Red light lamps from Remedy Place in New York City

Optimize Wellness Through Science and Nature

Winter is more than just a season of chilly air and raclette nights (for all my friends in Switzerland) with a reduction of light hours in the day it's the perfect time to hibernate, rest and reset to optimize your health. By tapping into biohacking strategies, you can take advantage of these long months to boost your metabolism, improve your body’s resilience, and increase overall wellness.

What is biohacking? It is a form of “tricking” or “hacking” our biology to help us live longer, with more energy and vitality. From cold plunges to hyperbaric oxygen therapy, these practices combine science and aspects of our nature and evolutionary code to enhance your well-being and help you feel your best. Many of these practices have been adapted from our survival history as “homosapiens” into strategies that aim to provide us with the same results. However there are also easy ways which I will also tell you about to do the same thing without the costly machines. The most important part of longevity and biohacking is a need to improve your body’s ability to regenerate, heal its cells and ultimately your mitochondria - the little powerhouses inside your cells fighting for your health. Here’s how to hack your body this winter for a stronger, healthier you.

1. Hot-Cold Therapy:

The Art of Thermal Contrast

Hot-cold therapy is an ancient yet effective biohacking tool that strengthens your body’s resilience to stress while improving circulation and mental clarity. Exposing your body to extreme temperature changes stimulates your cardiovascular and immune systems, improving overall health.

Cold Exposure: Winter provides a natural opportunity to embrace cold therapy. Similar to our ancestors that had to survive potential ice ages and living outside, thermogenesis, (teaching our body to produce heat) helped our body to kill off bad cells and adapt our survival instincts. Clinics like Ayun Health in Zurich have their own infrared sauna and cold plunge therapy centers. Remedy Place in New York City has a cold plunge that goes to below 0 Fahrenheit (I swear!). But you can do this in your hometown without going to a specific center, taking an icy plunge into Lake Geneva, for instance, is a favorite winter activity for many in Geneva where I live. Cold exposure, which can also be activated through targeted cryotherapy treatments, activates your body’s fight-or-flight response, triggering the release of adrenaline and endorphins, leaving you feeling invigorated and focused.

Heat Therapy: Complement cold exposure with heat therapy, such as infrared saunas, Finnish saunas or hot baths. Heat relaxes muscles, flushes toxins through sweating, and promotes relaxation. Sweat lodges and sweating such as in historic ceremonies date back thousands of years. The ancient Mesoamerican tribes of Mexico, such as the Aztec and Olmec, practiced a sweat bath ceremony known as temazcal as a religious rite of penance and purification. These are still in practice today and are shown to help with rebirth and shedding of old skin. Sweating is more than just a health hack it’s a symbolic separation from old and dead parts of you that are released through your skin’s pores.

Alternating between hot and cold exposure—such as sitting in a sauna followed by an ice bath—amplifies the benefits of each.

How to Start: Begin with cold showers at home, alternating between hot water and 30-second bursts of cold. Once comfortable, explore local saunas (Bains des Paquis, les Bains Bleus) and cryotherapy facilities.
To go deeper for subconscious purification effects, try this: Next time you are sitting in a sauna, imagine everything you want to let go, your negative thoughts and your limiting beliefs and visualize them seeping out of your pores (I like to imagine a colour - like grey) - allow the heat to take away their importance and release them from you. Our ancestors were much more connected to traditions of nature and our body, and sweating for purification is an ancient tradition that is easy to pursue!
Benefits: Enhanced immune function, accelerated muscle recovery after workouts. clearer mind, improved mood and a renewed you.

Ayun Health in Zurich’s Sauna and Cold plunge therapy space

2. Light Therapy:

Energize at a Cellular Level

LED therapy is therapy on a spectrum of light that reaches deep within our cells. With limited daylight in winter, red light therapy (the most popular of the light therapies) provides an effective solution to combat fatigue, boost energy, reduce inflammation and enhance cellular function. This therapy uses wavelengths of red and near-infrared light to penetrate the skin and target your cells’ mitochondria, improving energy production. The infrared sauna is a type of red light therapy that is quite common in spas and clinics and easy to use.

Why It Works:

Boosts collagen production, keeping your skin hydrated and healthy despite harsh winter air.
Reduces inflammation, working on inner chronic issues or alleviating pain such as joint stiffness and muscle soreness.
Supports mental well-being by regulating your circadian rhythm, which can be disrupted during shorter days.

How to Incorporate It: Invest in a red light therapy device, or a full body PEMF red light therapy mat (see here) or visit a clinic with an infrared sauna or red light therapy machine. Red light therapy masks can also be used to help reduce acne and dark spots on skin (check out Dr. Densis Gross mask here). Use it for 10-20 minutes daily, focusing on problem areas such as your face or sore muscles. The calming nature of red light therapy makes it a great addition to your nighttime routine.

Double Dose with Infrared

An infrared sauna uses infrared light through panels (as per the photo below) to heat the body directly, rather than heating the air around you like traditional saunas. Infrared light is a type of electromagnetic radiation on the spectrum just beyond visible light, so while you can’t see it, your body feels it as gentle, penetrating warmth.

The infrared wavelengths penetrate the skin and tissues heating the body from the inside out. Infrared saunas operate at lower temperatures (usually between 120–140°F), making it a more comfortable experience. This light therapy works by delivering specific wavelengths of light to the body to target tissues, stimulate biological processes, and promote healing.

Why it works:

Infrared saunas use light in the infrared spectrum to achieve therapeutic benefits such as detoxification, increased blood flow, and support the body’s own healing mechanisms
Infrared light is absorbed as heat, stimulating the body on a cellular level and helping the body to eliminate dead cells

How to Incorporate it:

Go to any spa or wellness center that has an infrared sauna machine and give it a try, 30 minutes minimum is recommended for the detoxification effect to take place in one session.

Infrared sauna is a type of light therapy and heat therapy. It is one of my favorite biohacks to reduce inflammation and sweat out impurities - a two in one!

3. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy & Breathwork

Fuel Your Body With Oxygen

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber, saturating your body’s tissues with this vital element. While traditionally used for medical purposes, HBOT has become a popular biohacking tool for improving overall health and accelerating recovery and healing. This machine at Physio2Sport was truly life-changing when I sprained my ankle recently because it helped stimulate the cells to rebind with each other. Athletes like LeBron James use it to keep their body in top condition, as it helps reduce inflammation of all forms in our system. It even helped me reduce my leaky gut and remove inflammation from my stomach (alongside a healthy diet and food elimination).

What It Does:

Stimulates healing by delivering oxygen deep into tissues.
Enhances cognitive performance by improving brain oxygenation.
Reduces inflammation, making it an excellent option for recovering from workouts or managing chronic conditions.

Why Winter is Ideal for HBOT:
Winter is often a time when the immune system is under stress. HBOT helps fortify your immune defenses while promoting better energy levels and faster recovery from seasonal fatigue.

How to Try It:
Physio2Sport’s clinic offers HBOT sessions that typically last 60–90 minutes and will work towards your specific health goals (your body uses the oxygen for whatever it needs to heal).

HBOT healed my sprained ankle in lightning speed - if you go directly to HBOT therapies within 48 hours of injury the oxygen starts working right away to heal the inflammation and regenerate cells.

Breathwork

Unlock the Power of Intentional Breathing

While HBOT is a high-tech approach to oxygenating your body, breathwork offers a more accessible yet equally transformative way (in a different way) to improve your physical and mental well-being. Breathwork practices involve conscious breathing techniques that can increase oxygen intake, reduce stress, and even produce altered states of consciousness. I can say that my last holotropic breathwork session left me in a complete state of intense wow realizing how much tension I had in my body. My entire body started vibrating during the session- it truly felt like an out of body experience to release tension. This method has gained traction in recent years for its ability to help individuals process subconscious blocks, release trauma, and alleviate pain.

Modern lifestyles often leave us with shallow breathing patterns, limiting the amount of oxygen our body and brain receive. This deficit can affect everything from decision-making to emotional regulation. By incorporating deep, intentional breathing into your daily routine, you can improve your overall health and mental clarity.

What It Does:

Enhances mental clarity and decision-making by increasing oxygen flow to the brain.
Promotes emotional release and helps process subconscious patterns.
Grounds you in the present moment, reducing anxiety and stress.

Why Winter is Ideal for Breathwork:
Winter months can feel heavy and stagnant, but breathwork offers a way to rejuvenate your energy and clear mental fog. It’s also an excellent practice to pair with mindfulness or meditation, especially during shorter days when we often feel more disconnected.

How to Try It:
Start small by practicing deep diaphragmatic breathing for 5–10 minutes a day. Apps like “Breathwrk” or local breathwork classes can guide you in learning advanced techniques for even deeper benefits.

4. Intermittent Fasting:

A Seasonal Reset for Your Metabolism

Winter often tempts us with comfort foods, but intermittent fasting (IF) offers a powerful way to keep your metabolism on track. By limiting eating windows, you give your body time to rest, repair, and burn stored fat more effectively. For women, I highly recommend only fasting when you are in the first two weeks of your cycle prior to ovulation, as your body will need more calories in the second half of the cycle. A great book I love for women on this subject is Fast Like a Girl (find it here). Fasting not only has physical health benefits it teaches us discipline and reminds us that we are able to do hard things. Eating has become a pleasure trip rather than a way to nourish our bodies and we should be able to find balance between the two.

How It Works: Fasting helps regulate blood sugar levels and stimulates autophagy, a natural process where your cells clean up damaged components, promoting longevity and overall health.

How to Begin:

Start with the 16:8 method: Fast for 16 hours (including overnight) and eat within an 8-hour window. For example, eat your first meal at 12 PM and finish by 8 PM. If you prefer a one day fast, rather than more regular daily fasting windows this can also help to support your gut’s microbiome.
Focus on nutrient-dense foods during eating windows, such as lean proteins, healthy fats, and fiber-rich vegetables.

Why It’s Perfect for Winter: IF aligns with the body’s natural rhythms during colder months when food scarcity was common for our ancestors. It not only supports weight management but also enhances mental clarity and boosts energy levels.

5. Sleeping in a Cold Room:

Turn White Fat into Brown Fat

Winter is the perfect time to optimize your sleep environment. Research shows that sleeping in a cold room can activate brown fat, a type of fat that burns calories to generate heat, a survival instinct kept from our ancestors. This process helps improve metabolism and regulate body temperature. I love this hack because it's super easy in my opinion to implement just by opening the window during the night. It has been proven through various studies as a way to help your body metabolize fat even those that do not have much fat can benefit from this.

The Science of Brown Fat: Unlike white fat, which stores energy, brown fat burns it. Sleeping in cooler temperatures (around 16–19°C or 60–67°F) stimulates brown fat activity, improving your body’s ability to burn calories and maintain a healthy weight overall.

Tips for Better Sleep:

Lower your thermostat at night, or keep a window slightly open.
Use breathable bedding to avoid overheating.
Take a warm shower or bath before bed to encourage a natural drop in body temperature that signals it’s time to sleep.

A warm bath and a cooler room can become a nightly routine allowing your body to prepare for sleep. I love an evening routine because its signals to our body to produce melatonin especially when it becomes an evening habit. Combining cooler temperatures with good sleep hygiene can help you wake up feeling refreshed and energized.

6. Low-Carb, Ketogenic Lifestyle:

Fuel Your Body Efficiently

I am not much for any “diet” because I know it can be a trigger for overeating for many of us. A diet also carries a negative connotation around eating healthy. Personally, anything I implement around food is considered a lifestyle shift or an experiment. That goes for food changes during different seasons, too.

For me, a ketogenic lifestyle means prioritizing protein and fat while avoiding carbs and sugar (though I am no saint—I still enjoy chocolate at times!). Prioritizing fats and proteins allows my body to feel full longer and helps me avoid blood sugar spikes. Winter cravings for hearty comfort foods are natural, but opting for a low-carb or ketogenic diet can help stabilize your energy and support metabolic health. This way of eating trains your body to use fat as its primary fuel source instead of glucose, a process called ketosis.

I firmly believe that even if you follow this approach at 80%, you’ll still experience benefits. Simply applying the principles of a ketogenic lifestyle will begin to teach your body to use fat as fuel. An easy place to start is by swapping a high-carb breakfast for a low-carb one (low-carb meaning choosing vegetables as your carbs instead of bread, rice, or pasta).

Winter Keto Staples

Breakfast: Two eggs and avocado, with olive oil

Lunch: Fish (I like whole white fish) for omega-3s, alongside vegetables like squash, carrots, broccoli topped with olive oil

Snacks: Avocados and nuts for healthy fats. Hummus and veggie dip.

Dinner: Veggie soups made with bone broth (high protein and collagen content) to support immunity and gut health. Pair with chicken, chickpeas, feta, or another high-protein option for satiety.

Dessert: Coconut flour based homemade desserts

Leafy Greens and Low-Carb Vegetables: Essential for nutrients and fiber.

Benefits of Keto in Winter

High-fat foods keep you feeling satiated and warm during colder months. This lifestyle’s ability to regulate blood sugar levels helps prevent energy crashes, which can often occur during winter. Keto also pairs well with other biohacking techniques, such as intermittent fasting and cold exposure, creating a synergistic effect to support your overall health and wellness.

Disclaimer: I am not a strict follower of any specific “lifestyle” - for me balance is key - sometimes I go vegan other times I am fully ketogenic with animal protein every day twice or three times a day. Overall, I know the ketogenic lifestyle has had significant positive effects studied in people hence why this is called a ketogenic lifestyle not a diet.

One of my favorite chicken marbella recipes that I love to incorporate into my ketogenic lifestyle.

Summarizing It All: Fuel Your Body, Enhance Your Health

Winter is the perfect season to experiment with strategies that fuel your body efficiently. From hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to intentional breathwork and ketogenic eating, these tools can help you enhance your physical and mental well-being. I personally love to experiment on myself and know that if I have the right intention my body will reap the benefits of anything I try.

These ideas are just starting points, but by incorporating even one or two of these strategies into your routine, you’ll be giving your body the tools it needs to feel its best and not become sluggish or tired in the coming months. Make sure to listen to your body as we are all bio-individual and different methods suit different people. Most importantly, use winter as a moment to prioritize your health and mindset—your body and mind will thank you.

Biohack Your Body This Winter