My Health

Faster, smarter, stronger - A case study

BY CINDY DE VILLIERS, GP

Further to my previous columns on the democratisation of health and citizen scientists, this story provides a practical – in the words of a 53-year-old male. “I’ve been working on and off with nutrition and lifestyle for health and performance for the last 15 years, dropping weight by 15kg and doubling physical capacity. Those around me would have to judge cognitive performance, but I’m certainly a lot happier.

“Having reached a plateau, it’s been interesting to add in the Oura Ring because it gets harder to make big gains after the basics are sorted.”

Oura Readiness Score “What I’ve found is my Oura Readiness Score (an aggregate measure of overall sleep, HRV and activity) is typically around 80%, dropping to 70% if I fall off the horse, or worst to date is 49% after travelling back from Europe.

“About once every 4-6 weeks I get a 90% or above and that correlates to feeling like the world is my oyster. Up until now it has been tricky to get a score above 90% consistently. This is a big deal for me, because it gets harder to make big gains as tuning progresses. “I’m yet to pin down exactly what has made the difference, but with tracking my data, I have concluded that it is some mix of cold showers, NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide) and perhaps the Ooler Chili Pads.” (www.chilitechnology.com).

Interventions

1. Cold showers: “Despite Scottish blood coursing through me, I’m not much into cold water and have engaged in delaying tactics against evidence that a certain amount of cold exposure stimulates enough just stress for the body to become stronger. However, when Glenn and Harriet from Tasman Performance related

54 that there was a pact from a bunch of their mates for no screen-time until after a cold shower in the morning, I was shamed into action. This has turned out to have multiple benefits including a focus on breathing, a boost in energy and delaying the ‘fight or flight’ aspect of smartphones to start the day off on a better keel. Ending a shower with 30 to 60 seconds of cold water is certainly easier in summer and hopefully I’ll have discovered my inner ‘Wim Hof’ before winter.”

2. NAD precursor: “NAD is a building block of energy (and DNA repair) that declines as we age. Supplementing NAD is getting a bunch of interest from those who have decided they’ll decide when they want to get old and tired, thanks very much! I started getting consistent 90% Readiness Scores after starting NAD, 90% Readiness saw me lumber jacking on a hill for a whole day with a 25-year-old and having gas left at the end of the day. The only way I’ll be sure that it’s the NAD making the difference is to stop taking it, which I’m not quite ready to do until I’ve got the winter wood all stored!”

3. Ooler Chilipad: “I started using the Ooler Chilipad before Xmas, just in time for the hot summer nights. Maintaining a cool body

temperature overnight significantly improves sleep – and thus performance.”

What have been the bumps on the road?

1. Air travel: “Even business class travel combined with time zone shifts had a horrendous week-long impact on readiness.”

2. Alcohol: “A glass of wine costs me about 20% Readiness the following day. It messes with breathing and temperature and all sorts of things, particularly at my age.”

Takeaways: “Having the basics of nutrition and lifestyle sorted provides access to benefits from more advanced interventions.

“There’s no single magic ingredient for improving HRV – what works is different for everyone.

“90% Readiness feels great and is more important to me than regular alcoholic and junk food sedation that inevitably leads to chronic lifestyle disease.”

Whether it is lumber jacking all day, playing with the kids or winning at golf, you can find out what makes you faster, smarter and stronger.