7 Easy Immune Boosting and Weight Loss Biohacks
We are dramatically overweight, sabotaging our energy and mood, damaging our circulatory, gastrointestinal, nervous, respiratory, and urinary systems. We identify these five primary body systems in pathological COVID-19 features.
This most recent paper explores the relationship between obesity and adverse coronavirus outcomes. This means due to our current obesity epidemic, we have more than 4 out of 10 people who are “immune-compromised.”
While we need to further test the role of the human gut microbiome, it is increasingly clear obesity is a major factor. What are the 7 easiest and most meaningful biohacks we can use for rapid health optimization?
1) PROLONGED FASTING (INTERMITTENT FASTING)
Prolonged fasting or intermittent fasting is possibly the hottest trend over the last few years for easy weight management. The concept is rather simple, and this involves moving your breakfast time close to your dinner time.
Intermittent fasting is popular because of its emphasis on pure strategy, with no other changes. While there are various methods to do intermittent fasting, the 16/8 model is the most popular.
This involves eating within an 8-hour window, which becomes rather easy and repeatable for most people after the initial week. Besides profound benefits on mood, energy, and gut health, intermittent fasting allows one to take control of their insulin and human growth hormone levels, to promote optimal metabolism.
Studies identify intermittent fasting as a strategy to lose 3–8% body weight in as little as 3 to 24 weeks.
Cellular and tissue rejuvenation occurs with autophagy, removing damaged cellular parts. Autophagy activates from this by what is our AMPK signaling pathway mTOR inhibition.
This is a scientific way to say intermittent fasting is a sustainable daily practice, we can use to make our metabolism go to work for us. With intermittent fasting, we reverse the damaging effects of modern living immunosuppression.
Personally, I eat in a 4–6-hour eating window, as less than an 8-hour eating window creates even bigger benefits. There are various “bio-hacks”, to make this easy, which I will cover in a future post.
2) MAXIMIZING DIETARY FIBER INTAKE
About 95% of people consume far too little dietary fiber. Fiber is a powerful natural appetite suppressant. While providing prebiotics for our gut microbiome, consuming more dietary fiber, might be one secret of weight loss.
In protecting our guts epithelial barrier, fiber helps heal and protect the gut from a variety of degenerative and inflammatory diseases. A recent study tells us those with a greater variety of gut bacteria have lower levels of belly fat.
We are only just beginning to understand the power of the gut, as it is arguably the most underrated part of the human body. With surface space 100 times greater than the human skin and the home to 70% of our immune system and 90% of our serotonin production, we need to make taking care of the gut a top daily priority.
Dietary fiber feeds one hundred trillion microbes in our gut microbiome, which holds 150 times more unique genes, 3.3 million more than the human genome. Our gut synthesizes our essential vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and more.
In a study, inulin showed to be the most effective fiber for the reduction of belly fat. We recommend the average man consume 38 grams and the average woman 25 grams of dietary fiber daily.
We can easily achieve this with a plant-based or even Mediterranean-style diet and/or taking fiber supplements. Dietary fiber supplements are keto-friendly, so really there should be no barrier to adoption.
Daily fiber supplements are a staple for gut health, mood, energy metabolism, and weight management. Many find themselves in shock when seeing the impact of fiber on their blood panels.
3) BERBERINE WITH MEALS
One of the hot supplements over the past few years is berberine. Berberine is a bioactive plant extract, technically an alkaloid, we find in several plants including European barberry, goldenseal, goldthread, Oregon grape, Phellodendron, and tree turmeric.
People take berberine in capsule form for blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, and weight loss. It is so effective for metabolism and weight loss, it’s called by some, “the most effective natural compound available.”
Inside the cells of the body, it binds to targets and changes their function. The primary metabolic action of berberine is the activation of an enzyme inside cells called AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK).
Referred to as a “metabolic master switch”, we find this enzyme in the cells of various organs, including the brain, muscle, kidney, heart, and liver. Playing a major role in regulating metabolism, this enzyme also affects various other molecules inside cells, possibly even affecting genetic expression.
As berberine is a well-studied plant compound, recent studies have been focusing on how it performs compared to metformin, a popular diabetes, weight loss, and anti-aging drug.
And the studies, when comparing the two compounds, find similar efficacy between the natural plant alkaloid and its synthetic drug counterpart. As studies are showing berberine benefits for various conditions from depression to liver health to heart disease to blood sugar, it is an undeniable superstar in managing insulin response and boosting metabolism.
To increase absorption, ensure your food has a fat source and black pepper.
4) WALKING
This one should be an obvious one. And I will not go deep into this other than leaving just two tips. The first is when we think of exercise, we think it must be long and exhausting to derive any benefit.
This is actually not true. More data is proving that workouts over 50 minutes are counterproductive. In fact, a recent study highlights there is no tangible difference in weight loss benefits of a 30 versus a 60-minute walk.
The second tip is recently a study showed that a mere 30-minute walk delivers the same benefit on blood pressure as blood pressure medication. This is a common problem, and we can go into all the other benefits associated with daily walks, but you get it.
My personal workout stack is creatine, d-ribose, matcha, agmatine, ginkgo, and nicotine. I like to put my headset on and go.
5) COLD SHOWERS
Cold showers? This did not sound appealing to me either when I first heard about this. But the excellent news is they get rather easy and enjoyable to do.
As more and more people are integrating cold therapy into their routines, they are receiving a variety of benefits for engaging in this practice. Cold therapy or cold showers are proving to increase energy, lower stress response, improve immune response, increase willpower, and trigger weight loss.
How does taking a cold shower cause weight loss? As we were examining with caffeine intake, cold therapy increases our metabolic rate, and also stimulates brown adipose tissue, (BAT), or “brown fat.”
Brown fat is a fat tissue that generates energy by burning calories. A study shows men exposed to just a slightly cooler room in a 10-hour period experienced higher levels of brown fat and thus metabolism because of one exposure.
Cold showers can be an effective strategy for people looking to lose a few pounds, as we see in the Wim Hof studies. Again, like engaging in intermittent fasting, cold showers become rather easy with a few “bio-hacks”, and enjoyable.
6) CAFFEINATE
Who doesn’t love their coffee or tea? A recent study shows caffeine stimulates “brown fat”. Activation of these fat cells, as mentioned in cold showers, differ from white, or regular body fat cells, as the body uses them in heat generation.
Invariably, regular body fat cells store energy, otherwise known as “baby fat”, contributing to inflammation, insulin resistance, and more weight gain. With heat generation, brown fat also burns calories, as opposed to other types of fat, creating somewhat of a compensating or off-setting factor.
While this is only a preliminary study, others are showing liver protection benefits of coffee, which further implicates the role of caffeine in metabolism. This initial study shows just one cup of coffee as being sufficient to trigger the brown fat activation effect.
Other studies support the use of 2 to 4 cups per day as optimal. We will need future studies to determine the optimal dose. Other than gut health supplements, caffeine, and berberine, nothing else in my experience and conclusion for metabolism does much of anything.
I enjoy a cold brew coffee, with stevia and coconut milk, and MCT oil in the morning, and then 3 iced matcha teas with stevia throughout the day.
7) INFRARED SAUNAS
You probably noticed the weird photo of the guy in the space box. This is an infrared light sauna. These home devices have become extremely affordable.
The medical uses of infrared sauna include neural stimulation, anti-aging skin effects, antitumor actions, brain neuroprotection treatment for stroke, TBI, and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
There is also evidence for cardiovascular, immune, and other chronic conditions. Most importantly, we believe infrared treatment may improve skeletal muscle insulin resistance, which means it can improve blood sugar metabolism. Many believe infrared saunas assist in recovery and detoxification, as more studies are ongoing.
The future is bright for infrared treatments, as we can expect to see infrared belts and other various inventions allowing for more targeted approaches to weight loss.
Much like cold therapy, infrared saunas may activate brown fat, thus accelerating metabolism and weight loss. Until then, lowering inflammation will always remain a top target. And doing these sessions, do feel really good.
Your Friend in Health
Mark Stein
