I’m a big fan of biohacking so I was excited to learn the term has now been added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. You can check out other new additions here, including words like Instagramming. They say language follows culture. 🙂
What is biohacking? In simple terms, it is using science and technology to make your body function better and more efficiently. You “self-study” by observing and measuring what various things do to your body. Then you refine and tweak. You basically take ownership of the way your body functions and focus on what you want to improve. You may have heard of the keto diet, bulletproof coffee and intermittent fasting. These are all examples of biohacks. You use the principles of science and technology to improve your body and your health.
The term has been around since the 1990s, but it started gaining popularity in the last 10 years with books like “The 4 Hour Body” by Tim Ferriss. I first learned about the concept when I went to a MeetUp in San Francisco on the topic. The meeting was filled with people sharing personal experiments they had done to improve their health, to overcome illness and to generally feel better. It dovetailed nicely into my growing interest in nutrition so I started following the community.
Why should you care? Lots of reasons—good biohacks boost your energy, keep you youthful, improve your brain function, strengthen your body, the list goes on… And in most cases, it’s all-natural– which is why as a Kundalini yogini, I love the concept. 🙂
How do you biohack? The easiest way is to decide what you want to improve. Depression? Hair loss? Weak knees? Forgetfulness? Google the symptom with “biohack” and get to work. Not all websites are created equal so I try to cross-check with at least 3 sources. One site I love is Natural Stacks. My friend is part of their research team and while it’s a US company (so hard to buy the products in Greece), the articles and research are interesting and useful.
Here are few simple biohacks I’ve tried that are easy to implement and show results pretty quickly:
- Take a tablespoon collagen powder for 30 days: this is great for the joints, skin and hair. They call it “nature’s botox.” Track your progress and see what has changed at the end of 30 days. Me? I had an old knee injury that was completely healed after 30 days of collagen powder. Now I am running and jumping where ever and whenever I want. 🙂
- Drink lemon water with baking soda every day for a month. This lowers your body’s pH levels so your body is more alkaline. Most disease is correlated to an acidic (and thereby inflamed) environment so this makes you less susceptible to sickness and disease. You can measure your pH levels with pH sticks like those here.
- Try the Ketogentic diet for 30 days: this is great for your brain function, your energy levels and for efficient weight loss. This biohack takes some planning. You can read more about that here…
- Try 3 minutes of focused breathwork every day for 30 days. Track your mood before and after. Focused breathwork can be as simple as long deep breathing (inhale for a count of 8 and exhale for a count of 8). Got stress? This will help lower it…This also boosts your mood, improves your energy levels and makes you less reactive. Calmness is a superpower. You can get started with this biohack at any of my Kundalini Yoga classes. 🙂
The list goes on. The thing that makes it a biohack is that you approach it like an experiment and study the results. Nice! And the things that work you keep doing, the ones that don’t you discontinue or refine. So biohack away and see what your body is capable of.