Why biohacking can be a symptom of avoiding spiritual healing

medical intuition

Mar 11

I’ve noticed two trends that seem to permeate the spiritual and physical healing circles that represent two sides of the same spectrum and are missing the overall picture.

The trend to ignore the physical body

On the one hand, some spiritual practices are encouraging people to stay way out of their bodies a lot. That's great, don't get me wrong, but let's not forget we still have to eat, sleep, poop, and pay the bills. No transcendental meditation or hypnosis can make us avoid the fact that we inhabit human bodies on Earth.

I think you might find that your life and spiritual practices can be enhanced greatly by taking care of your body. Likewise, I believe most symptoms have an emotional and/ or energetic component to them so we need to be addressing both spirit AND body. Not one or the other. Yes, we're more than our bodies, BUT at the end of the day, we inhabit human physical bodies that we need to take care of.

And yes, trauma can absolutely make being grounded in your body feel not safe. The body doesn't forget and the nervous system will respond (or not respond) appropriately when our traumas are triggered. But I would argue this is the very reason we need to address the body and heal our nervous system in order to achieve optimal healing.

I'm not here to tell you what to do. You do you, but if you find yourself feeling ungrounded and dissociating a lot (being out of your body), it might be a sign you need to E.T. phone home it back into your body.

The trend to ignore our spirit

On the other hand, nowadays we are bombarded by “experts” and “influencers” who promote the latest health trend whether it makes biological sense or not and regardless of its safety. This list includes trends like green juice fasting (spoiler: (spoiler: green juice will NOT alkaline your blood), DIY coffee enemas, bathing in cold water (aka cold plunging), the diet-du-jour (Paleo, gluten free, carnivore, etc), fasting (intermittent fasting, time-restricted fasting, juice or broth fasting, etc), resistance training, infrared saunas, wearing blue light blocking sunglasses, wearing the latest health tracking gadget like a smartwatch or Oura ring, etc.

What I also find alarming is that some health trends are not safe for most people.

Take at-home coffee enemas for example, which have been touted by many as being a magical treatment help heal issues ranging from constipation to detoxifying the liver to removing harmful microbes to even curing cancer. While I’m all about taking the natural approach first, there are times when these treatments can cause more harm than good, and sometimes, as is the case with coffee enemas, their benefits have been grossly exaggerated and not based in science.

Why coffee? Dr. Max Gerson was the first person to advocate for coffee enemas in the early 1900s because he discovered that coffee can help open up the bile ducts which aids in the release of toxins. Dr. Gerson then made a connection that toxicity can lead to cancer, so, therefore, coffee enemas could help prevent cancer. This idea of “autointoxication”, toxins produced by the body that “poison” the body gained popularity in the 1990s. The idea behind coffee enemas is basically based on the belief (emphasis on belief and not how human physiology actually works), that the coffee that’s entered into the colon will be directly absorbed by the portal vein that travels to the liver where it stimulates the production of our body’s main antioxidant glutathione, which thus, helps with our body’s detoxification processes.

How the human gastrointestinal tract actually works

Most of coffee’s polyphenols (cafestol and kahweol) are absorbed primarily in the small intestine NOT the colon where coffee enters during an enema. Likewise, most bile secreted by the gallbladder is absorbed in the ileum of the small intestine, so coffee enemas cannot prevent bile reabsorption and therefore higher rates of fat emulsion. Additionally, the tight junction proteins of the intestinal epithelial cells help keep the gaps between intestinal cells very tight (hence the name), so that larger molecules cannot easily diffuse in or out of the intestinal wall.

Lastly, the purported beneficial changes to the gut microbiome have not been proven scientifically. Bowel cleanses cause a temporary shift in the gut microbiome but it’s certainly not the magic treatment for any underlying digestive issues. Sure, colonics and enemas can relieve acute constipation, but they should not be a regular treatment and may cause even more microbial disturbances long-term, especially in patients with IBD and IBS. See the studies cited below.

Here’s the kicker— studies examining the efficacy of coffee enemas to treat melanoma had major design flaws AND studies have shown that drinking coffee is a more effective way to absorb the beneficial polyphenols of coffee.

Enemas should not be performed regularly and should be done by a licensed practitioner because infection (in severe cases acute sepsis), rectal perforation, and acute colitis can occur, and deaths due to dehydration from coffee enemas have been documented.

We can’t biohack our way out of our soul wounds
I 100% advocate for adressing the body during any healing process, but no matter how much we drink green juices, cold plunge, sweat in the sauna, intermittent fast, and do strength training, our soul wounds will still be waiting for us at the end of the day 🤪👋 As much as we’d like, we can't "biohack" (this term makes me cringe) ourselves away from our trauma and soul wounds.

I'm starting to also notice a pattern with health influencers who focus so intensely on just the body and the latest and greatest "biohack" (🥴🤮) or health-tracking gadget as a way to distract themselves from what really needs to be addressed— their spirit.

It's not about just body healing or just soul healing. I believe we have to address both for overall wellness.

Do you find yourself often disconnected from your body? Do hours go by during the day when you can’t recall what you did?

Are you dieting or running away from your problems? No judgment, let's first bring awareness and compassion to those parts of us that hurt and need healing that no health trend will fix. ❤️💫