You can't "hack" your brain. Trust me.
The founder of "Dopamine fasting" and I got into it earlier this year. Then he deleted his comment. Here's why I think that happened.
Good Morning!
The term “biohack” makes me sick.
Somehow, millionaires with more money than they know what to do with it are using their money to try to elongate their lives and popularize this term.
What’s worse, some “doctors” are co-opting it, making regular people believe they can attain a superhuman effect by “hacking” their system.
I shouldn’t have to tell you what I’m thinking, a fact of biology:
You can’t “hack” anything. Despite what these people try to say to you, there are no shortcuts to better health.
Earlier this year, I argued with one of these doctors — yes, he has his Doctorate — who also had an agenda and something to sell.
Dr. Cameron Sepah, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and scientist, did not take lightly my pointing out back in February that “dopamine fasting,” a goofy “brain hack” that I can now confidently say is nonsense, had no real roots in science.
He edited this response down from a more harsh, scathing review of my piece in which he tried to defend the “benefits,” but all I said in my article was that Dr. Cam himself declared to be cautious of thinking of dopamine fasting as a “detox:”
The goal [of dopamine fasting] is to identify behaviors that might be unhelpful or counterproductive to an individual's daily life, but I think the phraseology needs clarification.
The word "fasting" implies completely detoxing something from the system. This might convince someone to take extreme measures in limiting the number of pleasing activities they perform, per the subjects of this New York Times piece in 2019. Even the method's developer, Dr. Cameron S., has recommended not to take the phrase too literally.
You can’t “hack your brain.” Trust me.
That ego-boosting dispute on LinkedIn taught me that “experts” who are insecure about their theories will go to the ends of the earth to defend them.
They’ll even seek out a small-business owner/health coach like me with minimal clout and influence to try and shoot me down a peg.
One of my favorite experts on behavioral psychology and physiological evolution, Dr. Robert Sapolsky, recently appeared on the Modern Wisdom podcast to talk a bit about this illusion of biohacking, specifically brain hacking.
Sapolsky talks about dopamine — the chemical in our brain that fuels satisfaction — and how it works, and why, despite Dr. Cameron’s best efforts, we can’t necessarily tamp down its effects, and “dopamine fasting” won’t reduce our craving for screen time, a vape, or some sweet food.
Dopamine, like cortisol, the stress hormone, is always present in our systems. These kinds of “hacks,” which try to eliminate these things we naturally secrete in our body (like, constantly), are ways that people who have things to sell will get us to sabotage our health.
“I’m trying to be polite and not call (biohacking) bullshit… what everyone thinks they know about dopamine is that dopamine is about reward.”
“Okay, fine, it can be about reward. But when you put a mouse in a box, with a button, a light turnining on, and a reward…it begins to hint after a while that [dopamine] is not the pursuit of happiness, but the happiness of the pursuit.”
“It’s about anticipation.”
Can we curb our unrelenting anticipation?
To be pragmatic, I have to offer some ways to curb that you might be in a vicious cycle of consuming.
Otherwise, I’d feel bad if you kept reading this newsletter since I aim to help you with your health and not just rant about the problems with the health industry and snake oil salesmen.
Fortunately, there are many outlets for curbing cravings for anything, but these habits, like any, take unrelenting practice and discipline. I’ll go in order of least surprising to most surprising:
Regular Exercise (c’mon, you had to know this one): Exercise releases endorphins that can drown out feelings of cravings for unhealthy things.
Hydration: Good fluid balance will keep your metabolism and all its processes in check.
Developing a Support System: Encourage friends to be involved and help hold you accountable, and make it mutual.
Mindful Breathing: Practice deep breathing techniques to calm your mind and reduce the urge to engage in addictive behavior.
Distraction Techniques: Engage in hobbies or activities that divert your attention from cravings (my personal favorite is video games)
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