Some thoughts on my current biohacking

 

Aside from my perceived dissonance of the term "biohacking", I will reluctantly continue using it, until I find a better one.

Lately I have explored the avenue of the cardiovascular component of health, longevity and cognition.

In doing this, things I have modulated are, what type of fats I use in my foods and in what quantities.

I have also thought about post prandial lipemia responses and how to mitigate or optimise this.

But doing this in an investigative manner. I don't assume it is entirely bad, but it may well be given certain contexts. So this is an open endpoint for me as of yet.

I have paid some attention to the postprandial state, in energy, well being, cognitive performance.

In a way I have not concerned myself so much with the glycemic response, and ketones, fasting or postprandial. Although this is important and central biomarkers of metabolism. My concern has been more to focus on cardiovascular fitness, blood flow etc.

I have therefor chosen to somewhat reprioritize. I have not been focused on being highly ketogenic as before. Although I am still doing intermittent fasting 18:6 between approx. 9 am and 3 pm everyday.

And occasional shorter modified fasts of up to 3 days maybe every second or third month.

I don't fast as much and intensely as before, but I do think about my day to day nutrition, supplements and eating protocols everyday. I typically use my sleep metrics as important in making decisions of modifications to this. Sleep metrics also play in to my training and activity patterns throughout the day.

I have not engaged in cold water hormesis as much, aside from occasional cold showers or medium cold baths. I am a bit more gentle and moderate with my hormesis in general.

I have upped my meditation to about 20 minutes per day, 2 times a day.

Mostly because my daughter also got in to meditation habits and wants me to do this in the evening together. 

I have also started focus on my gut microbiom more again. Pendulums akkermansia supplement is included since yesterday. I'm also supplementing with some acidophilus yoghurt, bifidobacterium and pure HMOs. 

I try to strive for moderation and balance rather than extremes.

My breakfast is often a bit of a fasting mimicking, sort of to feed akkermansia and more plant-based.

My second and last meal of the day about 4-5 hours later typically includes more protein in the form of fish like salmon or shellfish, more seldom chicken and once in a while (every few months - some lamb).  

Fat sources are from: avocados, nuts, tahini, olive oil, olives, fish, omega3, mct-oil, coconut cream (1-4 tbl spoons), red palm cream (not so frequent), goat cheese (small pieces)

I am reducing saturated fats and the once I get is mostly mct. 

I notice a significant difference in HRV and RHR if I combine this with caloric moderation.

When I don't follow this it doesn't matter if I keep caloric intake moderated. 

I have in particular noted that I have to moderate meat, when I do eat lamb or chicken and the occasional inclusion of duck fat, this will in excess significantly reduce my HRV and RHR.

My interpretation is there is a postprandial lipemic response that is unfavourable to my cardiovascular system.

The interesting part is that I am now using a headband (Mendi) that measure the blood-flow and oxygenation to pre-frontal cortex and I can really see what improves or decrease this metric.

I have started with more cardio and also push ups. I think my body composition. well build neck and upperbody (also lower body well built), helps a lot with my supply of blood to the brain.

But I need to activate this by doing some pushups or hand stands as well as running/cardio more regulary.

This in conjunction with action packed cognitive activities works well for getting more blood flow to the brain. Playing music is great. Bach in particular. Playing video games like fort night or lumosity (Highway Hazard) also works well.

I have also looked at certain phytochemistry in my food and supplement protocols.

One thing is beet extract. Beets have been shown to improve blood flow, I've tried it and seen some improvements. I also include tomato, mostly for the lycopene (induces anti-cancer properties).

One more interesting compound is epigallatin from pomegranate. Together with the right gut flora, it synthesises Urilithin A - a molecule that assists in mitophagy and has shown promising results in various studies.

In my quest to get more akkermansia, I have temporarily removed NMN and walnuts.

Walnuts reduces akkermansia significantly according to a study I recently read.

NMN also reduces akkermansia.

I have also included more cranberry and reviewed my day to day foods to be more akkermansiagenic.

I will compile a table of this matrix as soon as I can and want to.

I am not yet convinced about tomatoes in my diet. I have noticed a bump in blood sugar doing this.

So I will rethink and review soon if I can't mitigate this with food timing and composition.

But I'm also not so worried about this bump since it is still well within range compared to references.

And the long term win might result in something way advantageous. So I will go on a bit and evaluate.

Akkermansia M. is connected with MS in some way, so it may be a good idea to keep an cauthious eye on this. I'm not worried, but I'd like to understand the connection better.

Also oxolobacter is anaerobic and I was high on that one too, like akkermansia M. 

I would like to retake the gut microbiom test to see if I still have the right flora to consume oxolates in my diet.

Contrary to belief (in some health communituies) oxolate foods are often healthy if you can tolerate it.

Chaga for instance. I've used. It is the most abundant source of oxolates, so should be taken with if you have a good population of oxolobacter formigenesis in you flora.

I have also been taking omega3 in the form of Mor- EPA and/or krill oil.

I am likely pretty well off on the omega3/omega6 ratio although I have not avoided omega-6 lately. I think

the health community have over demonized omega6. 

I'm not so concerned because the litterature goes against this and seems to in the cases I look at of my concerns, inidicate protective effects for neuroprotection and cardiovascular health.

I include tahini (1 teaspoon to 1 table spoon/day), and I have seen improvements in RHR and HRV.

It really doesn't serve me to listen to the health influencers out there that are extremely dogmatic and religious in their beliefs, to the degree that they are not so interested in the truth and to really achieve health honestly. Sometimes the ego comes before what is really true.

Although placebo is real and not to be dismissed, I want to choose something that actually works for me not works against me and combine that with a healthy dose of placebo rather than work upstream and engage in ego.

I think warning signes can be found in scaring messages and negativism, rather than empowering, positive outlook, based on joy and not on fear. Don't activate the nocebo effect. Activate the placebo effect together with something that is sustainable, enjoyable and gives you quality of life and well being.

You don't need to be extreme to enjoy a long and healthy life.

Balance is important.

Confidence is important.

So I low carb, but not extreme. I do include more carbs than many who do keto, because I see advantages in certain foods, plant foods in particular in my diet.

And I moderate my protein intake somewhat, but not to the extreme.

I still avoid sugar, junk food and refined carbs. But I do include some processed foods - I use a blender to create smoothies. I cook my foods. I use olive oil and mct oil and coconut cream in my foods. I don't see food processing as bad in itself. But I try to be mindful that these foods are easier to get excessive amounts of calories. So the have to be somewhat done in moderation like most things. 

(Even moderation should be done in moderation, in some cases extreme measures are needed to achieve a specific goal in a specific context, and that's also fine).

mct- may have some advantages for specific things, like olive oil. Coconut cream is just a taste thing for me. Knowing this I will just include it to achieve the taste I want and not more (as much as I can).

I will evaluate my health protocols by doing a Vo2Max test and some other tests including MyDNAge

in the near future.

Things are moving along quite good. 

There are some things want to improve though:

Better Vo2Max. Currently at 44.

Better cardiovascular fitness.

More energy.

To do this I need to up my cardio workout a bit. Not extreme, but more.

I also want to try urilithin A to see if I can get more energy to be able to recover faster and do a bit more exercise each week.

Still I don't want to overdo my exercise.

I want my focus to be on cognitive performance first.