Bio-Hacking Yourself

Raven
Aug 13
9 min read

We don’t have superpowers, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be our most optimal selves. According to Medical News Today, bio-hacking is a broad term for nonspecific lifestyle self-improvement. It may involve making incremental changes to one’s body, diet, and lifestyle to improve one’s health and well-being. Biohacking ranges from efforts to improve brain function to faster weight loss. It's not a bypass for exercising and/or proper nutrition.

Where To Start

If you are interested in bio-hacking yourself, you need to be willing to follow a schedule, track your nutrition and exercise, monitor yourself, and create/track goals. If you are willing to do that, then the best start points are:

Schedule a Comprehensive Health Profile (MEN Link) (WOMEN Link) through Quest Labs for $385. This will give you a deep insight to your own body via blood panel. If you are low in a vitamin, it will tell you. If you have high cholesterol, it will tell you. If your thyroid is out of whack, it will tell you.
- If you get this done and have a hard time figuring out what information it is providing to you, please email Raven (raven@herocore.online) and I can help walk you through it. You can also make an appointment with a doctor to review your data.
Start tracking your food and exercise daily. I like using MyFitnessPal, but you can use whatever is convenient for you. You should know what macronutrients (protein, fat, carbohydrates) are. For a fat loss and muscle building diet, a common macro breakdown is 40% protein, 20% fat, 40% carbohydrates. Adjust as needed.
Have a bioimpedance test done. This is usually something you can have done at the gym. This will give you data on yourself regarding lean body mass, body fat, basal metabolic rate (minimum calories you must consume per day to remain constant), and more.
Know the following:
- Your basal metabolic rate (BMR)
- Your starting body fat percentage
- Your starting lean body mass
- Your maximum heart rate (MHR). 220 - [your age] = MHR
- Your target heart rate. This is a range of 50-70% of MHR. MHR x 0.5 = A, MHR x 0.7 = B. A to B is your range for target heart rate during cardio.

Here's how the information is going to come at you:

Technology
Muscle Building Bio-Hacking
Fat Loss Bio-Hacking
Brain Power Bio-Hacking
Bio Therapy
Advanced Bio-Hacking
Other Supplements for Bio-Hacking

Technology

With something referred to as "bio-hacking" you should expect to have some sort of technology involved.

Bioimpedance weight scale - You can pick up, for relatively cheap, a bioimpedance weight scale for use at home. The downside to the home models is that they easily fall out of calibration, BUT it may be more convenient and money-wise to regularly use a home model with a monthly check with a professional test done at the gym or doctor. Often you can find home models that connect to your phone so you can track your data.
Smart watch - Smart watches that can monitor heart rate, activity, etc are great, unless you don’t like to wear a watch when you workout. This is one popular way to track bio data, especially when it comes to cardio and hitting your target heart rate range.
Useful Apps - You can find fitness and nutrition tracking apps all over the place. I prefer MyFitnessPal, but go with whatever you find useful. What do I use? I have MyFitnessPal (mostly for nutrition tracking), my gyms app (lets me in, has my workouts programmed in, etc), and I also use the RP Strength app (which requires a monthly payment).
Microsoft Suite or Google Docs - You might want to track your data in Excel or Google Spreadsheets. It helps keeping a list of any supplements and plans in Word or Google Docs. You can track your progress, create goals, and more. You can also easily hand this sort of data over to a doctor, if you have one you’re working with.
CRISPR - This is super specialized software that allows scientists to alter DNA sequences within living organisms. It's used for gene therapy, disease research, DNA diagnostics, and for agricultural purposes. CRISPR Renegades are renegade scientists who disregards ethical guidelines or regulations when using CRISPR - testing upon themselves, others, animals, and plants.
- Could this give you the strength of a lion? No. Could it give you bioluminescence ability like a jellyfish? Theoretically. It's been done successfully with other biological organisms.

Muscle Building Bio-Hacking

In order to build muscle, you will need: resistance training with progressive overload, adequate protein intake, rest and recovery time, and consistency.

Resistance training with progressive overload is weightlifting and exercising that challenge your muscles with a gradual increase of the intensity or load over time. In simple terms, lift heavy things until they don't seem that heavy, then add a little extra weight - repeat.

Adequate protein for muscle growth is usually 1.5-2g/lb of body weight with 4-6 meals a day that have the protein amount roughly the same. Example: If you weigh 200lbs, you'll want to consume 300-400g protein daily. If you opt for 4 meals a day, you'll want each meal to have 75-100g protein.

Rest and recovery are important factors. Your muscle groups need time to recover and your entire being needs ample rest time. The general rule of thumb is 1) don't work the same muscle group two days in a row and 2) allow for one or two rest days during the week. You want an optimal amount of sleep for yourself, which can vary person to person. Try not to oversleep or undersleep to much, even on rest days.

Creatine

Dose: 5g daily

Creatine helps muscle cells produce more energy, supports muscle function and growth, helps improve performance, and can help increase phosphocreatine in your brain to improve brain function.

High Quality Protein

There is a scale for protein and its based on the evaluation of protein sources and their amino acid content and digestibility: Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS) and Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score (DIAAS). The goal is to aim for a score of 90% or higher. This means: wheat, soy, pea, whey protein concentrate, whey protein isolate, chicken, beef, eggs, fish, and milk. Everything else is sub-par, meaning you aren't getting all the aminos that your body needs. Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAAS) help your body break down food, grow, and repair body tissue. They are essential for muscle growth and fat loss. For convenience, I have included a basic DIAAS chart below. It does not include fish, but fish and shellfish are usually just over 100.

Fat Loss Bio-Hacking

Keep in mind that the following supplements only enhance the fat burn caused by your diet and exercise. In order to burn fat, you will want to have a high protein diet (1g/lb of bodyweight) with 4-6 meals a day that have the protein amount roughly the same. You'll also want a 400-800 calorie deficit for optimal fat loss.

Example: If you weigh 200lbs, you will want to consume 200g protein a day. If you opt for 4 meals a day, then each meal should have roughly 50g protein.

Berberine

Dose: 500mg with 3 meals a day (yes, for a total of 1500mg per day) for 12+ weeks

Berberine helps with blood sugar management, weight management (affects metabolism and suppresses appetite), can help lower LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, can help strengthen the heartbeat, can help balance gut bacteria, can help improve PCOS in women, is anti-inflammatory, an antioxidant, has anticancer properties, and may support brain and liver health. If you take any regular medications, check with your doctor before taking berberine since it can interact with some meds. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, avoid berberine.

Green Tea + Caffeine

Dose:~300mg Green Tea, 200mg Caffeine, taken in the morning for 8-12 weeks

Green tea and caffeine works together as a natural thermogenic fat burner and as a mild appetite suppressor. You can take this for quite a while, but give your body a 2-3 week break between rounds.

Capsaicin

Dose: ~2mg with each meal for 4-12 weeks

Capsaicinoids make spicy food spicy. It can act as a thermogenic and act as a mild appetite suppressant. Its very common to find capsaicin with other things like cinnamon, turmeric curcumin, and ginger. You may also see it listed as cayenne pepper or some other form of pepper - which is usually from where it is derived in nature.

Brain Power Bio-Hacking

Nootropics and adaptogens are often the driving factors behind brain power bio-hacking. These affect the neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to adapt and change over time through new neural connections. There are other methods, but these are two great basic ways to start.

Nootropics

Nootropics are drugs and supplements that affect the way your brain functions. It includes stimulants, chemical compounds, and plant-based supplements. Stimulants are designed to keep your brain activity going which means you are generally awake. Chemical compounds can be designed for a variety of purposes, but often are designed to help with memory and brain function. Plant-based nootropics can provide euphoric effects, stimulant effects, memory boosts, and brain function boosts.

Popular nootropics are:

Caffeine (stimulant)
ADHD drugs (stimulants; prescription only)
DMAE (chemical compound; cognitive function, memory, anti-aging, mood/well-being, energy and athletic performance)
Vinpocetine (chemical compound; memory, cognitive function)
L-theanine (plant-based; memory, cognitive function)
Bacopa monnieri (plant-based; memory, increased learning, cognitive function)
Gotu Kola (plant-based; cognitive function)

Adaptogens

Adaptogens are plants and mushrooms that help you respond to stress, fatigue, anxiety, and promote well-being.

Popular adaptogens are:

American ginseng
Ashwagandha
Asian ginseng
Eleuthero
Rhodiola
Maga
Licorice
Chaga
Cordyceps
Lion's Mane
Reishi

Bio Therapy

Bio therapy is physical application upon the body for amplified results such as faster recovery, anti-aging, increased blood flow, pain reduction, and relaxing. Your body may also adapt to certain bio therapy resulting in something similar to super abilities, such as extreme cold functionality like Wim Hof.

Cold Therapy

Cold therapy utilizes cold water, ice packs, snow, or other freezing methods. Common applications include managing muscle pain, sprains, swelling after soft tissue damage or surgery, and aiding recovery in athletes following exercise. A common method is an ice bath after a vigorous workout. Start by submerging your body (not your head) for 30 seconds. You can gradually increase your time.

Hot Therapy

Hot therapy utilizes saunas, sunlight, hot towels, steam rooms, and other thermal methods. By increasing the temperature of the skin/soft tissue, the blood flow increases by vasodilatation. The metabolic rate and the tissue extensibility will also increase. Heat increases oxygen uptake and accelerates tissue healing, it also increases the activity of destructive enzymes, such as collagenase, and increases the catabolic rate.

Red Light Therapy

Red light therapy (RLT) is a treatment that uses low levels of red light to reportedly improve skin appearance, stimulate collagen production, increase fibroblast production, increase blood circulation, reduce inflammation, improve wound healing, and reduce acne.

Massage

Massage can help reduce inflammation, reduce lactic acid build up in muscles, improve lymphatic drainage, increase relaxation, improve energy flow, relieve pain and stiffness, improve mood, and more. There are a lot of different types of massage, so its best to discuss modalities and benefits with a licensed masseuse.

Compression Therapy

Compression therapy involves applying controlled pressure to the limbs, typically the legs, to improve blood and lymphatic fluid circulation, reduce swelling, and manage various medical conditions.

Vibroacoustic Therapy (VAT)

Uses low-frequency sound vibrations to promote healing, relaxation, reduce pain, improve circulation, and enhance cellular repair.

Exercise with Oxygen Therapy (EWOT)

Combines exercise with controlled oxygen intake to boost oxygen delivery to muscles, speeding up recovery and reducing inflammation.

Advanced Bio-Hacking

Advanced bio-hacking is predominately nutrigenomics and human augmentation. Nutrigenomics is the study of how food and your genes interact. Human augmentation is often done by people who refer to themselves as "grinders" and is focused on implants and tech to perform body modifications.

Nutrigenomics

Nutrigenomics can offer you a more customized nutrition plan that optimizes your health by working closer with your genes, instead of with a generic plan designed for a million people. If you are genetically predisposed to diabetes or cardiovascular disease, or something like that, you don't want to eat foods that promote that. Your body may also be sensitive to certain types of foods or certain types of macronutrients.

If you're interested in exploring this, here is some further reading you can do. For most people this is pretty advanced.

Grinders

When it comes to human augmentation there are 3 main categories: replication, supplemental, and exceeding.

Replication is reproducing something pre-existing like prosthetics, bioprinting organic tissues, cochlear implants to restore hearing, etc.

Supplemental is taking something that humans can do and adding tech to make it better, which includes exoskeletons, brain-computer interfaces (BCI) like Elon Musk's Neuralink, earbuds that instantly translate language, augmented glasses, faster healing, etc.

Exceeding is producing tech that allows a human to exceed normal human limits with things like hoverboards, invisibility cloaks, nanobots, artificial blood, night vision, life extension, etc.

Bio-Hacking Yourself

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