’s why eating crap won’t make you feel good in the long run. What will tho?
Personally, I am a big advocate for a wholefood, plant-based diet. Why? There are plenty of reasons for that, some of them being effective in prevention, treatment, or reversing some of our leading causes of death, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. Interventional studies of plant-based diets have shown, for example, 90 percent reductions in angina attacks within just a few weeks.
Plant-based diet intervention groups have reported greater diet satisfaction than control groups, as well as improved digestion, increased energy, and better sleep, and significant improvement in their physical functioning, general health, vitality, and mental health. Studies have shown plant-based eating can improve not only body weight, blood sugar levels, and ability to control cholesterol, but also emotional states, including depression, anxiety, fatigue, sense of well-being, and daily functioning.
All the aforementioned☝🏼clearly indicates that there might be better ways of eating than a ketogenic diet that was “heavily featured” at the Biohackers Summit. I am not a nutritionist myself yet, but tried my best to provide you with a comperhensive analysis of this interesting KETO-buzz🤪
Three water-soluble compounds, β-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetate and acetone (known collectively as ketone bodies), were produced by the liver in otherwise healthy people when they were starved or if they consumed a very low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet. Russel Wilder, at the Mayo Clinic, built on this research and coined the term ketogenic diet to describe a diet that produced a high level of ketone bodies in the blood (ketonemia) through an excess of fat and lack of carbohydrate.
Historically, this diet has been proven to be effective is treating drug-resistant epilepsy, especially in children. Over the past few years, there has been an explosion in speculation about the diet’s potential applications in a variety of metabolic, oncologic, neurodegenerative, and psychiatric disorders.
However, for a relatively healthy adult, the beneficial effects of such diet are somewhat arguable🧐
Weight loss is the primary reason many people use the ketogenic diet. Previous research shows good evidence of a faster weight loss when patients go on a ketogenic or very low carbohydrate diet compared to participants on a more traditional low-fat diet, or even a Mediterranean diet. However, that difference in weight loss seems to disappear over time.
A ketogenic diet also has been shown to improve blood sugar control for patients with type 2 diabetes, at least in the short term. There is even more controversy when we consider the effect on cholesterol levels. A few studies show some patients have increase in cholesterol levels in the beginning, only to see cholesterol fall a few months later. However, there is limited amount of long-term research analyzing its effects over time on diabetes and high cholesterol.
In my humble biomedical opinion, ketogenic diet simply cannot be considered an optimal type of nutrition for all due to several reasons, but I will not take the responsibility to claim this diet is unhealthy, or, on the hand, extremely beneficial for those wanting to improve their physical performance. One MD described his experience and opinion of this diet here:
Nevertheless, a biohacker takes no diet fads but tests what works. © Teemu
There is no one size fits all: humans have different genomic and proteomic profiles, as well as different metabolism rates, enzyme induction and microbiome composition, so the key is to try and see what works best for you!💁🏼♀️
There (at Biohackers Summit, ofc) were also a few talks about different nutritional supplements one can use to boost your immunity/ increase alertness / improve mental and intellectual capacities / make yourself more calm and relaxed and WHAT NOT. Combined with a balanced, healthy diet these can actually make a difference. But man, this post is already gettin’ outta had (becoming way too long), so … brace yourselves, new SUPPLEMENTARY content coming soon!💊
4. Exercise. JUST DO IT!👊🏼
Apart from eating well, exercise is the best thing you can do to your body. Period💪🏼
Girl has written the whole article dedicated to the benefits of being physically active🏃🏼♀️
Active link to the blog post below:
Thankfully, biohackers also promote sports and physical activity👌🏼And I promote them😏
5. Finally, no peak performance can be achieved without some quality rest & recovery time. And when do we rest and recover? Right, when we sleep😴
According to Harvard researchers, BLUE LIGHT that comes from TV screens, computers, and your smartphone, has been shown to affect how our brains go to sleep (at night, light throws the body’s biological clock — the circadian rhythm — out of whack⏰)
Basically, when our optic nerves register blue light, they tell our brains that it’s day time. Not all colors of light have the same effect. Blue wavelengths — which are beneficial during daylight hours because they boost attention, reaction times, and mood — seem to be the most disruptive at night. And the proliferation of electronics with screens, as well as energy-efficient lighting, is increasing our exposure to blue wavelengths, especially after sundown🌅
One of the best ways to fight this self-induced insomnia is to stop staring at screens an hour before bed, but ……… most of us simply don’t do that. Luckily, there’s a hack for that!
If you have an iPhone, simply enable iOS 9’s Night Shift Mode. The setting removes most blue wavelength light from your display, substituting it with yellow light, so your brain starts to get drowsy🧠
On the contrary, you can use technology to improve your sleep quality in the following manner:
Sleep Cycle is a free sleep analysis tool and alarm clock that not only gently increases in volume until you reach your desired waking time, it analyzes your sleep patterns every night so you can track how you’re sleeping. Knowledge is power, and knowing how you get your best sleep is a great way to ensure that you get more of it in the future. (Hands-on tip from Shawn Forno (https://blog.tortugabackpacks.com)
Another interesting article on sleep from a researcher in this field can be found here:
Other ways to improve your sleep quality that have been discussed at Biohackers Forum included various auditory, vestibular (rocking the bed, and not to forget comfortable mattresses!) and olfactory stimuli (aromatherapy).
The latter, by the way, in an ancient “biohack” for improving sleep: the scent of lavender stimulates brain pathways, including our limbic system, which is connected to our emotional response and memories. Studies using electroencephalography (EEG), which measures brain waves, and brain imaging using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) show significant changes during lavender aromatherapy consistent with its relaxing effects.
Talking about EEG … in my top-5 lectures from Biohackers Summit definitely was the one from Dr. Andrew Hill (UCLA, USA), gerontologist and doctor of cognitive neuroscience, talking about QEEG, brain mapping & neurofeedback.
Curious to find more about recording your brain waves and creating a visual map of your brain activity? To be able to read this map and learn a lot about you and your needs through it?
Quoting Dr.Hill,
“QEEG recordings are inspected to rule out dramatic pathology, and identify patterns that diverge from typical. This information helps identify functional issues and helps target your goals for peak brain performance.”
Anyways, more info here on this incredibly interesting topic below!
To conclude this messy, but hopefully oh-so-informative (still, to describe all the interesting stuff that has been discussed at Biohackers Summit I would probably need to write at least twice as much x) blog-post I just want to make the following point:
I strongly believe that everybody can be somewhat of “biohacker” him/herself. The point is to always keep learning stuff about yourself and your own body, to be open to new information and ready to make changes to your lifestyle in order to “hack” your body’s biology and feel your best🙌🏼
