As you learned in last week’s episode, I’ve lately been “called out” quite a bit about my fringe, nerdy, technology-obsessed, biohacking shortcuts to achieve body and brain performance. In that episode, I presented natural alternatives to modern biohacks such as cryotherapy, electrical muscle stimulation and hypoxia.
In today’s article, which is Part 2 of this series, you’ll get plenty of examples of how and when biohacking can cross the line, and smarter, more natural, more ancestral alternatives to the current craze of cryotherapy, electrical muscle stimulation, digital meditation, nootropics, and strapping your own equivalent of a goat-limb prosthetic to your body.
1.) Vibration Platforms
Devices that shudder and shake as you stand on them may seem convenient, cool, and a highly technological new way to exercise, or to be able to recover faster, lift more weight, or sprint faster—all of which vibration has been shown to be able to do. And sure, these vibration platforms (and their slightly less sexy cousins: rebounding trampolines) definitely increase lymph flow and blood flow. I talk about these in Do Vibration Platforms Work for Fat Loss? But running in place and exercises like jumping jacks can offer very similar benefit and be a great alternative if you don’t have a vibration plate nearby or simply want one less item plugged into an electrical outlet in your home. Yep, you can just “bounce up and down” with no fancy biohacks required.
2.) Blue Light Therapy
On my blog at BenGreenfieldFitness.com, I have plenty of stories about new light-emitting devices—technology that stimulates photoreceptors in the ears or the eyes with light to normalize circadian rhythms, to stimulate mitochondria and to adjust the body to new time zone or eliminate jet lag. Take a look here, here, and here.
These green and blue light producing devices can indeed be a great way to stimulate the brain and to normalize circadian rhythms. But there’s no better source of blue light out there than the morning and afternoon rays of sunshine, so before strapping on a biohacking headset or pair of blue light producing glasses, ask yourself if you can simply go on a walk in nature and get a dose of natural sun exposure instead.
3.) Electric Brain Stimulation
The claim behind electrical brain stimulation is that by attaching electrodes to your temples and running light electrical current through your brain, you can deal with anxiety and insomnia, increase your pain threshold, improve reasoning and alpha brain wave production and beyond.
For example, since the 1960’s, scientists have investigated transcranial direct-current stimulation, or tDCS, and found that it can do all those things. But what they don’t know are the long-term effects, good or bad. That makes tDCS a gamble, especially if you self-administer it. Electroencephalography (EEG) based neurofeedback appears to be slightly more safe, but still an expensive and out-of-reach biohack for many.
Then there are headbands and meditation—devices that monitor your brain waves during meditation and generate sounds, binaural beats, voices and other digital projections to lull you into a deeper meditative state. I agree that these tools are convenient to walk you through a meditation or teach you meditation techniques, yet I’m still concerned about the amount of electrons and other non-native electronic singals projected into the body and brain by these devices.
Why not first look into other ways to stimulate the brain, such as riddles, crossword puzzles, board games, transcendental meditation, Kundalini yoga, or just a good meditation sit spot in nature?
4.) Anti-Aging Injections
Here’s the science behind this one: if you listened to a recent podcast I recored on the anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-cancer benefits of a compound called “Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide” (NAD), you may have heard that you can spend hundreds of dollars on NAD supplements or thousands of dollars on NAD injections.
But after a bit of research following that podcast, and a fascinating discussion with a man who I consider to be one of the brightest minds in medicine, Dr. Joseph Mercola, I discovered that a compound called “beta-lapachone” can massively increase levels of NAD, and that this pricey chemical can actually be quite inexpensively obtained via a pau d’ arco tree bark tea from the Peruvian jungles. Dr. Mercola is way ahead of his time in terms of his experiments with and knowledge on NAD. He’s working on a new book on mitochondria that will go into this and much more and he clued me into and gave me instructions on how to prepare an absorbable NAD precursor for pennies on the dollar.
How? Follow this recipe:
-Mix 1-2 teaspoons of pau d’ arco tree bark with 4-8 ounces of warm water and allow it to sit overnight for 10-12 hours.
-In a good blender for 2-3 minutes, blend the water and soaked bark with fats, which will form liposomes that can increase absorption of the beta-lapachone from the tea. For fats, you can use brain octane oil , coconut oil, olive oil, fish oil or full fat coconut milk – but Dr. Mercola advised me that the best solution, aside from a special krill oil formulation that is not yet available on the market, is simply a half teaspoon of organic, non-GMO sunflower lecithin, which contains good amounts of phosphatidylcholine, an excellent way to make phospholipids.
-For even more absorption, add 1-2 teaspoons of organic turmeric powder to this mixture.
-Strain after blending.
You can then use the resulting foamy white bark “milk” as an ingredient in smoothies or shakes, or you can drink it straight. No needles or injection clinics required.
5.) Petri Dish Organs
Biohacking can also involve modifying cells on a genetic level, and what cells can be made to do is pretty amazing. For example, JuicyPrint is an up-and-coming project that hacks bacteria to respond to light. The bacteria then produce cellulose, and with some alterations to its genetic code, that cellulose production can then be tuned to respond to the presence or absence of light. JuicyPrint then uses the natural substance as the raw material in a 3D printer.
Those behind the project see it being used for everything from rebuilding organs to making new arteries and blood vessels, and because the new organs and implants would be based on a biological material instead of artificial material , it may be able to blend more seamlessly into a human body, with less risk of things like blood clots. The goal for the final project is to feed fruit juice to the printer to spit out whatever shapes are needed, including the potential for skin grafts and new organs.
But there are other natural compounds that one can ingest that allow for rapid healing and growth of the human body, without necessarily getting an organ transplant or skin surgery: elements chock full of stem cell stimulants and growth factors such as marine phytoplankton, aloe vera gel, colostrum, chlorella, whey protein, and even one of the most natural, least sexy, least biohack-ey nutrients of all: raw milk.
6.) Nootropics
Of course, biohacking doesn’t always have to mean getting out a scalpel and starting to cut into your body to implant a chip. The “nootropics” movement is one that’s growing quickly, and it’s based around the idea of taking brain-enhancing drugs to make one focus better, think faster, and work more efficiently. Caffeine and L-theanine are more “natural compounds” found in coffee and tea, but there are also some folks popping over 40 pills a day of other nootropics and smart drugs, including habitual users of potentially liver-damaging compounds such as Ritalin, Adderall, and modafinil.
I’m personally nervous about the long-term impact of taking such brain drugs and drug cocktails, especially if they’re not non-addictive and nontoxic. Currently, there’s no way of determining what the long-term impact of these brain-altering drugs will be, and if that makes you nervous, then you should know that there definitely natural solutions.
For example, for wakefulness and cognitive enhancement, you can try sniffing, wearing, or diffusing essential oils of peppermint, vanilla or pine. You can drink a cup of joe for the same adenosine blocking as a spendy, smart drug. You can eat foods like capers and bananas for a dopamine or tap into St. John’s Wort herb, fish, and eggs for brain-boosting choline. You get the idea. Before shoveling over sixty to a hundred bucks for a bottle of brain pills, you may simply want to visit a garden or find a fish
Summary
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a biohacker. In the past twenty four hours alone, I’ve performed tDCS, electroencepholography, intranasal light therapy, electrical muscle stimulation, peptide injections, electric compression boots, eight different nootropic pills and much more. But in the same twenty four hours, I’ve also done a fifteen minute sit spot in nature, a gratitude journal, a boatload of natural spring water, a forest walk, yoga, a glass of raw goat milk and deep breathing.
What about you? What will you choose? Perhaps instead of strapping the biohacking equivalent of a goat prosthetic to your body, you might first try buying a goat, milking a goat, walking a goat in the sunshine or finding some more natural, safe and healthy alternative to turning yourself into an artificial goat. Once you’ve mastered that, perhaps you can throw in a few biohacks, but only those you understand and that don’t pursue performance at all costs while flying in the face of health and longevity.
Do you have questions, comments or feedback about how to get more done for your fitness in less time? Join the conversation at http://ift.tt/1PKzcip.
For the first time in 17 years, my favorite team, the Baltimore Orioles, clinched a division title. I’m not bragging, really! But being a baseball fan in my town and calling yourself a “winner?" These things don't happen too often. The O’s locker room celebration consisted of players and staff spraying Champagne on each other, singing, dancing, and more importantly thanking the city for its support. I was most happy with that last part because it showed both class and appreciation.
Raising 8 kids over the past 20 years has been amazing, exhausting, surprising, and everything in between. I’ve learned plenty from trial and error and the best teacher has ultimately been experience. 
As I recommended in the episode 
When you have younger kids, it’s easier to turn off electronics a couple of hours before bedtime because you have them engaged with bath time, brushing their teeth, and then snuggling in to read a favorite bedtime story. As our kids get older, however, powering down their electrical gadgets can be a struggle, especially because so many tweens and teens rely on these devices to help with homework as well as to stay connected with their friends.
If your family is currently winging it every night and your kids are already out of the malleable baby age, it is still possible to implement a bedtime routine. You just have to be realistic about your expectations and don’t get frustrated when after day two, your kids are still trying to run the show and go to bed on their own terms. 
Get yourself ready for work the night before as part of your bedtime ritual so you won’t be rushed in the morning. If you're a stay-at-home parent, get your work-out clothes ready for the next morning or have your first project for the day organized and ready to go.
My family and I cooked and consumed an entire turkey this week. We certainly weren’t alone in this endeavor/achievement since turkey is—for better or worse—the big cheese on most Thanksgiving menus. In our case, the turkey was rather delicious. As, of course, was the conversation with my delightful family.