Heart to Heart with Hads

Is Biohacking Worth It? Red Light, Sauna, Cold Plunge

• Hadlea Shaw

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Biohacking tools like red light therapy, cold plunges, and infrared saunas should supplement - not replace - foundational health practices like proper sleep, nutrition, movement, and stress management. Women need to prioritize asking for help and delegating tasks to prevent psychological stress while implementing wellness practices that truly make a difference.

• Healthy lifestyle foundations must come before biohacking tools 
• Red light therapy benefits include reduced inflammation, improved skin appearance, and enhanced cellular function
• Infrared saunas support detoxification, dilate blood vessels, and help relax tense muscles
• Cold plunging boosts metabolism, activates brown fat, and enhances mood through neurotransmitter release
• Cold therapy isn't appropriate for everyone, especially women with irregular cycles or high stress
• Contrast therapy (alternating hot and cold) provides enhanced benefits through improved circulation
• Everyday applications include switching between hot and cold settings in your shower
• Quality tools matter - inexpensive Amazon alternatives often don't provide full-spectrum benefits

Coming up next episode: diving deep into birth control and its effects on the brain!


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SPEAKER_01:

Hello everybody! Woo! Welcome back to the channel. Oh channel? Is it channel? Welcome back to the channel. No, we're not on YouTube. Well, this is gonna go on YouTube. I'm not naked by the way. I have YouTube.

SPEAKER_00:

If you're watching on YouTube, you're like, how do you put your arms out of what seek?

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like I'm getting so much sugar. But let's just let's just do a little recap. Why don't we? So I why does that with my hair? I I have a coach that's helping me with my gut issues going on right now, right? And so he's also doing like my training programming and all of that. And I've had to send him like every single training video, and he's literally like critiquing the shit out of me. I'm not even gonna lie. And he's like, Nope, lift heavier, like nope, like do this, do that. And I'm like, oh my gosh, like I am just thinking, why have I not been, you know, training as I should? And I know why. It's because for the longest time, not the longest time, but since my period was missing for so long, and then I like got it back. I never really went back into my style of training because then I had these gut issues, and yada yada yada. And the thing is, and I kind of fell down this train in this rabbit hole too of like you should you should like pause your training if you're dealing with like gut issues and things like that, specifically gut issues. And the reality is like you don't need to unless you are like super duper inflamed, and by inflamed I mean like you're not sleeping well, you're not regulating like all of these things. But the reality is like I'm fine, like I got my period back, I'm in a healthy body fat percentage, like everything's good and chill, it's just my gut is blah. But that doesn't mean that I can't still work on getting my strength up, right? So I don't know if I mentioned this in the the last episode, but I have H. Pylori. So fun. And that is like impacting my digestion, but it shouldn't impact my ability to still go and get strong inside of the gym. So, with that being said, these next 98 days, because we have 98 days left in the year, I've been really, really focused on dialing in on my training. I'm sending him videos every single day. He's probably so annoyed with me, but he's kind of mentoring me in a way too. We kind of agreed like he would help mentor me in this process so like I can use the knowledge that he's giving me and give that to my clients as well. So I love that I've already learned quite a bit and I've already been able to apply some of the things that he's taught me. So that's really exciting. Anyways, here near there. I wanted to make this podcast episode and talk about kind of like the biohacking stuff that you've probably seen, like red light. Is it should I do red light? Should I, you know, cold plunge? Should I sauna? Should I la la la? And I think they're all really good tools on top of healthy lifestyle, on top of what you're currently doing, right? You know, setting boundaries, not being mom 25-8, not having to pick up everyone's shit, like delegating somebody else to go and do it for you so that you're not taking on all of the load. So you're not doing all the laundry, you're maybe your kids doing the chores, maybe your husband's doing the chores, like not everything needs to be on you. That's that's part of living a healthy lifestyle is delegating things and making sure that you're prioritizing yourself so that you're not having to do everything yourself and that people can help you out because that puts a lot of mental stress on you whenever you have to do everything, when you have to be the sole provider, like ask for help. Women are so afraid to ask for help in the sense of being like they think that they can do it on their own. We want to be independent, we want to do things when in reality we need the help. We need it specifically for us to be able to be our be the best version of ourselves. Like, I can't tell you, like, I will get annoyed with Brock. I'm like, Brock, I can't be the dogs, I can't change their diaper, I can't do the laundry, I can't do the dishes, I can't do everything on my own while I'm still trying to work and work from home and take care of myself. Like, you have to help me out. And so you have to stand up for yourself and communicate, like, hey, I actually need some help and I cannot do everything on my own. I'm trying to prioritize my health and my well-being so that I can show up better for you. Now I need you to help me in this aspect. So, women, please do that. That is part of your lifestyle. Whenever I say a lifestyle, we need to look at your lifestyle, do a lifestyle audit. That's part of it. Where is this additional mental psychological stress coming from? And then we get into obviously exercise. You know, are you moving? Are you sedentary? We get into diet, right? Are you eating enough protein? Are you eating processed foods? Are you eating out all of the time? Are you having consistent meals? Are you going to bed and waking up at the around the same time every day? Like all of these things go into living a healthy lifestyle, and people don't realize all that. Are you drinking enough water? Are you freaking dehydrated? I'm dehydrated right now, so let me just if you're watching on YouTube, I got this hydro drug that has like cherry all over it. They sent it to me on TikTok shop. Anyways, here near there. Like going back to the whole biohacking thing, I think once you have the foundations, the sleep, the lifestyle, the nutrition, the exercise, the stress management, once you have those things dialed in, then it's like, okay, the red light and the sauna and the cold plunger are going to help be as a tool, as an added benefit on top of what you're already doing. It shouldn't be used to replace anything because it's it's not gonna help. It's not gonna do anything if you're not already nailing the basics down. So yesterday I posted on my story actually, like me doing a meditation in front of the red light. Now, there are so many benefits to the red light. Infrared sauna specifically, um, is one thing. Oh my gosh, excuse me. So there's infrared sauna, and then there's just like infrared red light. Obviously, infrared sauna is going to make you sit sweat, so it's gonna support detoxification, you know, can help help lower your cortisol, it dilates your blood vessels, increasing your blood flow, benefiting your cardiovascular system, right? Because it gets your heart rate up, you know, you're you're sweating. Also, it can help relax the tense muscles, aid in recovery of muscle pain. And red light in general can help a lot with inflammation, like and on in a part of your body. So I have it right here actually. So if you're watching on YouTube, like I could say, like if I was having like some sort of pain in my shoulder, like I could hold it for six to twelve minutes right here and do this multiple times throughout the day to help kind of bring inflammation down. If I'm sore there, whatever it may be, it can work. Like they recommended I do this on my dog to help bring to help bring down the inflammation in his back because he had he injured his back. And so that's really it can also help a lot with your skin. And so that's why you'll see those ones that have like you'll see the masks because it's really helping with the what's the word that I'm looking for? What is the word that I'm looking for on what it's going to do for your skin? Improves your cellular like the cells in your um like acne, wound healing, just improve your overall skin appearance. So that's why too, I love to do it on my face, and I feel like my skin's gotten like so good, except I don't know what's going on right here. It's really gotten really good, and I think it's because my current skincare routine is top-notch, but also the red light, I do that every day, and it seems to do a lot of wonders, and so it can help with a lot of different things. So cellular cellular mitochondrial function, obviously. So that is the powerhouse of your cells, and whenever your cells are healthy, everything is running smoothly in your body. So that the red light sauna combined, the red light combined with the sauna is like amazing. And then we get into the the cold plunge aspect. And I think cold plunge is good, but there's also a little bit of downfalls. I would say that red light and sauna would have more pros to them than than cold plunging would. Cold plunging, if you're already a woman who like you don't have regular cycles, maybe you're like super duper stressed, your cortisol's off the charts. This is not something that you'd want to incorporate because it can make things worse, right? But it can help a lot with just like your breath, because whenever you get into the water, it's kind of like a shock to your body, and you have to really focus on your breath and like like really breathing in. Um, but the the cold shock can cause a spike in your heart rate and your blood pressure, which could all be dangerous for people who have the cardiovascular disease. Um, you could also get hyperventilation. There's there's some things, there's a risk of hypothermia, but it shouldn't be because you shouldn't like you don't need to get your water any anything under. I think it's like 52 or 55 degrees. And so it's like, oh, people are cold plunging in ice cold water. Like you don't need it that cold, essentially, like 55. I think 52 or 55 below does a trick. And the the amount of time that you spin inside of the cold plunge, too, like I think it's 11, 12 minutes per week. Like, don't go over that. So say you go a couple times a week, you know, each time you you can keep I would keep it under three minutes. Like, you don't need to go anything over three minutes, and really the first couple of seconds, like 30 seconds, are the worst because it's just like that initial shock. But once you sit in there, it's it's fine. But when you move around, that makes that makes it worse. So I like to move around just to like challenge myself even more. But the benefits of it, obviously, it will boost your metabolism, it activates the brown fat, which can improve your insulin sensitivity, it helps in muscle recovery. Obviously, if you've ever done any school sports, they um like I remember in track we would do that a lot just to help with recovery after our intense running session. It supports your immune function. Um, regular cold exposure does help your immune system, regular hot and cold exposure, and so that's when we get into more. Sorry, my earring is like bugging my ear. So that's when we get into more of the like contrast therapy. So switching between the two, but our bodies are not meant to be comfortable all of the time.

SPEAKER_00:

You're like, how they should we know we get uncomfortable?

SPEAKER_01:

No, really, if you think about like our ancestors back, I don't know how many years, you know, when we didn't have air conditioning or whatever, they had to sleep cold at nights, and then throughout the day they were hot and they were exposed to those different climates, and that's what made them their immune system healthy because they weren't at this like same temperature. Our bodies need the cold to hot sort of ratio. And so that's why I do love doing the contrast therapy, but also too, there's different things you can do throughout your day where you don't have to go to a contrast therapy studio or whatever. You can just take a cool shower and then you know switch it on to hot and then, or you could do a cool shower, then you could do a really hot bath, you could get in the sauna at your gym. There's so many different things that you could do, or just go work up a sweat outside, like go run, you know, exercise. That's that's gonna help, you know, get your body temperature up in sweating. And so what else? Um, the cold punch can enhance your mood too. It releases neurotransmitters like dopamine, norinephrine, norethen, norepinephrine, which can elevate your mood, your focus, and boost your energy. It also increases your stress resilience. So obviously, cold exposure is going to help your train your body better to handle physical and psychological stress. So there's a really a lot of good, really good things. But whenever you combine the two, the sauna and the cold plunge, it can help with vasodilation and vasoconstriction. So improve your circulation, um, and uh I think that's what I meant to say there. Reduce inflammation, that's the biggest thing. Muscle soreness and inflammation after exercise. So if you're someone that's like not exercising hard, like you're not, you're not gonna benefit benefit from it, right? So that's why I'm like, okay, you need to be having the other things, the basics already in check before you do the things because then it's like counterintuitive. I would see people like do the cold plunge, like, yeah, cool, that's giving you the benefit of, you know, you're doing something hard, you're shocking your body. It's like, okay, telling your body you can, you know, you're getting ready for the day, like, whoo, let's go, let's get it. But if you're not like going to the gym and actually like training hard, like, I don't know. Anyways, that's kind of my two cents on like the red light, all of those things. Um, but I really do like the red light, and I use it so much, specifically for like pain and inflammation, like certain parts, like I said, of your body. But I'm trying to think of any other like biohacking things, but these are the like things that I can think of, and I don't even think that they would necessarily be considered biohacking, more just like longevity type of things to do to make sure that your body is like at its tip top peak. The one that I like actually is the loom box, and you can like hold it, but I have like a specific spot on my desk where it kind of like tilts up in my face while I'm doing my meditation. You'll need goggles for it. I wouldn't get any of the ones on Amazon because they're not gonna be the full spectrum. You're gonna have to pay it a a good penny for it. I think mine was like 400 bucks for just this little thing that's like the size of my head. So just be willing to invest in it if you're if you plan on getting one so that you know, like, hey, this is how much it costs, maybe ask for it for Christmas. I don't really know, but it it is an amazing tool, and I know it has helped helped me a lot. Also, too, when I did put it in front of my face and I was just laying on the couch, it just like brings the like me to a calm space, essentially. So it's really neat in that sense. But what else did I have to rant about today? I really wanted to just talk about the kind of biohacking tools because somebody asked me, you know, what's the benefits of it? How can I get it? Where can I get one? So yeah, really love the loom box. And I love going to Sweathouse, plug sweat. I'm plugging Sweathouse right now in this because that's the contrast therapy studio that where you, you know, you do the infrared sauna. You do the infrared sauna and then you go get into the cold punch. And so that's like the contrast therapy, but I love it. Actually, I'm gonna schedule to go tomorrow because amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing. Um yeah, hopefully this kind of gives you some good insight and like to know is it really necessary? I mean, I don't think it's quote unquote necessary, it's more just like you want to continue to enhance your, you know, your body, your health, have at it. Like, I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but like I said, you better have the basics in check. Like, you better be eating right, you better be going to the gym, you better be sleeping well, you know, managing your stress before you add in something like this, because it's not going to solve the problem that you're that you're avoiding by not going to the gym or not eating how you're supposed to. It's not, it's not a magic tool, it's not gonna make you lose all this weight, it's not it's not gonna be anything like that. Um, so I think that's all. My next episode, we're gonna talk about more birth control stuff because your girl is learning a shoot ton about birth control and its effects on the brain. And obviously, your brain affects literally everything else in your body. So stay tuned for that episode. It's gonna be good. I'm actually probably gonna record it right after this because it's on my fresh on my mind. So hope you guys enjoyed this. Why can't I talk? Hope you guys enjoyed this episode, and if you liked it, share it with somebody that you think may need it. Also, this is the book I'm reading back here, too. I'm reading a couple different books, but I'll see you guys in the next episode. Bye.