Transmutable Explorations

Author: Jason

  • Intro to Breathwork

    Breathing… we all do it.  Most of us probably don’t pay much attention to how we go about it either.  Unless you do, you probably also don’t realize that some subtle awareness when it comes to your breathwork practice can likely make a radical difference in your day to day health.  I was the same way, until I started researching the subject.  After years of doing so, I slowly incorporated some simple techniques that have changed my mind considerably.  If this is of interest to you, read on for my intro to breathwork.

    My Intro to Breathwork Journey

    I’ve had an on again/off again relationship with meditation and yoga my whole life.  Long time practitioners of both always talk extensively about “paying attention to the breath”.  Early on, I never really put much stock into this.  I associated this with the more ‘woo’ side of the practice without any real scientific basis.  My opinion of this started to change after looking for effective ways of reducing my stress while working in a high strung corporate environment.  My first success in using breathwork for this came from a Navy SEAL friend of mine.  He introduced me to Box Breathing (described below) and subjectively, this seemed to allow me to more easily fall asleep on high stress evenings.

    Eventually, as part of that same high strung corporate environment, I often traveled to India.  On the weekends while I was there, I would travel the country with my co workers and take in many of the experiences associated with traveling to India.  This often involved going to Ayurvedic retreats and temples throughout the country, participating in yogic and meditative rituals.  This exposed me to Pranayama.  This practice defines several different techniques for breathing that are meant to induce different types of changes in the body.  At this point, the focus on breathwork while meditating and doing yoga started to make much more sense.

    I was exposed to all of this before I started using the Oura ring.  With the first generation of Oura, it was easy to see the impact of box breathing on my sleep.  The moment that Oura rolled out it’s mediation support, I started to use it with different dedicated breathing techniques.  It was honestly surprising to see how effective some of them were in terms of impacting heart rate and HRV.

    Scientific Basis

    When I started to really dig into this, I came across numerous studies that laid the groundwork for a very scientific basis for many breathwork practices.  Breathing is actually more about regulating Carbon Dioxide (CO2) than oxygenating the blood.  We strive to maintain our CO2 levels in the blood within a very narrow range.  The brain interprets a low oxygen state as a threat and it activates the sympathetic nervous system as a result.  CO2 is also acidic, so the CO2/oxygen balance has direct effects on the blood’s pH.  Taking steps to rebalance these levels does the opposite and results in an overall calming effect.

    In addition to the effects related to blood oxygenation, more research has shown that diaphragmatic breathing (slow abdominal based breathing) directly stimulates the vagus nerve.  This instantly puts you into a more parasympathetic state.  Vagus nerve stimulation has also been tied to improvements in Heart Rate Variability (HRV).  Additionally, heart rate is directly tied to breathing.  This phenomenon is referred to as Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) and directly impacts blood pressure.

    Understanding these basic concepts is the key to using controlled breathwork to achieve different desired states.  Hear are a few things to keep in mind:

    • Slow breathing, especially from the diaphragm stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system and tends to be more relaxing.
    • Fast breathing and chest breathing tends to increase CO2 levels resulting in a sympathetic nervous system response.  This can energize, but also promotes anxiety.
    • Breath Holds increase C02 levels
    • Emphasizing inhales increases heart rate (and often blood pressure)
    • Emphasizing exhales decreases heart rate (and often blood pressure)

    Proper Breathing Technique

    Many people underestimate the importance of breathing ‘correctly’. The hurried modern life and other stressors have an extremely negative impact on how people breathe and most don’t even realize it. If you don’t currently have awareness regarding how you breathe on a regular basis and aren’t prioritizing doing something about it, you will be amazed at how quickly doing so can change the way you feel. There are many breathing techniques that you can use to address many different goals that you may have, but most modern americans are stuck in a continuous stress state. Even moving into a ‘rest and digest’ state a few times a day can have a profound positive impact on your health.

    Based on the information presented so far, the ideal every day breathing technique would seem to be a reasonably slow, diaphragmatic breath.  I’ll add one more rule of thumb that should be followed: breath through the nose.  Not only does breathing through the nose help filter out pollutants, virii, etc.  It helps warm cold air before it hits the lungs.  Additionally, it’s important in order to effectively get nitric oxide into our systems.  Take a look around you and see how many people are actually breathing this way.  Even though, this will generally be the best way to breath, different types of breathwork are designed to achieve certain temporary responses.

    Types of Breathwork

    There are many types of breathwork and I’m always learning more.  This list below are the ones that I actively use.  I briefly explain how to do the technique and why I personally do them.

    Box Breathing

    This was the type of breathwork that started it all for me.  I started doing it as a way to immediately calm myself but I’ve since found that it’s also very effective for getting into a state of focus.  It’s super effective even after doing it for a few minutes and it’s very easy for beginners to learn.  Box breathing starts by expelling all air from your lungs.  Stay in this ’empty’ state for a count of 4.  Now inhale through your nose for a count of four.  Hold for a count of four.  Finally, exhale through your nose again for a count of 4.  This is one cycle of Box Breathing.  Repeat for 2 to 5 minutes and enjoy your state of calm focus!

    4-7-8 Breathing

    My success with Box Breathing lead me to discover 4-7-8 Breathing.  Box Breathing before bed, sometimes had the unfortunate side affect of making me more focused on things that I needed to do tomorrow, etc.  This wasn’t helping me get the sleep that had initially hoped this breathwork practice would provide. This breathwork technique is a form of diaphragmatic breathing that involves inhaling for four seconds, holding the breath for seven seconds, and exhaling for eight seconds.  The longer breath hold combined with the longer exhale is what makes this an even more relaxing technique compared to Box Breathing.  Again, repeating this for a few minutes is all that is needed to achieve a dramatically more relaxed state.

    Physiological Sigh

    The physiological sigh is the easiest way to instantly remove anxiety.  It’s also super easy to do.  Just two rapid inhales through the nose and then an extended exhale through the mouth.  One of these works wonders, but do this a few times to really feel the impact.

    Nadi Shodhana

    Nadi Shodhana (also known as alternate nostril breathing) is a great centering practice and one that I often do while meditating in the sauna.  It can be relaxing and it also increases focus.  Studies have shown that left nostril breathing slows down heart rate and decreases blood pressure. These same studies indicate that right nostril breathing increases both heart rate and blood pressure.  Pranayama’s practice of Nadi Shodhana incorporates asanas and the Vishnu Mudra, but it can be done by just simply doing the following:

    • Use the thumb on your right hand to block your right nostril and inhale through your left nostril
    • Close your left nostril with your index finger and briefly hold
    • Open your right nostril and exhale slowly and then immediately inhale
    • Close your right nostril again and briefly hold
    • Open your left nostril and exhale slowly

    This is one cycle.  From this point you can repeat many times.  You can also add holds on exhale or combine this technique with Box Breathing for added effects.

    Kapalabhati Breathing

    Kapalabhati is another classic Pranayama.  It is also known as “Skull Shining Breath”.  This is considered a purifying breathwork technique.  It involves alternating active, explosive diaphragmatic exhales with a longer passive inhale.  This is an energizing technique, so not something you would want to do when you’re trying to relax/go to sleep.  I use this as a form of Respiratory Muscle Training (RMT) that doesn’t require a device.  RMT has been shown to increase cardio athletic performance and VO2 max.  Be careful with this!  It’s common that new practitioners are in pain the next day because they are using muscles that they are not used to using.

    Wim Hof Method

    While the full Wim Hof Method also incorporates meditation and cold exposure as core tenants, the breathing method is also very effective when used alone.  This technique is closely related to Holotropic breathwork.  It is basically a form of controlled hyperventilation.  Hyperventilation has been shown to slow down the default mode network.  This form of breathing is extremely powerful and I use it as a general ‘reset’.  In my experience, I feel an extended state of bliss for days after practicing this.  When properly done, this technique really shows the range of what you can accomplish with breathwork.

    Conclusion

    There are so many different types of breathwork!  These are a few that I use all the time.  I wish I had familiarity with these longer than I have.  I feel strongly that some of these basic techniques should be taught early in schools and/or be added to every parents’ tool box.  It could really make a huge difference in the mental health of our children to have an effective means of reducing stress/anxiety that they can carry with them wherever they go.  Are you a breathwork advocate?  Are you using a technique that I haven’t covered here?  Let me know in the comments!

  • Overwintering Pepper Plants

    Overwintering Pepper Plants

    People are often surprised when I tell them that I have pepper plants that are a decade old.  This is because I’ve been overwintering pepper plants for several years.  Following this overwintering procedure makes the most of your harvest and allows you to get a jump start in subsequent seasons.

    Why Overwinter Pepper Plants?

    So what does overwintering pepper plants buy you?

    I enjoy peppers.  When I say “pepper”, I’m mostly talking about those insanely hot and flavorful varieties.  These are the types that you usually can’t just pick up at your local garden center.  Even finding the seeds for them sometimes requires a lot of searching, expense, etc.  Once you start growing them, these varieties of peppers grown from seed rarely have a chance to produce prolific fruit in my relatively short growing season.  I tried this early on, and mostly just got frustrated when I went to all this trouble to get no or minimal fruit.  My pepper plant overwintering process initially started as a way to prolong that harvest time.  It eventually morphed into having the long lived pepper plants that I do now.  These overwintered pepper plants don’t need to do all of the early growth that first season plants do and end up producing fruit earlier in the season due to this.

    Starting Peppers From Seed

    Starting the types of peppers that I enjoy from seed is often a tricky process.  I won’t necessarily go into detail here as I’ve found that each variety seems to differ slightly in what works best.  Almost all of them though require some form of warmth during the germination process.  I’ve written before about my indoor seed starting and growing setup.  When I’m starting peppers from seed, they go through the full lifecycle described in this post.  This tends to be the most difficult part of the process.  When this is successful, I want to make the most of it.

    Growing in Containers

    Many people who overwinter peppers will actually dig them up before bringing them inside.  For the most part, I’ve opted to grow them in containers.  Growing in containers makes it easy to eventually move them inside.  There are other benefits as well.  You can move the containers around your yard.  I do this for several reasons.  You can optimize their sun exposure and move them out of rain (peppers hate being overwatered).  I’ve also been using it as a means to get them out of the way of pests.

    The Pepper Plant Overwintering Process

    The overwintering process is fairly easy.  If you don’t already plant in containers, you’ll have an extra step.  Get ready to dig up your plants and then transfer them into containers.  Beginning this process usually signifies the end of my gardening season as it typically is one of the last things I do.

    When to Start

    I start to think about the overwintering process when night time temps start to consistently dip below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.  Whatever you do, you want to make sure that your pepper plants are inside before there is any threat of freezing.  Before bringing your plants inside, you want to blast them with a high powered stream of water.  This removes any pests that might be hanging on.  This is one of the biggest issues that you’re likely to encounter during this process.  If I see evidence of pests, sometimes I’ll spray with an insecticidal soap solution and then follow that with another high powered water stream.

    Bring Pepper Plants Indoors

    At this point, you can bring the containers inside.  Usually, many will still have fruit and flowers.  Unless you have a serious indoor gardening setup, there’s little hope that those flowers will mature into fruit.  It’s best to remove all of the flowers.  If you have the space, you can put them in a warm, lighted spot until you harvest the remaining fruit.  After this occurs, you can move on to the next step.

    Induce Dormancy

    At this point, we want to coax the pepper plants into going dormant.  This makes it much easier to overwinter them.  When this occurs, they won’t put any energy into growing or flowering.  I do this by cutting all of the leaves and most of the stems off of the plants.  These pruning shears are my favorite way to make clean cuts.  I usually cut them down so that there are no more than 3 or 4 ‘stems’ above the first branch point.  I cut all of these back just above the first branch node above the first branch point.  Now you can do another check for any pests and deal with them if necessary.

    The final step in inducing dormancy is to move the containers to an unheated garage or another spot that maintains a temperature around 50 degrees Fahrenheit.  You don’t really need direct light here.

    Overwinter

    Congratulations!  You’re successfully overwintering peppers.  At this point, you can mostly forget about them until Spring.  Check on them every week or two to make sure nothing weird is occurring.  You should water them lightly once or twice a month.

    Spring Revival

    Shortly after your last frost, you need to bring the pepper plants out of dormancy.  You initiate this by moving the containers some place warmer that gets more light.  If you have a dedicated indoor gardening space, that’s great.  If not, move them to a south facing window and keep them warm.  At this point, you can also start watering them more frequently.  It’s also a great idea to fertilize them using your method of choice.  Once you start to see signs of new growth, you can begin to put them outside for a bit each day to harden them off.  When night time temps are consistently above 50 degrees Fahrenheit and you’ve hardened them off, it’s time to move them outside permanently.

    Conclusion

    Are you overwintering pepper plants?  If not, what’s holding you back?  What tricks and tips do you have to make this process most effective?  Drop me a line and let me know!

  • Joovv Review

    Joovv Review

    The Joovv is the gold standard when it comes to red light therapy devices. It’s a medical grade, modular system that allows you to build the ideal red light therapy setup for your needs over time. It supports both red and near infrared wavelengths and allows you to control them independently. The EMF levels emitted by the device are also third party verified to be within an acceptable range.  So I jumped at the opportunity to participate in a study that provided a Joovv to use in my own home.  Read on for my Joovv review.

    The Study

    The study that I participated in was designed to investigate the impact of using the Joovv device to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). I followed the protocol exactly as specified during the study… 10 minutes of red light and near infrared exposure to the face every morning. The light emitted is a bit strong for me to keep my eyes open while staring into the device.  I took this as an opportunity to get in an extra 10 minutes of meditation each day. 

    Impact on Mood

    After a few days, I noticed a definite improvement in my mood. The extra morning mediation alone could have been the cause. After reading about the benefits of getting red light into the eyes, I decided to do the PBM therapy with eyes open.  In both cases I noticed a difference in mood although it’s difficult to say if both are additive.

    Impact on Sleep

    By the end of the first week, my sleep quality was obviously improved, even though my overall length of sleep remained unchanged. Not only did I feel more refreshed, but this was also quantitatively verified by the data from my Oura ring. I continue to follow this protocol even though the study has ended since it is obvious that this 10 minute morning ritual has a very pronounced positive impact on my sleep and overall mood.

    Impact on Body Comp

    After the study ended, I started experimenting with some other uses for the Joovv.  During the course of this study, I was spending way more time than I wanted to working out.  Despite this, I seemed to plateau in terms of increasing/maintaining my lean muscle mass while decreasing my overall body fat percentage. Working out more or harder wasn’t really an option for me as I was getting into a situation where timely recovery was becoming problematic.  To be honest, I didn’t really want to dedicate a larger portion of my day to working out.

    Initially I started using the Joovv to try to enhance muscle and joint recovery.  This was before I purchased an infrared sauna (which honestly is better for this).  Since I didn’t have a ‘full body’ red light therapy setup, I was spending a ton of time spot targeting pain areas. This wasn’t sustainable with everything else that I had going on so I started investigating other ways to achieve my goals.  How could I increase lean muscle mass and decrease body fat while working out less and/or at a lower intensity?

    This led down a crazy rabbit hole of many things to try.  Ultimately it had me circle back around to the libido boosting PBM advocates. At this time, I’m still experimenting but I added a second daily Joovv session aimed at boosting testosterone levels.  This with some additional diet/supplement tweaks has allowed me to decrease both the frequency and intensity of my workouts and resulted in a 2% increase in overall lean muscle mass and a ~3% decrease in body fat. I have plans in the pipeline to test out all the variables and see how much of this change can be attributed to the Joovv session.

    Conclusion

    I have and use several different red light therapy devices.  The Joovv mini isn’t the best for everything, but it’s very effective in many cases.  I use the Joovv panel almost every day for something.  Have you been using a Joovv or other device for PBM? Do you have questions specifically about the Joovv? Let me know in the comments or each out via email.

  • Apollo Neuro Review

    Apollo Neuro Review

    When I finally got serious about ‘getting fit’, I bought my first Oura ring.  At the time, I primarily wanted to fix my sleep issues.  A happy side effect of this purchase was that it made me more aware of my Heart Rate Variability (HRV).  I always considered my HRV on the lower side, but quickly realized that I felt my best when it was at the higher end of the range.  Pretty much since this realization, I’ve been experimenting with various ways of raising my HRV.  Many ways of raising HRV involve dedication to a regular practice… exercise, breathwork, mindfulness, gratitude, etc.  This isn’t always easy and started my quest for the ‘easy’ fix for raising HRV.  This led me to discover the Apollo Neuro device.  Read on for my Apollo Neuro Review.

    What Piqued My Interest

    I eventually started to hear about the Apollo Neuro on various podcasts.  It started out as advertisements and I was like “yeah, right, this sounds like complete wishful thinking”.  Eventually I heard an interview with the founder and key employees and thought “Ok, I can see how this *could* work.”  This led me to the Apollo Neuro website where I was initially turned off by the price.  I did sign up for the email list though to keep up to date with what they were doing.  Over time, as I had a chance, I read their blog posts and some of the scientific studies.  Eventually, I decided to take advantage of a sale and purchase one in order to test it for myself.

    What is it?

    So what exactly is the Apollo Neuro?  It’s a haptic wearable.  You can clip it to your chest or wear it around your wrist or ankle and it silently delivers vibrations to your body.  Apollo mentions that it needs to be worn near a bone in order to have its stress resiliency improvement results.  This is how it claims to achieve it’s results.  What’s the exact mechanism of action?  It’s not clear, but my prior research into improving HRV has indicated many positive studies related to both touch therapy and increasing vagal nerve tone.

    My Apollo Neuro Review

    The Software

    In addition to the Apollo Neuro wearable device, there is also a mobile app.  The Android app allows you to control which ‘Vibes’ are played on the device.  At the time of writing, this includes things like Energy, Social, Focus, Recover, Calm, Unwind and Fall Asleep.  For each Vibe, you can control the length and intensity of how each play.  There is a mechanism for scheduling Vibes.

    The Apollo Neuro Android app also collects metrics on usage.  This is used to provide a bit of gamification and estimates on the perceived benefits you’ve received by using the device.

    The Protocol

    My plan was to stop doing anything new to intentionally modify HRV for 2 months.  This would define a ‘baseline’ HRV using my OURA ring.  Care was taken to maintain my same workout, drinking regimen and note using Oura tags any anomalies.  After defining this, I would do the same wearing the Apollo Neuro device.  There was a one week transition period to figure out the ins and outs of the wearable.  The data collected during this week would not be counted for either part of the experiment.

    I quickly found that I most preferred wearing the Apollo Neuro around my left ankle.  Yes, it looks like I’m wearing an ankle monitor, but shorts season is only part of the year!  Apollo recommends using the device for at least 90 minutes during the day and 90 minutes during the night.  I followed the following schedule for the duration of the experiment:

    • 9:00 AM Focus Vibe for 30 Minutes at 20% Intensity
    • 11:00 AM Social Vibe for 30 Minutes at 20% Intensity
    • 1:00 PM Energy Vibe for 30 Minutes at 15% Intensity
    • 4:00 PM Recover Vibe for 30 Minutes at 25% Intensity
    • 7:00 PM Social Vibe for 60 Minutes at 25% Intensity
    • 10:00 PM Fall Asleep Vibe for 30 Minutes at 40% Intensity

    So what did I find out while doing this?

    The Good

    Wearing the Apollo Neuro device using the supplied band was fairly comfortable.  Sometimes socks interfered with wearing it, but overall I forgot most of the time that I was even wearing it.

    It actually works at raising my HRV! Based on my testing, it consistently raises my HRV by almost 15%  Even when drinking.  It maybe related, but my deep sleep averaged an extra 3 minutes during this time as well.  The Apollo app estimates that I’ve been getting 6 minutes of extra overall sleep each night during this time.  Oura is recording significantly more total sleep time than that.

    The different vibes feel noticeably different.  Subjectively, I do feel a difference in response to the different vibes.

    The gamification is nice.  This is a good way to guarantee that I’m regularly checking in with the app.

    The scheduling capability is fairly extensive.  You can configure everything that you would want to do.  Even though I’ve kept my schedule the same every day for this experiment, you can easily change it to be completely different every day.

    Oura ring integration.  Nothing really appears to be done with this yet, but I like that they’re thinking about it.  They’re getting tons of free information from me here, so it would be nice if they would give me something in return.

    The device supports airplane mode.  This is a requirement for me for any wearable that is likely to be used while I’m sleeping.

    The Bad

    Former Android developer speaking here… like almost every wearable device, the Apollo Neuro Android app experience has a lot of room for improvement.  My biggest gripes here are described below (with one major one in the ‘Ugly’ section), but so much more could be done with the gamification and responsiveness of the app.

    No Google Fit/Health Connect support. iOS users can link their Apollo Neuro accounts to Apple Health and track their Apollo wearable usage as Mindful Minutes.  It would be great if the same were done for Android users.  This could also be tracked with the Oura integration.

    Inability to join waitlist for the labs features.  I’ve tried several times and in several different ways to get access to the labs features.  There’s at least one vibe that I’m very interested in: Go Back to Sleep.  In the latest version of the app, clicking on ‘join the waitlist’ appears to do nothing.  NOTE: in a future version of the app, I was indeed able to join and gain access to the labs features.  I was able to trial this out and it was mostly pretty buggy on Android.  I ultimately did not continue with this as it was an additional paid feature of the Apollo Neuro app after my trial expired and it wasn’t something that I found value in.

    There are general issues with syncing data.  It’s not seamless and requires you to constantly connect the Apollo Neuro to the app in order to make sure the app is aware of all of your usage.  You’ll soon see why this is a big problem.  I’ve broken my streak in the gamification because of this issue.  For someone like me, the stress caused by this issue likely counters some of the benefits that the Apollo Neuro wearable seems to provide 🤣

    The Ugly

    The ugliest pain point with the Apollo Neuro is unfortunately an issue with just about every wearable that supports Android.  The app/device is plagued by major bluetooth connectivity problems.  Everyone always blames this on “Android Fragmentation”.  As a former Android developer, this was an issue early on, but it’s really not a valid excuse anymore if you’re properly coding to the Bluetooth stack using modern Android best practices.

    Oura has been one of the only wearable manufacturers that seems to be focusing effort on providing an equivalent experience on Android compared to iOS.  Their app now works very well.  This issue is so bad on the Apollo Neuro that it often takes close to 10 minutes for the wearable to connect to the app.  I’ve experienced this on both the Pixel 6 and 8 Pro.  During a firmware update it once lost its connection resulting in a requirement to factory reset the device in order to make it usable again.

    The device still uses micro USB… the most annoying of the USB connectors.  These days, a device that costs as much as the Apollo Neuro should be supporting USB-C.

    The Apollo Neuro customer support is horrible.  They freely admitted that the Android experience wasn’t what it should be and really didn’t have any suggestions for making things better.  On two occasions they pushed a firmware update that stopped the device from working for days at a time.  The process that they had me go through to fix it the second time ultimately resulted in bricking the device.  This poor support for Android users, ultimately became a deal breaker for me and I returned my Apollo Neuro for a partial refund at the urging of customer support.

    Conclusion

    Overall, I was initially happy with my Apollo Neuro purchase.  If they fixed the bluetooth and syncing pain points, it would definitely be a much more effective device for me.  Being my usual Quantified Self, I look forward to some Health Connect support.  More Oura integration is also intriguing… Apollo is likely getting tons of data from this, but it would be great to see the ability to tag in Oura so I can make correlations.  Another awesome feature would be auto-tailoring your Vibes daily schedule based on data from Oura.  I plan on experimenting more with different vibes and intensities and with wearing the device on other places on my body.  Have you used the Apollo Neuro?

    NOTE: I have stopped using the Apollo Neuro because of the longstanding issues with the Android Software and support.  A firmware update was pushed that ultimately bricked the device.  Apollo support was not helpful in resolving the matter so I ultimately returned the device for a partial refund.

  • My Alcohol Dichotomy

    My Alcohol Dichotomy

    I love beer… but I also strive to live the healthiest possible lifestyle.  I often encounter people that think I’m embellishing my beer resume since I guess I don’t look/act like the typical 40+ year old beer drinker.  I have enough proof that I’m not beefing up this resume 😁 Read on if you’re interested in understanding more how I combat the alcohol dichotomy in my life.

    The Alcohol Dichotomy in my Life

    There was a time where studies thought that drinking a small amount could have positive health benefits.  Newer studies have been pointing more and more to there being zero level of alcohol that has health benefits.  I’m such a fan of alcohol (especially beer) that I can’t really imagine a life without imbibing a bit.  Dropping this vice, would likely make an immediate net positive increase in my health.  Because of this, many people who know how much time and resources I spend on optimizing my health, ask me why I don’t do it.  The simple answer is: I enjoy it immensely!  That doesn’t mean that I don’t do things to make the most of the vice that is most detrimental to my health.

    My love for Alcohol (Beer)

    Beer is a weakness of mine.  I love the taste and the variety.  Even before Untappd gamified it, I was a big fan of the social aspect.  The chemistry and biology involved in creating it throws me back to what it must have been like to be an alchemist.  Understanding the history and geography of how ‘styles’ evolved lured me into becoming a beer judge.  All of this led me to eventually holding beer education events and guided tastings.

    Impact on Health

    At the same time, more and more research is showing that no amount of alcohol is healthy.  Ingesting it, in many ways, goes directly against every other thing I do throughout my day.  This definitely puts me in an ugly situation.  I’m going to argue that there is some good that comes from drinking beer.  At the same time, I’m also going to enumerate the bad that I’ve seen as well.  Keep in mind that everything I’m going to mention is either indisputable fact, or things that I’ve seen directly in my N=1 experiments.

    The Bad

    • Ethanol is undoubtedly a toxin to the human body.  Your liver will go into overdrive the moment it detects its presence and will focus on eliminating it rather than on other more beneficial reactions that the liver is typically involved in.
    • Alcohol dehydrates the human body.  This is part of what often leads to the dreaded ‘hangover’.
    • Alcohol is mostly an ’empty’ calorie.  It’s also the most calorically dense macronutrient after fat (7 calories per gram).  These calories add up!
    • Alcohol negatively impacts sleep, HRV and heart rate.  I’ve conducted numerous experiments related to this using my Oura ring.  For me, crossing beyond two drinks within a few hours of going to bed is extremely detrimental to all of these biomarkers.
    • Frequent drinking leads to a reduction in free testosterone.  I’ve verified this through blood tests via InsideTracker.
    • Heavy drinking seems to induce higher levels of anxiety and depression the day after.  This is subjective as I have no objective way of measuring it.
    • Beyond a point, drinking leads to poor decisions.  These take many forms, but one of the worst for me in terms of health is that I find it very easy to choose less than ideal foods.  This is exasperated by the fact that many places that serve alcohol rarely have healthy food choices to begin with.
    • Drinking has a tendency to destroy any hope of being productive afterward.  This is definitely the case for the day of drinking, but often the hangover effect makes it carry into the next day as well.

    The Good

    Despite this extensive list of bad things, there are a few things that I consider ‘good’ about drinking ‘real’ beer.  I consider anything unfiltered, brewed without extra sweet adjuncts to be ‘real’ beer.

    Real beer is a good source of B vitamins.  This is a byproduct of the yeast used to make it.  If you’re drinking beer that has had this filtered out, you’re not getting the goodness that you should from your favorite fermented beverage.  There’s a reason why health conscious folks have been adding brewer’s yeast to their food for years.

    I’ve noticed that ‘real’ beer (in moderation) seems to have a positive benefit on my gut health.  I started by measuring this subjectively, but have since confirmed using Viome tests.  Beer is fermented (hence a probiotic) and often is a rich source of polyphenols.  Hops used in beer are a unique source of many plant compounds that have several health benefits.

    Moderate drinking helps me keep my blood pressure lower.  This is a fine line, one drink can easily put me over the edge and raise it instead.  The occasional drink definitely seems to help with stress.

    The biggest ‘pro’ of drinking beer to me is it’s positive impact on my mental health.  Kicking back a few sessionable lagers with friends is one of my favorite ways of socializing.

    Mitigating the Bad

    Do the ‘pros’ of drinking beer outweigh the ‘cons’?  Definitely not!  Because of this, I’m always striving for new ways to mitigate the ‘bad’.  Here are some of my tips and tricks.

    Before Drinking

    Mitigation starts long before you start drinking.  First of all, to combat the productivity destroying aspects of a few drinks, I make sure to get all important things for the day out of the way before starting.  Now before you start calling me Captain Obvious, note that this doesn’t just apply to work related items.

    One of the highest priority things that I make sure before I go out for a few drinks is to make sure I get in a good resistance training.  Now this won’t account for all the ’empty’ calories you’re about to consume, but getting your large muscle groups moving helps make the best of the large amount of carbohydrates that will soon be flooding your system.  Didn’t ensure you did this before going out?  I’ve found that something as simple as a few air squats and wall pushes in the bathroom seems to make a big difference.

    Before going out, it also pays to eat something on the healthy side.  This will hopefully make you less likely to gorge on more calorically dense, nutrient devoid bar food throughout the night.

    If you’re into supplements, and a regular drinker, it helps to have a go to stack of liver builders to try to offset any damage to your liver that you’re likely causing.  I have a group of things that works very well for me based on measuring blood levels of liver enzymes.  I’ll also take a binder before leaving the house.  I used to use activated charcoal exclusively, but recently have been preferring algae in the form of both chlorella and spirulina.

    Finally, I’ve recently become a fan of ZBiotics.  This probiotic that helps your body breakdown acetaldehyde has become a great tool for making my next day more productive.

    While Drinking

    I don’t really have anything groundbreaking to offer here.  This is mostly all been said before.  Stay hydrated!  If water doesn’t always cut it for you, you can mix an electrolyte powder in every few glasses.  Respiration helps to eliminate alcohol from your system, so if you can get some steps in while drinking, do it!  I’ll also do my in bathroom workout routine throughout the night.  Just a few wall pushes/air squats is all it takes!

    After Drinking

    Again, nothing that hasn’t been said before here… Remember how important hydration is?  Keep doing it!  Now is the time to replace electrolytes, B vitamins and magnesium.  Definitely do not go to sleep right away!  Try to put as much time between that last drink and sleep as you can because that’s going to negatively impact your next day.

    If you’re interested in really taking things to the next level though, I recommend using much of my sauna cocktail (you can skip the niacin and taurine).  I initially developed this to support detoxification pathways while in the sauna but in general it’s great overall liver support.  In addition to this, I add glycine and NAC as these both upregulate the production of the most powerful endogenous antioxidant: glutathione.  I’ve also started taking DHM at this point as well.

    Other General Rules

    I have a few other general rules.  I feel like these rules have the biggest positive impact for me other than maybe the pro-liver supplements.

    First, I try to always stick to ‘real’ beer, fresh from the source.  I’ll sample a ‘lactose’ beer, but I’m avoiding drinking those by the glass.  I want something as close to what my great great grandfather drank as possible.

    I try to separate days where I have more than one drink by at least two days.  In my experience, drinking more than this tends to start a negative trend with regards to body composition.  There are likely several reasons for this.  This could create a tendency to short your workout routine.  There’s obviously the extra calories factor.  I also feel that, at least for me, this seems to cause body changes that slow fat burning.  I don’t have ways of easily measuring the biomarkers that I believe are involved, but the moment that I can, I plan to conduct an experiment into this.

    Many people feel that day drinking is the ultimate Degen move.  I drink during the day whenever possible.  The detrimental impact of drinking on sleep is so obvious that I want to put as much time as possible between that last drink and bed.  Just make sure that you shift your drinking window rather than elongating it 🤣

    Always eat a healthy meal before drinking.  If you must eat while you’re out, opt for healthier options.  Stay away from the fried stuff and desserts.  Avoid the pizza.  Go for lean protein, undressed salads and sides of vegetables when possible

    Conclusion

    So there you have it.  This is how I try to incorporate something that I love into my life while recognizing it as inherently ‘unhealthy’.  Everything here allows me to go out for a few drinks while still remaining productive the next day.  Maybe these things will work for you?  Maybe you have something that you do that I haven’t tried?  If so, drop me a line… or better yet, let’s discuss it over a ‘real’ beer!