Health without the hack
Trendy, novel, and with the potential to leverage how we look, feel, and function, health hacks are attention grabbers. But, as the old adage goes, when a price tag is attached, “buyer beware!”, as it’s easy to get reeled-in by savvy sales marketing. Like being enticed to buy an expensive kitchen gadget to peel an orange, something you could just as easily do by hand, many health hacks are not as life-enhancing as you’re led to believe. A gadget to peel an orange–taking up counter space, dependent on power, needs cleaning–may be more trouble than it’s worth as it’s certainly not necessary and can make life more complicated.
With so many options—trackers, gadgets, wearables, devices, treatments, therapies, procedures, isolated and engineered supplements, and even pharmaceuticals to counter chronic disease—it’s hard to keep up and to do so may actually hamper health.
The “hustle” of health hacks is to use guilt, fear of missing out, and other manipulative marketing strategies to convince us it’s the best way to level-up our health. Sensational claims that sound too-good-to-be-true are often a tell-tale sign of the least validated health hacks.
Put them in their place
It’s not that a health hack can’t have merit, as an adjunct to foundational health or to establish baselines being examples, but becoming dependent on them overrides paying attention to the signals our bodies are sending. This creates a catch-22 as the less in tune we are with our bodies, the more we think we need health hacks. Promotion of health hacks as being essential or necessary should also raise eyebrows.
What if:
• you woke up tomorrow and lost access to them?
• overreliance has negative consequences?
• they are missing their mark?
• they become an obsession or addiction?
• they are unsustainable?
• they are dangerous or backfire?
Pharmacologist Myriam Merarchi, founder and CEO of the Swiss fertility and biological age testing company Beyond Genomix, sees a lot of “biohackers” wanting to test their telomeres, since telomere health is tightly correlated with aging. The ones with a “suitcase” full of supplements tend to have horrible results.
“You take 50 pills a day that are interfering with every metabolic pathway of your cells,” Merarchijective said. “Of course!”
Putting them in their place would be to use health hacks as an adjunct rather than an be-all and end-all. Their yardstick of worthiness should not be to replace what is foundational, but to complement it.
Well intended
Using Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) for general (vs medical ) health hacking is to better connect how we feel or perform with the level of glucose (sugar) in our blood. Although informing, it doesn’t paint a full picture as glucose levels are relative to multiple and varying systemic factors. Popular in the social media sphere (of late) is for wearers, of CGMs, to take a walk after dinner to bring down their post meal (post prandial) rise in blood sugar. Although the motive may be well intended, this is a good example of potentially bad (or at least unnecessary) advice.
It’s generally the norm for blood glucose to increase after a meal along with the body naturally shifting into a rest and digest (parasympathetic) mode–there’s a lot more going on here besides a shift in blood glucose. Taking a walk, specifically to counter a post meal rise in glucose (which has a purpose), is potentially trying to fix something that isn’t broken. Push too far and there may be repercussions in the other direction with low blood glucose spiking cortisol during the night and disrupting sleep. It’s not so much the uptick of glucose after a meal as it is the body’s management of it and if blood glucose is chronically elevated.
Paying attention to a marker in isolation, gives an isolated view.
Simply paying attention to how we’re feeling after a meal is also indicative of our blood glucose response. I argue that better use of the information (from CGMs and paying attention to our bodies) would be to consider altering the composition and quality of meals—address the reason, not the result. Real, whole, nutrient dense food gives the best response, of not just glucose, but of our overall physiology. Besides, I don’t think our ancestors took strolls after evening meals lest they become supper themselves!
Buyer be savvy
Within the hustle health hack realm, companies may hype their offerings as being superior to what is accessible in nature with the cold plunge market a case in point. Again, it’s all relative, their method may accentuate certain aspects, whereas a plunge in a frigid river would have a broader effect. We may choose a natural plunge or we may choose to do it as an indulgence at a spa, as a novel outing with friends, or for convenience. But, before taking the “plunge” with any health hack, keep in mind that our bodies have more experience with the natural origin of a health hack–health without the hack..
First and foremost
For the sake of living a more authentic life, let common sense prevail over the fear-of-missing-out.
Go camping. Prepare and practice for tough times. Be purposeful with physical activity (chop wood, turn a compost pile, walk to the store). Balance the unnatural (indoor lighting, controlled temperature, devices) with the natural. Eat real nutrient dense food!
Health hacks are not a replacement for what has long sustained us. Emphasize, first and foremost, what is foundational.
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Physiology, Glucose Metabolism
Longevity doctors are scrambling to get patients to stop taking flashy, expensive supplements