Holistic healing

The Basics Of Biohacking

Embrace this trend and become the best version of yourself

Biohacking is becoming one of the biggest health buzzwords of 2018 – if you haven’t heard about it yet, you certainly will soon. So what exactly is it and why is it growing in popularity now?

Biohacking is the process of making changes to your lifestyle in order to ‘hack’ your body’s biology and feel at your personal best. It appeals to the idea that everything we put into our bodies – foods, thoughts and movement, can affect our behaviour. Biohacking yourself will boost your energy levels, allows you to feel more productive and become the best possible version of yourself.

Nutritionist Kim Pearson (kim-pearson.com) told us: “Biohacking involves making positive changes to your diet and lifestyle in order to optimise your body’s biological processes, promoting a state of health and wellbeing. Simple approaches to biohacking may involve heightening our nutrition through diet and supplementation, optimising hydration, getting good sleep and meditating regularly.

“More advanced biohacking strategies can involve running tests in order to ‘hack’ your health in a targeted way. Tests may look to identify nutrient deficiencies, highlight hormonal imbalances or investigate your gut health. Many of these approaches are what nutritionists and functional medicine doctors have been using for years! However, there has been a rise in ‘at home’ and DIY offerings. Devices and apps are now available which allow you to monitor you blood sugar level, track your monthly cycle and assess your stress levels.”

Hacking your health can be as easy as starting your day right. Swap checking your email first thing and replace it with a 10-minute meditating, reflection session. Tracking your health is another way you can do it – document how much water you drink, how much time you set aside for leisure, what you eat and how much sleep you get so you can see what works best for you. Another way to biohack yourself could be by blocking out blue light emitted from your phone, laptop or TV as this can trick your brain into thinking it’s still daytime and affect your sleep. If you don’t want to part from your devices, use the night shift mode on iphone and look for laptop software to reduce blue light rays.

If attempting to biohack yourself, we recommend steering clear of the extreme forms of biohacking gaining popularity in Silicon Valley – the healthy way is always the best way!