2021 Biohacking Conference, Day 1

I had the privilege of attending the 2021 Biohacking Conference hosted by Dave Asprey and Upgrade Labs. I will spend the next three blog posts sharing the highlights of the event.

Program and Room Key and Slip Case

New Things

There were several new things this year: 

• New Coast
• New Hotel
• New "(Not) Bulletproof Coffee"
• More Dave Asprey
• "Dangerous" People Everywhere

New Coast

For the first time ever, the Annual Biohacking Conference was on the East Coast.  Biohacking Conference has been in California since the first Biohacking Conference began in a bar in San Francisco. Here is my coverage of the 4th Annual Biohacking Conference: Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 at the Pasadena Convention Center.

New Hotel

For the first time in four years, the Biohacking Conference was held at a different venue. In previous years, the Biohacking Conference was held at The Beverly Hilton, where one of only three Upgrade Labs are currently in operation. This year, the Conference was held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel & Convention Center in Orlando Florida. It is a much bigger hotel and conference center. Allowing Dave to "move walls" to craft the experience, including separate "Tech Halls" and "Tech Playgrounds".

The Conference Hall from Above

New "Not Bulletproof Coffee"

During Dave's opening remarks, he made it clear that we were not drinking Bulletproof Coffee, in fact he is no longer affiliated with the brand. Locked out of the boardroom, Dave went back to the drawing board to create the next innovation in coffee. His solution: Remineralized(tm) coffee. According to his site, the process adds 50 "plant derived" nutrients that are presumably lost by roasting, or beneficial to add. This new coffee is still blended with C8 MCT Oil and grass-fed butter provided by Vital Farms. If you want to know more and be among the first to know when this coffee is available, sign up for the newsletter.

Cup of "(Not) Bulletproof Coffee"

More Dave

We were treated to a double dose of Dave Asprey, as he served as both the host and emcee. As such, he got to experience the joy of getting the crowd going, as well as the fun of thinking on your feet when an unexpected power outage knocked out several of the screens. Dave's coffee and Nootropic fueled brain was able to quickly recover and keep the show going. We also saw more Dave in the form of a cardboard cutout of Dave, and stickers of his famous "Florida Man" perineum sun tanning photo making their way around the event.

A "Florida Man" Sticker Inside an Elevator

Dangerous People

Dave also introduced the concept of "Dangerous" People. According to Dave, people who think for themselves and are not easily controlled are "Dangerous". So he invited us to "choose Danger". He invited attendees who accepted the challenge to put their name and one "dangerous" action they will take on a board in the hallway. The requirements of a Dangerous Person are:

• Do the right thing, even when it's hard
• Be peaceful and kind, even when others aren't
• Decide based on data, not emotions
• Take calculated risks, when it's worth it
• Push yourself outside of your comfort zone

"I Choose Danger" Board

I am grateful for the opportunity to be at the 7th Annual Biohacking Conference. The conference that was cancelled due to COVID-19 was back, and better than ever. Most of all, I am grateful to be able to share the experience with someone special.

Me and Jenny are Ready

If taking control of your biology interests you, I highly recommend you consider attending the 2022 Biohacking Conference, which is slated to be back at the historic Beverly Hilton.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

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Coaching

I am a Human Potential Coach (trainee). My primary interest is health and wellness, but as your Coach we can cover anything that is preventing you from achieving your goal during our confidential discussion. If you are interested in becoming one of my Clients. Use this link to schedule yourself for a 30 minute discovery call.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Hacking Daylight Savings Time

Early Wake Up Call

It is 4:55 AM and I am awake an hour and five minutes before my normal wake up time. Is something wrong? No. Well, not with me. It is the Sunday of the Fall Daylight Savings Time (DST). It is almost 5:00 AM, which yesterday was 6:00 AM, my normal wake time. So, everything would appear to be correct, except the numbers on my clock and the lack of brightness in the sky.

Gain Sleep?

It is that time of year when many Americans turn their clock back an hour, or as some have come to call it "The good Daylight Savings Time"..." where you gain sleep". Gain sleep? If you are like most people, your wake up time has not changed so the hour you "gain" going to sleep is promptly "lost" when you wake up. Instead, all you gain is the frustration of external factors messing with your circadian rhythm, a feeling anyone who has traveled outside their normal time zone has experienced.

What's the big deal?

People travel outside their normal time zone all the time, so Daylight Savings Time should not be a big deal? While many of the symptoms attributed "jet lag" is every bit as much about the conditions on an airplane, a major component of it is the shift in time zones. 

Is this really about "time"?

While we attribute the shift to "time", what we are actually are referring to is the shift between our circadian rhythm relative and the solar cycle that we use to define "night" and "day" in the location we are now in. As I posted in my Hacking Blue Light post, our eyes use Melanopsin to detect blue light, specifically light between 420 nm and 440 nm, the sort of light that is present in sunlight and a bright blue sky. Avoiding sources of blue light can help you maintain or adjust your Circadian Rhythm. 

Your Personal DST Strategy

If you refer to my definition of "Biohacker", you will note that its a personal endeavor to gain control of one's genetic and epigenetic systems. While most of the world struggles to survive their circadian rhythm shift, you can choose to thrive.

My Personal DST Strategy

I intend not to change my circadian rhythm. I spent over a year training my circadian rhythm. I will simply shift my bedtime and wake time to their new DST times. As the fall Daylight Savings will shift the clocks back, I will "gain" an hour in the morning. What could you accomplish with one more hour in the morning?

Stay well engineered,

Devon

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These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Keeping New Year's Resolutions Secret?

Last year, I published my New Plan for 2017. Would it surprise you that I failed to stick to the plan and failed to meet my health goal? Many people are proud to share their New Year's Resolutions and with Social Media it has become even easier. However, according to Derek Sivers, psychologists such as Peter Gollwitzer have known for a long time that the "social reality" caused by others acknowledging our personal goals, makes us less likely to achieve them. 

Still Skeptical? 

Perhaps you would enjoy the biochemical version. While Derek does not get into the biochemistry in his TED Talk, or his blog post that accompanied it, I have to believe what he was getting at was the little spike of Dopamine and Serotonin we get when someone extols us for our goals. As Simon Sinek points out in his book Start With Why, Dopamine is the neurotransmitter associated with accomplishment, while Serotonin is the neurotransmitter associated with pride and recognition. So, it makes sense how our bodies and our minds could get this mixed up, and  cause us to start sabotaging our goals. 

Hack Your Biochemistry?

We can use our biochemistry to our advantage. As Derek Sivers states, we can rephrase our goals in a way that "gives you no satisfaction" (denys you Dopamine and Serotonin), but if you listen closely his restated goal was actionable (train) and measurable (five times per week). He also had the end in mind (run a marathon), which something that Michael Hyatt writes about in his new book Your Best Year Ever.  Michael also recommends using goals that are specific, measurable, actionable, risky, time-keyed, exciting and relevant (SMARTER).  With clarity what our goal is, how we will attain our goal and how we will know when we attained our goal, we can safeguard against premature Dopamine and Serotonin release. 

Moving Forward

If we view past failures through the psychological and neurochemical lens, actional steps emerge. So this year I am keeping my New Year's Resolutions to myself, but I will give you a couple hints. I am striving to make advancements in all ten domains of life identified in Michael Hyatt's new book Your Best Year Ever, I will be using SMARTER goals and I guarantee that some Bulletproof Coffee will be involved. 

Best of luck to all of you in 2018.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

If you found this information helpful, I would appreciate it if you clicked my Referral Link and checkout all the great Bulletproof products for yourself.

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These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Inbox Zero 2.0

In my previous post on Inbox Zero, I listed my top tips for emptying your inbox so you can focus on what you need to get done. However, you likely have more to do than you could possibly get done each day. Also, clearing out your inbox often leads to a full sent box, and no guarantee that your emails are being responded to or acted upon.

New Additions to My Inbox

I recently added a .To-Do folder to my Inbox and several sub-folders. Each sub-folder contains emails that pertain to tasks that I must perform Today or defer to Tomorrow, emails to which I am waiting for a response or some action, and emails pertaining to tasks I wish to perform "Zomeday" (so that is last in the order). This relatively simple folder system has magnified the clarity of an empty inbox, but adding another dimension: when

Your Inbox is Not Your To Do List

It should be no surprise that I have incorporated this system into Evernote as well. I have written a couple times about Evernote, my organizational tool of choice. Not all of my tasks are generated by email, so I rely on Evernote to capture and organize all of my tasks. This seems to fly in the face of the "Your Inbox is Your To Do List" ideology, but I see this as the next step in my email evolution. 

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

5th Annual Bulletproof Biohacking Conference, Day 3

Day 3 was shorter at the request of many of 4th Annual Bulletproof Biohacking Conference attendees to facilitate afternoon travel arrangements, but the talks were some of the most inspiring of the conference. 

What is your MVT?

Peter H. Diamandis has a unique way of seeing the world. While the major news outlets often reflect all that is wrong with the world, Peter sees business opportunities. "If you want to become a billionaire, help a billion people." While the news reports about the scarcity of resources, Peter sees abundance. In sharp contrast to only one hundred years ago, we have more energy, better communications, reduction in all cause mortality, except cancer, and even now with CRISPR that too may be a thing of the past. Peter believes that we all have an MVT (massive transformative purpose) and that we will only achieve it through "moonshot" thinking.

What is really in your stool?

Naveen Jain is a board member of the XPRIZE and founder of several companies, including a company with an actual moonshot in their future. Despite Naveen's humble beginning in rural India, Naveen is very grateful for what he and his siblings have achieved stating "God has been very kind to us." Naveen's newest venture is VIOME. VIOME uses a process they call "Metatranscriptome Sequencing" which they claim is able to sequence the RNA of "iruses, archaea, yeast, fungi, parasites, and bacteriophages" which they claim is superior to the 16S test used by other genetic sequencing services, which only can detect bacterial RNA.

 Your Internal Pharmacy

Dr. William Sears ended the conference with an interesting presentation that even a child could understand, he has been a pediatrician for decades. According to Dr. Sears, the lining of our blood vessels, the endothelium, are capable of a number of useful antioxidants, neurochemicals, hormones, and other "medicines", essentially your own internal pharmacy. Naturally, unhealthy eating and exercise practices produce "sticky stuff" that covers the endothelium, closing your pharmacy. I look forward to reading how "The Dr. Sears T5 Wellness Plan" can keep our pharmacies open.

I was very impressed with this year's presenters and the vendors in the Tech Hall and I look forward to the 2018 Conference with eager anticipation.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

5th Annual Bulletproof Biohacking Conference, Day 2

Dave's Day 2 welcome touched on three junk words: need, can't and try. "Need" is often used to describe things we want, but do not actually need. "Can't" detracts from your power of choice. "Try" pre-declares failure...going back to Intention as he spoke about the day prior.

What's Your Purpose?

A good portion of Mastin Kipp's talk focused on purpose. Purpose, Kipp reports, has the side effects of financial gain, improves immune function, lowers A1C, raises HDL cholesterol and lowers LDL cholesterol, and so much more. "Purpose is an emotion that you cultivate within yourself and express to others in the form of service." His talk transitioned to fear, which he described as unhealed emotional trauma that leads to Low Level Coping Mechanisms (drugs, alcohol, junk food, etc.) and High Level Coping Mechanisms (diet, exercise, biohacking, etc.). In the end, barring actual mortal danger, Kipp's recommendation is point yourself in the direction of the thing you fear as this is likely your purpose.

Nitric Oxide Dump and So Much More

Dr. Joseph Mercola is no stranger in the health and wellness community, but his presentation on his favorite Biohacks was a cornucopia of knowledge, much of which people may not be familiar. The biggest take away was the Nitric Oxide Dump that he credits Dr. Zach Bush with creating. Nitric Oxide is related to everything from longevity to the cure to erectile dysfunction. The NO Dump has four basic movements that you perform 10 times per side and repeat three times as fast as you can (video):

1. Air Squat
2. Marching Arm Swing
3. Big Arm Circles
4. Air Military Press

Information + Emotion = Lasting Memory

I ducked out of Jim Kwik's talk early to grab lunch and walk around the Tech Hall some more, but I found his concept of how lasting memories are formed to be so true. The joy and gratitude I felt during this conference will ensure that this conference will be a lasting memory for me.

The Future of Love, Lust and Commitment

Who would have thought that I would have made a friend standing outside the Main Hall waiting for the keynote speaker Ester Perel? My intention of "community" personified in a person I just met. We ended up spending the balance of the day together. Ester pointed out that previous generations lived in small communities around a church, and that everything from waking up to church bells, to getting married in the church, and dying was centered around religion. She indicated that now that many single people live in major cities, that the role of the church in the relationship has diminished, but she did not seem to have a good substitute for it, perhaps a reflection of the current state of relationships apart from God, apart but otherwise ill-defined. She had other good points, The Four Horseman of Relationship Apocalypse (criticism, defensiveness, stonewalling and contempt) and her definition of "trust" as "a shared experience...helping us to live with risk (fear)" gave an insight to why people have trust issues, they have fear.

Dr. Joseph Mercola Q&A

As if the morning session with Dr. Joseph Mercola was not enough, the afternoon session was so filled with information, that he had not time for questions at the end. I could write an entire blog post about his slides, I will summarize the highlights below:

• Methylene Blue for Youthful Skin
• "Letting Go" by Dr. David Hawkins
• Oura Ring
• Eng3 - Inhaled Structured Water
• NOVOTHOR whole body light pod
• Joovv Red Light Therapy
• HRI Glyphosate Test
• Restore

The Microbiome

Dr. Zach Bush is the creator of Restore. The reason he created was immediately apparent. As he pointed out there are approximately 7 Billion "souls" on earth, or approximately 70 Trillion cells. Among these souls, the rate of Autism has grown to 1:45 and Cancer to 1:2 souls in just a couple generations. Why? According to Dr. Zach Bush it is the preponderance of Glyphosate (A.K.A. Round Up) in the world. What is wrong with Glyphosate? According to the research of Dr. Bush and others, Glyphosate destroys the tight junctions between the intestinal cells, the hallmark of "leaky gut" feared by the Paleo and Bulletproof communities alike. Leaky gut is the mechanism by which undigested food passes through the intestinal walls into the blood stream. Your body mobilizes white blood cells to attack the invaders. The only problem is that cells of beef look awfully like your own cells, so your white blood cells start to attack your own cells, the beginning of auto-immunity.

The Future of Smart Drugs

Dave Asprey is no stranger to Nootropics (AKA "Smart Drugs"). His use of Provigil and members of the racetam family is well-documented, but that is old new. Dave has now adapted a layered approach:

1. Change Your Environment
2. Mindfulness, Breathing and Brain Training
3. Everyday Nootropics
4. "Big Gun" Nootropics

Change Your Environment is the basis of the Bulletproof Diet. Understanding how everything from how you eat, sleep and move affects your gene expression. Mindfulness has recognized benefits. Anyone familiar with the Wim Hof Method knows the power of breathing. Off-handed ping-pong is brain training?! Everyday Nootropics come from some unlikely places such as:

• Coffee (and other polyphenols)
• Nicotine (sublingual please, no smoking)
• CoQ10
• Methylene Blue
• Creatine
• Acetyl L Carnitine
• Magnesium L-Threonate

In the end, Dave returned to Gratitude. Finding any reason to be grateful is sure to put your mind at ease, and leave more margin for great thoughts.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

5th Annual Bulletproof Biohacking Conference, Day 1

I was privileged to attend the Bulletproof Biohacking Conference again this year. Now in its 5th year, this conference is one of the most sought after conferences, and one of the highlights of my year. Once again, the conference was held at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California.

I arrived late Thursday night and was able to get right to sleep thanks to a thermostat that I could hack to reduce my core temperature and my TrueDark Twilight glasses which got the melatonin flowing right away.

The first day began with registration, complimentary Bulletproof Coffee and a quick walk around the Tech Hall before the morning opening presentations. Registration was automated this year, as your pass was printed on demand upon signing in at an iPad station, which was a significant improvement over the prior year, where my pass was missing and they had ran out of 3-day pass cards when they printed a new one. This year's registration kit included a program, a thin grocery style bag, a copy of the September 2017 edition of Life Extension Magazine and assorted coupons and advertisements for vendors in the Tech Hall and along the corridor.

The first day welcome presentation included a special opening Maori Haka lead by a Bulletproof Coach from New Zealand. If you have never experienced one in person, it is truly intimidating to see, and energizing to partake in. No wonder the Maori Warriors were always feared, and no wonder as to why the practice continues today.

"Your intentions shape your reality." Dave Asprey

Dave's opening talk focused on Gratitude and Intention. He read a quote from the Dalai Lama regarding being grateful for being alive and taking advantage of the opportunity it brings. Intention, is an interesting concept, but similar to an actionable to-do list, I will find that writing out your intentions has amazing results. If you have been living under a rock the past five or so years, you can find more about Dave Asprey and the Bulletproof Diet here.

Gratitude. Growth. Game Plan. Group. Giving. Greatness.

Lewis Howes continued the Gratitude topic stating that Gratitude "starts your engine" and insisted that your Gratitude needs to be shared in order to be effective. His topic of Growth seemed to align with a principle I am very familiar with: Continuous Improvement. The key to a good Game Plan is to keep it simple. He reiterated the popular phase "that you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with (your Group)" and concluded with the importance of Giving to feel true fulfillment. All are no doubt his pillars of Greatness.

Sleep Hacking

Perhaps the best talk of the day in terms of actionable items was Dr. Michael Breus' hacks for better sleep. While his recommendations on adjusting your environment, your eating and napping habits were good, the one I have found most powerful is determining your ideal bed time. On average, we all sleep in 90 minute sleep cycles, and most people have five cycles for a total of 450 minutes, or 7.5 hours. This puts the 8-10 hour recommendation flat on its back and leads to my pro tip: schedule bed times in 90 minute increments of when you need to get up. While it is great to determine if you do in fact need 7.5 hours to sleep, it is far more important to set a wake up time and stick to it, and ensuring you go to bed at an appropriate time ensures you wake up when you are at the top of Phase 1 sleep and not the depths of Phase 3 and 4 sleep.

Dave's Year in Biohacking

Dave closed out the first day with a retrospective on his year in Biohacking. Anyone familiar with Dave will not find his use of stem cells, blue light blocking technology, red light therapy, and cryo-therapy abnormal, but his latest protocols are interesting. I was very interested in his MSH injection which is said to decrease glucose, increase thyroid hormone, block PDE4 (a la Viagra) and even increase melanin production (get tan). After reading The Wahls Protocol by Dr. Terry Wahl's, I was not surprised by Dave's interest in increasing his Polyphenols through drinking more decaf coffee, eating more herbs and his new Polyphenomenal supplement. He touched briefly on VIOME, a new technology that can detect fungus, bacteria, parasites and phages (bacterial viruses). Look for more on that in a future post.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.