Biohacks, Breathing and The Healing Power Of Mushrooms, With Blake Bowman

In this episode of the High Performance Health podcast, host Angela Foster talks to holistic health expert, influencer and bio-hacker Blake Bowman, an online content creator with over 150,000 followers on social media. In this fascinating and deeply insightful conversation, Blake shares a wealth of incredible biohacks and advice, including how to use the power of medicinal mushrooms, the importance of nasal breathing, the benefits of red-light therapy and how it can enhance collagen production, plus Blake’s top tips for correcting muscular imbalances and postural alignment. By the end of the show, you’ll be in possession of a roadmap that will allow you to instantly upgrade your body and mind and perform at your best. KEY TAKEAWAYS Blake’s health strategy is a holistic one, incorporating not just diet and exercise, but also areas such as the use of herbs, biohacking, finding routines that optimise brainwaves, and the power of different light waves and exposure to them. Taking control of health is the result of understanding the many factors that impact it. Our bodies consume light much in the same way that a plant does. Through photon receptors, our bodies consume light for energy. This means that the light sources we take in through our skin and our eyes is extremely important. Most indoor light, whether from bulbs or screens, are completely unnatural and are destructive to our physiology. Blake’s top tips for optimising lighting conditions in your home are: Swap out LED bulbs for incandescent bulbs. Use crystal rock salt lamps. Dim your lights at night. Buy a pair of blue-blocking glasses and wear them at home. Use candles where possible. At night, Blake often tapes his mouth so as to encourage nasal breathing. The benefits are that it eliminates snoring, which is caused by sleeping with your mouth open; breathing is optimised when we breathe through our noses as our sinuses mix nitrous gas with our oxygen intake which increases our circulation. Overall, nasal breathing at night profoundly increases your sleep quality. Red Light Therapy - This has many benefits. Not only does it reduce wrinkles in your skin, but it stimulates your mitochondria, a main producer of ATP energy. Almost all chronic illnesses are associated with low energy production on a cellular level. Red light therapy can be an extremely efficient way of ensuring we gain more energy at this level. Bad posture is defined by the body’s muscular imbalance. When some muscles are tight and some are weak, they literally hang in different ways from their attachments on your bones and subsequently dictate your posture. Good posture is not created by simplistic methods such as “Sit up straight”. Short breaks while sitting for lengthy periods of time are essential to correcting any muscle imbalances that might be forming. Blake is a particular proponent of the medicinal benefits of mushrooms, particularly Reishi, otherwise known as the “Queen Of Mushrooms”, which can have positive effects upon such physiological conditions as liver functions, high blood pressure, cholesterol, psoriasis, asthma and allergies. Blake recommends looking for Reishi grown on logs as it is the most natural and most nutritious version, or grow your own from a kit you can purchase online. Preparing medicinal mushrooms can be tricky. Blake recommends making sure you “extract” the goodness from the mushroom. In Reishi, half of the beneficial compounds are water-soluble, while the other half are alcohol-soluble. Use a coffee grinder to grind the mushroom to powder, then you can make tea with the powder (water extract), or put a chopped mushroom in a jar with very strong, pure alcohol (alcohol extract) for a minimum of six weeks. Once the alcohol extraction has taken place, strain the extracted fluid and use it in drops onto your tongue to gain the benefits of the extracted compounds.  Lion’s Mane mushroom extract is an incredible tool that aids with the human ability to learn. Blake advises using it for any kind of learning exercise that requires you to gain and adapt to new knowledge, whether mental or physical. BEST MOMENTS 'Many of us don’t realise that we are constantly consuming junk light, and it’s almost like consuming junk food’ ‘Breathing through your nose helps to relax your body’ ‘You cannot simply have good posture’ ‘Muscles that are always getting strained, are usually weak muscles’ ‘We could all do with more zen’ VALUABLE RESOURCES   The High Performance Health Podcast – Omny Guerrilla Zen: https://guerrillazen.com/about/ Potentia Wellness: https://www.potentiawellness.com www.iristech.co Somnifix Strips: https://www.amazon.co.uk/SomniFix-Sleep-Strips-Breathing-Nighttime/dp/B076CQ1NR8 Blake Bowman’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/GuerrillazenFitness/videos Infra-red light therapy:  bit.ly/biohackyourself and use code ANGELA for 10% off or www.joovv.com Crystal Rock Salt Lamp - https://amzn.to/2XC3wHC Top 3 Benefits Of Red Light:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwlyDcaSwlE Blue light blocking glasses: bit.ly/biohackyourself and use code ANGELA for 10% off Reishi - https://www.mushroom-revival.com/reishi-queen-of-mushrooms/ Blake Bowman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guerrillazen/ Blake Bowman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GuerrillazenFitness   ABOUT THE HOSTAngela Foster Angela is a Nutritionist, Health and Performance Coach. She is also the Founder and CEO of My DNA Edge, an Exclusive Private Membership Site giving individuals the tools and biohacks needed to optimise their genetic expression for optimal health and performance. After recovering from a serious illness in 2014, Angela left the world of Corporate Law with a single mission in mind: To inspire and educate others to live an energetic, healthful and limitless life. Angela believes that we can truly have it all and has spent the last 5 years researching the habits and routines of high performers, uncovering age old secrets, time honoured holistic practices and modern science to create a blueprint for Optimal Human Performance. CONTACT DETAILSInstagramFacebookLinkedInHigh Performance Health FB Group