I’d been reading Dave Asprey’s book Head Strong. It’s all about biohacking the brain for peak performance, and after reading it, I’m hooked. I’m pretty new to the whole biohacking game, and if I do any of it, it’s mostly related to my productivity habits. But he takes his hacks to a whole new level, in areas of life I never imagined as important to mental productivity before. 

It’s all in the mitochondria

Productivity hacks can often feel quite fragmented. Do this for sleep, do that for work, eat this for diet. I like how he ties it all together, through mitochondria, the cellular powerhouses within each and every cell, in charge of producing energy. His main thesis is that mitochondria is the key to hacking the brain performance. He pushes the point that as long as you take care of your mitochondria as you care for a car’s engine, it will provide the peak energy levels required for your maximum performance. 

Symptoms that your brain isn’t functioning as well as it could

Things like forgetfulness, cravings, inability to focus, low energy, moodiness/anger, are all symptoms of an inefficient brain, and therefore mitochondrial dysfunction. Causes are usually due to:

• Nutritional deficiencies
• Hormonal deficiencies
• Toxins
• Stress, depression
• Chronic inflammation
• Light

He dives deep into the science and biology of things, which I read but find it hard to remember (i.e. glazed over). I was only interested on the practical to-dos of biohacking my brain, and he listed some areas we should note:

To be continued……