Author's Note: This is the second article in a recurring series on my own biohacking journey, what I've learned and brought to my patients, and how you can become a "biohack doctor" yourself. The following tips are not just for your patients; they apply to you, too. We have to set the example.
Quality sleep is positioned as my top biohack because sleep is a performance enhancer. Improving sleep enhances other therapies (i.e., diet, exercise, etc.), and is a remedy for back pain and muscle tension. Regular sleep impacts almost all chronic diseases – type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and neurocognitive disorders.
Consistent quality sleep improves your ability to learn new motor skills; promotes skin health and a youthful appearance; controls optimal insulin and other hormone secretions; and encourages healthy cell division.
At night, melatonin (helps regulate wake and sleep cycles) is released, and insulin-producing cells shut down. So, if you eat something sugary late at night, your body's insulin response is not as effective. I tell patients do not eat anything three hours before bed. That late-night (usually a dessert) snack can lead to a blood-sugar spike and then a crash that triggers the release of adrenaline, which keeps you awake at three a.m.
Poor sleep can contribute to obesity. For my overweight patients (and the ones most often inflamed), sleep loss could be contributing to an inability to lose weight. If patients get less than six hours of sleep, ghrelin increases, making you feel hungry.
Who can control a ghrelin rush? I try to use diets and supplements that flip switches and turn down the ghrelin, reduce the food cravings, stop the late-night eating, and allow the body to focus on sleep (and normal hormone production) instead of digesting food.
Optimizing the Master Clock
The master clock in the brain is called the suprachiasmatic nucleus or SCN. It regulates our circadian rhythm. Light regulates the master clock. The light passes through the pupil and ganglion cells relay the information to the SCN. When light passing through the pupils is inhibited, the SCN sends a signal to release melatonin. The levels of melatonin remain stable throughout the night until interrupted by the light of the morning.
When you feel tired at night is determined in part by when you are in the presence of sunlight in the morning. To keep the biological clock on a cycle, the brain needs input of sunlight through the eyes to reset itself each day. The tip here is to get natural light within one hour of being awake.
The Stages of Sleep
The entire sleep cycle takes about 90 minutes and is then repeated. A 90-minute cycle is: light sleep (lasts about 20 minutes), deep sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Your eyes move under your eyelids in REM sleep. Unless you are measuring your sleep, you do not know how much of each stage you are getting.
Deep sleep is where it's at for immune system repair, increasing blood supply to muscles, tissue growth and repair, and energy restoration. Hormones such as growth hormone (essential for growth, development, muscle) are released; as well as other hormones like leptin and ghrelin that keep your appetite in check, regulate fat storage and send signals to your brain when your stomach is full. Ultraviolet damage is also repaired during deep sleep.
Sleep allows our memory to improve. What's important to understand here is that deep Delta-wave sleep promotes the consolidation of long-term memories for motor skills, facts and figures, and complex thought. If you are spending money on yourself or your child for a tutoring session (math, SAT prep, golf, tennis, soccer, swim lessons, etc.), and they don't sleep well, you are throwing money away!
I recently heard a theory that REM sleep may be the visual center's way of keeping the eyes and vision active so other senses cannot take over (steal) that "real estate" in the brain while our eyes are closed and vision is "off." When one considers neuroplasticity concepts, that makes sense to me.
One of the most important things that happens during sleep has to do with the glymphatics that remove soluble amyloid beta from the brain interstitium. This may make it easier for the brain cerebrospinal fluid (like lymphatic fluids) to flush out its many crevices.
During sleep, proteins that could build up and become responsible for Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders are removed more efficiently from the brain than during waking hours. In this way, toxins and other waste products are washed out. FYI, sleeping on your side improves glymphatic clearance compared to sleeping on the stomach or back.
How Much Sleep Do We Need?
Personal Biohacks to Improve Sleep
Through my sleep tracking device, I found out I was below the optimal amount of REM (for adults 1.5 hours; anywhere from 5-50 percent of total sleep) and deep sleep (anywhere from 0-35 percent of your total sleep; about 1-1.5 hours). My personal biohacks to improve my sleep have been the following:
Nutritional Support for Sleep
My natural remedy and nutritional support list includes these recommendations (keep in mind it's very individual, so don't just blanket apply it to every one of your patients):
Resources
When sports chiropractors first appeared at the Olympic Games in the 1980s, it was alongside individual athletes who had experienced the benefits of chiropractic care in their training and recovery processes at home. Fast forward to Paris 2024, where chiropractic care was available in the polyclinic for all athletes, and the attitude has now evolved to recognize that “every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic."
It is estimated that 61% of patients with CTS avoid taking surgical options due to postoperative complications and costly surgical procedures. Chiropractic care offers a comprehensive and effective treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome, addressing the condition from multiple angles. Recent studies also have unveiled a game-changing adjunct to chiropractic treatments for CTS: nerve flossing.
Some doctors thrive in a personality-based clinic and have a loyal following no matter what services or equipment they offer, but for most chiropractic offices who are trying to grow and expand, new equipment purchases help us stay relevant and continue to service our client base in the best, most up-to-date manner possible. So, regarding equipment purchasing: should you lease, get a bank loan, or pay cash?
