Biohacking Guide: Supplements and Techniques

Maurice Beer M.D.
April 26th, 2021 · 5 min read
Medically Verified
Biohacking has been on the tip of what seems like everyone’s tongue over the past year, but what exactly is it and how do you achieve it? Although the word or ideaname can make it sound intimidating, becoming a “real” bio-hacker does not need to be a stressful or complicated journey for those that strive to improve their health in this way. Stick with us to learn the science behind biohacking, how to simply and easily start incorporating it into your lifestyle, and how to properly measure the positive impact it can have on your body.
Key takeaways

What is Biohacking?

Biohacking is the art of using science and biology to manipulate and upgrade your mind, body, and life. If you are someone who incorporates superfoods and supplements into your routine, you are on the path to biohacking without even knowing it. These little additions to your diet and lifestyle can help enhance your health and clear your mind; labeling you with the title of biohacker.
Biohacking consists of making small, consistent diet and lifestyle changes in order to create improvements in your health and wellbeing. 

How to Easily Biohack at Home

In order to stay consistent and create sustainable lifestyle changes for yourself, having an at-home biohacking routine is ideal. Here are some simple ways to incorporate the biohacking techniques at home.

Drink Caffeine

Caffeine is the most popular productivity booster known world-wide. If you aren’t already one of the millions of people who enjoy their daily cup of Joe or hot steeped tea every morning, then jump on this biohacking bandwagon! Never quite acquired a taste for coffee or tea? No worries - snack on a small piece of caffeinated food like dark chocolate to deliver the same results. 
If you do enjoy a good cup of coffee, try adding an extra biohacking twist by upgrading your coffee to a bulletproof. This cup of coffee includes medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) oil, that are known as energy boosters and fat burning tools (1). You can add in straight MCT oil, or use coconut oil which has MCT within it, and a small slab of butter (preferably organic, grass-fed). Adding these fats to your coffee will help you avoid those quick jitters that can come with drinking caffeine, and elongate the energy created from the caffeine boost. 

Intermittent Fasting

This type of dieting method involves being very strategic with your eating window, giving yourself a restricted time to eat and then fasting for an extended period until the next designated time to eat. For example, a popular time frame to eat for those that practice this is to allow food intake from noon to 8:00 p.m. and then fasting until noon the next day. 
When your body is in a fasted state, it’s allowed to rest. This is where your body then begins to experience a number of health benefits such as:
  • Increasing levels of growth hormones
  • Reducing LDL cholesterol
  • Lowering insulin levels so that your body can learn to burn fat more effectively
  • Allowing your cells the time they need to repair damaged tissues
  • Improving cognitive function
  • Lowering inflammation within the body
Of course making sure to eat a diet that is rich in whole foods is ideal to maximize these efforts and ensure your body is being fed what it needs to thrive and live optimally. If you are unsure as to whether or not you are providing your body with the right nutrients, there are at-home tests you can easily take to see where your nutrient levels are at. A diet that is rich in plant fiber is going to provide your body with a wide range of vitamins and minerals in order to function at its highest capacity!

Create a Sleep Schedule

Not getting enough sleep can affect our mental and physical health on all levels. It creates an imbalance of our blood sugar levels, which messes with our hormone production. Things like cortisol, melatonin, and our hunger hormones all rely on a steady production in order to stay at their optimal levels. When the production of these hormones are unsteady, that’s when chronic health issues can arise. 
Making sure to go to bed and waking up at the same time every day will get your body in a routine to notice triggers that will naturally make you tired at night and wake you up on your own in the morning. Try to avoid “sleeping in” on the weekends and continue to get up at the same time every day. A fixed wake up time helps to build a desire for wanting to sleep throughout the day. If you shorten this window by allowing yourself to sleep longer in the morning on the weekends, it will make it harder for you to fall asleep the next night, creating a spiral effect. 
Another tip for creating a good sleep schedule is to avoid alcoholic consumption later in the evening if you are wanting to regulate your sleep pattern. Alcohol disrupts your sleeping pattern and brain waves that are meant to leave you feeling refreshed in the morning. That glass of wine with dinner may relax your body and you feel more sleepy in the moment, but once it wears off, you are likely to wake up and have a harder time falling back asleep (2).

Upleveling Your Biohacking Techniques

If you are looking at the at-home list of biohacking tools and find that you already do a lot of those things, then there are some other techniques you can start incorporating into your routine that will take you to that next level of health awareness.

Vitamins and Supplements

Going along with the premise of getting your nutrient levels tested, making sure you are getting in the right amount of vitamins and minerals is essential when looking to improve your health and quality of life. Some common supplements that are taken for frequent nutrient deficiencies include:
  • Choline
  • Krill Oil (used for high cholesterol/blood pressure, etc.)
  • Magnesium
  • Turmeric (used for chronic inflammation)
  • Vitamin D

Getting Started

Like mentioned multiple times throughout this guide, it is recommended that when you are looking to improve your health and increase your quality of life, you need to first understand your body’s specific needs and address them to start. You don’t want to begin implementing a whole bunch of new supplements, routines, or lifestyle hacks within your body without first understanding what it is that your body needs to make sure it can handle these hacks. So the first step is learning about your body and what it can handle in this moment. Maybe you want to start by intermittent fasting a few days a week and see how you feel on that type of diet. However, you may need to get your hormones checked first in order to confirm that it would be beneficial to your body versus damaging. Or maybe you want to try a bulletproof coffee instead of your herbal tea in order to give you a little more sustained energy throughout your day. You may want to get your cholesterol levels checked first in order to determine if the added fats to your diet will make a positive impact on your body. Allow Base to help you select your health goals, test your body in each of the necessary categories, and then create a plan in order to easily and sustainably reach these goals.
Biohacking is all about trial and error; finding what works for your body. So starting with a slow and personalised approach is best when looking to level up your health awareness.
Sources
  1. Masood, W. (2020, December 14). Ketogenic Diet. Retrieved February 26, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499830/ 
  2. 6 steps to better sleep. (2020, April 17). Retrieved March 01, 2021, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/art-20048379?pg=1

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