Biohacker Dave Asprey said he has the secret to hacking hair loss — and one of the most important steps is reducing stress.
“You’ve gotta control your stress levels, because cortisol makes you have thin hair,” the Bulletproof founder said on the “Mindbodygreen” podcast.
That may be easier said than done. But while we can’t all just eliminate external stressors in our lives, he insisted that a two-ingredient drink in the morning can make a noticeable difference.
Asprey, 51, said that his own wife saw results with his protocol, declaring that she “tripled the amount of hair she had at the end of perimenopause.”
Large does of biotin are a must, and he also recommended red light therapy and taking adaptogenic herbs like ginseng, licorice root and ashwagandha in the morning.
But one of his go-to “supplements” isn’t a supplement at all.
“When you wake up in the morning, you likely want to take a pinch of Himalayan sea salt, put it in water, and drink it,” he said.
“And the reason for that is a hormone called aldosterone, and it’s one of your stress hormones … in the morning, you have to have more blood pressure so you don’t pass out when you get out of bed.”
Aldosterone is involved in regulating blood pressure. It also regulates your blood levels of sodium and potassium, important electrolytes that regulate nerve and muscle function.
“Having a little bit of salt in the morning lowers stress all day long. You actually feel better all day from that,” he added.
The mixture, sometimes referred to as “sole water,” has gone viral. However, research to back Asprey up is limited.
Mindbodygreen points to a study that found that salt can lower cortisol levels, while other research has suggested it can help with hydration, sleep and weight loss.
But several other studies show downsides of too-high sodium intake, and many experts warn against it.
“Most Americans get plenty of sodium in their diets, often more than is needed, so adding more salt to drinking water is likely to boost that amount even higher throughout the course of a day,” Jen Bruning, a registered dietitian, told Verywell Health.
“You might as well save that salt to sprinkle on your eggs at breakfast instead of adding it to drinking water,” she added.
“You’d have to consume incredibly high amounts of sole water to get any significant amount of minerals other than sodium,” fellow registered dietitian Gillian Culbertson told the Cleveland Clinic. “And at that point, the sodium content would be well over a healthy intake.”
She agued that there’s already so much salt in our food, so adding more to water is “counterproductive.”
“We recommend the general population should consume less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day, or 1,500 mg for anyone following a low-sodium diet, That can be hard enough to achieve without purposely adding salt water as part of your diet.”
Salt water has also been consumed as a constipation remedy — meaning drinking it when you’re not constipated could lead to some unpleasant bathroom side effects.
