In Partnership with Mindful MediaPeople think their body is a prison when it is really a vessel, says biohacker Melanie Avalon. The way we approach healthcare shouldn’t be accepting health problems as unavoidable norms, nor positing one-size-fits-all solutions.
While the perception of “normal” means something different to everyone, many people interpret their subjective state as an unavoidable norm. Change can seem elusive when one’s acute temporal condition becomes their identity.
Biohackers like Melanie Avalon are out to change this perspective.
Avalon used biohacking in her own life to lose weight and resolve various chronic health issues. While her past was littered with a laundry list of catchy diets, she inevitably realized that the appropriate approaches for her unique constitution made all the difference.
Enthralled by her findings and eager to share them with others, Avalon penned, What When Wine: Lose Weight and Feel Great with Paleo-Style Meals, Intermittent Fasting, and Wine (available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble), and launched two top iTunes podcasts: The Melanie Avalon Biohacking Podcast, and The Intermittent Fasting Podcast, the latter originally co-hosted with New York Times best selling author Gin Stephens, and now with acclaimed tedX speaker and nurse practitioner Cynthia Thurlow. The shows have skyrocketed to over 15 million downloads, and currently receive over 700 thousand streams per month.Through her endeavors, Avalon fostered an engaged community fascinated with biohacking and personalized health. Her knowledge of health and fitness comes from countless hours of research and self-experimentation.
What is Biohacking?
Biohacking is a quantified self movement challenging the status quo by taking health into one’s own hands, using various tools, techniques, and lifestyle approaches to resolve health issues and upgrade performance.
From blue light blocking glasses, to cryotherapy, to deuterium-depleted water, biohacking builds habits for enhanced vitality. It takes into account the vast differences in personal health, schedules, and modern stressors that can drain the body. Through our modern understanding of what we’re designed to handle, biohacking challenges the current norm.
Why is Biohacking Important?
Avalon and other biohackers recognize the detrimental impact of a monetized healthcare system with huge pharma companies relying on illness to keep them in business, as well as a food industry thriving on convenience and misinformation.
Few people are taught how specific foods, schedules, and environmental choices can affect the body. For example, how can food sensitivities create an array of seemingly unrelated health issues? (Avalon is also the creator of the top iTunes app, “Food Sense Guide”). Can we drink wine to boost our physical and mental health, rather than undermine it? Is the secret to health and weight loss, when we eat, rather than what we eat? Can we combat insomnia, simply by taking charge of our light exposure?
How the Biohacking Podcast Helps People Discover Real Health
Avalon believes mainstream messaging doesn’t address the sympathetic “fight or flight” state that is acutely detrimental to health. According to her, taking charge of your mindset and practicing self-care are ideal ways to combat a fatigued, stressed, over-caffeinated modern world. She believes diagnoses can be transcended, and people can move beyond “normal functioning” when they harness the power of biohacking.
The Melanie Avalon Biohacking Podcast brings on the world’s top experts for myriad health-related topics. Some of Avalon’s personal favorite episodes include:
- David Sinclair talking about his book Lifespan, epigenetics, and how to prevent aging
- Wim Hof on the Wim Hof Method, mindset meditation, cold exposure, and breathing techniques
- Robb Wolf discussing his books The Paleo Solution and Sacred Cow, regenerative agriculture, electrolytes, and dietary biases
Ultimately, Avalon wants people to know there is no right diet for everyone, and different things work for different people. Even for one person, what works today, may not work tomorrow, and good health may mean something different down the road.
Avalon also frequently explores self-care and protecting mental health. Society today treats a busy, stressful lifestyle as deserving a badge of honor, rather than as a potential silent killer. In Avalon’s own words: “Breathe. Be Kind. You got this!”
Such wisdom emanates not only from a biohacking maverick, but also an esteemed actress. Avalon once interned for blockbuster producerJerry Bruckheimer and Disney producer Jim Whitaker, while also achieving acting credits, including starring in the Biography Channel’s Deadly Wives, and receiving a film festival nomination for best supporting actress in the short film No More Chances.
With her overwhelming success in the podcasting world, Avalon now aims to transition her biohacking show to a television format, The Melanie Avalon Biohacking Show. With an abundance of screen time, a Mensa-smart brain, an enchanting on-camera presence, and a deep knowledge of biohacking, along with a who’s-who of health and science trailblazers having appeared on her podcast, Avalon’s ever evolving journey is one to watch. Avalon also recently launched the supplement line AvalonX, in partnership with MD Logic Health. Her Serrapeptase 125 supplement – a proteolytic enzyme created by the Japanese silkworm which may support inflammatory, sinus, and immune health – sold out its first run in less than 8 hours.
For those seeking vitality, empowerment, and growth, Melanie Avalon is a must-listen, bringing a unique perspective to a powerful collection of renowned experts, often walking slightly off the beaten path.
Upgrade your body, brain, and life, and listen to The Melanie Avalon Biohacking Podcast.
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