Modern health optimization is about extreme polarities.
Youâre either carnivore or vegan. Nature-based or CRISPR enthusiast. Sunphobic, or sun gazer.
Both appear to have merit.
But hereâs the thingâŠ
The truth is far simpler.
The secret to perfect health?
Blending empirical modern science with timeless ancient wisdom.
Today, weâre surrounded by the paradigm of modern Western medicine. We never learned age-old healing sciences. These systems were methodically tested, refined, and passed down through millennia.
Cultures around the world independently came to the same conclusions of the highest impact health optimization practices. Study the right ancestral medicines, and youâll discover an easier and better world of prevention. These bioharmonic tips, routines, and practices far surpass biohacking to provide better, longer-lasting results. Helping you look, feel, and perform at a level beyond your imagination.
Vitalist Wisdom Connects Biology
Contemporary science attempts to understand the natural world via reductionism and simplification.
The cognitively-pleasing goal is to attribute an effect to one single cause. Or, in some cases, a few causes.
Biology and life, however, donât perfectly fit this model.
Humans are cybernetic systems (systems of systems). Every change affects the entire body, whether itâs observed. For example, modern medicine is slowly uncovering the intricate links throughout the body:
- Mind to body to gut
- Heart to brain
- Teeth to nerves
- Digestion to skin
- Pain in one place to a seemingly unrelated âupstreamâ cause
- Hormones to everything
- Emotional states to our future situations
One primary reason for this lies in unobservable forces. Weâre stuck trying to perceive things with our senses and our current (limited) scientific instruments. Yet the inability to measure does not indicate non-existence.
For example, a nuclear bomb would have seemed like dark wizardry 200 years ago. After understanding the atom, the outcome made sense.
Vitalism is a branch of science that explains life as the sum total of oneâs bioindividual forces. Change these energetics, and the life visible to our senses changes.
Perhaps one day instrumentation will catch up, and weâll be able to quantify these forces. Until then, this concept is a useful heuristic to understand the non-physical scaffolding behind matter. Allowing us to create lasting optimal health at the root level.
Vitalism is about recognizing (and positively influencing) the deep connections between things.
Powerful Proven Bioharmonic Rituals & Tips
Bioharmony is the process of amplifying the bodyâs innate intelligence and (overlooked) regenerative capabilities.
Following this flow of âvital life forceâ.
Most of us implement some forms of vitalism intuitively:
- Coffee and other morning cortisol stimulation
- Using expectorants to improve the efficiency of coughing
- Taking nervines and other tranquilizing compounds at night
- Potentiating a fever with blankets, sauna, and hot showers to âburn out the infectionâ and improve circulation
Weâve also forgotten many potent practices.
Iâll share some key habits, tips, and vitalistic philosophies you can use to upgrade the quality of your life.
Biochemical individuality
Every human is vastly electromagnetobiochemically unique.
Roger Williams nicely documents the tremendous variability between humans (even family members) in his book aptly titled, Biochemical Individuality. Basically, no one fits into the definition of an average human.
Whether you believe itâs your specific life force signature or a mashup of DNA/micro-RNA/exosomes/etc, biochemical individuality governs your existence. This explains the abysmal failure of cookie-cutter diets and universal (yet narrowed) approaches to health.
Food is information. Your therapeutic information is different from that of others.
Instead, vitalists focus on becoming aware of their constitutional makeup. Understanding your unique constitution can help you find the right, highest-impact solutions without falling prey to potentially dangerous trends.
Without spending hundreds of thousands on lab testing to image your unique internals. Which may or may not yield useful results.
Live seasonally
Technological advances over the past century have enabled us, for the first time in history, to exist out of sync with our local environments. Though our tastebuds approve, this convenience comes at a major cost.
In fact, the very core of Ayurveda (historyâs oldest recorded medical system) is about living in alignment with our locale and adapting accordingly. Seasonal eating, scheduling activities according to the light, tolerating temperature fluctuations, etc.
The more we eschew modern conveniences to live in harmony with our local environment, the more our personal resilience builds.
We capitalize on the dynamic nature of our internal processes. Such as a greater ability to metabolize gluten and grains in the fall season.
This simple practice lets our biology adapt and thrive.
Sleep & wake
Along those lines, our sleep and wake routines profoundly intricate timings of our internal biological âclocksâ.
Have you heard of the circadian rhythm?
Itâs actually very old knowledge.
According to many ancient systems, we should be in bed before 10 PM. After 10 PM, the energetics of the day shift and we get a second wind of energy and alertness. Even for night owls, sleep quality quantifiably declines as we get further out of sync with the natural light cycle.
At the same time, the consistency of these timings matters.
The body responds best to stable sleep and wake timings. So what do you do if you enjoy a night out with friends?
Try to get in an afternoon nap. When thatâs not possible, I try to use a recovery-boosting technology.
Light exposure
Thanks to neuroscientists like Dr. Andrew Huberman, recognition of natural light exposure is regaining popularity.
Yet ancient cultures have espoused this for many millennia.
Regardless, natural sunlight in the morning reinforces our healthy circadian rhythm, helps inoculate us against light-induced sleep disruption in the evening, as well as providing us with myriad health benefits. Beyond vitamin D. Some even practice (safe) sun gazing to reverse vision problems and shift into parasympathetic rest & recovery mode.
A few minutes of UVB-rich afternoon light takes cholesterol and sulfates (converts) vitamin D into its bioactive form. Generating anti-microbial peptides, boosting energy production (humans are âphotoheterotrophicâ), activating longevity pathways, increasing feel-good ÎČ-endorphins, optimizing hormones, and much more.
Cholesterol issues? Before hopping on risky therapies, the first thing to check is light exposure.
Then at night, we want to minimize light exposure. This improves sleep and keeps relaxation and regeneration hormones optimized.
Thermoregulatory conditioning
Until the advent of air conditioning, humans could not drastically alter the climate of our environment.
Countless studies have highlighted the benefits of exposure to extreme temperatures. Heat and cold. Both of these cause profound benefits when used appropriately. Perhaps most importantly, they build your biological resilience. They make you a more adaptable human, which translates into everyday life.
Since we no longer experience these temperature fluctuations naturally, it makes sense to seek them out with dedicated practices.
My two favorite practices to build thermoregulatory ability:
- Infrared saunas (read my guide to the best infrared saunas)
- Ice baths (a guide to cold plunges coming soon)
Tolerating this temporary discomfort increases your threshold to withstand future inconveniences that are out of your control.
Nutrient timing
Western Medicine focuses on the âwhatâ of biohacking habits, therapies, and modalities. Our ancestors weighted the âwhenâ equally.
Timing plays a pivotal role in Ayurveda and other ancestral medicines.
For example, digestion is strongest in the morning through the afternoon. They capitalize on the bolstered internal âfireâ by eating the largest meals when digestion is strongest. Then smaller meals in the evening when digestion is weakest (and weâre least insulin sensitive).
Americans generally consume small (if any) breakfasts and lunches, and lavish multi-course dinners. Exactly backward from traditional wisdom.
Modern science has begun validating the importance of timing. Time-restricted eating/intermittent fasting is one prominent example. Even better and in accordance with old principles, early time-restricted eating (eTRF) shows the most promise.
Feast & famine
Along with eating out of season, supermarkets grant us 24/7 access to unlimited calories.
Those of us in first-world countries rarely go more than 12 hours without food.
On the other hand, folks immersed in the longevity world spend a major portion of the week fasting â in some cases 72+ hours every week!
Fasting is a stressor. In the right doses, a beneficial hormetic stressor.
A fully bioharmonized lifestyle requires both. Flipping between the cleanup periods of fasting (catabolism), to regenerative bouts of nutritional abundance (anabolism).
Too much of either leads to problems. As does too little of either.
Compatible inputs
Everything affects humans.
From the food we eat to our living conditions, to our broader environment.
Attaining and maintaining the best output (health, wellness, performance) requires quality biologically compatible inputs.
A few of these include:
- Nutrient-dense foods
- Mineral-rich filtered water (I use the AquaTru + Shilajit or Quinton)
- Natural soundscapes
- Clean air (I like the AirDoctor or Air Angel)
Relaxing activities, conversations, and people.
Upgrade these inputs (and others) and your health will follow.
Simple movement
Movement is not synonymous with fitness. Nor exercise.
Rather, itâs the parent category of both.
Human physiology wasnât designed to sit all day. Not to stand stationary either. Throughout history, humans changed positions regularly all day.
A well-designed movement routine will include:
- Walking (lots)
- Mobility
- Resistance training
- Occasional sprinting
- âWorking Inâ active recovery
Weâre now learning about fascia and how movement helps circulate nutrients and drain waste (through the lymphatic and glymphatic systems).
Movement can also circulate âstagnant energyâ. Humans intuitively move to overcome bouts of extreme sadness or anxious jitters.
Like everything else, some of us (myself included) overdo movement too as an escape from stillness and quiet.
Healthy movement should feel good. Every session doesnât need to be soul-crushing.
Finding purpose
Sense of purpose and/or contributing to a larger whole is a main commonality between all global longevity hot spots.
Not just longevity, but also performance.
Ask any high-achiever, and theyâll know their current purpose.
Finding and knowing your purpose serves as a shot of inspiration when you need it most. A natural and enduring source of motivation.
It is a âNorth Starâ through which you can filter all your most pressing decisions.
Plus, your body stays more hormonally optimal when âbiologically/reproductively usefulâ.
Personal resiliency
Personal resiliency is your ability to withstandâeven thriveâin times of especially elevated stress.
Decoding your unique genetic profile can help you amplify your predispositions, personality features, and abilities.
Resilience isnât just genetic but rather an ability grown with deliberate practice. Weâve already mentioned two such examplesâextreme temperature exposure via ice baths and saunas.
Other resilience-building practices include meditation and daily reflection. While seemingly unrelated, both activities help you process major life events, traumas, and triggers. Stimuli that cause you to cave to adversity.
Itâs no coincidence that many of the worldâs great leaders, professional athletes, and achievers practice some combination of resilience-enhancing inner work daily.
Digestive focus
You may have even heard the maxim, âyou are what you eatâ. While that conveys the importance of nutrition to life, itâs incomplete.
A similar but more accurate version is, âyou are what you absorbâ. This is because the quality of your inner fire (âAgniâ, metabolism, digestion, or whatever you call it), determines how effectively your body can actually use that fuel.
One popular analogy is to think of a tree. The most fertile Earth does no good if the treeâs roots are rotting and unable to assimilate.
Your digestive system is like the treeâs roots, largely responsible for extracting nutrition.
But itâs not just food.
Decoding emotions
Although not glamorous or sexy, humans are largely emotional beings. We make decisions based on emotion and later justify our behavior using logic.
That includes those of us in âleft brainâ occupations like programmers, lawyers, mathematicians, scientists, etc.
Emotions are the language of the body. Theyâre the interface between the internal and external and they serve a vital purpose. You can choose to suppress them and ignore that information.
You could also tape over your carâs check engine warning indicator.
Both mask the issue, neither fixes anything.
Behind every emotion lies an opportunity for growth, expansion, and increased power.
Conscious breathing
Thanks to Wim Hof and other contemporaries, the health & wellness world has renewed interest in breathwork. Itâs one of few autonomic behaviors that we can consciously control.
At the same time, it can rapidly shift our state. To relax, to energize, to calm, to focus, and even to hallucinate.
Iâm a fan of deliberate breathwork practices:
Heck, even mouth-taping while sleeping forces better breathing habits.
But the very most important time to control our breathing, paradoxically, is when weâre least able. When we donât realize weâre holding our breath and slipping into a sympathetic-dominant stressed state. New tech like Hanu Health (read my review) can help you spot and retrain âemail apneaâ breathing when itâs most detrimental (and unnoticed).
Natural detoxification
For most of my life, the word detox conjured up images of a new-age juice fast at a silent retreat.
But detoxification is actually a natural process constantly occurring within the body and brain. Your liver, kidneys, and other organs work around the clock to purge your system of chemicals and other threats disturbing delicate processes. From the things we touch to the air we breathe, to the water we bathe in, to the food we consume.
Like everything in the body, this process takes energy and ample raw materials. Every year we introduce thousands of new chemicals into our environments. So increases our detoxification burden.
Tragically, the best place to store toxicants is fat tissue. This insulates it from the surrounding healthy tissues. To meet the ever-increasing toxicant burden, your body will produce new fat cells (regardless of calorie consumption) to protect you.
To make things worse, stress robs some of the nutrients required for the process.
Thatâs why ancient medical systems recommend a few short periods of natural detoxification support every year. Helping your body return to baseline.
Daily rituals
Whether you loathe the idea of rituals, or script every moment of your day, we all have some rituals. From common habits like brushing your teeth to bingeing social media.
The two most important routines are your morning routine and your pre-sleep wind-down routine.
Both of these help the body gracefully and seamlessly transition from one phase into the next.
Those that master routines have better energy, clarity, and motivation in the mornings; and drug-free relaxation, contentment, and deeper sleep.
Plus, it alleviates decision fatigue and overwhelm.
Ideal routines vary from person to person. Regardless, carve out some time first thing in the morning and before bed to facilitate your transition.
Social immersion
Despite the last several years, even the most introverted humans respond profoundly to socialization.
The need for community is hard-wired in the human genome.
When you get your required dose, hugs and human touch cause profound health benefits. At the deepest level.
From altering hormone levels to increasing happiness to even reducing the necessary dose of pain medication.
In most circumstances, the benefits of social time absolutely outweigh occasionally sacrificing routine and other rigid health habits.
Outdoor immersion
If youâve read this far, you probably saw this one coming.
Forest bathing, nature therapy, or just time spent outdoors is invaluable to long-term wellbeing.
Any time outdoors beats none, but cruising through green landscapes or any form of nature is especially therapeutic.
From the natural sunlight to the plant terpenes and bioactives in the air to the immune balancing microbes on pets passing by, to skin-to-bare-soil âEarthingâ, to stress-relieving fractals ubiquitous throughout nature.
Even the most metropolitan âconcrete jungleâ cities have parks.
Time outdoors is a daily non-negotiable for me and for many of our ancestors who did have the luxury of a home completely isolated from the natural world.
Slowing down
With the fast pace of modern living, slowing down can seem counterproductive.
I struggle with this habit more than anything, yet itâs also one of the most powerful of all. Paradoxically, moving faster and checking more off the TODO list doesnât always lead to greater success or achievement.
Instead, many of the worldâs most gifted do the exact opposite. They slow down, find the most important lead domino, accomplish that, and take inventory.
These folks prioritize rest, downtime, and regular breaks throughout the day. Some even nap and enjoy several long meditation sessions per day.
As the military maxim goes,
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast Click To TweetUnrestricting yourself
To hard charging Type A folks, this one may be the hardest of all.
Humans, and life in general, respond phenomenally to pulsation. To change.
This may look like ditching the usual routines for a spontaneous ad of courseventure. Or indulging a little on a day of major celebration.
Thereâs an old saying that goes like thisâŠ
That which we resist, persists Click To TweetThe more something gets opposed, the greater the demand for it.
For example, when a movie gets censored, demand skyrockets better than any marketer could.
By allowing yourself to experience âthe forbiddenâ on occasion, youâll notice that some of the allure quickly evaporates.
Timeless Biohacks For Peak Health & Performance
We look down on ancient humans as âbarbaricâ, âstupidâ, âcluelessâ, and âantiquatedâ.
Without a doubt, they were certainly wrong about some things.
Yet thousands of years ago, without our scientific instrumentation, these same people created intricate systems that still outperform Western allopathic medicine.
Many of their natural, safe, and effective remedies address the very core of issues rather than masking symptoms with palliative care.
True preventative medicine.
But preventative healthcare does come with one huge drawbackâŠ
It doesnât work as fast.
You wonât take a magic pill and instantly feel better.
Rather, many of the most powerful bioharmonic health practices take some time and dedication. And instead of side effects, they come with side benefits.
Remember, itâs not the occasional treat or indulgence that will derail you. On the contrary. That can even accelerate your long-term progress.
Instead, focus on how you live 80 percent of the time.
Do you practice any of this ancestral bioharmonizing wisdom? Am I missing any? Let me know in the comments below!
