Biohacking Social #3 – Biohackers Chiang Mai

During the Biohackers Chiang Mai Biohacking Social, we touched on a LOT of different biohacking topics during our meetup, from breathwork to goat milk, and MANY topics in between.

Wait a sec! What is biohacking and a biohacking social?

Good question. It’s something I covered in an article after our first biohacking social meetup – so you can click to learn more.

Biohacking Topics

You’ll learn more about highlightandhook soon enough. But first, here are some of the things we discussed:

[+] Is raw goat milk good for you?

[+] Can breathwork improve your health?

[+] Just how important is sleep?

[+] Are you on the meditation bandwagon?

[+] Does your water support your health?

[+] Are EMFs the “silent killer”?

[+] Are you biohacking your food?

[+] Where do you want to meet?

Is raw goat milk good for you?

I’m leading with this topic because of my own personal interest in drinking high quality milk. I’ve tried the raw cow milk at Thai-Denmark and, because I don’t know their sources (farms), I finally decided that I’m better off getting something higher quality.

Why goat milk? Dr Axe explains how it is superior to cow milk: it’s easier to digest; has fewer allergens, it’s less inflammatory; it’s high in calcium, it helps reduce cholesterol levels, it promotes glowing skin, and it enhances nutrient absorption.

My personal interest is that goat milk might be a superior source of absorbable protein for muscle growth – and it’s easier than chewing on steak all the time!

Aden Health Shop near JJ (organic Sunday) Market sells raw goat milk.

Taladin Market also has raw goat milk, as well as other interesting foods – and a French restaurant called Baan a Din.

Also, I read somewhere about the Phukamyao Goat Farm and plan to check it out. Maybe take a trip there as a meetup group?

Can breathwork improve your health?

We talked a little about breathing and breathwork. Of course the popular icon now is Wim Hof, also known as the “Ice Man” for his forays into icy climates.

What kind of health benefits are we talking about? Things like:

Stress control, energy management, inflammation, endurance, longevity, and creativity.

I’m following 10 weeks of Wim Hof using the app. And to get my cold fix, I’ll occasionally stick my face in a bowl of ice-cold water I pull from the fridge.

You can read a bit more about my own experience with Wim Hof breathing here.

And of course you can go to the source and find out more on the Wim Hof website.

Just how important is sleep?

Sleep is one of my main challenges. I’ve been tracking my sleep for years and trying all kinds of things to try and improve it. So far I can’t draw any conclusions and thus I’m now taking a break from tracking my sleep.

Melatonin is powerful because it’s essentially a hormone (and so I’m a bit surprised it’s sold over the counter). I’ve tried it with a couple of great nights of sleep but then it actually did quite the opposite – and kept me awake!

Polyphasic sleep was also mentioned. I’ve heard about it but I have no experience with it – aside from taking the occasional nap!

Learn more here about finding your best sleep cycle – Polyphasic, Biphasic, or Monophasic.

Are you on the meditation bandwagon?

I’ve been meditating for just a few years and have noticed that, after taking a break from it for a few months this year, I feel the stresses of life creeping in. So I’m back on it.

I’ve really enjoyed various guided meditations using apps, group meditations, mindfulness meditation, using devices for meditation, and now I’m back to mantra meditation.

For the biohacking side of meditation, I gave a quick demo the Heartmath Emwave (2), a biofeedback device that calculates heart rate variability and what they call “coherence” using your heart rate. The feedback lighting is simple: red is stressed and green is calm.

Does your water support your health?

I’m not talking water that won’t make you sick. Better than that, I’m talking about water that makes you healthy.

I went over finding healthy drinking water in Chiang Mai in the article summarizing our last biohacking social.

Also mentioned (for those who want to dig into the dirty details) was Gerald Pollock’s Fourth Phase of Water, explaining that water is not as simple as you thought. And from a health perspective, you want to make sure you’re getting the best water in your body.

Are EMFs the “silent killer”?

Okay, not just silent, but also invisible, odorless and we can’t feel them!

We talked a lot about EMFs during our last biohacking meetup but one thing that caught my attention was using shields and faraday cages to block harmful EMFs.

These days we can get these protections in the form of cell phone cases, sheets, sleeping bags, clothes and much more.

You can learn more about EMF shielding here.

Are you biohacking your food?

I’m not even sure what that means – but I thought it would evoke some interesting thoughts!

No conversation among humans would be complete with some conversation about food. Of course there’s plenty of that in the biohacking community.

We briefly talked about the carnivore diet and eating liver as “nature’s multivitamin”. I recently ordered some liver (beef, chicken and cod) from Paleo Robbie. I really enjoyed the chicken and cod livers. The beef liver, on the other hand, wasn’t quite delicious.

Fasting was also mentioned. I strongly believe that fasting the simplest and most powerful way to improve health. But I bring a heavy bias because I sell fasting programs! haha.

Makro was again mentioned, this time as a place to get New Zealand grass-fed beef.

Also mentioned was a local wholesaler and butcher called “All About Beef“. We weren’t sure if the beef is grass-fed.

The Sunday morning Jing Jai (JJ) Market is a good shopping option (for happy chickens!).

I was told that I should stop buying canned organic coconut milk – I’m assuming because of the BPA in canned goods.

Pun Pun Restaurant and Organic Farm. These are now on my list of places to check out. The restaurant is in Chiang Mai and the farm is about an hour drive north.

Where do you want to meet?

Our space is running low at Basecamp so sadly I think that we may soon move to a bigger space. If you have any recommendations, please let me know!

What about you?

What are your thoughts and experiences with goat milk, breathwork, sleep, meditation, water, EMFs, and food?

What are your biohacking tips, tricks and questions?

Leave a comment and share below.

And join our biohackers meetup in Chiang Mai!