A biohacking diet with the help of supplementation

How to experiment with controlling inflammation and toxins via a biohacking diet, enhancing brain cells responsible for processing and cognition

For more than 30 years Tucker has merged chiropractic, biohacking diet, and multiple rehabilitation modalities to provide a patient practice based on his advanced education and clinical training in rehabilitation, sports medicine, nutrition, functional exercise training to biohack the human body.

I am currently 62 years old and do not need to take any medications.

I start with mostly healthy unprocessed foods, although I still play around with the best times for me to eat (including intermittent fasting) and when to take certain supplements. I exercise daily and include some cardio, strength and flexibility. I experiment while exercising with blood flow restriction devices about 3-5 days a week and which biohacking diet supplements I take before and after exercise. I give myself some meditation or writing time each day, and I maintain a healthy dose of “social/relationship” nutrition.

Biohacking diet: realizing what you’re up against

The short answer to my supplement choices is that I like experimenting on myself (biohacking). The other answer is my purpose: I make supplement choices to help my body remove toxins, keep my inherent nature towards inflammation under control, and to maintain and enhance my brain cells responsible for processing and cognition.

My dad had a heart bypass surgery when he was in his 50s but passed away at 94 with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). My mom was bipolar with dementia when she passed at 92. Therefore, I’m concerned about overall mental health.

Given those genetics, I figure my floor for dying is 92-95 with hopes of living beyond that. I am also inspired to do everything I can for energy optimization, mitochondrial health and blood vessel health, gut optimization, sleep optimization, and hormone optimization. Overall, I think about longevity and my health span.

I monitor things like my microbiome with stool testing, I have regular blood work done, I do saliva nitic oxide test strips, and I use my bioimpedance analysis machine regularly. For the fun of it I’m currently wearing a continuous glucose monitoring (a month worth should do it) device tacked onto my arm with instant readouts on my smartphone app, and I always wear a finger ring that tracks sleep, activity and physiological body signals.

Supplements for blood flow and blood vessel health

I know I walk the talk about promoting a healthy life span, keeping my fat weight and lean mass in check, striving for good bone health, reducing risks for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, AD, and cancer.

I have a variety of mixtures of powered protein shakes after my workout in the morning that include multiple vitamin and mineral support. I am most interested in brands that include vitamin D, zinc, iron, magnesium, vitamin A, calcium, magnesium, potassium, B complex and K. In my shake I throw in probiotics, collagen, and a blend of red spinach, beet roots and other berry extracts. These veggies are helpful for nitric oxide production and I am huge on blood flow and blood vessel health.

I need to supplement with extra vitamin D because I want my levels around 60.

I take extra bone health supplements (five days a week), extra garlic extracts for cardiovascular health (3-5 times a week), omega 3s (daily), and peptides (TB4-Frag and BPC 157) for immune enhancement, inflammation and cognition (five days a week) in regard to biohacking diet. I tried wheat germ extract for a few months and did not feel a change. I take hemp oil about five days a week, and tumeric (high dose) daily.

Extracts and herbs

I’ve recently experimented with Bergamont extract to see the influence on my blood sugar. It’s too early to tell. I believe you have to try something for 3-4 months before really evaluating it. I try different herb combinations for healthy testosterone support and libido.

When I get into a mood where I want to increase lean muscle gains I take mTOR elevators such as phosphatidic acid with L-leucine and astragalus for a month and then cycle off. It works!

As part of my personal and ongoing COVID-19 prevention plan I experiment with butylated hydroxytaluene (BHT), N-acetyl cysteine, and Acetyl-L-carnitine. The peptides also enhance this goal.

Biohacking diet is not only about food and supplements. I am also a firm believer in two closely-related health topics. One is hydration and the other is what you put on your hair and skin. I use hemp-derived topicals on most days.

Please remember there is no one-size-fits-all for nutrition. The ideal recommendations will get more and more personalized sooner than later as off-the-shelf testing is becoming easily available.

JEFFREY TUCKER, DC, is the current president of the ACA Rehabilitation Council and practices in West Los Angeles, Calif. He can be reached at DrJeffreyTucker.com.

REFERENCES

1. cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm
2. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2017-2018; Harvard School of Public Health, 2020.
3. Linares IMP, Guimaraes FS, Eckeli A, et al. No acute effects of cannabidiol on the sleep-wake cycle of healthy subjects: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. Frontiers in Pharmacology 2018;9:315.
4. COVID-19 Impact. Consumer Spending Tracker for Measured Channels: U.S., UK, France, Italy, Germany, NZ. IRI Report. Updated April 2, 2020. Accessed 7/24/2020.