Health Optimization On A Budget.
People will try to sell you products for THOUSANDS of dollars, all in the name of biohacking. But, do you really need to spend that much?
As the holidays are just around the corner, I try to avoid buying gifts which feed into the disposable consumerist ethos. Whether it’s for my children, extended family, or friends.
As the doctor in the family, I feel a slight impetus to gift items which help my loved ones lead a healthier and fuller life.
At the end of the day, improving your health will require habit change. For almost everyone, this is the hardest part.
So, it would be foolish for me to recommend or gift items (especially consumable items) which are expensive to replenish. This just adds another obstacle for people to overcome.
My belief is that if I introduce them to something which will provide immediate and noticeable benefit to their well-being, at a reasonable price, they are more likely to incorporate this practice into their daily lives.
Then, as their habits and priorities shift, they can spend as much or as little on any given strategy for health optimization.
In this article, I will address two things simultaneously:
Which items are the most effective for improving your health?
How would I incorporate this item into a modest budget?
I’ll keep a running tally of the cost, so we can see how much our health can improve without having to spend $8000 on an infrared sauna.
We won’t include food here, because it will vary drastically by what’s available and how much effort (or money or time) you are willing to put into eating healthy.
I have a whole other article that summarizes what my family eats.
Light Therapy
If you have been on twitter or instagram in the last few years, and you haven’t seen anything regarding red/infrared light or incandescent bulbs I would be shocked.
The market for this stuff is crazy, and it can all seem really confusing and overwhelming.
Many people will simply go for the items being promoted by the most popular talking heads, like Andrew Huberman and Peter Attia.
It should come as no surprise that most of these products are expensive and in many cases completely unnecessary.
Especially when you consider the difference in effect size.
Let me explain what I mean.
If your diet consists almost entirely of processed foods and seed oils, the health benefit you will gain from simply avoiding these foods is far greater than the difference between pasture-massaged grass-fed cows and any meat from your local butcher.
I don’t have exact numbers here, but hear me out.
Upgrading your diet from processed industrial slop to any source of fresh beef/lamb/chicken and eggs is going to provide a huge health benefit.
However, going from any source of fresh meat and eggs to the highest quality meat and eggs on the market which can cost anywhere from 2x to 5x as much, will likely provide only a marginal benefit.
Same goes for the products being promoted and sold by the most popular health influencers.
Blue Light Blockers
What I said about food and red light panels applies here as well.
Everyone is trying to sell you unnecessarily expensive glasses, usually ranging from $100-200 per frame.
On the lower end, Amazon and Alibaba have frames ranging from $10-20.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve tried those cheap frames and they work better than nothing.
But, the best results I’ve experienced were with red frames from Midwest Red Light. In fact, I use these at work (as a radiologist) especially when I’m covering the emergency department overnight.
Their frames are $40.
They also have frames for toddlers.
They also sell clip-on lenses for people who already use prescription glasses.
I have no affiliation with them, but use their products all the time.
How much does a good red light panel cost?
Personally, I use a light panel from GembaRed. The reason is because they are a no-frills sort of retailer. Their panels have:
good coverage of different red/infrared wavelengths
durable stand
external power-supply to minimize EMF exposure
very low flicker bulbs (flicker is actually very important)
The panel I bought many years ago was the Beacon, which has since been sold out. They now have updated versions of their panels which 5 different wavelengths.
If you want to stick with a standard 4-wavelength panel (which I think is a great starting point), the Vector is priced at $249.
This is probably all the panel you are going to need, for all sorts of applications.
My family uses it for several body parts and applications with immediately noticeable benefits.
Since our readers have a history with GembaRed, we have a 10% discount affiliation with them.
Total cost of light-related products = $289.
We are off to a good start, I think.
Supplements
The other aspect of the health industry which has exploded are pills you swallow or things you can inject (e.g. peptides and hormones).
I don’t inject any peptides or hormones. I’m open to the possibility, but for now, I avoid them.
First, supplements are a back-up plan for when you cannot obtain the necessary vitamins and nutrients from your food.
Second, when considering supplements you want to make sure that you are getting the real deal. No fillers. No contaminants. No fakes.
The two compounding pharmacies which I believe make high quality products, and use when I can are:
NOW
Pure encapsulations
I’m sure there are others, such as Thorne, which people will rave about. But, these are the two I use. Again, no affiliation.
Generally, for supplements I stick with B-vitamins and amino acids. These are very high-yield items, and sometimes provide immediate benefits.
Vitamin B1, B2, B3, B7 and B12 are the heavy hitters. Be mindful what you purchase as a B9/Folate supplement (stick with methylfolate).
For amino acids, my shelf typically has glycine and taurine at minimum.
If you throw in some Magnesium and Potassium support you have a power house supplement stack.
This is a bit harder to price, but let’s try it.
Now B1: $5
Now B2: $14 for 2 pack, $7 per pack
Now B3 $14
Pure Encapsulation B12: $46
Magnesium Chloride: $15
Now Glycine: $12
Now Taurine: $8
Now Potassium Citrate: $9
Total cost: $116
Books and Educational Material
I can’t pass up the opportunity to promote this publication ;)
This humble Substack is now approaching 200 published articles. Around half of the articles are free for all to read.
If you haven’t yet subscribed, what are you waiting for?
If you are in the giving mood, you can gift a subscription as well:
Many books on health can be difficult to extract specific solutions to your particular problem. One which I’ve found very useful (and came as a recommendation from a reader) is Dr. Chishti’s Traditional Healer’s Handbook.
There is a section on how to prepare your own herbal/traditional formulations. And several sections that provide therapeutic regimens for specific ailments.
I’ve really enjoyed reading this book, and was able to immediately apply some of the remedies in my own household. This book costs $22.
Get Outdoors
As you know I’m a proponent of going outside and being with nature.
For city-dwellers, enjoying nature and pure wilderness can come with many mental hurdles.
Where do I go?
What do I need?
Who can I talk to?
Where can I get more information?
Things you can purchase or gift others include local excursion guides, maps, or tickets to outdoor events.
Gift Basket Items
With office holiday parties in full swing, it’s difficult to show up to a colleague’s house empty-handed.
So, my wife and I started custom making gift baskets.
In these gift baskets we include consumables and food items. We try to pick things which we consume on a daily basis, and belief is good for our health.
The cost here will vary quite considerably depending on what you have available locally, so I cannot provide reasonable estimates.
Reader, you’ve got some legwork to do.
Items include:
Raw local honey
High quality sea salt
Cold pressed olive oil
Coconut oil
Selection of tea for various times of day and needs
Real cacao chocolate
This kind of gift basket starts at around $100, but can get much more expensive depending on your taste.
I think this is a good starting point, both as a way to jumpstart your health or give the gift of a healthier lifestyle.
Excluding costs that are hard to estimate/predict, let’s run through the total:
Light-related products: $289
Supplement stack: $116
Educational: $22
Consumables/Gift basket: $100
Total cost: $527
All things are relative, but compared to what is promoted in the industry, this is good value for a comprehensive “biohacking” stack that can provide tremendous benefits (depending on your baseline health/habits).
Of course, some of these costs are recurring. But, in 4 years I have not had to replace my light-related or educational products.
This total is still coming in less than the influencer-promoted red-light panel, and I can guarantee this stack will be more beneficial than any 1 product that is promoted by these influencers.
Merry Christmas!
This was really a great article. Thank you.
Now sells both a B50 and B100 - 11.62 and 17.14 respectively at iHerb.