In this episode of Biohacker News, Dave Asprey presents four recent scientific findings and translates them into actionable biohacking strategies. First, a Taiwanese study links chronic periodontitis to a 70% increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, suggesting that oral inflammation drives systemic inflammation that harms mitochondria; Asprey recommends rigorous oral hygiene, a low‑toxin anti‑inflammatory diet, and omega‑3 intake. Second, a Brazilian double‑blind trial shows that a single hour of neurofeedback training can increase corpus callosum connectivity and strengthen motor‑related neural networks; Asprey ties this to his 40 Years of Zen program and other brain‑training tools like dual‑impact training and meditation. Third, NASA’s twin study reveals that a year in space lengthens telomeres but also raises inflammation, DNA damage, and arterial thickening; Asprey discusses how meditation, exercise, quality fats, polyphenols, and NAD‑boosting can mimic telomere benefits without space travel. Fourth, an NIH experiment demonstrates that brief 10‑second rest intervals during skill practice boost beta‑wave activity and improve memory consolidation, supporting the Pomodoro‑style microbreak approach for learning. Throughout, Asprey frames each finding as a lever for controlling biology, emphasizing practical steps—brushing teeth, diet tweaks, neurofeedback, meditation, and structured breaks—to enhance brain health, longevity, and performance.
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I'm Dave Asprey and this is Biohacker News, a segment of bulletproof radio. Biohacking is the art and science of changing the environment around you and inside of you so that you have full control of your own biology. The first piece of Biohacker News is that gum disease is now linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study out of Taiwan. If you want to protect your brain, you should do it, your grandmother and your mother said, which is brush your teeth. Researchers determined that in if you had periodontitis or chronic gum inflammation, you were more likely to get Alzheimer's disease. They specifically looked at people over the age of 50 and accounted for other factors that could influence your Alzheimer's, like heart disease or stroke. And based on their findings, if you had gum disease for more than 10 years, you had a 70% better chance of developing Alzheimer's. You might be wondering what your teeth have to do with your brain. The researchers weren't able to determine if Alzheimer's caused gum disease or gum disease caused Alzheimer's, but I'd be willing to bet it's the latter. Previous studies have associated gum disease with an increase in inflammation throughout your body. Chronic inflammation is a problem because it causes your cells to release inflammatory chemicals which cause systemic irritation everywhere from your gut to your brain. And I wrote about this in my book Headstrong, that your mitochondria, the battery packs, power plants in your cells, are very vulnerable to inflammation. If you want to delay the effects of aging, you want to keep as many of your mitochondria intact as possible and you want to produce more mitochondria. These new findings show that your dental health and your brain health are really closely related. And one of the best things you can do to maintain your cognitive ability is to reduce inflamma. And diet plays a big role in that. So stop eating sugar, eliminate processed foods, eat more omega 3 fats from whole food sources like wild caught fish. Follow a low toxin anti inflammatory diet like the bulletproof diet. On top of that, brush your teeth. Next piece of Biohacker news is that neurofeedback strengthens neural connections and communications in the brain. New research conducted in Brazil found that brain training with neurofeedback can strengthen your brain in less than an hour. And you ever hear me say that before? But this was a randomized, double blind and sham controlled study involving 36 healthy participants, that is people who didn't have pre existing brain conditions. The goal is to increase the activity of brain regions Involved in hand movements. And after one hour of brain training, the results showed that the corpus callosum, the bridge in your brain that connects the left and right hemispheres, had increased connectivity and the neural network controlling the movements of the body was stronger. Neurofeedback is an incredible way to hack your brain. It's the core of my company called 40 Years of Zen, which uses neurofeedback to give you 40 years of meditation like brain states in only one week. In fact, I've spent four months of my life with electrodes on my head doing neurofeedback to make my nervous system do more of what I want. This new research, though, which we did not conduct, it's from Brazil, Demonstrates that it's possible to take control of your own biology, Help your brain work better in just one hour. There are other things you can do to train your brain that don't even involve neurofeedback. Things like dual impact training, a downloadable software program which I used in the past to boost my iq. You could also start meditating at home to train your brain to be more resilient. Meditation rewires your brain and creates new neural pathways that make you happier, calmer, and more focused. In fact, in that most recent book I mentioned, Game changers, Meditation was a common thread among almost 500 of the world's top performers. To learn more, pick up a copy of Game changers or check out all the bulletproof meditation videos online. Bottom line is, do something to get better control of your brain state and you will perform better at everything you do as a human being. And that's something that makes us happy. Next up, spaceflight increases telomere length, but it also increases inflammation, which is super interesting. According to recent research from NASA, spending time in space increases the length of telomeres. These caps of DNA at the end of your chromosomes that protect your cells from damage as you age. In fact, on bulletproof radio, I interviewed people who have done the Nobel prize winning research around aging and telomeres. But what the heck? How is it that astronauts are actually getting longer telomeres? Well, this study aimed to find out. NASA's twin study tracked changes in adult astronau Scott Kelly's body. Well, he spent a year in space, and they compared that to his brother, Mark Kelly, who lived his everyday life on earth. The researchers figured out that when Scott went into space, his body activated normally dormant genes related to collagen production, DNA repair, immune system length, and even telomere length. You've probably heard about telomeres because they're a really big deal in anti aging circles because of the things they do to protect your cells. And when you have long telomeres, you're young. When you have short telomeres, you're old. In addition to that, short telomeres give you an increased risk of things like cancer and Alzheimer's disease. The twin study also found that spending time in space damages DNA and thickens your arteries. And both of those are not good if you want to stay young. Right now, researchers are going to carry out more telomere research as part of NASA's one year mission project. And this finding is going to help us understand how to hack telomere length here on Earth, which is probably more applicable to you and me. In the meantime, if you're not going to go to space, there are some things you can do to lengthen your telomeres. Meditation is shown in multiple studies to increase your telomere length. Exercise as well as your diet. Eating quality fats and lots of vegetables. Polyphenols, boosting your levels of nad, which is an essential coenzyme that helps your cells function. So you can do all those things or some of those things, or none of those things. But I still don't recommend going to space as an anti aging strategy just because it's kind of expensive. Next up, a piece of news that explains why you should tell your boss you need a short break. That's because short breaks help your brain learn new skills. According to a recent study from the National Institutes of Health, taking short rest when you're learning a new skill actually strengthens memory. In the study, participants typed numbers on a screen as many times as possible for 10 seconds and then took a 10 second break and they repeated it 35 boring times. Researchers found that the amount of beta brainwaves changed during the breaks and it was correlated with improvements made during rest periods. That means that the short breaks played as critical role in learning those skills as the practice itself. We don't know yet if those findings apply to other forms of learning and memory, but they almost certainly do, even though we haven't proved it. These changes happen along the neural networks that help control planning of movements. So rest intervals could be helpful if you're learning a new skill, like maybe playing the piano. And that may sound a lot to you, like something called the Pomodoro Method, a productivity hack that I've written about that improves concentration by timing out short 20 minute bursts of focus followed by a five minute break. And this research supports the idea that you don't have to work around the clock to improve your brain. You just have to be efficient with your time. You also should take those breaks. So next time you're practicing a new skill or you just need to concentrate, chunk out your time and give yourself short, regular breaks. In fact, get up and move around because movement and blood flow wake up your brain so you can get more done. The one time you wouldn't want to do this is when you're in a flow state. If you're going to sit down, you're going to write a book like Game Changers or Head Strong, you might want to just sit there for two hours and just let it come out of your brain. That's a different thing. You're producing, not learning. When you're learning, take breaks.
