Biohacking Social #7 – Biohackers Chiang Mai
During the Biohackers Chiang Mai Biohacking Social, we touched on a LOT of different biohacking topics during our meetup, from fasting (to cure just about everything?!) to power lifting, 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
Here are some of the things we discussed:
[+] How can fasting solve every health issue you may encounter?
[+] How do you biohack your fast?
[+] What are the trendiest diets?
[+] How do you biohack your fitness?
[+] How about more biohacking resources?
How can fasting solve every health issue you may encounter?
What if I told you that fasting helps kidney function, Alzheimer’s, stroke, blood pressure, hepatitis C, arthritis, sexual performance, PMS ,PCOS, endometriosis, eczema, strength and longevity?
Would you believe it?
During our biohacking social, the topic of fasting dominated the conversation. One of our members pulled off 20 hours of dry fasting and then went much longer into a multiple day fast. He shared his experience and our fasting expert (who is nearing 30 years of fasting experience for health!) shared the many ways he’s seen fasting benefit him and others.
I scribbled some notes as the various topics came up. And now I want to present some of the evidence to refute and support these claims… *
Although I’ve been researching fasting for the past several years, I haven’t really looked into some of these topics. Thus I did some quick research.
It seems that water fasting may actually decrease kidney function during the fast. [ref]
[Various forms of fasting can] improve functional outcome in experimental models of a wide range of age-related disorders including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancers and neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease Parkinson’s disease and stroke. [ref]
As for hepatitis, a Google search warns people with hepatitis B of the potential dangers of lowering the immune system during a fast. For hepatitis C, on the other hand, this article describes that fasting can suppress the hep C virus.
For sexual performance and strength, fasting can be both beneficial and detrimental. During fasting (after a certain amount of time), the body conserves energy and thus often lowers sexual desire (libido). Strength may also decrease during a fast. However, when people break a fast, they have reported an increase in growth hormone, testosterone, libido and strength – above the levels BEFORE the fast!
Fasting has been widely reported to help with skin issues, including eczema. [ref]
I think that covers most of it. As you can see, fasting has a wide range of benefits. Be sure to check out my 21 surprising benefits of fasting – if you haven’t already.
* Disclaimer: I sell an (AMAZING!) fasting program, the Master Faster challenge – just in case you want to learn and experience the benefits for yourself.
How to biohack your fast?
When you fasting does it mean you just drink water? Nothing else? What about other foods, drinks, and supplements?
This is where biohacking your fast comes in…
Water is key. While fasting (and not fasting!) be sure to drink high quality water – unless you’re dry fasting, that is.
Coconut oil for health. Coconut oil has been shown to improve cognitive health and reduce dementia. It also can help with fasting by ramping up fat burning and ketosis.
Potassium. We may lose potassium during a fast so supplementing with potassium via electrolytes and high quality salts can help.
Niacin. I’ve heard of using niacin along with sauna for its detox benefits. The pros and cons of niacin in the literature is mixed. Some say it’s bad while others say it can help with many bio-markers thus boosting the benefits of fasting. I’ll let you do your own research and decide for yourself on this one.
What are the trendiest diets?
Keto. Of course the ketogenic diet is all the rage these days because of the benefits of severely restricting carbohydrates. I think there’s a lot of truth. However, I don’t think it’s for everyone and I’m skeptical that it can be a long-term solution for health.
That is, people with serious health issues like type 2 diabetes can greatly benefit from keto. However, people who are relatively healthy probably don’t need it and, in fact, can do some damage to the body (by way of hormonal imbalances) if chronically followed for too long.
A better, more balanced approach (in my opinion) would be to cycle in and out of ketosis.
Carnivore. Then there’s the carnivore diet. Similar to keto, I think this can be a great way to clean up some health issues. By restricting your diet, you will inevitably be removing things that are harmful and this can make you feel and perform better.
However, I’m skeptical that it can be maintained chronically for a long period of time.
How do you biohack your fitness?
What is HIT / HIIT? It’s popular these days because you can potentially get more benefit from these exercises in a shorter amount of time!
The definition for this varies. HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. HIT simply stands for High Intensity Training. To me, they’re basically the same thing. I like HIT because it’s easier to remember.
The mechanism of the benefit is increased mitochondrial biogenesis, a fancy way of saying that your cells (and, more specifically, their energy) will grow.
Rather than going into the dirty details of HIT, I’ll save you some time and effort and give you 7 Simple Workouts for Strength & Longevity.
What is power lifting? I want to answer this question because we had a couple of power lifters at our meetup and it seems there was some confusion as to what that means.
Power lifting is often confused with body building because they both involve building muscle. However, the big difference is that power lifters are more focused on building strength; while body builders are more focused on aesthetics.
I think of power lifting as the much healthier option for various reasons. However, bigger muscles are not always such a good thing and is actually linked to a shorter life expectancy.
Ben Greenfield does a good job of summarizing “Why Bigger Muscles Aren’t Better“.
How about more biohacking resources?
A lot of resources were mentioned. Here are some links in case you want to learn more:
NAGALASE TESTING – WHAT IS NAGALASE AND WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT IT?
The Tao of Health, Sex, and Longevity
What is Qi Gong?(And How You Can Start Practicing Today)
What is biphasic and polyphasic sleep?
Nootropics: What Are They, and Do They Work?
Cultural Creatives and the Emerging Planetary Wisdom Culture
What about you?
What are your thoughts and experiences with fasting, diets, fitness and biohacking?
What are your biohacking tips, tricks and questions?
Leave a comment and share below.
And join our biohackers meetup in Chiang Mai!
