As we round out our topic of biohacking, I thought it only appropriate to end on biohacking life. The goal today is to give you a breakdown of biohacking tips that will help your body thrive, so you can become the best version of you.
Live Longer. Have More Energy. Be Happier.
If you missed any of the previous biohacking topics, I encourage you to check them out. As you’ll notice biohacking is about small adjustments and lifestyle changes that can utilize science and technology to support your goals and, over time, change the chemistry in the body. We started with
biohacking sleep, moved to
biohacking movement, then to
biohacking mindset, and this week is all about L I F E.
Providing our bodies with the appropriate nutrition is the foundation to living a healthy lifestyle – our immunity, body fluidity and/or discomforts, and so many other things are dependent on being fueled appropriately. As good as we try to be, we’re only as good as the food we have access to, which here in the USA is depleting more and more, year after year. That’s where you can utilize supplementation in your biohacking arsenal of life.
The fact is we can’t possibly consume enough food, even the right ones, to provide our bodies with the levels of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients it needs. My biohacking supplementation for righting all those wrongs is doTERRA Lifelong Vitality®. There’s a laundry list of benefits from taking these, but the 4 big ones are 1) hormone and mood balance 2) energy 3) less inflammation and 4) boosting immunity.
The digestive system can be a taboo topic for a lot of people, but the truth is when you finally find relief and feel great, you’ll find it hard to stop talking about it. Tee-hee! Digestive enzymes are a key factor in a healthy digestive system. doTERRA TerraZyme® supports healthy digestion and metabolism of enzyme-deficient, processed foods, and the conversion of food nutrients to cellular energy. Digestive enzymes can help with a plethora of digestive conditions, plus aids with other important factors like energy, inflammation, and even anxiety. Talk about an awesome biohacking supplement!
Since our gut health is so important – I mean 80% of our immune system lives in the gut, let’s dive a little deeper! doTERRA Lifelong Vitality® and TerraZyme® are excellent supplements to start the process with having a healthy gut, but there’s always more we can do.
5 Ways to Support Gut Health
1) Take a good quality probiotic / eat probiotic-friendly foods
2) Add a prebiotic and fiber to your regime
3) Cut your sugar intake
4) Eat slowly
5) Stay hydrated
1) My personal favorite for getting a good quality probiotics and prebiotics are doTERRA PB Assist+®. These supplements are a proprietary formula of pre-biotic fiber and six strains of probiotic microorganisms in a unique double layer vegetable capsule. The time-release, double-capsule delivery system is designed to help protect the sensitive probiotic cultures from stomach acid. Meaning you’re getting the prebiotic in your stomach and the probiotic passes through and is delivered and dissolved in your intestines.
2) Fiber and prebiotics have compounds that feed your probiotics, this is why they’re both important. A few well-known fiber-rich foods are apples, walnuts, oats and lentils. Prebiotic-friendly foods like Greek yogurt, fermented sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, Kombucha or Kefir are excellent to add to your meals too. Just make sure you’re checking the labels for “probiotic cultures” to ensure they have the live beneficial bacteria you’re looking for.
3) Too much sugar can wreak havoc on our microbiome by reducing the beneficial bacteria. It also feeds aggressive yeast and can lead to candida (yeast overgrowth). I’m not suggesting you cut sugar out altogether, however, if you have that kind of willpower and desire – go for it! For the rest of us, I suggest making some swaps. Use a local honey over sugar, fresh/frozen fruit over canned, water (or other non-sugar alternative) over soda and so on. If you have cravings, I’ve found that one drop of Peppermint essential oil pressed to the roof of my mouth does the trick.
Plus, doTERRA just launched and whole new system, but there are two products from it that I want to just mention. One is the MetaPWR Metabolic Blend, it inhibits fat cell maturation, curbs cravings, and supports metabolic health. The metabolic blend comes in an essential oil, a gum and a supplement. The other part of the MetaPWR system that’s relevant here is the MetaPWR Assist supplement. It decreases post meal glucose spikes, reduces the absorption of simple carbohydrates, supports healthy blood sugar responses, and stabilizes energy levels throughout the day.
4) This may seem obvious, but something most of us struggle to do is slow down and really enjoy our foods. Beyond just enjoying our food and giving our bodies the time it needs to signal that we’re full, eating slowly helps you chew your food more thoroughly which ultimately leads to better digestion.
5) Yes, I’ve already talked about drinking water in our biohacking subject (and so many other times), but today I want to share a slight spin. I’m sure you’ve at least heard of alkaline water, right? Well, it’s excellent for gut health. It neutralizes the acid in your body, plus has colon-cleansing and detoxifying properties. There are a multitude of companies that claim alkaline water. I’ve seen them tested and not sure how they can make that claim, but just like with supplements and essential oils you’ve got to go with a reputable brand you trust in providing you the best product. I have a couple friends who sell Kangen water machines and they’re amazing. If you need a hook up, they’ll even bring you free water for a couple weeks so you can try it for yourself (just email me and I'll pass along their info). I bought an
Air Water Life Aqua Ionizer Deluxe 9.0 back in 2017 and have been very happy with it.
Switching from our foundational health – having a healthy microbiome, let’s look at our physical foundation. Bone health. Women lose about 2% of their bone density every year starting in their mid-30’s. Estrogen, which helps to protect a woman’s bones decreases as we age and hit menopause. Men lose bone density too at a much slower rate. This is because men typically start out with larger bones and their bone loss starts later.
Strength training allows you to increase your bone density, along with building strong muscles, which will help with conditions like osteoporosis, plus you’ll then be less likely to experience a fracture. I shared the ultimate biohacking tool for bone strength in the
Biohacking Movement post – check that out and scroll down to where I talk about OsteoStrong®. If you don’t have an OsteoStrong® near you another biohacking supplement is doTERRA Bone Nutrient Essential Complex. It provides calcium and magnesium, along with vitamins C, D2 and D3 for better calcium absorption.
Taking everything we’ve learned over the past several weeks, you can see there’s a lot of overlap with how our body is connected and works intricately together. If you don’t know where to begin, I recommend focusing on starting with the three foundational building blocks to biohacking your overall health: water, movement, and nutrition. If you start with those three, you’ll start noticing a difference within a couple weeks and that should give you the motivation to slowly start looking into other areas.
Cheers to happy, healthy living!
xoDanette