Hi, I'm Dom Hind, and fuck, I'm nearly 50. And I have a confession. The word biohacking gives me the ick. It makes me think of cold plungers, red light, supplements, wearables, expensive machines, and people measuring absolutely everything their bodies can do. Because surely the human body is a little more complicated than something we can simply hack. And yet, annoyingly, I am absolutely fascinated by all of it. I track my sleep, my exercise, I've had a dexter scan, I care about my VO2 max, I take supplements, and I absolutely want the next 30, 40, and maybe even 50 years of my life to be strong, healthy, interesting, and fun. So maybe I'm biohacking without wanting to call it biohacking. But I also wonder whether we've made being healthy far too complicated. Do we really need another test tracker, supplement, or device? Or do I need to sleep properly, lift heavy things, eat good food, spend time with the people I love and actually enjoy my life? Today I'm talking to Camilla Thompson, founder of BioHack Me, to understand what works, what we still don't know, and where science starts to blur into wellness hype. And perhaps most importantly, can we become healthier without making health another bloody job? Because I don't want to spend the second half of my life constantly trying to fix myself. I want to live it because fuck, I'm nearly 50 and isn't it amazing? Camilla Thompson is a nutritionalist, executive wellness coach, author, and founder of BioHack Me. Her approach combines the fundamentals of food, sleep, movement, recovery, and connection with newer tools designed to help understand our individual biology. And Camilla has made herself part of the experiment too. Testing and changing how she eats, sleeps, trains, and recovers. But I don't want this to be another conversation about the perfect morning routine or what we should be doing. I want to know what actually makes a meaningful difference. What has good evidence behind it? What looks promising, but we don't yet 100% know. And have we been massively overcomplicating everything? So, Camilla, welcome to Fort. I'm just nodding. Yeah, yeah, alright.
Good to be here. Thanks, Tom. Oh, thank you for coming. So I I know you and I have had the uh discussion about the term biohacking and how it does make me feel a little bit uncomfortable. It gives you the ick. It gives me ick it 100% does. Can you sell it to me?
SPEAKER_03Oh, you know what's funny? It gives me the ick as well sometimes. And I've written a book called Biohack Me, so I'm stuck with it. But it's funny, and it's so I'm noticing globally now people are changing the word biohacking. So some countries love using it. Like I just got back from Bangkok and Thailand, and it's biohacking everything over there. They they love the word and longevity. But um, the UK is starting to talk much more about health optimization, less of a focus on biohacking. Um, the US as well. I mean, God, the US have been doing this a long, long time. Like they've been talking about biohacking for over 10 years, longer than that. So it's interesting. And Australia, we are we're catching up quite quickly, but still quite slowly at the same time. So I think the word biohacking, it means so many different things depending on who you think about. And you know, if we're thinking about the Brian Johnson's and Dave Aspreys of the world, and you know, and some of the female biohackers who are so extreme, then it's really off-putting and it puts me off. And I I actually found it really off-putting when I sort of unknowingly found myself as a biohacker. Someone called me a biohacker, and I was like, What? That's not am I biohacking? And they were like, Yeah, you've been biohacking for years because I've been unwell and I was living in black mould in Sydney, and I was trying all these things to try and get well, and I didn't realize that I'd suddenly become this biohacker. Um, and you know, measuring and trying to work out what was going on with me. So, but I I think it's quite it can be quite a male word, it can feel a bit hacky. You know, my mum's always saying, I don't like it, I don't like the word biohacking. Um, but you know, I'm I'm growing warmer to it because I think for me, I it's about bioindividuality.
Okay, yeah, like that.
SPEAKER_03So it's about your uniqueness, and I think we, as you mentioned at the beginning, right, it's so overwhelming. There's so much information, it's overload of wellness, um, you know, advice and different experts. And I think understanding what works for you is what's key here. And and we can't follow the advice of the latest influencer on TikTok telling us to do something that works for them. So I think the bioindividuality piece with biohacking really interests me. The data, um, I think just the taking control of your health. I think we all need to be empowered to take control of our health because no one else is going to do it for us. And we're not being set up for success in a lot of areas of life. You know, we really do have to try and minimize some of that toxic load and things that are going on. So yeah. So I'm on the fence with biohacking.
Dom HindAnd I like the the bio individual. What do you say? Yeah, bioindividuality.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's a mouthful, but it's not.
Dom HindBut but you know what, it is it it is what it it should be. It's about understanding you and what makes you up. Yeah. And what makes you healthy and what doesn't. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And then that can go to the extreme as well, which I'm sure we're going to talk about. But it's like, so I think there's a really happy medium with sort of understanding more about you and what makes you unique and what your body might need, but also not taking it to that next level where you're kind of yeah, obsessed and extreme with everything.
Dom HindIt's a very fine line between getting obsessed and just monitoring as well, I think.
SPEAKER_03It is. It's it is health has become an obsession for many people, and and and and it's a you know, trillion-dollar industry, like it's ridiculous. Yeah, you know, and I think we've we look at wellness washing, we look at longevity washing, and it's it's this elixir of youth. Everybody wants to stay young, no one wants to grow old, and that's bullshit because we're all gonna grow old. It's just we can do it gracefully and we can do it in a better way than maybe our parents or our grandparents have.
Dom HindYeah, and I think the owning our health, that's a big one for me. Because even my parents, they don't own their health health. And I think those older generations just have always trusted the word of the doctor rather than knowing in themselves what's wrong.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's so true. And I think it's funny when you look at our grandparents' generation, they were probably a healthier generation in a sense that they were exposed to less plastics, toxic, they often grew their own veggies, um, life was a lot simpler, you know, women weren't under as much stress, they weren't managing careers, they were staying at home more. But I think when we look at our parents' generation, and you know, yes, I'm 50 next year, so we're similar age, um, is that we're seeing more decline there, right? Because there's been more stress, there's been in more exposure. And so I think that's the wake-up call we're having now in our generation. And you know, a lot of my clients are calling me in their 50s, mid-50s, going, just put my dad in a home, or my mum's got dementia, or you know, dementia's a big can't walk, it's the number one killer in Australia now. Um, so I think that's the confrontation that's giving the wake-up call of like, okay, what can I do about my health span? Yeah, because I don't want to end up like that. You know, I I want to do the best I can to support my brain and my body and all the rest of it.
And I do think I love the health span and joy span working in parallel. I think that is it's so essential for us not to forget the joy that we can have in life too.
SPEAKER_03A hundred percent. And I think you know, I talk about that in my book. It's a lot of the work that I do with my clients. I get them to create a joy list, and you know, they stick it on the fridge or they've got it on their phone, and just do one thing every day that brings you joy. And it might just be drinking a cup of tea, yeah, watching the sunrise, or sitting outside for 10 minutes, taking a break, or hanging out with a pet, or being in nature, whatever it might be, just something really simple. Yeah, it doesn't have to be like some massive excursion out for three hours. It's like it you can do stuff to find joy.
Dom HindIt it's interesting. I've started going, because I live near the gap, to the gap and watching the sunrise in the morning with a cup of tea, and it's just amazing. It just resets you for the day and just grounds you and our life. It's the best way to start the day.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. You're getting in natural light, yes, which we all know, you know, we're all banging on about it, but it's it's so important. You're setting up that circadian rhythm, that sleep-to-wake cycle, the natural light, it's signaling for the body to stop producing melatonin and cortisol, you know, we need cortisol when we wake up in the morning. We've all been feared that cortisol is this big enemy, but actually, we need to activate that cortisol when we wake up. We want to have it to spike, and then it will slowly, gradually decline as the day goes on, and then you want your melatonin to rise. But that's why doing that is amazing. That's a brilliant biohack.
Dom HindGreat. There you go. Tick.
SPEAKER_03But it's normally you'll be more of a biohacker than me by the end of it. I was listening to a podcast today this morning on the drive here, and this woman was saying she's more of a bio slacker than a biohacker. And I was like, that's me. I'm actually more of a bioslacker. I'm doing less and less and less as the days go by.
Dom HindI think you do, like you get to a point where you go, oh, there's just so much to do, but you just find the stuff that works for you.
SPEAKER_03You have to find what works for you. You know, you have to stack it in. Yeah, you can't do it all the time. You know, unless you're a full-time biohacker, you know, and all you do and all you lose. Isn't that what you are? No. I have multiple businesses and a life. Um, and yeah, no, I'm definitely not, you know. I mean, I'm I I got into biohacking, as I mentioned, through being unwell. And I'm I felt like I was in my 80s and my 40s. So I was creaking around the place. It had the mold had mimicked arthritis in my body. I was in constant pain. Um, I had an eye that weeped and bulging. Um, I was permanently dehydrated and felt like I was hungover. And it was a real glimpse into this is what feeling like crap when you're older could be like. And and that's kind of why I'm so passionate about pro-aging and Jogo, I call it the joy of growing old, and going, actually, Jogo, Jogo, if we're in if we're in good health as we age, and stuff's still gonna go wrong, you know. Like we're not invincible, we can give ourselves the best chance, but
so yeah.
Dom HindCan we talk about mold in the body? Yeah. Because I was talking to someone about this the other day, and I didn't realise that even when you leave a place that has mold in it, it does stay in your body. Yeah, how long does it take to get out?
SPEAKER_03Look, it's so individual, so it's so different. So 25% of the population, so one in four of us have a genetic um predisposition that means our body can't get rid of mould. Ever. Yeah, well, no, you can, but you have to use binders and things to help get out of your body.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_03So for some people, we will we're all inhaling mold spores, they're everywhere, right? They're that you know, you can't get away from them. So we inhale it, and most people's bodies will go, okay, that's a pathogen, I don't like it. We'll sweat it out, poo it out, pee it out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But for people like me and my son that have this genetic um predisposition, our body goes, I don't know what this is, I don't understand it. I'll just hold on to it. And that's when it starts disrupting all your systems, and it looks different for everyone, it looks different for kids, it looks different for men, for women, for the symptoms range completely. It's so hard, and it can activate so many random things in your body. So you have to really help. So, yes, if you move out of a moldy environment, you then have to look at a detox. And and regardless of whether or not you've got the gene or not, you should do some kind of a detox. After you lay the yeah, absolutely, just to help the body get rid of it. Yeah. Um, and you want to bind it so you'll use things like binders that kind of it's a bit like a magnet, and the mold kind of sticks to it, and then you'll excrete it, basically.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, and it's really worth working with mold practitioners. There's not many of them around because you have to support your liver, like there's a lot you have to do. Um, and you're you you might have issues with your detox and methylation pathways as well as the mold gene. So there's a lot, it's very complex. How did you find out? Was it what you're doing? Well, I didn't, I spent years and years and no one knew what was wrong with me. Um, it was, you know, I just got gaslit the whole time. Um, and yeah, no one really believed me in the end. It was like you're making it up. So it was really frustrating. Eventually, I was just so unwell and I was struggling to move around and get out of bed, and I just, you know, you kind of start giving up a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And then a girlfriend of mine came over to my house and she worked in mould remediation, and she just found it. It was everywhere. And I didn't even know it was hidden everywhere.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_03Like it mold is very clever, it hides really well. Okay. Um, and you know, it was everywhere. And so within 24 hours we'd moved out of our house, we lost all our belongings, and then I went into getting all my blood stun, found out it was in my system, and then yeah, went into 18 months to get rid of it. And I still have it in my body.
Dom HindYeah. I think it's fascinating because we no one talks about it. Like, this is the only the second time in my life that we've really talked about it actually stays in your body, and you do need to work it work away together.
SPEAKER_03So much misinformation, and like, and even with cleaning mold, like there's these awful products like exit mold, which is bleach, and you spray on the mold, that disperses mold spores everywhere, and it just bleaches it, but it feeds it, so it's still there, and you've you but spread it even more into your atmosphere. So there's a lot of misinformation out there about cleaning mold, about getting rid of mold, trying to kill mold. Like it's very hard to kill mold, it's a living organism. A lot of stuff just feeds it, you know, even your vinegar and stuff. It's feeds it. Anyway, we could do a whole podcast on mold. But it's funny because it's recently in the US, um, uh what's his name? Kennedy, RF Kennedy, he's just talked about mould and how his sons were sick and he was sick. Oh, really? And so now the US has gone mad like about mould.
Dom HindYeah.
SPEAKER_03So the flow on effect will happen here in Australia, but again, we are so behind the US in treating mould and protocols for mold. We are we are still learning. Medicare don't recognise it. Like I spent tens of thousands on trying to get well. They don't recognise it, there's no rebates, the testing, most people can't afford to get tested. Um, people are sleeping in tents in winter or in their cars in Melbourne because they can't live in their own homes. There's social housing, there's mold issues. It's it's it's an absolute crisis that we are here living in in mould in Australia. It's really bad. So we need to do more about it. There needs to be more awareness. Well, okay, yeah. I did I didn't realise it was such a it's it's massive. It's huge. And it's, you know, there's loads of people that can't afford to get well. They can't afford to even see a functional doctor, they can't afford, there's no support. Um, I'm on support groups, and the stories you hear are heartbreaking, like devastating.
Dom HindSo sad. Okay. Yes, moving moving on.
SPEAKER_03Yes, we'll move on because I we could do hours on mould, but um But but no one talks about that. Like no one is talking about. Well, I've been on I've been on Sunrise TV talking about it and trying to create a little bit more awareness and exposure, and I do want to do more about that. I mean, I had a business doing mould testing, which I've closed this year because uh being a small business in Australia is not much fun right now. Well, yeah, but um that's another podcast too. But it's you know, our outgoings and labour were so much, and our insurances and like it was and it's such hard work, it's it's manual labour to remove mould, and we just couldn't, the margins, it was just really difficult to make it work. So I will be more of an advocate for this in this space now that I'm not working in it as well.
Well, yeah, now that you don't have like a yeah, I'm not day-to-day dealing with it anymore. So um health used to sound reasonably straightforward. Um, eat well, move your body, sleep, don't smoke, have people you love go outside. Now we need whoops, DEXA scans, VO2 max, uh we need blood tests, DNA testing, supplement saunas, cold plungers, apps telling me everything that I am doing right and doing wrong. Have we made being healthy unnecessarily complicated?
SPEAKER_03Yes, absolutely. I mean, it's ridiculous. I am not wearing anything, no whoop, no aura. I am, I am. She's more of a biohacker than me. You heard it here first. Okay, so um I have done all the things, right? I I experiment. Biohacking is about experimentation, right? It's trying different things. And I think that's why there's suddenly so many new technologies and new things that we can do. People are fascinated in themselves, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And in their data. And what is sad is we're now losing that intuition and trust in how we actually feel because we're relying on technology to tell us how we feel. But I do think Whoop has an absolute place or aura um with that data and behavior change and giving you that baseline. Behavior change and baseline. And the behavior change, yeah. It is amazing and life and life's changing and potentially life-saving for some people with their sleep and alcohol consumption and things like that. So also steps.
Dom HindLike, I do think, like, I mean, I know a lot of them do measure steps, but you know, they do just to get you up and moving.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it keeps you accountable. And I think that's something we that most human beings need. We need something to keep us motivated, keep us accountable. Um, you know, I think you know, doing things like DEXA scans, it's you know, especially as women as we sort of are approaching 50s, really important. Um, you know, there's lots of great technology. A lot of it is replicating what can be found in nature, but most of people aren't getting enough exposure in nature anymore. So we're having to look for devices to kind of supercharge what we might have just got from going for a walk for an hour or lying on the beach or whatever it might be. So I think we have overcomplicated things, but I think there's a backlash now. Well, I know there's a backlash. The Global Wellness Institute just spoke about this last year in their in their last report that there's a backlash in over-optimisation. And I've just been in Bangkok at some incredible longevity clinics and hearing amazing professors and doctors talk about longevity, and and they're all saying the same thing. The data is great, and it's good to have access to that, but we've got to get back to the basics. Yeah, and most people are not doing all the things you just read out, you know?
Dom HindYeah, I know. Oh, I mean, the thing that like I even when I started with my whoop, I was great for the first three months, and then I'm like, oh my god, I just can't be bothered with all the data. But I'm great that it's there and it will tell me about my sleep and my steps, and it will be pick up when I've I've done some exercise. But it is, yeah, just so overwhelming because for me, the thing that I need to focus on is drinking water because I'm really crap at drinking water, and I've only just got my sleep back under control. So, you know, they're two basic things rather than anything
else.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and the hydration piece is massive, like so many people are dehydrated, and that causes long-term issues with brain health and step of water, yeah, and um and hydrating with the right water, right? We are made up of water and salt inside, right? We cry salty tears. When we have saline drips, it's water and salt. That's how we hydrate the body. So often we're like, I've got a whole house water system, filter system, plus reverse osmosis, but it's taking out the good stuff as well as the bad stuff. So then you've got to remineralize, and that's where you know a lot of people are going wrong as well. They think they're doing the right thing and filtering, but then you're not actually getting the right electrolytes that your body needs. Um, and and most of us do need to supplement with electrolytes, you know, like good quality salts, not the awful bloody blue, bright blue drinks that my kids used to drink, thinking after sport that that's hydration, it's like, oh, it's just sugar and chemicals. But you know, good quality electrolytes is really important. Like for the brain, the brain is water and fat.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know, we find that with people with severe migraines and headaches, they're often deficient in sodium. Um so that's often a sign is that you're not getting enough good salt, not your cheap table salt.
Dom HindYeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, so I think that's a really important one, hydration, like just fixing that.
Dom HindYeah, I know. That's my until the end of the year, uh, my focus is on making sure that hydration. But see, even with that, like I will I need to get the electrolytes under control.
SPEAKER_03Like I need to focus on making sure that's do one, like you can get sodium, just one sachet a day, you know, and that's going to give you a really good boost of your potassium, your magnesium, and the right sodium. So I think that's just an easy one. I just do one sachet every day, and I know that I'm particularly if you're doing saunas and stuff and you're losing dehydrating.
Dom HindYeah, okay, good. All right, I will make sure that I'm what you what what's something that you've noticed that you have you started out full on into looking at the data, looking at the data, and now you're just like, I know what I need to do, and this is how I manage my health.
There's been so many things. Like I've tried quite a few things, and then uh the the thing is a lot of stuff involves consistency.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_03And if you do it once, it's like a hyperbaric chamber. You do it once. I mean, I do feel amazing even after one session, but unless you do it regularly, you're not going to get the benefit from it. So it's quite easy to do something and then think, oh, it's not working. Um that it's consistency. But it's consistency. So something, so PEMF, um, the sort of pulse electromagnetic field beds, like I've read so much research about them. Like I know people that have had mould issues that have used them, but I've it's only recently I've been using them more often, but I just haven't felt any immediate benefits from it. So I've really stuck to trying to do it sort of four or five days on the trot. And then, but I'm still like, I don't know, I can't quantify the benefit, but I I'm just trying to trust the research and know it's helping me. Whereas some things, you know, and but some some people some people do P EMF and they feel amazing straight after. Yeah, right. So it just I think it just depends. Like I was doing, I was using my mat and it was on too high, and I was waking up in the morning like I've been electrocuted because I'm so sensitive to EMFs.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_03And so, and these are good, the good EMFs, but I was like like this. So I definitely knew something was working on me. So then I had to dial it down.
Dom HindAnd so I so you're sleeping on it then.
SPEAKER_03No, I was just doing it before bed, like in whilst I was watching TV. Okay. Biohacking stacking. Okay, good. So I was doing that was and so obviously something was working because I felt that, but it's it's it's interesting. Like I think with a lot of these things, you've got to be consistent. Yeah, I think so too. Red light therapy, I do it every other day. Yeah, yeah. I love it. I've just got a unit, it's so simple on my desk, 10 minutes, and you know, I just have 10 minutes of doing a bit of a gratitude, affirmation, whatever meditation. Yeah, you hack it, you stack it. Yeah, and I love it. You know, and I feel the benefits, see the benefits, feel the benefits. Yeah, I agree.
Dom HindI do like a red light. Um, what uh okay, so this is a uh three-part question.
Um, if you or how much could the average 48-year-old say, woman, potentially improve her health without buying a single device or supplement?
SPEAKER_03I it's got to be strength. It's got to be doing something, body strength at home. So if you can't buy anything, you can't even buy any weights. Um you're making it difficult. Cans out of the just yeah, I mean, just doing something, making sure you're lifting a shopping, don't let your kids or your partner do it. Like keep, you know, heavy shopping bags. Yes, you know, doing some planking at home, some press-ups. I think the more we build muscle for our bone health and muscle health at 48 is really important. I wish I'd known that. I got diagnosed with sarcopenia at 47, which was yeah, muscle mass loss. And I was like, hang on, I'm healthy, I'm doing yoga, I'm doing Piladas, I'm walking. But you weren't doing strength any weights. And I go, shit, I should have been doing that earlier on. So that would be my advice is to just make sure you're building strength in your body. Yeah, okay. What happens if you had $500? I would personally do a DNA methylation test because that is a one-off test and it's a unique blueprint of your genetics, and it looks at where you might be predisposed to mineral deficiencies. So you can get blood, so it stops you taking endless supplements for no reason because you can work out where your deficiencies might be.
Dom HindOkay.
SPEAKER_03And then test for them. Um, it looks at your br your brain health and your heart health, what foods you should eat, what exercise is good for your body, um, how you deal with stress, all the things, right? Yeah. So I think if you've got 500 bucks, I'd do that. It's a one-off test. And it and then you can set up your unique blueprint action plan of what you need to do for your health from a prevention perspective. That's a good thing. What about 5,000 bucks? Definitely a sauna. Yeah. Has to be a sauna. Best thing you'll ever buy. And what one? Traditional or infrared? Either or. They're both amazing. I think, you know, the they say that the infrared is working on a deeper level. Um, they're both amazing.
Dom HindSee, it's funny, in an infrared, I cannot stay in for as long. But that's exactly, it's up to what works for you. Yeah, whereas in a traditional, I'm like, yeah, I can, but I don't stay in for ages.
SPEAKER_03Like it's yeah, 35 minutes and then I'm done. Well, see, I couldn't probably stay that long in the traditional. Traditional, I'm like 20 minutes in and out, and I'm like drenched. Whereas infrared, I'll do 30. But I think I bought a sauna where before I knew I had mold poisoning. Um, so you've had it for a long time. I've had a long time because I bought it because it was the only thing that made me feel better. So I knew every time I had a sauna, I had a good day afterwards, and I was like, God, I feel okay. What's going on? So we bought like a box thing in the house. Um and so that was amazing. And you know, now I've got a beautiful outdoor one, but it's you know, the research is there. They put gears on your life, like they you're you're going into that hormesis, that good stress. You know, there there's just no reason not to if you've got five grand bike sauna.
Dom HindAnd I think even just the benefit, like your skin just feels amazing when you come out of the sauna as well. Well, probably not straight away, but like for the day, it just feels amazing because everything's clean. Yeah, it does.
SPEAKER_03And I think and you you get a high, you get your dopamine rush, you get all the good endorphins going. It's yeah, look, I think that it's just they're amazing. Then they're probably my number one, number one and we say biohack, saunas have been around for a long time. So have cold plungers. Yeah, like the Scandinavians are just laughing at the rest of us in the world. I mean, like that we they've been doing that since they were kids, you know, like jumping in cold rivers or lakes and sitting in the back of the hot. They all have saunas in their homes, like it's just it's just standard living for them.
What would you not buy?
SPEAKER_03Hmm, that's a good question. What would I not buy? I think just expensive supplements that you don't really know what they're going, what the benefit is. And I think the problem is so many of us are but uh taking so many supplements, we don't even know what's working. Yeah. Um, you know, like I think when I a couple of years ago I took NMN and I felt a noticeable difference. Yeah, like a complete and utter noticeable difference. So I was like, wow, that is a supplement I've actually really felt. Magnesium, absolutely feel the difference. But some of the other ones I'm just not sure. And there's some there's a lot of expensive ones out there.
Dom HindSee, I feel that for those two, but also with creatine. And creatine, sorry. That might be just works so much better, particularly if I've had a bad sleep and I do a little bit of a top-up. Yeah, it just is amazing. It just that clarity of thinking.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it really is. I think those are three that are amazing. And it's funny because you know, we talk a lot about fish oil, and and particularly um with the work I do in genetics and looking at brain health and and fish oil supporting that, but I'm also looking at research now that's saying that fish oil might not be that great for us. So yeah, because it's sort of oxidized and it's a lot of them have got metals in, and we really just need to eat oily fish. Um and try and do food first. Okay. I mean, that's not to say stop doing your fish oil, but the quality is really important with all supplements that you've got you've got to know where they've come from. You've got to know the quality that they're not plasticky and full of fillers and stuff. So I think fish oil is really important, but the source of it is important. Um and trying to eat wild salmon, which isn't that easy to get here in Australia, but unfortunately, normal salmon is quite toxic.
Dom HindYeah.
Um the just uh on the provenance and knowing where things come from, where are you at with the peptides uh debate at the moment?
SPEAKER_03Oh I this is probably uh controversial, but I I'm not a fan of peptides um at this current uh point in time in Australia.
Dom HindInteresting. So many um professionals within the space are not because of the testing and not knowing. I just don't know what's in them.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And I I was reading this morning about um a lot of the um the copper ones have got lead and arsenic in them, and I'm like, I just don't really want to be injecting metals. I've already got heavy metals in my body. Yeah. You know, I don't want to be putting more in. Look, I think the GLP ones um have been life-changing and saving for some people, but also frightening for some when you get look at the eastern suburbs and everyone's like uh skeletons, and but also they've lost their joy. Yeah.
Dom HindLike the joy of living has gone. Yeah, because they literally, the neuropathways or whatever is happening in the brain to stop the food noise, yeah, has also just stopped every bit of joyous noise. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's so true. And it's stopped, I mean, the wine noise. I mean, that's you know, it has been for people, it's helped them goes and stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I was reading yesterday about retitrutide that a lot of women who are taking it are wanting to divorce their husbands because they've just they don't feel anything anymore. They're beginning to become completely like independent and just and they're not feeling any love or emotion towards their could be menopause as well. It's tough. There's a lot of menopause or women on retitrutide, so there's a but look, I'm just having enough of like doing everything.
Dom HindI've had enough.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think it's just yeah, it's that time in life. But look, I think really promising. I was at a biohacking conference last year, the one we had in Australia called Wells Spring with the Wonderlust guys, and all the American guys, all they talked about was peptides, and we're like, guys, it's like a swear word in Australia. We're not even we don't talk about them, we don't we don't have access to them, we don't really know enough about them. The black market access, but it's not like but that's really quite scary. And I was speaking to a woman the other day and she was saying, Oh yeah, my kids have been buying them for ten dollars a vial. And I was just like, Hey, why are your kids buying peptides? Because you know, my son was asking me about peptides, he's 19. I'm like, you're already producing peptides naturally, you don't need to take bloody peptides. Um, it's like I think because the younger generation now they're not interested so much in alcohol and drugs. So peptides is like this new shiny thing and it's injections, so it's almost like what it is, it's a drug, yeah, it's a triumph that they're so I think I I'm excited for when we live in a world where they've been tested, yes, and I will then be full in with trying stuff for sure, as um depending on what I need. Like I know there's a great peptide for mold, but I'm too scared to take it. Um, but if I had had it checked by a doctor and they gave it to me and it'd been well been tested, then I would go for it. So I think if someone's gonna hand me something and say this has been 100% tested and it is what it is, and it's safe, and it's safe, and also it's not you're not gonna get arrested for it, then um then I would try it. But at this point in time, I'm I'm probably more on the no than the yes. Yeah, okay. And um, but I've seen incredible benefits with friends as well. I think retitrutide when it comes out will be amazing, but then I'm hearing side effects with that, with anxiety and suicidal thoughts and divorcing your husband. Wanting to divorce your husband.
Dom HindNot great. See, I've I've had three surgeries this year, my knee, my right knee, my right shoulder, and my right eye. And I did use some recovery peptides for it, and it did help. Like, but but who knows whether that was not everything else that I was doing, the saunas, the whatever that actually helped with the recovery as well.
SPEAKER_03It's hard to know, but I truly believe BPC as a peptide for recovery. But athletes have been using these for years again, and these and a lot of these peptides have been used in Russia and through the war. And I think the the Russian spy peptides fascinate me. The Celank and CMAX, which and you they should be taken up the nose, but they um, you know, one CMAX they're saying is great for people who have got very busy minds and for ADHD to focus, and Celang's more for anxiety. So they used to be used by the Russian spies when they were going into in situations where they had to focus and they had to keep calm. So when you look at the history of peptides, it's fascinating. Yeah. They've been they've been used for a long, long time. Celebrities, actors, yeah, athletes, you know, they're just mainstream now, but unfortunately, people are just jabbing themselves with God knows what at the moment. Who knows? Who knows? I'm worried about the fallout because I just think you just don't know. But I think in a controlled environment where they're tested, I think. I think they're gonna be amazing, and I think they're going to change health. I think they are the future of health, just not how they currently are right now here in Australia. Just with some regulations around it.
Um when does wanting to be healthy become being terrified of aging?
SPEAKER_03Oh, this is such a good question. So I've just been, as I mentioned, in Bangkok in Thailand, and I went to some incredible longevity clinics, and they're doing a lot of stem cell therapy and um exosome therapy, and fascinating what they're doing. And I met a professor and he'd had several stem cell um therapy injections, and so it was um one-hour old umbilical um cord. That's the stem cells he was getting from a one-hour old umbilical cord.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And he said it was one of the most amazing things he's done, and he's actually a a scholar and a professor of Oxford and Cambridge, and one of the most incredible men I've ever met, actually. Um, so bright, and he's doing a whole thing on longevity, a whole um investigation into it, because he's confused and he's probably one of the leading voices globally in it. So, but he's tried a lot of these things, um, because he's you know in Asia where you can do this stuff. So he he said the stem cell was amazing. He he he did it once, he felt incredible for about up to 12 weeks, and then he did it again. But I heard something really concerning when I was over there, and so people are now in the pursuit of not wanting to age, they are using um the uh uh the fluid, so four-month-old pregnant women's um god, what's the fluid called? Yeah, they are yeah, yeah. The the in yes, not uh I was trying to say um unbelical, but it's not. No, it's um amniotic fluid. So women who are four months pregnant are getting their fluid drained so that people can then inject it into themselves as a form of stem cell therapy for age reduction. And that really freaked me out. Apparently not, but I can't see how it doesn't. I can't see how that doesn't.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_03I know it that really kind of made me think, like, why are we so desperate not to age that we're doing stuff like that?
Dom HindAnd is it just superficially, or is it the whole like superficially like the face so that you don't look like you've aged, or is it everything internally?
SPEAKER_03I think it's like a full I don't know that enough about it, and I I I haven't looked into it because I just was immediately like, ugh. Um, but yeah, I'm assuming it would do pretty much a lot of that rejuvenation piece um from a cellular level and for your skin and stuff. So there is some really extreme stuff. I mean, we look at plasma exchange that's really popular now and and very popular for microplastics, right? Is that basically trying to get them out of our bodies, which we're all worried about now.
Dom HindHow can we actually measure how many microplastics are in our borders? I don't can you?
SPEAKER_03I don't know. I think you can because 60 Minutes just did this big um I haven't watched the full thing yet, but they were measuring it, and then they they I think they did an experiment where people had seven days, or maybe it was longer than seven days, with no plastic at all. So that's right. Their food and everything, they removed all the plastic from their homes, and there was a massive reduction, so they must have tested it somehow.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_03Um, I think you can do it with like live blood analysis and a few other blood your blood. I'm assuming it would be have to be in blood. But I I don't actually know how they specifically test it, but obviously it can be done, but then we just don't know how to get it out. So how do you yeah, because I mean they can't really is there a binder that you can use to get it like there's nothing at the moment. Well, the only thing that I know of is the plasma exchange, which is very expensive, and again, all this stuff's so elitist. Yeah, you know, everyday people, we can't afford to go and do all this stuff.
Dom HindSo Yeah, it was interesting. Even when I was looking at my getting my knee on my shoulder, one of them, my shoulder I've had it done for the second time. And I was looking at the stem cells that you can actually go to Dubai and see what but it's so expensive.
SPEAKER_03It is, but it's amazing from what I hear. And I know people that have traveled that have had injuries, and it's it's yeah, it is incredible, but we have to but then how do you make that more accessible when you're it's um the um but um unbelievable cord of a baby that you want it at about an hour old, or since it's it's been there for an hour, like it's that's a big process. How are they gonna make that accessible for most people to do? I don't know. Um I don't know. Okay, so why are we terrified of aging then? Well, I think we've we've confused decline and aging as the same thing. So I think we we assume that aging means we have to decline. And I think now we're looking at different role models who are not declining. And um, you know, there's amazing people now we're looking at in their 80s. My you know, my dad's 80 and still works full-time and is sharp as attack. My great aunt's 100 and she's amazing, you know. She's was dancing to Queen and cutting her cake and drinking champagne for her birthday. So, you know, I look at them as my aging role models. My mom's 80 and still, you know, she's just had hip and knee surgery, but recovered amazingly, um, and still climbing mountains and doing yoga and living her life to the full at 80. So it's I think it depends what our role models are. And we're scared of aging because we see dementia or we see people who can't move and you lose your mobility, and that is really confronting. Um, and also one in two, you know, with cancer, dementia is the leading killer. Like this the statistics aren't pretty. So we we have to do what we can. This is why health optimization is so important because we have to take control of our health now so we don't become a statistic. Yeah, I think we've got to give ourselves the best chance.
Um, we've spoken about dementia, dementia and Alzheimer's, like just briefly. What are your like my husband was reading a study about it this morning, just saying these are like it is preventable. Are there things that you are actively doing now that you have in the back of your mind just so that they are preventing them?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely. And I think brain health should be on everyone's agenda from once you sort of 45 onwards, you know, think about your brain health. I think we've all, you know, abused and had a head anestic, this generation particularly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, and we've probably done quite a lot of brain damage, so I'm trying to do what I can to repair um the damage that alcohol does. But um, yeah, I think there's a lot we can do. I think there's, you know, when I do the genetic um profiling, you'll look at your APOE status. Um, and if you've got the 4-4, it means you're more predisposed to Alzheimer's and dementia. I think we've followed Chris Hemsworth and his family's journey on that one here in Australia. Um, and if you've got the 2-2, then you've got this amazing. I I I've so I've done probably 75 DNA debriefs, and I've only ever had two clients that have the 2-2 genes, and they both look amazing. One's 65 and she looks 40. The other one was like 57 and looked about 40. And I'm when I saw their results, I was like, this makes so much sense. They have these incredible genetics. But you know, genetics, it's our lifestyle, it's our epigenetics, right? So just because you've got those great genes, you can still abuse your body and then you'll end up getting dementia, whatever it might be. But I think there's lots we can do, you know, from a brain health perspective, like hydration, good fats, you know, as she drinks her water again. Um, you know, extra virgin olive oil, avocados, Australia was set up for it, macadamias, walnuts, anything that looks like the brain, lion's mane, walnuts, they all look like a brain, they support the brain. Um, there's lots we can do from learning new things. Yes. Like as much as AI is dumbing us a lot of us down, I actually think it's also creating a lot of new neural pathways for people because we're learning new things and we're feeling more empowered and independent to to build an app or do something we never would or understand about APIs and MCPs and all the developer cracks that I now know after building an app and two websites, which I had never thought I'd ever be able to do in my wildest dreams. Thanks to Claude, I can.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But it's I've learned so much. I feel like that has helped my brain health. Yeah.
Dom HindI I agree. Like I think that AI has only pushed my brain forward because it stopped me doing all the shit that I don't want to do. Great. Like even this morning, I was like, I've got to replace a toilet seat. I took a photo and said, can you find can you find where it is and who I need to email so that I can and I didn't want to think about that. How do you think? It would have taken me like an hour to look for it. But I was like, there's a toilet, I need a new seat, find it. It wrote me the email, it told me where to go. Oh my god, that's brilliant. But it's just easy. Yeah. Same with like anything around my house now. Like, I needed a new filter for my washing machine or my dryer. And I was like, here's a serial number. What do I need to do? Gave me the phone number, what to ask for. I'm like never thought of doing that. How brilliant. But it's like they're the same. But I use it for all like anything that I hate doing, like any admin, because I hate being the one that owned the admin. So I just use that and go, make it easy for me. Yeah. And it's yeah, so much better.
SPEAKER_03It is better. So I think look, there's lots we can do for our for brain health. I think, you know, being weightlifting, training, that blows my mind. Like one of the, I mean, literally one of the best longevity levers is lifting weights and being strong and independent. And I think that affects our brain health. So exercise is really important. Um, also, our our parents' generation, they weren't exercisers. They'd go for a walk, but they didn't go to the gym. They didn't really lift weights, and neither did our grandparents. We are the gym generation, and then our kids are now becoming the gym junkie generation. I name they're like obsessed. You know, my mum always says things like, Oh, well, I've never needed to go to a gym. I don't need to, you know, she is ironically doing weights and stuff now as well, but not in a gym. But she's it's not just not never something that they probably would have thought about doing. So I think that is a big piece. There's lots we can do for dementia prevention. I think there's a new um initiative the government are doing now where at I think it's at 45, they're sending you a letter where it might be at 50 saying these are some things you can do to prevent dementia. It's either 45 or 50.
Dom HindOkay.
SPEAKER_03Because obviously it's we've got to do something about it.
Dom HindSuch a big killer. I don't I know even with the weights, like I mean, I have done weights, you know, for the last 20 years, but the last four months I've picked it up, so it's four times a week now because I know and I hate it. Like it's like I struggle with it because I think it's really boring because I'm not pushing myself cardio-wise and sweating. But I now know how important it is. So it's the staple in my yeah routine.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and it has to be, you know, I think it really does. And it may it just there's so many different areas that it impacts in a positive way. So just why why not? Wouldn't
you do that?
Dom HindWhat do you think about it? And I this is I think it's a funny one, the rebounder and the jumping and favourite. Is it really? Okay, love great.
SPEAKER_03I kind of made my mark with the rebounder here in Australia. I took one on sunrise and had the host jumping on them. But look, I've rebounding has always been something that I've done for a very long time, mainly because I also have a very busy life. And I had two young kids, and I was working at full time in media, and I only had my lunch break to myself. The rest of the time I was had to do stuff with my kids. So I just walk around Centennial Park, and then at home I had a rebounder, so it was something you can do for 15 minutes, and it's just it's like something that's fun. Like I put on music, I dance, I sing, I'd often do it in a mirror and just have a bit of fun with it. Um, and you know, and and so many people do. I think Huberman was just on his podcast talking about it with Dr. Stacey Sims, and they were talking about bouncing and how important it is, you know. Um, who what's his name? Tony Robbins. He goes on a rebounder before he goes on stage. You know, that it's it's fun. Yeah, well, I love it.
Dom HindI I have just started using mine properly again, but like I put the weights on, my ankle weights, my arm whack. Yeah, but it's like aerobics kind of flush the jump. Old old school aerobics, so you look like an idiot, but you're like, yeah, I'm doing something.
SPEAKER_03Okay, good. I'm gonna keep doing that. You know, I'm all about the quick wins, right? Working smarter, not harder. Yeah, yeah. And that's really what bite hacking is. It's about finding those things you can sprinkle into your into your day, you know, like bookending your day, 10 minutes with natural light and a bit of a meditation, 10 minutes reading a book, you know, whatever it might be, it's those small hacks that make the most impacts and rebounding 15 minutes, like everyone can find 15 minutes.
Dom HindEven watching TV at night. Yeah. Or first thing in the morning. Uh, after I've uh um made the lunches, I'll go and have a little bounce and then that's it. Yeah, nice. Um, you've publicly talked about being 16 years younger biologically.
Um what did you actually measure to get to that marker?
SPEAKER_03Well, it wasn't my Woo page. Yeah. But everyone, if you want to believe your WuPage is real, then you go for it. Um, no, I mean look, I look I love Woop as well.
Dom HindWell, I think the new Apple Ultra has just like killed Whoop. Have they? I haven't. The news and functures are phenomenal.
SPEAKER_03I can imagine Apple always like they just wait and wait and then bang, yeah. You know, they they blow the market up. But um the Wii page is interesting. I mean, obviously it's biomarkers, so they're looking at different things that are going on, but I did mine with blood. So with there's so I work with a company called Glyconage in the UK who's got some really, you know, Dr. Tim Specter and other doctors behind them. Um they measure glycans in the body, which relate to your inflammation. And because I got diagnosed with chronic inflammation response syndrome, SERS, which is a mold illness, my goal was reversing inflammation. It wasn't reversing my age, and a byproduct of all the work that I did to reverse the chronic inflammation, reverse my biological age as well. So for me, when I tested with the glycans, it was I wanted to check that I was out of that danger zone with inflammation.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I had, I'd reverse that completely. And so I had reversed my age by about 10 years a few years ago, and then with everything else I've been doing over the last few years, I'm now at 16 years. So it just looks at your cell health and your inflammation markers. There's another test called True Age, True Diagnostics in the US, and they look at things like that your Dunedin pace of aging, so how fast you're aging. And a lot of it, you know, is it 100% correct? No, I doubt any of it is, right? But it gives you a baseline, yes, and it's looking at markers in the body and how they're aging, and it's looking at your pace of aging and what you can do to slow that down, and things like that. So I think they're really beneficial to do. Um, because it and again, they're looking at nutrition, sleep, all the foundations, movements, water, mindset, hydration. You need that app on your phone that's like running water every time you need to. There's an app that goes trickle trickle like like trickle water noises, and then it reminds you to to drink, yeah. Yeah. Oh god.
Dom HindUm, what uh could any uh I mean, obviously, I I I think I know the answer to this, but can other tests give you different ages?
SPEAKER_03Obviously, the wood test they all do different ages, and they're all measuring different things, they're measuring different things, and they all give you different ages, and so it's really interesting. It depends what you're tracking for. Like my focus was inflammation, so that was what I wanted to look at. But yeah, my true age one was older than my um than my glycan age one. So obviously, I'm going with glycan age. Like, no, that one doesn't work, it's a load of rubbish.
Dom HindWhat was the biggest thing that you found helped to reduce your inflammation markers?
SPEAKER_03Look, it's it's funny because there's so many different things, but I think definitely, I mean, I eat a very anti-inflammatory diet, so I don't have refined sugars, I don't eat fried foods, don't have seed oils, um, you know, I eat a very clean diet, so but I just eat real food, that's it. I just don't eat processed packaged stuff. Um, unless it's chocolate. Yeah. But even then, I have I eat bloody banjo bears, which is like kids' carob chocolate.
Dom HindYeah, that is not chocolate, that's carob.
SPEAKER_03I know. But I love them. And they actually don't raise your blood sugar as much. Oh, really? Yeah, they're really good. So that's my little guilty pleasure. Okay, good. Um but I still love reducing inflammation. I think, you know, just proper hydration. Yeah.
So I missed it. No alcohol. Like I had to stop. Yeah, I had to stop alcohol for 12 months, which was a really interesting. I became very sober curious during that time, and you have to suddenly get really comfortable with yourself in social environments where you're sober and everyone else is repeating themselves and pissed. Um Did you find yourself you you just take yourself home earlier? After a few hours, I have to. Yeah. Yeah. But I have fun. I learned how to do it now. I know you still have to go into situations, have fun, leave, and then I wake up, you know, and uh I have there's stuff I want to do in the morning. Like I just don't I don't want to borrow time for myself with hangovers. Yeah. Oh, the amount that I used to spend in bed, like just hating myself and the self-deprecation, the shame, and yeah, what did I say? What did I do? And oh God, oh, this is not who I want to be. And yeah, you break free from it from booze. And I think you know, when I researched my book, I I just couldn't believe the research into alcohol. And I was like, why do people not know this? Yeah, why do we not understand the damage that alcohol's doing to us? It's a neurotoxin, it's a poison. Like, yeah, so um it kind of freaks you out. So I think reducing down inflat inflammation, refined sugars, uh, yeah, I don't do those. Um, but you know, I but I enjoy food and I eat food. And if I'm going for a beautiful lunch and I want to have a margar spicy margarita or something, I will. Yeah. Very rarely. You know, I'm not, I don't believe in complete and utter um what's the word? Well, not I like abstinence, but not even that just being so extreme. Yeah. Deprivation, right? Yeah, okay. You know, with my clients, they're like, you know, I love chocolate. And it's like, okay, well, let's just reduce down the amount of chocolate and improve the quality of the chocolate. So it's not about depriving yourself all the time.
Dom HindI think it is finding the best quality that you can. Don't just go for the crap or what's readily available. Find something you love, but then also turn it into a moment of joy. Exactly. I know you this one is a refined sugar thing, but I love the Hague's marshmallows. And like if I allow myself to have one, I will actually enjoy it. I'm not just gonna scoff it. Yeah, I will sit, have a moment, and go, Yeah, I know it's not great, but I love it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and you shouldn't even say, I know it's not great. You should just go, you know what, I love this, it brings me joy, and I'm doing it. Because I can tell you, right? My dad is 80, my great aunt's a hundred, neither of them have been biohacking. My dad drinks vodka, he calls it water, it's Russian water, and he barely drinks water. He's pickled himself. He doesn't eat that healthy. I mean, he eats okay. Um, but he has this incredible sense of purpose, right? And so he gets up and he goes to work every day, and he has a good community of friends, which is we know our relationships are probably our biggest predictor of longevity, you know. Uh that that the Harvard study that's been going on for gazillions about 80 years, yeah, yeah. Um, which is amazing, and they're even in their 50s. If you can, the quality of your relationships in your 50s determines how you're going to age in your 80s as well, which I I love this stuff. Yeah, being back in the UK in March changed a lot of my thinking around longevity. Seeing my dad and my aunt, and you know, she was she lives in a community care home, you know, and she loves it, right? Because she's she's surrounded by people, she's the ambassador, she bosses everyone around, she's got a sense of purpose. You know, she's she's not old, you know, everyone else is old in the home, and they've all got things wrong with them, and she hasn't. Even though she's a hundred. Yeah. Oh yeah. She's honestly she's mind-blowing. Um, and you know, I was at this conference in in Bangkok, and there was this beautiful Italian woman. Um, what was her name? Anyway, she was a stunning Italian woman. She was telling us about her grandmother, who was 114 in Italy. And she was like, her secret to life was was joy, was happiness, was family, was community.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know, we we look at aging here as something to be ashamed of, and we hide people away and go, Oh, you need to go sit in a room on your own because you're aging. You know, whereas we should be going, you're wise, you're an elder. Let's bring us, bring you into the community and into our families more and and teach us. Yeah, and teach us and also keep them young by being surrounded by youth and and energy. So I think we with the way that we do aging is is is is kind of making us all not want to age, right? Whereas when you look at positive role models, you go, actually, this is okay. I can do 80 like that.
Dom HindYeah. I think your framing of the positive role models, I think that's what we've got to get better at because there's so much noise around dementia and aging badly, yeah, that we have focused on that rather than what else is actually out there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, I someone sent me a video the other day saying this is what we need to be doing in our mid-80s, and it was Jane Fonda walking down a stage in a glitz and looking amazing in a sequined outfit, dancing, and and you're like, this that's my role model for aging.
Dom HindYeah. Amazing. I don't know whether you saw it, but there was also, I don't know whether it was from like a couple of years ago, but because she doesn't have a husband, she was all dressed in some beautiful frock, but she couldn't take the dress off the next morning, so she slept in the dress and woke up with no makeup on, but just this amazing dress on, going, sometimes you do actually need a husband.
SPEAKER_03Brilliant. Just to undo the dress.
Dom HindJust to undo a dress.
SPEAKER_03Poor man's God, they get it rough from us, don't they? Um but I think and the mindset's so important, right? It's we, you know, we talk about I talk about this pro-aging mindset, not anti-aging. That's negative. Like the joy of growing old. I've lost two, three girlfriends before the age of 50, one to cancer, two to alcohol, and they've left collectively three, five, seven children behind without mothers, and it's heartbreaking. And I just, you know, it's a privilege to grow old and not get sick. And, you know, sometimes we are gonna get sick, sometimes things are gonna happen, you know. I went for a breast scan yesterday for an ultrasound, and she's found something, and she went over and over and over and over it, and I was like, this is not good. And then she went and said, I'm gonna go talk to the doctor, and she came back in, she said we need a video, so then she's done a video, and I'm still waiting for the report. But I trust my body, I have some cysts, and she said there was something that was a bit more solid. Um, you heard it here first, yeah. Um, but and immediately rang my girlfriends that have all had biopsies and said, you know, ah, I've got to have a biopsy. What, you know, what's this all about? But I was like, you know what, there's probably something going on there. Yeah. I trust my body, I'm healthy, I do everything I can to look after myself. Yes, I've been through a lot of stress in the last couple of years with various business things. Um, and that's the thing that worries
me the most. That's what scares me the most about my future and my health is stress. It's not, I control all the other stuff, yeah. You know, I live a low tox life, I eat health, I go to you know, it doesn't have to be expensive. I go to farmers markets, I buy good quality food. But my goal is to manage my stress better and to not put myself in stressful situations anymore from a work context.
Dom HindYeah, how do you do that? How do you manage your stress? Bloody hard.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I'll let you know because I'm I just yesterday after being at the doc at the at the ultrasand, I was like, oh my god. I and you know, even in the last few months, I've had to have testing for MS. I've had MRIs and stuff because I was having weird tingling down my body, and it was a pinched nerve in my neck. But I got the scan and I saw before I'd seen the doctor, and I could see this thing in my neck, and I was like, Oh my god, what's if there's something wrong with me? And you know, and then you just have to go into trust and surrender and you know, and it was I was so relieved it was a pinched nerve. Yeah, you know, and I'm in a similar situation. I'm like, I'm sure it's just something, yeah, you know, it's just something that needs to be investigated a bit further, and we'll go from there and I'll you know and your body does hold your stress. Like it does. The body keeps the score, it definitely keeps the score. Yeah. And that's why I try to balance stuff as much as I can with breath work, meditation. But I mean, breath work's so hard to do. Why is it so hard? Like all we need to do is just focus on breathing, but it can feel so difficult. Yeah, you know, especially when your body's where we are naturally in that fight or flight, that survival all the time. Some days I'm like, I'm struggling to breathe properly, and that's not good. So I need to go and focus on that.
Dom HindWell, even this morning, I've got this seven-minute body scan that I do when I just need a bit of a pep up, but I found myself falling asleep rather than concentrating, and I'm like, whoa, I need to obviously have a nap or something or chill out a little bit because if I can't even just concentrate for seven minutes, it's hard to do that.
SPEAKER_03Well, maybe your body's just exhausted, dropped in really quickly into relaxation, which might be good. You know, I've got this beautiful um necklace thing I bought off a friend of mine, um, do you know Fleur Fleur Wood? Uh yeah. She's yeah, she was WPP and stuff. Yeah. Uh ex-advertising. She's had so many health issues, but she had a shop in Byron anyway, and I bought this thing, and it's like you it's like it helps you to breathe properly, and it's this beautiful gold necklace, and you kind of go. And so I've been doing that recently just to really try. Whilst I'm doing emails, I'm doing the breathing, and I'm like, that has helped so much. That's actually a great idea. Yeah, I mean, you can get some weird sort of looking plastic useful things, but this is a beautiful, like gold. You don't want a plastic one, just no, definitely don't want we're trying to minimize plastic.
Exactly.
Dom HindSo um, so you have put your body at the centre of a lot of your work. What's the weirdest thing that you've done?
SPEAKER_03The weirdest thing that I've ever done is called eboo. Yes. And have you heard of it? No. What is ebook? So I did it in Bali because you're obviously you're not allowed to do it in Australia. Um, I do know it, yes. It's so it's blood ozone therapy. Yeah. So what they do is they take blood from one arm, so your left arm, yes, and they filter it. And so they take about two to three litres and they filter it through a filter, and then they put ozone through it, and then they filter it back into you. So it's like a blood filtering system. So it's a bit like if you're taking your car for like an oil change or something. Similar, but not but for your body, but for your body. So I I it's you know, they do it in Dubai and uh loads of countries, and it's ridiculously expensive, but it's actually affordable to do in Bali. Um and I did it mainly for mold because it's meant to really help to get mold out of your system, but I didn't really I didn't see anything. So my filter just had clear liquid in it, it didn't have any or obviously pure. No, but I don't know if it was that there's a lot of fat came out of my blood. So I've had to have quite a lot of testing done around my cholesterol and triglycerides, which is absolutely fine, absolutely fine. But I had a lot of fat content. So in the filter, there was fat all around the top of the filter, which was really weird. So they were saying, and I've had it done twice now, um, and I don't think I'll do it again because I just don't I don't I wasn't really sure what it did. What what it did, but yeah, look, a lot of people swear by it. And I there was a guy next to me, and he'd just spent quite a lot of time in India in quite a polluted um city, and his was just brown, his water was brown, it was disgusting looking. But at least he got stuff out. So but but so my I'm either I don't know, I it was it's a bit of a weird one, but um yeah, so I that's probably the weirdest thing I've ever done. And it was quite confronting the first time I did it. I was like, what am I doing here? This is like a bit a bit full on. Have I gone extreme? But then I was like, you know what, I like experimenting, I like trying stuff. You know, I've done it twice, will I do it again?
Dom HindProbably not. It's probably better than peptides, at least you're taking stuff out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and it's a cleaning process, right? And so they're doing doing doing the ozone. And again, the clinics I went to in Bangkok and Thailand, they're all doing these therapies. Ozone therapy that is is a huge thing. Yeah, you know, and you could I've had ozone therapy in my ears and things like that. Oh yeah. But not haven't had it up my bum, which is Dave Asprey's favourite one. He loves ozone therapy up the bum, but anyway, um, not tried that. Yeah, not yet. Open to all things. But look, I like trying stuff, and you, you know, you've got to have a bit of fun with it. Like it's it's um, you can't like there's a female biohacker Kayla Barnes that came over to Australia last year, and and she's amazing what she's doing, but she tracks every inch of her life, everything's measured and tracked, and her husband, and and I just feel like no, I just I don't, you know, I was getting annoyed with my HRV or my whoop because it was low, and I'm like, oh, I'm trying all the things to get it up. And I was like, I'm just gonna ignore it because it's stressing me out more. There's something called orthosomnia now, which is an anxiety around sleep and about over tracking sleep and I'm worrying about sleep so much.
Dom HindWell, I do that when I wake up in the like if I need to go to the bathroom at 1:30 or 2 o'clock, I'm like, I hope I can get back to sleep because I don't want my sleep score to be terrible.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, I'm not sure. And orthorexia was the clean eating movement of like when then everyone was like, Oh no, I can only have you know clean food. Oh god. So I think it's an interesting one. Do you know if you hydrate better with electrolytes, you might not get up to go to the toilet in the night? Because often when we wee a lot, it's because we're not absorbing water. So because we're drinking it and it's coming straight through us, it's not actually getting into the cells properly. So when you hydrate with proper electrolytes, even putting some Celtic sea salt in your water every time you fill up your water bottle, you might find you don't go to the toilet at night. Because I can drink a bottle of water like that before I go to bed. I don't go to the loo, but I've got salts in it. Okay, all right. Try it as an experiment. Okay, that's my try this at home. Because then you don't wake up. Also, don't try not to. If you wake up and you need a wee, don't lie on your side. Try and lie on your back. And then because often you've when you're putting pressure on your bladder, it makes you feel like you need the lube, but you actually don't when you lie back for a bit.
Dom HindOkay.
SPEAKER_03All right. I will try those two things. Try that.
Dom HindYeah, okay.
Um, rapid fire rounds. Okay, here we go.
SPEAKER_03Um, okay, cold plunge. Cold shower for me. Ev every every day, 30 seconds minimum. Love a cold shower. Okay, yeah, I hate a cold plunge. It's just they're not for me. Go in the ocean. Like it's well, this is the thing in Australia. We have so much on our fingertips. But you look, cold plunges, some people love them. Like people are doing massive workouts and jumping in a cold plunge, and then it's messing up your muscles, and there's a lot of lack of education around cold plunging. And for women, and yeah, I just cold showers are fantastic. Like I really the models used to do cold showers for their hair. So that's when I started doing them years ago because I was like, it's good for your hair. But now we know it increases dopamine by about 250%, it builds resilience, it's good for your immune system. You feel like you can get shit done when you've had a cold shower. Okay, great. And just at the end. Yeah, 30 seconds. And and even if you do a bit of singing and humming that activates your vagus nerve, so does your cold shower activates your parasympathetic nervous system. So you can do a bit of ah or whatever it might be.
Dom HindYeah, actually, quite good.
SPEAKER_03It used to be an opera saying, No, I didn't. No after too many red wines, I used to pretend I could sing opera. It's a true story.
Dom HindUm
SPEAKER_03Sauna 100%.
Dom HindOkay, great. Creatine. Yes, yes, yes. 10,000 steps. Yes, if you can. Yeah. 5 a.m. wake ups. 6 a.m. Yeah. 6 30.
SPEAKER_038 hours sleep. Absolutely. Protein obsessed. Mmm. It's a funny one with protein, isn't it? We're being pushed protein all the time as women.
Dom HindIt's like this anxiety of like it's a lot.
SPEAKER_03And also a lot of the protein powders are pretty shit. Yeah. So it's trying to find like good quality protein. So I don't do protein powders. But I'll tend to do always protein forward for breakfast now. Protein forward. Yes, as in like not I'm not doing yogurt and granola and things. I used to love doing that for breakfast, but it you're just not getting enough protein. So I normally always do eggs and avocado and things like that for breakfast. So yeah. I haven't had breakfast. My stomach just. Both of us just growled then. That's hilarious in unison.
Dom HindBiological age.
SPEAKER_03Yes, I think it's a great thing to test. And it's good fun and it's it can be quite competitive as well. My husband and I get quite competitive, but over our biological ages. But no, I think it's a great thing to do, just to actually sort of look at how you're aging, you know, what's going on in your cells. I think that's it, what's going on in your cell.
Dom HindYeah. Um, morning sunlight.
SPEAKER_03Yes, 100%.
Dom HindGreat. Uh most overrated biohack.
SPEAKER_03I don't know. I think for me God, it's a really hard one. I think it's probably some supplements. Um, yeah, just a few. I don't know. It's such a hard one. Come back to it. Underrated biohack. Underrated biohack. I sleep, you know, like it's number one. Like it's just, you know, I had a crappy night's sleep last night, um, with my cat vomiting in the night and a few other things, and my other cat waking up at five. But um, it's um, I was just like, oh it just it's really, you know, sleep is the most important thing. So I think. Yeah, definitely the most underrated.
Dom HindUm, and what would you never waste money on again? What would I never waste money on again?
SPEAKER_03Um I think maybe to maybe probably the eboo thing. I don't think I'd do that again. I think I've done it. I don't really see the benefit of it. I just uh some of these things you just you don't know. Um But so many of them I think we're buying hope. Like we are just buying hope. But the placebo effect is everything. I'm just reading a book by Sean Acre at the moment called The Power of Beliefs, I think it's called that. And the whole first chapter is on placebo and the power of belief. And you know, and I also was in Bali and saw this guy speak, and he basically, you know, a bit like a Joe Dispenser kind of guy who's helping people to heal themselves because the power of belief. And there is so much in the placebo. So if something you think it makes you feel good and it does, then that's the job's done. Yeah. So I think there's an N equals what one, right? So you are your own experiments. If you try something and it works for you, just because it doesn't work for someone else, it doesn't mean it doesn't work. No, true. Um, so I I'll I'm gonna go for methylene blue for the for the overrated one. I've never felt any benefit from it. I only did it a few times and I just was like, nah. Okay. Didn't really do much for me.
Dom HindUm okay, what is one uncomfortable truth about biohacking, wellness, and longevity that the industry doesn't particularly want us to hear?
SPEAKER_03Well, it's elitist. Yeah, true. And I and it drives me nuts. Yeah. And, you know, and I look at all these places in Australia, St. Havens, all of these uh, you know, elitist clubs that are opening. And again, it's for the rich, you know, and it shouldn't be. It should be, you know, health optimized being healthy should be accessible, affordable, and achievable for everyone. And I think we are now creating this industry that seems unattainable for most. And and so they just think, oh, well, I'll just keep eating crack food and drinking too much because I've got no hope, and you know, I'm gonna end up like my dad, or I'm you know, whatever. So I think, you know, I think we're being sold this um industry and it's very glitzy and expensive. And and I feel like that. I feel like, God, you know, well, I would love to probably try some of these different things. Like hyperbaric chambers, I genuinely think they are amazing. Yeah, and I think from a Alzheimer's prevention, dementia prevention, hyperbarics, there's so much promising research. And I would love to be able to do them once or twice a week. Yeah, but that's a couple of hundred bucks a week.
Dom HindYeah, you know, like see it's interesting when I had um I've had melanoma eight times in my eyebrow and it's been cut out six times and Al Dara twice, so they're immunotherapy um cream, and it always gets really inflamed. And I was doing a hyperbaric chamber every other day for six weeks, and I do think that it did heal, but it was because I could get a deal for $35 to go and to a hyperbaric chamber for an hour, and I was like, Well, why wouldn't I?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, why wouldn't you? And I a hundred percent believe that. Like the hyperbaric chambers for injuries, like they've been using them with athletes for years. Like, there's some really amazing research pioneering now around brain health, and obviously getting more oxygen to the brain is gonna help with long-term brain health. So I think you know, I just wish like even like red light is amazing, but the quality and the medical grade is really important. And the beds are amazing, like the red light beds, like when they're high-end quality, you feel like you've literally been charged up from the inside. And you know, uh Parkinson's New South Wales did a big study in red light for Parkinson's patients, and it reduced their symptoms.
SPEAKER_02Oh, really?
SPEAKER_03And a byproduct of that study was that it also helped to improve their gut health. Amazing. Um, France are about to do a big study into Parkinson's with red light again. Right. So um I think we are learning more and more about some of these technologies that really are going to support us and our long-term health and healing. And yeah, you know, the red light, definitely. I know people have had back surgeries, knee surgeries, and they've used red light for that, and it's really helped. Um, so I think it's fascinating. I think Asia's leading the world here, like with what they're doing is is next level. Their hospitals now have longevity clinics in them. Same in Dubai. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So in Dubai, they have a whole level, which is a longevity clinic. They are now building hospitals from the ground up in Thailand and in Bangkok, and they are basically preventative hospitals. So there for people to go in and for, yeah, it it's incredible. They're building the they're following something called lead certification in Thailand, which is sort of like I don't know what the equivalent here is for sort of building more in an eco-sustainable way, but like the air filtration systems, the materials they're using, the like they're building these incredible hospitals and with a focus on health. It's all on longevity and health and prevention, and you know, they're doing all of the stuff, the the stem cell therapies, the IV, the and that will make it more accessible for all because it's they're setting it up in that environment, whereas it's not these private clubs, which and the private clubs are great, and that you know, and I'm sure people love them, and Gary Brecker's opening a new one in Double Bay. Um, but yeah, so I think um, you know, these private clubs are great for people to go and experience these things, but from a medical perspective, when you've got the high grade medical hyperbaric chambers and red light and things like that, that's when it gets really exciting. Yeah, I agree.
Okay, last question. All right, here we go. Um so let's make it incredibly practical. Uh, if someone is 47, 48, 49, 50, thinking, What do I actually do? Give us a morning biohacking activity, nothing expensive, nothing ridiculous. Yeah, that they should do.
SPEAKER_03So I think we morning rituals can seem really overwhelming because people are like, I do meditation, journaling, green smoothie, shot of this, da la da, and you're like, whoa. Um, I think just trying to find 10 minutes for yourself, whatever that might look like. If it's 10 minutes to journal, do it some affirmation stuff, guided meditation, red light therapy, drink a cup of tea in the sun, whatever it might be, if you've got access to do that.
Dom HindJump on a rebounder.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, maybe it depends how you're feeling first thing in the morning. But um, 10 minutes to yourself is finding finding 10 minutes to do something that's gonna feel like you've just given yourself 10 minutes of self-love, self-care.
Dom HindYeah. I think self-love and self-care care is it still is uh seen as a little bit selfish when it shouldn't be, because it's about preserving yourself.
SPEAKER_03100%. You've got to put your oxygen mask on first. And I think you know, you should be at the top of that to-do list. As soon as you get up, it's like, I need 10 minutes for me. Yeah. You know, and I think for me personally, what works is is doing more of the guided kind of abundance affirmation stuff. And it's funny, I the last few days I did one this morning, but I haven't done it. And I was like, why am I not doing it? Why am I not finding 10 minutes um to do it? Because I know it sets my day up so much better because you're actually reinforcing positivity and um, you know, it this stuff works. It does, it definitely does.
Dom HindYeah, amazing. Amazing, thank you. Okay, Camilla, thank you. Thank you very much for driving uh down here to uh do this podcast. Are we only doing one? They just the morning. I thought there was a full seven-day one. It was that I'm like, it's so long now. I've talked for so long. Give me, okay, give me four more then. Give me four more. What were the other ones? No, it was morning. We'll do four more. Morning, uh, one way to move.
SPEAKER_03Well, rebanda would be great, ten minutes, or just doing some body weights at home, something yeah.
Dom HindStop doing.
SPEAKER_03Uh stop bloody beating yourself up. Yes, great. And inner critic.
Dom HindHealth measure worth knowing?
SPEAKER_03Um, health measure worth knowing is I guess like blood pressure or something. I mean, I think just working out like if you're I mean, blood pressure is a pretty big one, especially for women as well, just to make sure we're not super stressed. Yeah.
Dom HindOne thing for recovery.
SPEAKER_03Um, breath work probably's got to be the number one.
Dom HindOkay, get the the jewelry uh the breather. And then last one, purely for joy.
SPEAKER_03Purely for joy. Oh, look, I mean, I love just hanging out with my little kitten. That just brings me joy, and just you know, not being on a phone. Um, but you just, yeah, just something reading a book. I like my biggest thing is I gift myself going to bed 10 minutes of reading a book every night. Um, and I'm currently reading the sequel to Big Little Lies, which is amazing. Yeah Big Little Truths or something. So good, you know. It brings me joy. Like you go into a different world and yeah, 10 minutes to yourself. Yeah, I think that's morning and night.
Dom HindMorning and night.
SPEAKER_03Okay, good. You can do that.
Dom HindYou can do that. Okay, we can finish.
SPEAKER_03Right, now we're done talking.
Dom HindOkay, okay, we covered everything. Have I have I left anything out?
SPEAKER_03No, I'm sure there's that's God, there should be so many. Oh my god, there's some, yeah. Yeah, thanks for having me.
Dom HindWell, thank you for coming. Um and I did come in being very suspicious about the word biohacking, but I think the way that you have reframed it to bioindividualism. Is that right? Yeah, bioindividuality. Or individualism is fine. I think is a much better way of thinking about it because it puts you at the centre. Yeah. And it's not about the science of everything else, it's about what works for you.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's honouring what works for you and trusting your own instincts and learning that you are your own expert. You are the CEO of your health.
Dom HindYeah. And you own it. You do. You can't rely on anything else. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. And I think it's great that the challenge is working out what information actually helps us individually, what will help us make better decisions, and being confident enough to ignore what isn't going to work.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
Dom HindUm, and our bodies aren't broken, and aging isn't something we need to defeat, which I think is a big thing. The pro aging and doing it with health optimization at the heart is something that we all need to focus on. Ooh, love it. What a great summary. That's brilliant. Yes. Um, so it is about eating the dinner, taking the holidays, spending time with your friends, trialing things, but don't letting them stick if they don't work.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and don't become obsessed, you know. I think that's the biggest thing, and and anxious and worried about your health. We have to trust our bodies. And I think, you know, just the last 24 hours for me has been that is trust and surrender and knowing that, you know, we've got this. And and your our bodies can heal, our bodies are incredible. You know, given the right environment and the right mindset, there's so much we can do. So I truly believe that.
Dom HindOkay, good, good. Um, so Camilla, thank you for letting me challenge some of the ideas about biohacking and that really are at the heart of your work, and for being willing to talk about everything. Uh, everything we know, everything we don't know, because we're all on this journey together. So thank you. And if you want to pass this on to anyone you like you know or anyone who you think would benefit from hearing this to own their own health, we're all part of this journey together. So thank you. Uh, because fuck, I'm really 50 and isn't it? And that's so am I and same here.