You know the old adage—you are what you eat? In the year 2000, my personal health journey proved that was true. It was then that I decided to fight my Lyme disease full-on, by purifying my diet and leaping into the world of herbal medicines. It changed everything. I healed myself completely, just by what I decided to ingest. The thought alone is groundbreaking but more and more research is beginning to unveil what I had discovered for myself—I had literally biohacked my body back to health and had unknowingly, discovered the power of nutrigenomics.
It has since become my life mission to educate others about nutrigenomics because we all harness the power to heal ourselves. Dr. David Perlmutter explained nutrigenomics best, “The foods we eat actually interact with our DNA, changing the expression of our genes moment-to-moment, for the better or the worse,” explained Dr. David Perlmutter, a board-certified neurologist and fellow at the American College of Nutrition.
“In this sense, food is information, and the instructions our food sources provide to our DNA regulate processes like inflammation, detoxification and the production of anti-oxidants, all of which are pivotal for the health decay of the brain,” he said.
For me it all made sense and this kind of thinking wasn’t new. My mother was always into holistic healing and thinking outside of the box as far as the traditional ways we heal people in the United States. So, I was really educated at a young age on the other ways people can live and have a healthy life. I started learning all I could about this transformative field of research, and most recently by following people like Dave Asprey and Tim Ferriss. In an interview with The Guardian, Asprey was quoted for having spent $1m and 20 years on biohacking, which he describes as “the art and science of changing the environment around you or inside you so that you have full control of your own biology.”
Later in the interview, Asprey explained what started him on his journey to health. “I had some brain fog, like I’d try and pay attention or remember things and I couldn’t. I got pretty concerned about it. Then [the doctor] told me I had a very high risk of stroke and heart attack before I was 30. And I said, Well, fix me. And it was the utter failure of that approach that made me decide I had to take control.”
Taking control is possible and I’ve done it myself. There are genes, specifically called “Survival Genes,” that produce good stuff in our bodies like antioxidants, however, they naturally slow in production after the age of 25. You can use foods and herbs to crack the code of your DNA and turn these genes back on so that your body can reset and begin healthy production again. Genes are up or down, regulated by “Messenger Proteins,” of which the two most important to activate are NRF2 and Nrf1.
The most powerful product I have been able to find on the market today to activate NRF2 and Nrf1 is Protandim, which is part of my biohacking regimen. Protandim NRF2 uses a patented combination of milk thistle, bacopa, tumeric, ashwagandha, green tea. There is synergy in combining plant ingredients, which make the composition significantly more powerful than taking them individually. This is important to keep in mind when taking supplements because activation is the difference between providing your body with antioxidants versus triggering your body to make them itself. Guys like Dave Asprey and Tim Ferriss offer other, and often more aggressive means for biohacking bodies that also work on different pathways. The field is growing rapidly and it is great to be pioneering nutrigenomics with visionary leaders.
Regardless of the way that you choose, the bottom line is that you need to be more conscious of what you are feeding yourself and how that fuel is instructing your body to behave and perform. Nutrigenomics is the future of health and I am excited to be a resource, and part of the biohacking movement.