Ask HN: How have you hacked your health? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How have you hacked your health?

No medical advice, speak to a qualified specialist

One of my favourite things about the discussions on this site is the amazing and insightful nuggets shared deep in the comment threads.

Notably a conversation with HNers treating/eradicating persistent reflux with cheap HCL/acid supplements, instead of H2/PPI drugs.

I’m not calling for medical advice or pseudo/pop science, I’m just interested to hear your stories and journeys.

My own anecdote involves using a saline sinus rinse/spray and gargle in cold/flu season and when travelling to dodge bugs, obviously I’ll never be able to prove it works but I’ve noticed less sick days over the past 2 years.

Interested to hear your examples.

View on HN

    More productive
    Comfortable
    Not drinking too much
    Regular exercise at the gym (3 days a week)
    Getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries
    At ease
    Eating well (no more microwave dinners and saturated fats)
    A patient better driver
    A safer car (baby smiling in back seat)
    Sleeping well (no bad dreams)
    No paranoia
    Careful to all animals (never washing spiders down the plughole)
    Keep in contact with old friends (enjoy a drink now and then)
    Will frequently check credit at (moral) bank (hole in wall)
    Favours for favours
    Fond but not in love
    Charity standing orders
    On sundays ring road supermarket
    (no killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants)
    Car wash (also on sundays)
    No longer afraid of the dark
    Or midday shadows
    Nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate
    Nothing so childish
    At a better pace
    Slower and more calculated
    No chance of escape
    Now self-employed
    Concerned (but powerless)
    An empowered and informed member of society (pragmatism not idealism)
    Will not cry in public
    Less chance of illness
    Tires that grip in the wet (shot of baby strapped in back seat)
    A good memory
    Still cries at a good film
    Still kisses with saliva
    No longer empty and frantic
    Like a cat
    Tied to a stick
    That's driven into
    Frozen winter shit (the ability to laugh at weakness)
    Calm
    Fitter, healthier and more productive
    A pig
    In a cage
    On antibiotics

Probably going to sound really lame but the things I’ve done in the last 1.5 years to hack my health has been: - started meditating - created a set bedtime/wake time and generally stick to it pretty religiously. - decided to do therapy. - take vitamin D supplements

And since doing those things, I noticed a sort of slow shift towards just feeling generally more peaceful internally. I stopped biting my nails (without even trying), and my ability to focus/concentrate improved substantially so my academic performance has improved significantly.

I’m thinking about trying acupuncture, and some other alternative medicine practices in the near future to see if that enhances my feelings of inner calmness more (and perhaps helps with some somatic back pain I experience from time to time).

Beer! :D (Not joking!) I am a Swiss and drink 2-3 beers every day. Haven't got more than a cold the last 2 years. Long term effects - no idea. Happy work environment too. Vitamin C, D and B every morning.

Sadly, though I also follow beer therapy strongly, it does not eliminate respiratory illness for me.

But (OP) following a New Scientist article I now try to sleep on my left to reduce acid reflux problems, and maybe it is working! No drugs at all.

Have you considered ciders?

Too sweet for me. I like the bitter beers.

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