10 More Biohacks to Relieve Stress

by Kunal K November 27, 2020 6 min read

In our previous post, we shared 10 biohacks to relieve stress that tackle 4 types of triggers: emotional, physical, mental and spiritual.

Here are 10 more biohacks to build your resilience to stress and ward of undue anxiety.

10 (More) Biohacks to Relieve Stress

We all know that stress is the body's natural response to danger. Unfortunately, the modern world presents us with too everyday situations that trigger our flight-or-fight mechanism and can potentially make stress a chronic condition.

In order to live a full, happy life and protect our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, we need to learn ways to reduce and even prevent stress.

Here are some stress management ideas that you can use right now:

#1. Monitor Your Environment with Cube Sensors

Most of us appreciate the importance of diet and movement, but there isn’t much talk about the quality of our environments. Cube sensors let you easily monitor and optimise your environment for performance.

They claim you can effect changes like:

RELIEVE STRESS by modifying the humidity and adapting to noise levels.

IMPROVE COMFORT by managing air quality with aeration and air conditioning.

INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY by changing the lights and temperature when notified.

#2. Wear Noise Cancelling Headphones

I bought my first pair of noise cancelling headphones 5 years ago. Today I use the Bose QC15s so I can get through my day, minus the noise pollution that inevitably imposes itself on a modern lifestyle - at the train station, at the office etc. They are also great for air travel to block out engine noise, in-flight announcements and crying babies! Noise pollution has been linked to depression, anxiety, lost productivity and even increased heart attack risk.

Dave Asprey recommends in-ear noise cancelling headphones in order to avoid accidentally activating acupuncture points around the ears. My very first pair were in-ear, but these broke within a year. They did get me through backpacking for 6 months in South East Asia though :)

#3. Laser Eye Surgery

20/20 vision without prescription glasses or meddling with contact lenses everyday. If it’s good enough for astronauts, then it’s good enough for me. At least that is how I rationalised things when I got the surgery back in 2008. I have no regrets. After the 15 minute surgery I felt like l had woken up from years of hibernation! Today my vision is still pretty much 20/20, I've saved thousands of dollars on contact lenses and I love the new found freedom.

This is one serious bohack!

#4. Meditate to Improve Everything From Immune Function to Vagal Tone (HRV) Without the Need for Biofeedback

Can you sit with yourself quietly and observe your thoughts without judgement?

A simple and ancient way to biohack yourself is through meditation. The main types with strong bodies of research to support them are:

Mindfulness (vipassana) is practising being aware of where you mind is giving its attention. Being aware of the present and when you are drifting into ruminating about past/future events is the crux of mindfulness training. Daniel Goleman’s book “Destructive Emotions” is getting a bit old now but has a great summary of mindfulness and general meditation research outcomes.

Loving kindness meditation (metta) is pretty self explanatory. It is a useful tool to have to be able to “switch” on a positive mind state and is the mechanism that you’re effectively training with your emwave. Dr Barbara Fredrickson is a leading researcher in this field.

But you can also just build meditative practises into your day to day routine. Use tools like idonethis to help prompt you to reflect and give gratitude regularly.

To get started on any of this stuff, if you’re in Sydney we’ll give a shout out to the buddhist library which runs regular meditation courses, in particular the ones with Dr Chien Son Gooi are great because his clinical psychology training (PhD) gives the courses a very practical flavour.

In true biohacking fashion, if you're looking for minimal effective dose for maximum results, there are programs like 40 Years of Zen around.

#5. Get a Pet: Pets Are Cool, Plus They Instantly Make You 10x More Interesting to People You Walk Past in the Park

Pets create random social interactions and also just keep you company themselves. Aside from the social benefit and having a bit of fun teaching them tricks and playing there is a fair bit of research supporting that pets are a pretty powerful biohack:

Frankie - the OptimOZkelpie as a pup

Pet owners are less likely to suffer from depression than those without pets.
People with pets have lower blood pressure in stressful situations than those without pets.
Playing with a pet can elevate levels of serotonin and dopamine, which calm and relax.
Pet owners have lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels (indicators of heart disease) than those without pets.
Heart attack patients with pets survive longer than those without.
Pet owners over age 65 make 30 percent fewer visits to their doctors than those without pets.
Pets, at least dogs, let things go. They move on from being angry or upset, to go on 'being dogs' without ruminating on the past. A great lesson.

It doesn’t need to be a dog, you can have a cat, a fish or an alpaca if you want!

#6. Get a Financial Education

Eliminate financial stress and spend time worrying about the important things in life rather than running out of cash the day before payday. Just read a book and don’t even think about “getting rich quick”, easy come, easy go. You want your money to be working for you, not the other way around. Make some friends with similar interests and you’ll be surprised how quickly you learn.

Some of our favourite books are “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, “The Millionaire Next Door”, “How to get Rich” and “The Warren Buffett Way”.

#7 Optimise Diet & Nutrition: What Works For You Specifically?

Without opening a can of worms here, I’ll just say that a diet consisting of whole organic foods and pasture raised meats are important for me to tackle all four dimensions. It’s easier to have a productive day without experiencing sugar cravings or insulin spikes to counter massive blood glucose spikes.

I also have positive feelings about eating ethically and I’m confident that limiting the introduction of pesticides, antibiotics and genetically modified crops is a good thing. Effectively I follow a Bulletproof Diet (a.k.a upgraded Paleo / Keto) which aims to eliminate consumption of inflammatory foods.

In addition, I take a probiotic and supplement with Marine Algae Oil for Omega 3s, Vitamin A, D & K, Vitamin C, magnesium l-threonate & citrate, B12 / folate and organic turmeric.

Good nutrition is essential to optimal performance and controlling your hormonal system. I also have a supply of Activated Charcoal and NAC on hand for occasions where I need a little extra helping hand like eating something that I'm intolerant to or consuming alcohol.

We can't rely on food plates, pyramids and Heart Foundation Ticks to guide us.

#8. Herbs & Spices Used in Combination Offer Synergistic Gains in Absorption and Bioavailability

Our favourites include cayenne pepper extract, vanilla, organic turmeric and ginger. They are all potent inflammatory and antioxidant compounds that have promoted wellness for 1000s of years across Asia and the Middle East.

Turmeric has been show to make meat safer by reducing levels of heterocyclic amines.

It protects your liver, enhances cooking, has both antibacterial and anti-fungal properties.
According to a study in Okinawa where they drink turmeric tea daily - it may help you live longer.
Turmeric can help recover from ailments faster and more importantly, help you maintain resilience against common lifestyle diseases.

#9. Eat Grass Fed and Finished Meats for CLAs and a Healthy Omega 3 to Omega 6 Ratio

Contrary to the pop science, saturated fats are in fact an essential source of nutrition, not that there is actually that much in red meat! 55% of the fat content of red meat is oleic acid... What's that? Oh it's just the same thing as olive oil which is strongly touted for its health benefits... Double standards much?

Grass fed beef is a source of Omega 3 fatty acids. Significantly lower levels of Omega 3s and CLAs occur in grain fed beef. Grass fed beef has higher levels of Vitamin A and E.

Did you know that feedlot / grain finished beef negates the effect of a lifetime of pasture raising? It takes just 7 days to neutralise the extra Omega 3 and CLA benefits. Also, buying grass fed means that you dodge the antibiotics that are inherent when using CAFO.

Check out our blog post with more science about grass fed/finished meats and a handy buying guide.

#10. Hack Your Microbiome With Microba Insight™

With an increasingly large volume of research being published about the gut-brain-immune connection (how our gut bacteria essentially drive so much of our lives including manufacturing the molecules that eventually feed our brains.)

Understanding what is living in your gut is a primary step to figuring out what to do to make improvements and then continue to quantify if the changes you make are actually making a real, rather than just subjective impact on your wellbeing.

As weird as it may sound, fecal transplants are becoming a more common biohack to rapidly resolve lingering gut health problems.

Listen to our podcast with uBiome Microbiome Screening founder Jessica Richman.

Many of these biohacks are essentially lifestyle changes that can be built into your routine to help optimise your health.

Let us know which stress relief technique has been the most helpful.

Note: As of 2019 uBiome is no longer in business, but there are alternatives:
Viome is the big one out of the USA.

Smartgut, i-Screen and Microba are Australia based Microbiome testing services.

Kunal K

Co-Founder, OptimOZ.com.au

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