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- [00:00]
A
Welcome to Kwik Brain Bite Sized brain Hacks for busy people who want to learn faster and achieve more. I'm your coach, Jim Kwik. Free your mind. Let's imagine if we could access 100% of our brain's capacity.
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B
I wasn't high, wasn't wired, just clear.
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A
I knew what I needed to do and how to do it. I know kung fu. Show me. Today we're going to be talking about body biohacking. Your brain. This is a topic that comes up a lot in our private Facebook group. Many of you have joined our Facebook group, 150,000 individuals. And we get a lot of questions about biohacking. And our guest and I are at this event, a biohacking conference. So I think this is very topical if you're watching this on video. We are actually at her podcast studio. I was just on her show, which is amazing. She's a good friend and I'm excited to have this conversation. And we're here with Kayla Barnes Lentz.
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B
Thank you for having me on.
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A
Yeah, thank you. So you are a longevity and health optimization expert. You've helped me through a bunch of things when we met her at your clinic and just getting. Yeah, I just getting my brain turned on.
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B
Yeah, you did a whole bunch of stuff, Ned, and very much so.
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A
Yeah. And you've probably forgotten more about biohacking and brain hacking than, you know, than most people in this space will learn. So I wanted to. I'm excited to have this conversation with you.
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B
Yeah, I'm so excited to have it with you.
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A
Yeah. So your brain, I, I feel like it's our number one asset that we have. Right. It controls everything. And so you are so rigorous. Right. You are like one of the most measured women in probably in the country. Right. Because you measure everything. I've read a number of articles in national media about. I mean, it goes from everything from all the tests that you take to sending, you know, your, your, your now husband, but before you, you know, even went on a date making him submit his labs. Where, where, where do people start? Like, you know, the average person listening to, where would you recommend they want a better brain?
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B
Yeah.
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A
And you have access to all the information. You know, so many people in this space, you've had them on your podcast, you know them, you share the stage with them. Some of them are your clients. Where do you recommend people start with for having a better brain?
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B
Yeah. Well, the great thing is, you know, in the longevity biohacking space and as we're like walking through these halls, there's like, you know, thousands of different devices. And we should definitely talk about some devices, some exogenous molecules that we could be using for our brain. But the good thing is that for not only longevity, but also your brain, the best things are the basic ones. And we won't spend too much time on it because these are things that we all know to do right. Sleep. I think sleep is one of the most powerful things that you can do for a better brain. We know that when we're in those deep stages of sleep, our brain's glymphatic system, which is essentially the cellular cleaning system, is being most activated. We can store memories. I mean, you're the expert in all of this. But sleep is critical for brain health and then what you're eating. So every piece of food, then I consume, I'm thinking, is this making my brain and body better or worse? So that might seem extreme, right? But for me, I want not only the data to be good, but I want to feel good. And I feel better now at 34 than I did at 18 years old, you know, so what you eat matters. And I'm sure you've talked extensively on a brain health diet, but something with high omegas. So not only are Omega 3s really good for the brain, so those, like fatty fish are incredible. Like salmon is great, but having a higher omega index, which is something that you can test for, is linked to longevity. So you want to have at least an 8 omega index. I keep mine at about 10. So really good for your cardiovascular system, brain, and even potentially living longer. So that's really great. Those antioxidants also amazing for both longevity and for brain health. So by doing this, just the two steps we've talked to you about so far, you're really like getting a twofer here. You're getting potentially a longer life and a better brain. But things like blueberries and blackberries, I like the darker berries because they're lower glycemic. For me, it is absolutely no surprise. If you eat like junk, you're going to feel like junk and you're going to think like junk. You literally are what you eat. And when you think about the consumption of calories. So our brain is only about, what, two pounds, but it consumes about 30% of our caloric intake per day. So if you're eating, you know, Doritos and then that's what your brain is running off of. I mean, it's. To me, it's not like a hard thing to understand that you're not going to Be as high productivity and feeling as cognitively well as you could be. So you want to be like, you know, wild caught salmon or grass fed steak and blueberries. Or do you want to be like a bag of Doritos? I mean a ho ho. No, absolutely not. So nutrition is a big one. And exercise, improving blood flow to the brain is so incredibly important for cognition thinking, I'm sure even more oxygen to your brain. Yeah. And retention. We have a HBOT chamber. So like in everything with biohacking, it's like the basic. So exercising and moving is one amazing way to.
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A
And it's free.
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B
Better blood flow and it's free. Exactly. You could go outside, you can go to a gym, whatever it may be. But you want a good mix of both, like cardiovascular training for longevity and strength training. And both of those are really good for the brain as well. So when you add on more muscle, it's almost like a glucose suck. So it actually uptakes and can better use the glucose. Going back to our, you know, continuous glucose monitor. So adding more muscle not only good for longevity, but also good for brain health.
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A
And then you hear a lot about insulin resistance, you know, and those glucose spikes that we want to be able to mitigate.
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B
Yeah. And they're almost, you know, identifying Alzheimer's as like, I think type 3 diabetes. So managing glucose is so incredibly important. So you can do that through diet, but you can also do it through adding more muscle exercise. There's a couple small tips I know that you mentioned having glucose cost on, so you should listen to that podcast. But if you walk even for three minutes, post prandial walk after eating, that can make a big impact on your glucose. So that's definitely one. And the next one I think is really social connections. I think that is impactful for longevity. We're now hearing that it could be as detrimental as smoking, being socially isolated, feeling lonely. So that's a big one too, I think, is social connections and community.
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A
What about heavy metals? Like I remember I had mercury fillings taken out years and years ago.
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B
So glad you got them out.
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A
Yeah, it was like 15 years ago, but I think some of it leaked and you know, leached and. But how do you. Is there a test for heavy metals?
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B
Yeah, yeah. So there's another test that I really love. It's called the total toxic burden. And this combines heavy metals, molds and mycotoxins and then a variety of other environmental toxins like parabens, phthalates. Amazing tests. So if you take this. And we also know the Heavy metals are related to neurodegenerative diseases. So this is really important that you keep your total toxic burden low. And we're living in a day and age where we're just exposed to environmental toxins constantly in our air, food, water, shower water.
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A
Yeah. Mercury, aluminum, like, all the. All these, like, for. And it could come from, like, the most, you know, it could come from the air. It could be, like, off gassing, from carpets and furniture, candles.
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B
Absolutely.
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A
Not just the obvious things like mold and others.
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B
Yeah. VOCs, you know, also can disrupt your sleep and certainly hinder brain performance. So trying to keep your environment in your house as low as possible possible or as healthy as possible. So air filtration, I think, is a really big one. If I were to make some initial investments into home items for biohacking, definitely. I like Jasper. There's lots of different brands, but that's really helpful. I have a little device, it's actually called an Air Things, and it monitors the air constantly. So it tells me the amount of VOCs. I could pull up an app on my phone right now. I have a big one in the living room and then I have little ones in the rooms.
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A
So.
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B
So it'll say, here's the amount of radon CO2VOCs, the PM2.5. So I know what's going on in the air. And we know that you think better. I mean, I think there's been some studies done with, like, plants and air filtration in classrooms, and the children had better, like, brain performance. So that's a big one, too. But that one is called the Total Toxic Burden, and it's by vibrant wellness and then detox strategies like, I think everybody needs to be detoxing on a daily basis now, just given that we're exposed to, you know, an unprecedented level of toxins. So sauna also not only good for sleep, but really good for detoxification. Your sauna matters, like which one you use. So I have one that's like low voc, low emf. You want to be thinking about those things when you're making those purchases. And then sweating exercise, again, is a great way to detox. If you're looking for some more advanced detoxification strategies, there's something called tpe, which is gaining a lot of, you know, popularity. And I have. I've done the Total Toxic burden before a TPE session and right after, and I had about a 20 to 25 reduction in.
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A
This is a therapeutic plasma exchange.
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B
Yep. So what you do is you actually remove all of your plasma and Then you replace it with something called albumin.
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So yeah, I've done a couple rounds at Next Health.
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B
Yeah, that's where I did it too with Darshan. So Amazing. That's a good one for detoxing. And then there's also EBOO or like a very high dose ozone therapy especially for people with like molds or mycotoxin exposure. That can be really helpful because it has like antibacterial, antiviral properties, anti inflammatory properties. So that can be a good one for detoxification as well.
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A
What about exercise? Do you measure?
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B
Yeah, I mean there's some great at home metrics that you can do. So grip strength is a really good one. We know that grip strength is correlated with longevity. You can get a little grip strength tester off Amazon for I think $30. And so that's a great one. And how do we improve grip strength? We have to add on muscle. Right. I do not recommend. You are training grip strength with like a little.
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A
I probably won't add years.
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B
Yeah, just like. Yeah, that's very much so cheating the system. But if you can actually add on muscle and improve overall strength that can be really helpful. I also love measuring VO2 max. So that is a measurement of how we utilize oxygen in the body, how well we can do it. There's a couple of relatively inexpensive new at home devices. I can send you a link. I believe it's called Calibri is what I have at home. But there's also you know like some estimates on oura ring too. So it's not going to be a perfect science. But if you wanted to get one device to track data you could get a cardiovascular age from aura. All the sleep metrics, your steps, activity. I think they actually now sync with the glucose monitor and they're starting to roll out meal tracking so you can take a picture of the food and sync it with glucose. So lots of.
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A
I think some people are used to like their device or they watch something measuring activity or steps. Yeah, like that. At least it gives them some kind of baseline in terms of how much they're, they're, they're moving. What about like those? You know we, we have our chronological age but then there's this biological age. Yeah, this health age. Do you do any tests for.
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B
Yeah, I've done a ton. So there's a bunch of different ways to look at biological age. So we have what is called a methylation biological age. This is very popular. The pace of aging and biological age testing by true diagnostics. So that's methylation testing. I think the test is 5 or $600. So if you want to, you could do that. It'll give you a biological age. They just rolled out organ age too. So it can actually give you an idea. You know, the science is still new with these, so it's fun to look at, but I'm excited to see where it goes. And then we have phenotypic biological age testing. And this is actually kind of cool. So if you have access to like AI Chat GPT, you can take a blood test that you get, you can put it into Chat GPT and it can give you, based on some blood biomarkers, a phenotypic age. So it can give you an estimation. So there's really no perfect science right now for biological age, but those are options. There's also glycan ages, so that's another form of it. But I think if you want to just like wade into the waters, take your labs, put them into chat gbt, ask it for a pace of aging and, you know, biological age. And there's also some other calculators too, like Morgan Levine has a phenotypic age as well. So that can be. That can be really helpful.
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A
A handful of favorite biohacking tools.
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B
I love photobiomodulation for the brain, so I actually have an intranasal photobiomodulation device. I think you might have one too. So it's red light therapy for the brain. We know that the brain has an incredibly high density of mitochondria. And so if we can think about improving the health of our mitochondria, then we could potentially improve the health of our brain. So love intranasal. So up through the nose, it's a V light. That's what I have. It's called a V light. But there's, I'm sure, other devices on the market. That's one of my favorite ones for brain health specifically. HBOT is really good. So if you've ever had. I first learned about this actually from Dr. Daniel Lehman, who is a mutual friend. And if you've ever had any sort of concussion, tbi, of course you always want to do this with doctor. Doctor's guidance. But some of the results can be really.
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A
That was a big part of my recovery after I got my brain scanned. And I've done it at different places, but with Daniel, with Dr. Amen, he, you know, prescribed 40 HBOT sessions. Yeah, that was a huge part of my.
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B
Unbelievable. When you look at the scans before.
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A
And after, I actually do the. The photo by the Violation. And while I'm in the.
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B
Oh, nice. I mean, yeah, it's. You can. I definitely love stacking different therapies, but HBOT is great for that and it's good even just for cogn, like short term. Like when I work in the hbot, you know, I am just like going through. Because it's the increased oxygen. Right. So you have so much oxygen to the brain. It also can improve blood vessels. So that can be really helpful as well. I would say those are probably two of my favorites. I do, I like meditation tools as well. So something like the Muse can be really helpful just to encourage you to improve your meditation practice. I love to measure everything. So you know, if you can measure the meditation and know it was successful, then I really, really enjoy that. It can like help keep you accountable too because you don't want to be like missing days, you know, same thing. All these trackers, it's. It's this phenomenon that like someone's watching you or you're being tracked, you actually do a little bit better. So yeah, I like that as well. Those are probably right now my top. I also have a neuronic which I believe is. How do you pronounce it? So it's another form of photobiomodulation red light therapy to the brain to be able to also help to alter like your, your brain state and be more focused. I've tried brain PEMF before. That's interesting. So you know, the idea behind PMF being it can help reduce inflammation and potentially, you know, this is a prove.
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A
Cellular health pulse electromagnetic field like therapy.
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B
Exactly. So they have small ones that you can actually use use on your brain which obviously consult a doctor, get a great device, all that stuff.
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A
But yeah, with all this, this conversation I meant to diagnose or treat any kind of medical conditions. Definitely talk to your health practitioner.
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B
I'm just throwing out some interesting brain biohacking things that I've tried like throughout this whole process. Those are probably my favorite like different kind of devices I would say for, for brain health.
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A
And most of these, like even if people aren't, aren't in the position for them to. Because you don't have to do everything right. The important thing is you start somewhere, you know, and starting somewhere is better than not starting at all, waiting for everything to be perfect. A lot of these I've noticed a lot of the biohacking tools, it really. A lot of it is a. It simulates like what we get in nature.
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B
Nature, yeah. 100 I think of PEMF is like grounding on steroids. So just going outside and making contact with the earth. Yeah. Barefoot or in a body of water, getting direct sunlight. Absolutely. It's. And it. Grounding it's. It can do the same things. Right. Reducing inflammation. There are studies to support this. Significantly reduces stress levels being in nature. Um, and then with sunlight like a large portion depending on what time of day it is. It's also red light. So there's actually red and infrared in the sun. So if you can't have, if you don't have access to some of these like red light panels or photobiomodulation. Getting up in the morning and just getting sun into the eyes is incredible. I mean that should be a non negotiable I feel like for everybody.
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A
Yeah. Or even like for. I mean obviously ah, bot is a wonderful tool when most people aren't even using the tool of breath. You know, doing, doing breath work to oxygenate their, their, Their, Their, Their blood, their, their, their brain also as well.
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B
Yeah. And breath can also, you know, shift your state. You know, you can increase energy with your breath if you do, you know, fire breathing for instance, really quick short breaths. But if you want to relax, which we all need, you know, it's estimated, I think that 80% of doctors visits are related to stress. So we have to you know, reduce stress levels for longevity, our brains, the whole nine yards. But doing slow long breathing, box breathing. Super helpful.
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A
Yeah. And I know Huberman. Other people talk about the physiological sigh.
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B
Yeah.
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A
You know, or you're breathing in and then maybe do a little bit more breath and then you take longer on the exhale. It's a way of calming your nervous system.
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B
Yeah. I mean another free and probably very underutilized tool, I would say.
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A
Yeah. And that's what I love about a lot of these things is like, you know, they can be very cost effective.
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B
Yeah.
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A
You know, and then you know as like certainly when I want to start on this path and have a lot of financial resources. So you do work with what you have.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Right. And then if you have an ability to test some of these things and you know, start somewhere, you know, and then get the results, measure it and then, you know, continue on the path.
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B
Yeah. Absolutely.
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A
Amazing. Amazing. I could talk to you for hours. And we're so excited to have you as one of our presenters at our Limitless Live conference. It's like this faculty people just go to limitlesslive.com and I'm sure they want to be able to meet you and have more conversations with you. What are you excited about in terms of how can people go deeper in your work? I know I had the honor of being on your podcast.
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B
Yep. I can't wait for that to come out.
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A
Where do people listen to that?
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B
Yeah. So my podcast is Longevity Optimization. You can also check out my website, Kayla Barnes.com. i have all my data protocols, all that@protocol.kayla barnes.com very, very.
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A
You're very transparent with all that.
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B
Yeah. And then I just started doing long form content too. So like, you know, morning routine, evening routine. If you have, you know, like an hour to watch a morning routine, then you can find that on YouTube.
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A
And where, what on social media is your favorite place for people to connect?
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B
Probably Instagram. So it's just at Kayla Barnes.
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A
Okay. Yeah, definitely one of my favorite accounts. Again, we'll put everything in the show notes@jimquake.com notes maybe we could contact you or your team, get links to all these amazing resources and diagnostic tests. We'll definitely connect to your website, to your social media, to your podcast and more. And I hope many of you could join us at limitless live 2025.
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B
I'm so excited for it. It's going to be amazing.
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A
Yeah, it'll be unforgettable for sure. Kayla, thank you so much for being on the show.
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B
Thank you for having me.
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A
All right, everybody, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode. We put the extended version, as always, on our YouTube channel. You could join 1.8 million subscribers there. The highest compliment is sharing this episode. So make sure you subscribe, leave a comment. I speed read every single one. I believe feedback is the breakfast of superheroes. And we can't wait to see you in the next episode. Until then, be Limitless.