Biohacking and self-development

2021-12-06 22:53:45 ​​Snacks During Mental Work

Is it necessary?

The brain does consume loads of glucose, especially during strenuous mental work.

However, if you are healthy, do not suffer from diabetes and eat normally, your blood glucose levels cannot drop to below normal limits.

But snacking stimulates differently.

Why are snacks stressful?
They interfere with hormones and trigger the release of insulin, cortisol, dopamine and serotonin. This invigorates and brings pleasure, a short-term boost of energy. Yet the high rise in these hormones is followed by a low drop, and we feel nervous, irritable, and tired again. Still that's not true fatigue or real hunger, but a consequence of hormonal and neurotransmitter imbalances. All these fluctuations (sugar or insulin swings) do not allow you to work calmly and greatly distract you. Open / Comment

2021-12-05 23:56:26 Breaking Patterns

Before you falter other people's patterns with your ideas, first learn how to break them of your own thinking.

If you manage to do this, your thinking is to be more flexible.

Exercise: Change the wording of the problem.

The problem formulation in one way or another changes the mindset. Look at the issue from various angles: "Why should we solve this problem?", "What happens if we don't solve it?", "Can we turn this problem into our advantage?" Open / Comment

2021-12-04 21:31:41 How to Find Out Your Biological Age

One of the basic rules of biohacking is to monitor body functions. In order to know your body's potential, which can be unleashed in the future, you need to determine your biological age.

To do this, I encourage you to undergo a series of medical tests and then analyze the results.

Biomarkers that indirectly indicate a person's biological age include markers of inflammation, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, protein synthesis and blood transport function, as well as those that characterize the immune system, liver condition and lung function.

One of the most easily measured markers indicating biological age is systolic blood pressure.

From all of this, a complete picture of health is compiled and, if necessary, deviations from the norm are corrected. Open / Comment

2021-12-03 23:03:08 Why is It Better to Do Things You Love?

It is known that when we try and do something willingly, the prefrontal cortex works much better.

The prefrontal cortex is the area of the brain responsible for motivation. Motivation increases when we engage in something we enjoy.

The structure responsible for regulating emotions is deep in the brain and is called the limbic system. From it, the signals come to the prefrontal cortex, "I like doing this! I enjoy this!"

Yet when the signals from the limbic system are "I don't like it!", the prefrontal cortex pretty much stops working. So motivation falls and productivity goes down. Open / Comment

2021-12-02 19:33:45 Exercise for the Brain: Matching Two Subjects

How is it useful?

First of all, it is associative thinking. Objects are not objects in their pure form at all, but the uses to which they can be put. You'll stop looking at the table as a dining object if you start thinking about it in a different way. Thus when you combine a few, you can find something new and unique.

Try to set a specific theme and give it a try.

Use the combined subject for space exploration, self-education, environmental protection, survival, and so on. Open / Comment

2021-11-30 21:46:34 The better the brain is developed, the more perfect are the processes inside the body

Scientists have attempted to calculate the link between brain development and longevity. Based on the comparison of longevity and the ratio of brain weight to body weight, they conclude that "the smarter person lives longer".

This can be explained as follows: age-related changes in the central nervous system are one of the most important mechanisms of aging.

In other words, aging of the nervous system leads to aging of the entire body.

Therefore, training the brain, as well as the body, should be regular. Open / Comment

2021-11-29 22:54:57 Reducing stress with interior design: Use flowing lines

Nowadays, it is proven that curved lines are calming, lead to inner harmony.

Subconsciously they evoke associations with natural motifs: the flowing fluidity of rivers, the softness of green hills. With their help you can create a highly poetic interior to promote relaxation.

While chopped, flat, rectangular shapes make a person more withdrawn and agitated. Open / Comment

2021-11-28 22:35:41 How Many Push-Ups Do You Need to Be Healthy?

The Journal of the American Medical Association published the results of a study that clearly demonstrated there is an exact number of push-ups that magically strengthens the heart muscle and even prolongs life.

Experts for 10 years tracked the health of more than a thousand male employees of Indiana fire departments. Men who performed 40 or more push-ups in a row had a 96% lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those who were able to do 10 reps or less.

Being able to do 20 to 30 push-ups off the floor was not bad either. The risk of heart problems in this case is reduced by 75% compared to the control group performing less than 10 such exercises in a row.

Important remark: only the number of push-ups that a person was able to do in 60 seconds was taken into account. So the "lazy" 20-push, stretched for half an hour, does not count. Open / Comment

2021-11-27 20:40:52 Increase Cognitive Ability with Cinnamon

One study suggests that taking cinnamon regularly improves learning in mice with inherently low abilities.

Study: Employees at Rush University in Chicago used a standard Barnes maze with 20 holes to assess the mice's spatial learning ability (how well they remember the path to the bait hole). Based on the test results, the animals were divided into good and bad learners. Both mice were separated into groups and administered placebo, ground cinnamon or its active metabolite sodium benzoate for one month. After that, the test was repeated.

It turned out that mice with initially low abilities who received cinnamon or sodium benzoate were almost equal to the well-trained animals. In mice with initially good abilities, the experimental treatment had no effect. There were no changes in motor functions under the influence of the drug.

In any case, it can be at least a good lifehack for intensive mental load, unless of course you are allergic to cinnamon. Open / Comment

2021-11-27 13:25:21 Salt and Aging

The study found that those subjects who consumed a lot of salt had shortened telomeres, the sections of chromosomes responsible for the programmed length of cell life (more specifically, the number of cell divisions).

It was also concluded that adolescents without obesity did not have such negative effects of salt. Even perfectly healthy young people consuming large amounts of sodium can find their health deteriorating. Open / Comment