Top 7 Health Hacks for 2020 & Beyond

Top 7 Health Hacks for 2020 & Beyond

2020 is such a special new year because it’s not just a new year - it’s a new decade! To kick off this decade, I think we need to do more than just make a new year’s resolution. We need to make some lasting changes to our lifestyle and health choices so that we can optimize our health for the next decade and decades to come.

If you found this blog or my podcast, then I’m sure you are already familiar with the general rules you should follow to stay healthy - eat organic foods, avoid GMO’s, get a lot of sleep, stop stressing, exercise, and don’t drink or smoke. This is not what I would like to cover here. What I’d like to talk about are the 7 health hacks that I find most people don’t know and those that are integral to maintaining optimal health. The root of all chronic symptoms and illness is TOXIC OVERLOAD, so these 7 Health Hacks ensure that you are decreasing the toxic load on your system on a daily, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis.

Health Hack #1: Dry Brush Your Skin Once a Day

Dry brushing is a great way to stimulate natural detoxification and to assist with optimizing overall health! What is dry brushing? As the name persists, this technique should be done on dry skin and in the direction toward the heart.

Our lymphatic system is a collection of lymph nodes, ducts, and vessels, that work together to transfer lymph fluid and assist in the removal of any toxins. Dry brushing is a great way to stimulate the movement of the lymph, which is located right below the surface of the skin. Therefore, incorporating dry brushing into your daily or even weekly routine can stimulate normal lymph flow throughout the body, improve circulation, decrease inflammation, and increase your health for decades to come. In addition, dry brushing is also a good form of exfoliation. As the bristles of a body brush remove dead skin cells, it simultaneously clears any dirt and oil that have been trapped in your pores. In turn, decreasing the size of the pores!

How to do it: I recommend doing 10 strokes per body part, starting at your feet and brushing upwards. For instance, 10 strokes on the right leg, 10 strokes on the left leg, 10 strokes on the right arm, etc. In more sensitive areas such as the chest and the stomach, brush in circular motions to increase stimulation in those areas and do this 10 times as well. It is recommended to use a softer, gentler brush when dry brushing the face, replacing all brushes every 6-12 months to ensure that the bristles do not wear out, and to wash your brushes at least once a week to clean them from any dead skin cells that were removed from your body.

Health Hack #2: Do Hot/Cold Contrast Showers Each Morning

Hot and cold showers every morning is another great way to get your blood flowing, get your energy going, and get you ready to conquer your day! Cold showers not only help to revitalize your skin, but it also redirects circulation towards your organs. When the water is changed to a warmer temperature, this will cause circulation to move back outwards towards your skin. Thus, alternating temperatures will help stimulate any blocked flows in the body, move around nutrients, and release any toxins.

How to do it: It is recommended to begin with a colder temperature, increase temperatures, and then decrease the temperature again. The time you spend in the warmer water should be about 3x times longer than in the cold water. For instance, turning the temperatures up for about 3 minutes and then turning it down for 1. This process of alternating temperatures should be repeated 3-4 times and should always end with cold!

Health Hack #3: Do Sun Salutations Every Morning

The sun salutation is a sequence of postures, each with its meaning and function. It is a daily practice intended for dawn and/or sunset and done in the direction of the sun. Ideally, you would practice Sun Salutation outside to be in nature when honoring the sun and sharing your gratitude for its energy, but it isn’t a requirement. Depending on how many positions you choose to do, this practice can take as little as 5 minutes and is a great way to start or end your day! This is recommended to do daily, but may be done every other done if you find doing this daily to be too challenging for you. Engaging in a regular and faithful practice can result in the following benefits:

1. Strengthens the entire digestive system.

2. Invigorates and restores the nervous system.

3. Energizes the heart and regulates blood pressure and heart palpitations.

4. Promotes healthy lungs and breath.

5. Stimulates glandular activity.

6. Strengthens the muscles in your upper and lower body including your abdomen and back.

7. Reduces excess fat on the body.

8. Improves kidney function.

9. Encourages proper posture.

10. Brings clarity to your mind.

Basically, a morning ritual that includes Sun Salutation will benefit all your vital organs, muscles, your mind and it will provide shape and muscle to your body in a healthy, natural way.

Health Hack #4: Oil Pulling

Oil pulling was first discovered in India and has been around for many years. This practice is rooted from a specific form of healing system known as ayurvedic medicine, which practices around the belief of whole-body healing. Ayurvedic medicine hypothesizes that the tongue represents the health of what is occurring in other organs such as the kidneys and intestines, and is also connected to these other parts of the body as well. Thus, it is believed that cleansing the mouth of toxins and bacteria will cleanse the entire body as a whole. Through the use of oil pulling, toxins and bacteria in the mouth and tongue will get “pulled” out of the body as they will get trapped in the oil and spit out.

How to do it: Oil pulling is typically done using about 1-2 teaspoons of either sunflower, oil, sesame oil, or coconut oil. I always recommend using organic oil and swishing it around back and forth for about 20 minutes. Doing so will allow the oils enough time to break down plaque and bacteria without allowing the body the time to reabsorb it afterwards. Once you are done, spit the oil into a trash can. Avoid spitting the oil into your sink to avoid clogging it. It is also important NOT to swallow it as it will contain all of the bacteria and toxins that the oil had gathered and pulled from your mouth. Finally, rinse with warm water and finish off by brushing your teeth to remove anything that was left in your mouth.

Health Hack #5: Intermittent Fasting

If you would like to increase detoxification and weight loss even more, you can consider doing intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting allows the body to use its stored energy by burning off excess body fat. Body fat is merely food energy that has been stored away. If you don’t eat, your body will simply “eat” its own fat for energy.

Throughout the day, we exist in one of two states - either fasting or non-fasting. If we wake up and eat breakfast immediately and then eat until we go to sleep at night, then we are constantly storing sugar and producing fat, and not allowing our bodies to burn this stored energy. Once the storage space for sugar and fat in the liver has been reached, then the body will produce fat in other parts of the body. When we eat all day, we also prevent our bodies from paying attention to other important processes in the body, such as detoxification.

How to do it: I recommend that you do a 16:8 ratio of fasting to eating each day. This means that you will fast for 16 hours per day and then eat during an 8 hour window. For example, you can skip breakfast and then eat between 12:00PM and 8:00PM daily. During the 16 hours of fasting, you can drink liquids, preferably herbal tea or water or water with lemon and a pinch of cayenne pepper. It is best to do this in the morning so that it won’t disrupt our adrenal rhythms which use carbohydrates to produce cortisol and melatonin that helps us to sleep at night.

Health Hack #6: Don’t Hold on to Emotions - LET THEM GO

This is a new one that I’ve added to my list because I have learned a lot about this last year. Last year, I went through some serious trauma where I was betrayed by someone I loved and it was the biggest betrayal I have ever experienced in my life. Because of this, I found a therapy called Emotion Code. In one month of Emotion Code Therapy and a couple of sessions, I had unloaded the traumas and trapped emotions not only from the recent trauma, but from decades in my life and generations in my family.

Emotion Code is a therapy developed by Dr. Bradley Nelson that releases trapped emotions and traumas that are stored in your subconscious, causing imbalances in your system. Since Emotion Code was so life-changing for me, I decided to incorporate this therapy into my practice and since then, my patients have been getting better, faster. We carry trapped traumas and emotions around with us like heavy weights that weigh us down. This year, I have seen patients get better faster than ever after releasing their traumas, and because of this, I have found that one of the most important things you can do to stay healthy is to not hold on to emotions.

How to do it: Stop holding on to negative emotions. If you are feeling sad, mad, abandoned, betrayed, etc., forgive and let go. If you are having a hard time doing this or if you have deep traumas and trapped emotions, and want to learn more about Emotion Code, I suggest you read Dr. Nelson’s Book, Emotion Code or find an Emotion Code practitioner near you.

Health Hack #7: Do a detox 1-4 times per year, depending on how much JUNK you are putting in your system

First and foremost, you want to expose yourself to the least amount of “junk” as possible - this includes things like gluten, dairy, alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, mold, medications, etc. The more you expose yourself to “junk”, the more you will need to clean yourself out. The reality of today’s toxic world is that even if we are living as healthy as possible, we are constantly being exposed to toxins.

How do you do it: So how do we clean out our bodies so that we don’t accumulate in the toxins that create chronic illness? Well, I have found the magic bullet detox to be a detox and liver/gallbladder flush, a procedure that flushes out your liver, gallbladder, and colon. I typically do these 2-4 times per year, depending on how much “junk” I am exposing myself to. The liver/gallbladder flush is the procedure that I prescribe most in my office because it truly addresses that root cause problem of chronic disease - toxic overload. It is the procedure that “cured” me of eczema and it is a safe and effective way to decrease the toxic overload in your body. I will likely be writing a more in depth blog about this topic in the future, but if you want more information on the liver/gallbladder flush, go to Trulytransform.com.

References

1. Asokan S, Emmadi P, Chamundeswari R. Effect of oil pulling on plaque induced gingivitis: A randomized, controlled, triple-blind study. Indian Journal of Dental Research. 2009;20(1):47. doi:10.4103/0970-9290.49067.

2. Courtney NJ. Is Dry Brushing Your Skin Worth It? Oprah Magazine. https://www.oprahmag.com/beauty/skin-makeup/a29862762/dry-brushing-skin/. Published November 26, 2019. Accessed January 8, 2020.

3. Hebbar A, Keluskar V, Shetti A. Oil pulling – Unraveling the path to mystic cure. Journal of International Oral Health. http://www.ispcd.org/userfiles/rishabh/jioh-02-04-010.pdf.

4. Melinda. Detox and Renew Your Body with Autophagy and Intermittent Fasting. Libifit. https://www.libifit.com/autophagy-and-intermittent-fasting/. Published September 27, 2018. Accessed January 8, 2020.

5. Patterson RE, Sears DD. Metabolic Effects of Intermittent Fasting. Annual Review of Nutrition. 2017;37(1):371-393. doi:10.1146/annurev-nutr-071816-064634.

6. Shanbhag VK. Oil pulling for maintaining oral hygiene - A review. J Tradit Complement Med. 2016;7(1):106–109. Published 2016 Jun 6. doi:10.1016/j.jtcme.2016.05.004

7. Tello M. Intermittent fasting: Surprising update. Harvard Health Blog. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/intermittent-fasting-surprising-update-2018062914156. Published December 16, 2019. Accessed January 8, 2020.