Amidst a sea of general health advice and the male-dominated world of Biohacking, this episode highlights the importance of personalization and self-awareness in women achieving optimal health and vitality. Here’s what you can expect from this episode:
CONNECT WITH NIKA: https://mtr.bio/nika-lawrie
Instagram: instagram.com/biohacking4babes
TikTok: tiktok.com/@biohacking4babes
YouTube: youtube.com/@NikaLawrie
Facebook: facebook.com/biohacking4babes
SUBMIT A QUESTION OR REQUEST A TOPIC:
I would love to hear from you! Please record your question or topic request to be featured in a future episode: https://www.speakpipe.com/NikaLawrie
DISCLAIMER:
*This podcast and its contents are for informational purposes only and are not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or a qualified health provider for any questions concerning a medical condition or health objectives. Additionally, the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every individual and are not guaranteed for business or personal success. Use discretion and seek professional counsel when necessary.
Amidst a sea of general health advice and the male-dominated world of Biohacking, this episode highlights the importance of personalization and self-awareness in women achieving optimal health and vitality. Here’s what you can expect from this episode:
CONNECT WITH NIKA: https://mtr.bio/nika-lawrie
Instagram: instagram.com/biohacking4babes
TikTok: tiktok.com/@biohacking4babes
YouTube: youtube.com/@NikaLawrie
Facebook: facebook.com/biohacking4babes
SUBMIT A QUESTION OR REQUEST A TOPIC:
I would love to hear from you! Please record your question or topic request to be featured in a future episode: https://www.speakpipe.com/NikaLawrie
DISCLAIMER:
*This podcast and its contents are for informational purposes only and are not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or a qualified health provider for any questions concerning a medical condition or health objectives. Additionally, the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every individual and are not guaranteed for business or personal success. Use discretion and seek professional counsel when necessary.
Hey, welcome back to another episode of Inspired with Nika Lawrie. Of course, I am your host, Nika Lawrie, and I'm so grateful to have you join me today. So today is actually a solo episode and there is a very awesome, super exciting reason behind that. So you may have noticed, I have not released an episode in the last couple of weeks. The biggest reason is because I have been working on a brand new project that I am finally ready to launch and it's called Biohacking for Babes.
Nika Lawrie:The idea behind biohacking is really biohacking for women. The idea behind biohacking for babes, I should say, is biohacking for women. Biohacking is about really unlocking the power of self-optimization to really reach the point of optimal health, and the idea is really what you feel is optimal health. So it's not about what you know all the fad diets are saying or what doctors and you know health gurus are saying about optimal health. It's what you personally feel is optimal health for your body, your specific needs and desires. So I'm super excited about it because biohacking as you likely know, or maybe you don't, and we'll get into explaining what biohacking is and all that stuff here in a minute but biohacking has really been dominated by males over the last 20 or 30 years since it's been kind of introduced. It was really kind of introduced by David Asprey about probably about 20 years ago, maybe a little bit more, and he went through this amazing journey of he was about 300 pounds and he lost all this weight and got into incredible shape and is really considered like the godfather of biohacking. No-transcript. Women are so much more in tune with their body's struggles and their body's needs, and so biohacking gives them this power to really take control, take ownership and feel empowered when it comes to controlling and managing their own health.
Nika Lawrie:So let's do a brief explanation of what biohacking is. What it really is is the pursuit of personal well-being through the integration of science, technology and a deep understanding of physiology and nutrition, and so I know that's kind of a mouthful and some kind of big words there, but the idea is using science, the research that's groundbreaking, that's constantly changing and coming out, and really honing in on those specific tips or information that we're learning about how the body works and how our external environment and different things like nutrition influence our health and well-being. So taking that information that we use or that we learn, looking at new technology that's coming out all the time. So, for example, I'm wearing the Oura ring or I have a glucose monitor that I wear, and so using those current technologies to help us understand what's going on inside our body. And then the last part is really starting to understand how our actual bodies work. So that's the physiology and nutrition aspect of it, of it. So when we put something into our body, what is the reaction that our body's going to have? You know, what's the reaction to drinking a soda versus having a glass of water? What's the reaction within our body from eating meat versus having a completely vegan or vegetarian diet? How do those different things impact our overall health? So biohacking is using all of those tools, all of that information, in a really fun and actually much more simple approach than it sounds, to get our bodies, our unique bodies, to that optimal point of health. So it sounds complicated, it sounds like you have to learn and know all these things, but it's really not, and I am going to dedicate my future to really helping women understand their body, their health and feel empowered to again take control of their bodies.
Nika Lawrie:So let's demystify biohacking a little bit. Like I mentioned a minute ago, it's not just about you know the science or the technology. So it's not really for technology enthusiasts or really really you know in-depth PhD scientists that are diving into it. This is really something that's accessible to anybody and I'm so excited about that aspect of it. When we explain kind of the spectrum of biohacking, it can go from really simple basic lifestyle and dietary changes to the more advanced techniques like genetic testing and wearable technologies, and then sometimes you'll hear about even, like you know, these really extreme cases where people are injecting their kids' blood to. You know, have young blood and you know cryogenics and all kinds of different things like that. You do not have to get into that space at all to use biohacking in your daily life to again reach that optimal point of health. There are so many really great things that you can do that are simple in your life and I'm going to start teaching those to you every day and every week through social media, through the podcast, through my blogs and website and through courses and education that you'll have access to ongoing as well and so I'll teach you all of those basic tools. I'll teach you kind of the mid-range tools and we'll talk some about more of those extreme tools if you're interested and want to learn more about that. But I think the vast majority of people are going to kind of stop at that mid-range level. So we'll do the basic to mid-range will be the main focus there.
Nika Lawrie:And then let's talk about you know the principles behind biohacking. Biohacking is understanding and optimizing your own body for better health and performance. So it is not about learning the latest fad diet. It is not about following exactly what the AMA medical system is going to tell you is the best thing for you, because it may not be. What you really want to learn is what's really going to work for your own unique body, your own unique biology, your own unique genes and genetics, own unique biology, your own unique genes and genetics. So there is lots of things that you can do to start to figure out how your body works, specifically compared to somebody else, and then, using that information that you've learned, you're able to then implement different strategies and techniques to support your unique body's needs. So that's the great part. It is not this overwhelming scary thing. Again. It is simple and it's designed specifically for you, to empower you.
Nika Lawrie:Okay, so now let's talk about why biohacking is especially powerful for women and why I've really picked this as the tool, the vehicle to share all of this amazing health and wellness information that I've learned over the years and continue to learn on a daily basis with you, and why I'm really focusing in on women, in on women. So, as you likely know, women really face a unique set of health challenges. I adore men, I love men. They are wonderful human beings, most of them and I'm not trying to cut men out at all I care so much about them and I think that they deserve just as much care and support in the health and wellness field as women do. But the reason I'm focusing in on women is really a couple reasons One being that most of the health and wellness experts out there tend to be more men. They tend to be more male focused as well Not necessarily all of them, but a lot of them tend to be so there's not quite as much support out there in the health and wellness industry for women. Two is because, when you look at a lot of the research studies, especially over the last hundred years or so, most of those studies have actually been done on men, males, usually between the ages of 20 or 30, even like 18 to maybe 35 males 18 to maybe 35 males. The reason for that is because a lot of time those studies were done at universities and, as you know, for many years women were not allowed to even participate or be students at universities. And then in the recent 30, 40, 50 years, as women started to move into educational situations, often they were not included in those research studies. So I'll give you one example of this.
Nika Lawrie:For most of us, we've heard that most people need between seven and eight hours of sleep a night. Well, it turns out that that research was actually done primarily on men. So men in their 20s to 30s need seven to eight hours of sleep. Well, new research that's been focused on women and this is very, very recent studies have been focused on women and how much sleep is optimal for them. Well, it turns out that most women actually need between eight and 10 hours of sleep. So I know, for me, getting seven, seven and a half hours of sleep never truly felt like enough and I've always really prioritized sleep. Well, now you know where I always knew I felt better was about eight and a half hours. But I was like why am I sleeping between eight and a half and nine hours when I don't need that much sleep Turns out women do need that much sleep. The optimal range again is between eight and 10 hours, so a lot of women fall in that nine hour period for optimal sleep. So that's just one example of research that's now shifting, being focused more on women. So I really want to focus on providing those updated research studies to women to help support them so we better understand our body.
Nika Lawrie:Another example of women not necessarily getting the supports that they need is through the American medical system. So I don't want people to think that I'm bashing completely on the American medical system. I'm really not intending to. I think there are amazing physicians and doctors and nurses and all of the great support staff that help them, but a lot of times what you find is that they have not been educated or provided the latest research on what's changing, what we know now. There's a general rule of thumb that it takes about 17 years for the latest research to get down to the general practitioner office when patients are coming in. It takes about 17 years for that information to travel. So in general, the AMA tends to be 17 to 20 years behind groundbreaking research, and so that can be a big issue.
Nika Lawrie:The other part of that and I hear this story over and over again and I am a myself is a perfect example of how this happened, as a woman. We often go to our physicians, male or female, though it tends to be more dominant male. We go to our physicians and we say, look, something is wrong with me. I don't know what's wrong with me. They may run some tests, they may, you know, look at you, kind of do a diagnostic process on you, and they say you look fine, you're in your 20s, you're in your 30s, it's all in your head, you're fine.
Nika Lawrie:Turns out, after visit after visit, after visit with different physicians, over and over again, the women end up finally figuring out something was going on with them, something was wrong with them, but they were either misdiagnosed or dismissed or not listened to at all, and I personally have experienced this on more than one occasion, where they were told that they were fine or there was nothing wrong, or the doctors just threw up their hands. And so the women leave heartbroken or struggling or having mental health issues on top of their physical issues, because they weren't listened to. And so my goal with this is to then try to educate as many women as possible, to empower them to start to learn about their own body so that they can take back that power and they can be empowered to then figure out what's going on with their body. And that doesn't mean that they shouldn't have some guidance or support from a physician, but I think it's really key that they have that strength and knowledge and empowerment to really say no, there is something going on. These are the things I've identified. This is my understanding of it. Can you help me figure out this situation? And so that's the idea here is to provide education, tools and research to as many women as possible so they are empowered to take care of their own health.
Nika Lawrie:And then the last part here is to really think about the specific roles that women face in traditional society that we have, especially here in the United States. So women are often the caregivers, they're often the you know head of the household in the sense of making sure the groceries are there, making sure the kids are picked up from school, making sure the laundry is done, on top of working a full-time job. And so the stress and the lack of sleep and the anxiety and the depression and all of the issues that come with being in that role can really have a drastic impact on a woman's health, and so the idea here is to support that and to understand that women need easy tools that they can implement into their life throughout the busy day that they may have to help them then maintain and manage and optimize their health. So the goal here is to support women in the spot that they're in in whatever manner that they need support in in that time. So I'm really really excited about this. I think it's so key to support women like this, and I'm just I'm just, like I said, excited to share all of that information with you guys.
Nika Lawrie:Okay, so now let's talk about addressing some of the fears or misconceptions around biohacking and then really just kind of give a basic overview about how do we get started with biohacking. So, as I mentioned earlier, I want to really drive home the fact that biohacking is not about extreme self-experimentation or expensive gadgets. Biohacking really can be as simple as making informed choices around our diet, around exercise, around sleep habits and around our stress. Yes, there are other gadgets and different tools that you can use. I mentioned my continuous glucose monitor and my Oura Ring but you don't need those. These are just things that tools that I've decided to use to help me figure out more things about my body. But to get started, it can be really, really simple. So let's talk about a couple of the things that you can start doing today to start biohacking your own body, and I love these because they're simple, they are free and they're things that you can start incorporating right now.
Nika Lawrie:So one of the best things a beginner can actually do is to track your diet, your sleep, your mood and your energy levels. I loved when I went through functional nutrition school. One of the things that my instructor always talked about was the food, mood, pooped diary. But I think we need to take it one step farther. So we need to look at food, we need to look at mood, we need to look at our poop and then also sleep and energy. So I guess that's two steps further.
Nika Lawrie:So the food, mood, poop, sleep, energy, diet or journal I mean. So all you can do. I mean you can do it on just a simple piece of paper or get yourself one of those little, you know basic little journals that you can buy at the grocery store or something and each day, just start tracking what you're eating. It doesn't have to be perfect, you don't need to count calories. Please do not count calories. Just write down. Okay, so I had a soda and a bag of chips at lunch today and then I had, you know, starbucks for breakfast. Hopefully this is not your diet, but a lot of times this is what people are starting with and that's okay. There's no shame. It's just you start where you're at and you build from there.
Nika Lawrie:So you know, you write down what you ate and then throughout the day, you know, just take little notes about how you feel throughout the day. Oh, 3 pm hit and I feel exhausted. I have that 3 pm crash. Or, you know, 7 o'clock came after dinner and all I could do was just lay on the couch because I was so exhausted from the day. Or, you know, I woke up at 8 o'clock in the morning and I just, you know, I hardly have energy. I just have enough energy to get me and the family out the door and then I start to feel kind of a peak energy kick in at like 10 am and then I can focus on my work for a while until it's lunchtime and then again I have that crash at 3 pm. You know, I tried to fall asleep at 930, but my head was wandering so much that it was probably midnight by the time I fell asleep.
Nika Lawrie:Whatever it is, just write down little tiny notes and keep track of how you're feeling. As you start to see, you know you track that over 10, 20, ideally like 30 to 90 days, you will start to see trends in how you eat versus how you feel, and how you eat versus how you sleep, and how you eat versus how much energy you have out throughout the day. Having this tool, this information, then empowers you to make really important informed choices about what you're eating. So, instead of maybe eating that bag of chips and a Coke for a lunch, maybe you ate some carrots and some you know a light salad and some protein. Key there is eating some protein For lunch. See how your energy level changes. Do you still have that 3 pm crash or do you have more energy going until like 7 pm when you're tired and you want to sit on the couch? Start tracking those things over time and it'll give you a really good understanding of what you're eating versus how you feel, like we discussed.
Nika Lawrie:The next thing I want you to really think about is really thinking about your sleep hygiene. So this is so key In our American society. I know parts of the rest of the world, so for listeners outside of the United States, this is still for you, but you all tend to really prioritize rest and sleep a little bit better than Americans do. But for everyone, but especially American listeners, sleep is probably single-handedly the most important thing that you could focus on to support your health and well-being. Diet, I would say, is number two. People usually put diet as number one and then sleep. But there's a reason that our body needs to be asleep for a third of our life to survive, to live. If it wasn't important, our body would not need to do that. So just think about that. Why would our body need to be asleep for one third of our entire life if it wasn't important?
Nika Lawrie:So, really focusing in on that sleep hygiene, there's a couple things you can do. One is to get yourself on a really great sleep schedule. So this is looking at sleeping between, say, 9.30 at night and 6.30 here, seven o'clock in the morning. So have that set routine and do it as close to that every single night, including the weekends. So try not to vary more than an hour in either direction. So if you usually typically go to sleep at 930,. Don't go to sleep later than 1030. And if you usually wake up at 6 or 630, don't go in either direction. Don't wake up between 530 or 730, any later or earlier than that. So getting on that routine is really really important. Don't wake up between 530 or 730, any later or earlier than that. So getting on that routine is really really important.
Nika Lawrie:The next thing that you can really consider is keeping your bedroom cool at night. Doesn't have to be icy cold, but like maybe 65 Fahrenheit I'm not sure what that is in Celsius. I think that's probably around like 17 or 18 Celsius. Don't quote me on that, but I'm estimating there. So thinking about keeping your bedroom cool is really really key there.
Nika Lawrie:Another thing that you really want to do is make sure that your lights in the evening, as you're going to bed, are as dim as possible. You don't want the really bright overhead lights, as that will mess up your melatonin and you'll have a hard time getting your rhythm, your circadian rhythm, in the right place for where you need to be when you fall asleep. That's one reason why a lot of people have a hard time falling asleep in the evenings is they're often staring at their blue screens on their phones, they are looking at their iPads watching TV, or they have the bright overhead lights that messes up your circadian rhythm, and then you have a hard time falling asleep. It takes a couple hours for your body to get back in the rhythm of where it thinks it actually is versus what time it really is, and so you have a hard time falling asleep. So really making sure that the lights are as dim as possible in the evening and this really I would start, you know, kind of as soon as the sun goes down, really try to match your lights with the sunset will help you fall asleep faster in the evenings. The other thing that I would say to consider and this really depends on the time of the year and where you're living and how cold it is outside and if you have time, but if you are able to, in the mornings, when you wake up, go outside for just a couple of minutes and face in the direction of the sun. Now, don't stare directly at the sun, don't hurt your eyes or anything like that, and you don't have to stay in the sun for long periods of time, especially for those who may be really sensitive to the sun, but stand out there, get some bright, direct sunlight for a couple minutes in the morning and this actually helps set your circadian rhythm and it'll help you fall asleep easier in the evenings. It's really key that you have to do it within the first 10, 20, 30 minutes of waking up. That's really key.
Nika Lawrie:Another thing that you may want to consider is actually waiting about an hour to 90 minutes before you have caffeine from the time you wake up. So if you wake up at seven, don't have caffeine, don't have that first cup of coffee until about 9.30. I know for a lot of you who are kind of caffeine fiends, this may be hard, but if you can just push that out just a little bit, wait about 90 minutes to have your first bit of caffeine, it helps your body really reset and it helps you be in a place where your body can actually digest that caffeine appropriately to help you be able to have more energy throughout the day. And also, mentioning caffeine, you really don't want to have caffeine about probably seven to eight hours prior to going to sleep. So if you're going to go to sleep around 10 o'clock, stop having caffeine at 2 pm. If you're going to fall asleep around 9 or 9.30,. Stop having caffeine around 1 or 1.30. It takes about eight hours for caffeine to actually process through the body, so you really want to make sure that's out of your system before you're trying to fall asleep. So that's key. So those are some really important key hygiene tips for sleep.
Nika Lawrie:There are tons more that we'll learn about over time. I hope you will follow along so you can learn all of them. Follow the Instagram account. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast and follow Facebook as well, because I will be sharing all of those tips over the coming months and years. I'm going to give you two or three others, but I'm going to go through them a little bit faster. So experimenting with your diet is really key. So maybe introducing some anti-inflammatory foods or considering maybe testing out intermediate fasting.
Nika Lawrie:With fasting, the thing I will say is to start small first and then build. Do not try to do a 72-hour fast or even a 17-hour fast If you've never fasted before and you eat all the time. Start with maybe a 10-hour fast, so when you go to sleep and then when you wake up, that would be your fast. While you're sleeping, you could try a 12-hour fast. So starting, you know, if your last meal was at 7 pm at night for dinner, don't eat again until 7 am in the morning. That would be a 12-hour fast. Once your body is comfortable with that and you're okay with that, then you consider maybe consider adding in half an hour or an hour to your fast as you get more comfortable Again, that 48 or 24 hour or 72 hour fasting. Do not do that until you are an expert in fasting, and even then there's very specific times as women that we should be considering fasting versus not fasting, and that's really going to be around our hormonal cycle.
Nika Lawrie:One of the things I will be teaching a lot about going forward is understanding our hormones and our menstrual cycle, because it is like the fifth vital sign for our bodies. It is so important and women do not understand enough about our menstrual cycle and how it impacts us on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, on a monthly basis and a yearly basis. There's so many facets that move with our menstrual cycle and our health and it's so key that once we start to learn that and understand that, we're able to implement so many other little hacks that will help us feel better throughout the whole cycle. So the last two I'll talk about is managing stress. Everybody knows stress is an issue, right? Some stressors can be good, though, and many stressors can be bad, so we'll start looking at those different things. So, again, make sure that you follow along, subscribe to the podcast so we can start talking about what those different stressors are, what are the good ones, what are the bad ones, and how do we manage those bad ones or try to reduce them as much as possible. And, of course, we will get into different technology, wearables, different tools and apps and things that we can use to help hack our health and get us to that optimal point. So, again, I encourage you, my friend, please, please, follow along All of the social media channels you can find at Biohacking4babes and it's the number four, not the word, but four, so biohacking4babes. You can find me on TikTok, facebook and Instagram. And then, again, please follow along and subscribe to the podcast as well.
Nika Lawrie:So with that I'm going to wrap up. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to share all of this knowledge with you. I will continue to have amazing guests on the podcast. I'm always so grateful, I learned so much from them and love those conversations. So we will continue moving forward with guest episodes. I will do lots of solo episodes on teaching about different specific topics, in kind of the biohacking, holistic health realm, and then we will also do something I'm really excited about, but I'm going to start doing episodes on lesser known women that have made a huge impact in the world.
Nika Lawrie:One of the reasons why the podcast has been named Inspired is I want to inspire women to feel empowered to really take control of their lives, to take control of their health, and to really feel inspired to go make a huge difference in the world, even if it's a little small difference in your community or your neighborhood, or a large difference like changing the health system or educating other women or supporting the community in some grand way. Whatever it is, I want women to feel inspired to make their impact on the world in a positive way, because I think the more women that make an impact, the better the world will be. I think we've had a long time of kind of the male dominated world and it's gotten us to where we are today, good or bad. Again, not bashing on men, because there are some amazing men in my life and amazing men in the world but I think women need that opportunity as well, and so I hope all of these episodes, all of the content that I create, inspires you to be the best woman that you desire to be. So, with that, my friend, thank you so much for listening.
Nika Lawrie:I will see you next week in the next episode, and don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions or want to learn more right away. I'll have lots of information and resources coming. And again, please be sure to leave a comment and share these episodes with your friends. The more you share, the more we grow with listeners, and the better guests I can have, the more impact we have. So it's really important that you share those, and I'm always so, so grateful for that. The last thing I will say is that there is an option to leave a voice memo to let me know what you think of the show, let me think of the episodes, or share topics or suggestions that you may have, or guest suggestions that you'd like to hear from. So please check that out. Everything's in the show notes. With that, have a wonderful day and I'll see you in the next episode. Thanks, friends, bye.