Health HQ Mega AMA (#1)

All your questions Answered

Gm Gents. Going to plow through all your questions on this airplane right now (I’m 2 cold brews deep and all out of NicNacs.)

Lets dive in…

what are your thoughts on pills that have the little plastic casing, always feel like I'm knowingly eating plastic lol - when supplementing do you tend to avoid intentionally consuming that?

The pills aren’t plastic. They’re mostly gelatin, the animal protein. I intentionally consume gelatin & you should too

Some are made out of plant polysaccharides or modified starches. I always get gelatin caps when it’s an option, but the vegan capsules aren’t a dealbreaker.

I’m much more concerned about excipients & flow agents used in supplements, namely titanium dioxide. Make sure you get supps from reputable sources. The sketchier the supply chain the easier it is for mislabeling/contamination

What is your perspective on moving away? It's something I've wanted to do for a few years but im just so close with all of my family. Do you ever miss your family when you are away? And do you have any advice for moving to a new city?

Who we think we are is often an amalgamation of influences from our environment. You say the things you say, do the things you do, and think the way you think because thats what you’ve been conditioned to do by your environment.

New environments develop you as an individual. They make you worldly. Get good at adapting and navigating this world will be a cake walk.

Family is important, and we’ve traditionally maintained proximity to immediate members. But we’re also meant to venture off & start our own lives. At least for a while. I recommend everybody moves far away. Some will love it, some will find it challenging, all will grow from it.

Your family will be waiting for you when you get back. My travels have developed me into a better person, and when you become a better individual you’re better able to serve others (like your family

You will regret not having a more adventurous youth. Nobody has ever looked back on life and said “man I’m glad I never left the state of Ohio”. Make the leap

As for advice on moving to a new place, establish yourself within a community ASAP. Go to the same cafe, restaurant, and gym every day for a week. Tip fat, connect with all the employees. Redline social interactions. If you don’t make friends in the first few weeks, its a lot harder to do so when you’re already settled. This is how people end up having a bad time. They accept isolation (NEVER)

Best approach for learning about biochemistry / nutrition?

If you want to improve your scientific literacy, combine deliberate learning with curious exploration. Plow through Crash Courses on Youtube. Build a new foundation from the ground up. Use GEEKBOT (my GPT bot) to teach you topic. Ask him to teach you at a fifth grade level (even I do this). Teach others to teach yourself. If you can’t explain your knowledge to a toddler you don’t actually know the subject matter. Any time you come across a word or concept you don’t know, look it up. If you don’t know the words in the definition of that word, dig deeper.

How do you feel about smart watches? Give me the courage to bin it off. I feel like tracking too many metrics is overwhelming and loses focus on the few metrics that matter.

If smartwatches/health monitoring devices are helping you reach your goals, then all power to them. Why do you want to get rid of it? I don’t use a smartwatch because I struggle with distractions. The last thing I want is notifications popping up on my wrist.

Some people perform better with an analytical approach to health/fitness, others prefer intuitive (I happen to be the latter). Your best bet is to experiment with using & not using the smartwatch and see how not only your performance changes but your approach & lifestyle. What behaviors do you do differently in the absence of devices? Gather data then make a conclusion

Noah's approach to hydration pls

This deserves a full post, but I take a quality over quantity approach. I’m more interested in electrolyte, trace mineral, can carbohydrate content than fluid volume. Too much water & you’re going to flush out electrolytes.

No tap water, filtered water but preferably spring. If using reverse osmosis you need to remineralize or it will be more dehydrating. Sparkling water is great thanks to carbonic acid enhancing mineral absorption. Same with quality shilajit. I drink a lot of fruit water living in the tropics.

Hydrate first thing in the morning before any food. Maintain peak hydration pre/intra-workout.

Electrolyte powders can be good in theory but most have subpar ratios/blends. Get quality magnesium supplements, drink coconut water for potassium, sprinkle Colima salt on food for sodium

Is spring water necessary? Not necessary, but definitely better than filtered tap. Remember, its about being better, not perfect. Don’t bankrupt yourself trying to be an uber optimizor. Do the best you can do with the opportunities that you have

Could you write a guide on relationships? Particularly with a significant other. Curious your thoughts

I’m not a relationship expert. Far from it. But I will give you my comprehension of finding a significant other.

The more effective, confident, and aware of yourself you become, the better you will be able to attract the right person.

The more comfortable you get interacting with members of the opposite sex, the easier it will be for you to initiate the discovery process when looking for “the one”

The more you become charismatic as a whole, the more people will be intrinsically drawn to you.

This is why I say “rizz everybody”. Get good at interacting with people. Chatting with strangers. Becoming friends with baristas

Don’t go into interactions expecting to get something out of it. Just enjoy having conversations with others. Be curious about others. Make it your objective to enjoy time together.

Thats how you get the reps in & become competent in dating. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. There would be nothing worse than crossing paths with your soulmate and not having the social skills to strike up a conversation with her.

When it comes to what to look for in a partner, that’s going to come down to your values. Logistically speaking, you need to enjoy their company. Not just romantically, but amicably. If you’re going to spend the rest of your life with said person, you need to have the capacity to be friends. Don’t fall for the romantic honeymoon phase.

Any suggestions for post BJJ hygiene? My forehead breakouts after most training sessions

Rinse off & exfoliate as soon as humanly possible. You are covered in other people’s sweat & are a breeding ground for bacteria. Use a cotton washcloth and a tea tree oil soap to exfoliate. Scrub down & remoisturize with beef tallow after to maintain a healthy skin barrier.

If you were moving to the Middle East, how would you do adapt from Tropical Anabolism to Arid (Desert) Anabolism? I know that you mentioned that everytime you move place you see it as an opportunity to change the way that you do everything

I doubt I’d ever move to the middle east. Not particularly interested in the geography, cuisine, or culture (and I’m part Persian)

But if I were to be moving to say Cairo, I’d still embrace it. I’d start binging egyptian history docs on Youtube. I’d expose myself to the nuances & norms of Egyptian culture. I’d dive into egyptian cuisine. I’d learn Arabic. I would immerse myself as effectively as possible.

I’d also see how I “react” to this new environment. How does the middle eastern culture & climate change who I am as a person? I’ve lived a lot of different places and I was a drastically different person in each location. The environment, culture, climate, and conceptualization of your surroundings all play influential roles.

Identify who you want to be in this new environment and start with a blank slate. Maybe you’re a quiet & awkward homebody right now. What if you reinvented yourself as an extroverted socialite? Nobody knows the old you there. You can quite literally be whoever you want

How effective is natural soap as a body wash, particularly in terms of its antibacterial properties. Do you also use natural hand soap?

The most effective body wash is exfoliation. soft cotton washcloths. Other than that, Aleppo or castille soap is all you need. Minor antimicrobial properties, minor exfoliating properties, relatively hydrating & will break down debris residue that can clog pores.

I don't want excess antibacterial action on my skin, skin biome is important

When you want to deep dive on a health topic, what's your typical approach to reach an informed conclusion?

I think about the question as abstractly as necessary to become extremely curious about it.

• Gather as many differing data points as possible.

• Identify arguments for and against any point of view.

• Lots of anecdotal data from forums like reddit

• Typically some studies with relative rigor (at least animal studies, if not clinical)

• Then I see how I can experiment myself. I rarely make opinions as much as I do observations

The key here is I don’t go in trying to prove a point. I go in trying to understand fundamentals. Conclusions are usually full of nuance and foggy. This is the reality of our world.

How do you track your supplements, in terms of how they impact you? What’s the best way to keep a log to see their impact (good or bad)?

I spent 8 months becoming incredibly effective at self-observation. Learning how to extract myself from “me” and observe my behavior in third person. Real schizo stuff.

A lot of this involved meditation, but there was also a rational component: Gathering data

I treated my life like a science experiment. Every morning I’d wake up and note all variables that day.

• How did I sleep?

• What was morning routine?

• What did I eat?

• What supplements did I take?

• When did I have coffee?

I did this for months. Constant documentation throughout the day. After a while I had so much data on performance, cognition, & energy I could associate those enhancements with compounds I was taking.

Doing this long enough eventually hardwired this observational capacity. I have become attuned to any fluctuations in mood, energy, etc. My intuition is strong enough to make decisions for me. But it wouldn’t have been possible without the deliberate observation & annotation phase. I will share biohacker tracker soon

How do you gauge a supplements effects on your dopamine system? Any cues you use like willpower, impulsivity, amount of scrolling, etc?

What a heightened dopaminergic state feels like:

• Clear, sharp thinking

• Inherent drive & motivation to accomplish tasks

• Better response to rewards (accomplishing things feels GOOD)

• Better Mood & well-being (pleasure & euphoria)

Crossing things off your to-do list feels good. Music feels sharper, you might even be a bit on edge.

Want to feel a high dopamine state? Take L-dopa, cut out all music for a few days, don’t use social media, and avoid all cheap stimulus

What a dampened dopaminergic state feels like:

• Inability to feel pleasure

• No motivation

• Fatigue, lethargy

• low reaction time

• Bad mood/depression

Want to feel a low dopamine state? Go watch tiktok for 2 hours, eat junk food & play video games

Really curious about the technical and practical ways you design your physical environment. I have been living the kind of nomadic lifestyle for the past 5 years. If you can share how do you find the right places to go

Gp through your old living environments and identify what you did & didn’t like about each of them. Every time you go to a new place take a note of what aspects you enjoyed/disliked. Do this long enough & you’ll know exactly what to look for. For me its:

• Lots of sunlight

• Biodiversity (in fauna & flora)

• Secluded beaches

• Dirbikeable area

• Walkable town

• Strong community

For houses I stay at:

• Quiet area

• in nature

• outdoor space

• Natural lighting

• Nice kitchen

• Work station

• Open floor plan

Get clear on what you value then start experimenting. You never know which place might be the perfect fit for you

What do you usually do to cut weight/get shredded?

I’m great at gaining/dropping weight. A lot of it comes down to metabolic adaptability from dialed lifestyle & nutrition. When I want to cut weight I simply move diet & training around by 1 standard deviation:

• 1 less meal

• 1 more cardio session

• 1 less serving of quacamole

• 1 more lap at the beach

This usually gets me the results I’m looking for. Bulking & cutting are two very different mindsets. Bulking is growth. Cutting is refinement. Both are great.

When I’m cutting I simply eat less & move more.

That is all. Godspeed gents.

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