10 Natural Anti-Aging Biohacks
| By Jonathan Roseland |
I'm not a doctor, medical professional, or trained therapist. I'm a researcher and pragmatic biohacking practitioner exercising free speech to share evidence as I find it. I make no claims. Please practice skepticism and rational critical thinking. You should consult a professional about any serious decisions that you might make about your health. Affiliate links in this article support Limitless Mindset - spend over $150 and you'll be eligible to join the Limitless Mindset Secret Society.
Longevity is complicated. New science, drugs, and supplements are emerging and breaking paradigms. Before you spend a lot of time investigating them and money several low-hanging fruit natural biohacks should be implemented.
This article will outline 10 natural biohacks that will help you live longer and empower your health. Some are free, some are very affordable, all are natural and low-risk. Biohackers should soberly consider their risk tolerance, many self-experimenters dabble with research chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and even inject peptides.
For example, drugs like Metformin are used by a lot of biohackers, but there's a strong argument to be made that long-term use creates a biological dependence and hurts the body's natural metabolism of B vitamins. If you want to live an extra 40 or 50 years (or longer) you will certainly be using it for a long time! Biohackers who use drugs that pharmacologically intervene in the bodily process should be extremely knowledgeable of the science underlying what they are taking.
But, before venturing into the wild wild west of biological interventions, I'd urge you to fortify your biology with these low-risk biohacks...
Avoid Junk Light
You're smart enough to avoid junk food, but you might not know that junk light has a similarly destructive effect on your health and mindset. In Dave Asprey's mitochondrial manifesto, Head Strong, he explains why you want to avoid fluorescent and blue light...
Your mitochondria have to produce a lot of extra energy to process the blue light in LEDs, which burns oxygen and creates free radicals in the cells of your eyes. And when the mitochondria in your eyes are stressed, the rest of your mitochondria can get stressed, too, including the ones in your brain. (pp. 159-160)
The crappy fluorescent light blaring out of the ceilings of almost everywhere we spend time takes a toll on our mitochondrial reserves of energy. Blue light is not inherently bad but because the sky is blue when we stare at a bright screen projecting a blue light after sunset it tricks our internal circadian clock about what time it is which keeps us from getting good sleep and accelerates aging.
Get Some Red Light
What your Mitochondria love is red light. Get a little red illumination in your life, you'll feel better, sleep better and your eyes won't be so strained after a long day in front of glowing screens.
You are getting overdosed on blue light, so changing the ratio of blue to red can help your eyes and your brain, and your mitochondria will thank you. Simply install a red light somewhere in your field of vision. (pp. 241-242)
If you want to take this to the next level invest in an ultraviolet-B red light, these highly engineered therapy devices feed your mitochondria the champagne and caviar of light that they crave.
There are impressively over 200 human clinical trials, demonstrating some pretty fantastic effects of photobiomodulation in everything from fat loss and diabetes to skincare and even improving eyesight.
Fasting
Caloric restriction is one of the most proven anti-aging strategies. Since time immemorial religion instructed the faithful to fast regularly, a practice that cutting-edge anti-aging science is increasingly validating. Ideally, you want to do three types of fasting...
- Intermittent daily fasting - Skip breakfast (or an AM snacking) and eat within an 8-hour window, typically between noon and about 8 PM.
- 24-hour fasts - At least once a month take a full day off eating. You'll get a little hungry and uncomfortable (especially the first time you try it) but it's not that excruciating. It's easier to fast from lunch to lunch instead of from dinner to dinner and be sure to drink a lot of water or tea while fasting.
- Multi-day fasts - Once or twice a year do a multi-day fast between 2-4 days. This deprivation causes systemic autophagy of your immune system, which is a good thing. It rebuilds your immune system so it can defend you more vigilantly from disease and illness.
Not only is fasting a free biohack, but it's also an economic lifehack because it saves you money. Skipping breakfast daily really adds up giving you more money to spend on quality, organic food.
Carbon 60 Fullerenes
The C60 molecule stands out as a natural anti-aging Nootropic, this symmetrical molecule is a super antioxidant with an extraordinary capacity to capture toxins in the body. It drew worldwide attention with an animal study in which it was demonstrated to extend lifespan by 90%; it nearly doubled lifespan and prevented cancer. It has yet to undergo rigorous human clinical trials but I regard it as safe because it's just carbon, and carbon is very safe; we are carbon and so is almost everything we consume. It's kind of pricey, a month's supply of it will likely run about $60, but it's well worth it to many who love it because it often has such transformative effects.
Take Adaptogens
Adaptogens are a class of natural herbs and nutraceuticals that empower the autonomic nervous system to respond more dynamically to stressors both internal and external. They both energize you when you need energy and they allow you to relax and get rejuvenating sleep. There are a bunch of different Adaptogens, that are used in different herbal protocols for different purposes, but there are three that are particularly effective; Rhodiola, Schisandra, and Eleuthero, with Rhodiola being the best.
Eat Probiotics
You're in a symbiotic relationship with billions of bacteria in your gut microbiome (and it's complicated!) You want more of the good, well-behaved bacteria and less of the malicious little buggers. For gut biome goodness you want to make a habit of consuming fermented probiotic foods and drinks like organic yogurt, Turkish Kefir, German Saurkraut, Russian Kvass, Korean Kimchi, and Kambucha.
You might think...
Can't I get more probiotic strains from a probiotic supplement? I'll just order one off Amazon...
Think again. Probiotic supplements sold on Amazon are famous for being tainted with toxins.
Take a little more responsibility for your health, choose probiotics supplements that are verified as pure with published spectroscopy, head down to your local farmers' market, or better yet spend a little time in the kitchen and make your own probiotic foods. Like the "Dragon's Blood" probiotic cocktail that I enjoy here...
Chelate Thyself
Living in modernity with all our fancy technology and experience economy is awesome, but the downside is that we are under a constant barrage of toxins that cause cancer, lower intelligence and wreak all sorts of havoc in our biology. Our food, our homes, nearly all the products we handle, and the atmosphere in our cities are rife with toxins, to stay healthy we need to chelate them out. This means supplementing natural chelators like Quercetin, Chlorella, Spirulina, and Astaxanthin and including chelating foods in your diet like cilantro, garlic, blueberries, and strawberries.
Sleep Hack
Bad sleep is a killer. And bad sleep is prolific. If you pay some attention to sleep hygiene, you'll find that you're more productive, happier, and healthier. 60-90 minutes before bed turn off the computer, turn off the wifi, put your smartphone on airplane mode, and turn off the lights around your house (use candles if you don't have fancy red lights). If you want to take your sleep to the next level take a pre-bedtime sleep stack of anxiolytics: a tranquilizing herbal tea, raw honey, and apple cider vinegar along with supplementing Magnesium and 20-40 milligrams of CBD.
Take Cold Showers
This is perhaps the most unpleasant natural biohack that gives your body the regular micro-crisis that it needs. Acute thermogenic shock is the hormesis that keeps your stress response smart. Biologically, a lot of a bad thing for a long time is bad, but a little of a bad thing for a little while is great. If you try to cross Siberia on foot in the winter the cold will kill you, but if you shiver for a minute or two under cold water it will (likely) increase testosterone, improve mood, allay anxiety, and fends off illness.
Ground Yourself to the Ground
We need contact with the earth. Ideally, we'd all spend 15 minutes daily earthing; walking barefoot on the ground, or (even better) swimming in the ocean to get some negative ion exchange. This is a powerful anti-inflammatory habit, a University of California paper, explains...
Reduction in inflammation as a result of earthing has been documented with infrared medical imaging and with measurements of blood chemistry and white blood cell counts. The logical explanation for the anti-inflammatory effects is that grounding the body allows negatively charged antioxidant electrons from the Earth to enter the body and neutralize positively charged free radicals at sites of inflammation...
If you don't have a pristine meadow next to your house you can sleep on a grounding mat or wear (rather expensive and unstylish) grounding shoes. So if you're looking for a good excuse to buy a home by the seaside, this is it!
There are a few natural biohacks that I didn't mention here like exercise, meditation, and eating organic food because you probably already know all about them.
Leave a comment and let us know which natural biohacks you employ daily.
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