Ulrike Bartholomäus and Nathan Rennolds , Business Insider Deutschland Feb 1, 2022, 12:48 PM
This article is a repost which originally appeared on BUSINESS INSIDER
Edited for content.
Intermittent fasting may improve blood fat levels, and can lower blood pressure.
‧ Biohacking is a US sports trend. It involves trying to hack your body to look and feel younger.
‧ Intermittent fasting, eating less meat, and HIIT are some of the tools used.
‧ These work to improve blood lipid levels, lower blood pressure, and improve sleep.
The dream of eternal youth is as old as mankind, but it seems some researchers are one step closer to figuring out how to slow the ageing process.
Even 70- to 77-year-olds can lower their mortality with high-intensity interval training (HIIT), a Norwegian study has found.
In the study, researchers at the University of Trondheim compared the exercise activities of 1,567 people, who averaged 72 years of age, over a five-year period.
Those who completed the HIIT (“high intensity interval training”) program outperformed the other two groups, who did moderate exercise or normal sports at a significantly lower heart rate.
Biohackers, who follow a trend originating in the US, are using “hacks” to try and “turn back” their biological clocks.
One of the most prominent biohackers is Silicon Valley entrepreneur David Asprey. He weighed around 309 lbs as a 26-year-old because his diet was centered around pizza, chips, and Coca-Cola. His arteries were as old as his grandfather’s.
“I decided to radically change my life because if I hadn’t, I would have dropped dead soon enough,” recalled Asprey.
That’s when he started trying everything possible to rejuvenate his body and brain cells.
“The first thing I do is skip my breakfast and just drink my Bulletproof coffee, which is an organic coffee that has a little ghee mixed in, as well as a little MCT oil,” he explained.
The clarified butter, which is all ghee is, suppresses the feeling of hunger, as does the caffeine. The MCT oil is based on coconut oil and contains saturated fats called caprylic and capric acids.
“They help the body create important fasting substances called ketone bodies. They dispose of excess cellular waste during the morning fasting period,” Asprey said.
Max Gotzler is a well-known German biohacker. His book, “Der tägliche Biohacker” (The Daily Biohacker), published in October, promises to teach you “how to be more efficient, healthier, more resilient, more balanced, and more productive every day in small steps.”
If only it were that simple.
“Intermittent fasting improves blood fat levels”
Renowned aging researcher David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School, who’s been studying longevity genes for decades, confirmed that skipping breakfast or dinner — intermittent fasting — can rejuvenate us. That’s because the temporary starvation changes our metabolism — instead of sugar, we burn fat, disposing of useless cellular waste. In this cleansing phase, we get rid of inflammatory cells, for example, which can do great damage to our bodies.
“Studies show that intermittent fasting improves blood fat levels, and can lower blood pressure,” said Berlin cardiologist and general practitioner Natascha Hess.
“Especially when combined with exercise,” she added.
Fasting rejuvenates blood vessels in 95% of all cases.
“However, those who have a genetic lipid metabolism disorder are dependent on medication in addition to lifestyle changes,” Hess said.
So biohacking doesn’t always work.
“Those who don’t sleep enough suffer from more pain”
Biohackers also focus on improving sleep. To do this, they use watches and fitness bands with apps — or wearables — that record sleep phases. A popular example is the Oura Ring.
Using small sensors on the inside, the ring measures sleep phases in a similar way to fitness bracelets. With the help of an app on your smartphone, you can check how many deep sleep and REM sleep phases you have gone through. REM sleep is the time during which we emotionally process the experiences of the day and store them in our memory.
“If you have too few deep sleep or REM sleep phases, you can only renew your cells insufficiently. You age faster,” said Berlin orthopedist, sports physician, and pain specialist Christopher Topar, who’s been testing the Oura ring for a few months.
“60% of my pain patients say they sleep badly. Those who don’t sleep enough suffer from more pain,” he said.
Knowing which apps, smart fitness watches, or wearables his patients can use to improve their sleep is part of his holistic approach.
In recent years, scientists have discovered how ill lack of sleep can make us. It’s not just daily exhaustion we struggle with; poor sleep increases the risk of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. Headaches and depression also occur when we sleep too little or too poorly.
Not everyone is going to improve their sleep by wearing a fitness bracelet, watch, or ring to track their sleep stages.
“However, such gadgets help us find out why we sleep poorly, wake up repeatedly at night, or wake up too early in the morning,” Topar said.
Some people may have eaten too late, others may be sleeping badly due to too much alcohol or television.
It’s also known that reading on a smartphone or tablet suppresses the release of the hormone melatonin, which the body normally releases in the evening and is supposed to make us tired, due to the blue light that these devices emit. This would also explain why so many children who play games with a computer or tablet until the evening suffer from trouble falling asleep.
Nutrition plays a key role
Another important part of the biohacker lifestyle is nutrition. They advise eating less red and processed meats.
David Sinclair believes your plate should look colorful with yellow, red, or green vegetables rich in phytochemicals called polyphenols.
“These substances inhibit the growth of inflammatory and cancer cells,” said the Harvard professor.
Biohackers have also been known to use some controversial methods.
David Asprey, for example, had his body’s own stem cells transplanted into other parts of his body, including his sex organs.
You can read about his biohacks in the book “Super Human: The Bulletproof Plan to Age Backward and Maybe Even Live Forever.”
This is just as unadvisable as overdoing diet, exercise, and sleep control.
“Our health should be at the center of our lives, but controlling it should not rule us,” said cardiologist Hess. But she advises a bit of self-measurement using apps for many of her patients.
“You’re often surprised how many calories are in a ‘small snack’ and that it takes half an hour of exercise to burn them off again.”
Relaxation is another important factor in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and it’s often overlooked. If we’ve had a particularly stressful day, it’s important to tell our body that it’s allowed to relax in the evening. Doing this should stop the release of the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol, allowing the body and mind to properly rest.
