Stop Wasting Money On Biohacks When Your Nervous System Isn't Regulated

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About this Podcast

Your cells don't care about expensive supplements! Renee Belz spent years optimizing nutrition before realizing she was missing the foundation. After graduating college, she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, sleeping 12 to 13 hours per day at 22 years old. Traditional doctors looked at her labs and said everything looked great. She knew something was wrong. Eventually, she discovered Epstein-Barr virus reactivation, mercury toxicity, adrenal dysfunction, and a poor circadian rhythm. But even after addressing all of that, something was still off.

On Legacy and Longevity Podcast with host Zach Dancel who worked with Renee when she was one of the OG Nava Health MBAs back in 2013, Renee Belz reveals why your nervous system is running the show and most people are completely ignoring it. She explains how to use heart rate variability trends to prevent burnout before it happens, why genetics are only 8 to 12 percent of health outcomes while epigenetics drive everything else, and the respiratory rate during sleep that signals your body is too stressed to repair itself overnight.

Your Nervous System Determines If Anything Else Works

The nervous system is running the show, according to Renee, who now specializes in nervous system regulation and bio-individuality. A lot of people are overlooking this completely. They're overriding signals thinking this diet or this supplement or this biohack will optimize their health. But if your nervous system is not regulated, you're wasting your money. A lot of that stuff's not going to work.

This goes back to research on cell danger response. If your body is in a fight or flight sympathetic state all the time, that leads to cell danger response. Your cells don't care about whatever nootropic or peptide you're putting in your body when they are in an extreme state of survival. Even though Renee's background was primarily nutrition, she started seeing people getting so obsessed with everything they ate that the stress was overriding any potential benefit of the healthy diet. That's when she went down the rabbit hole of nervous system optimization and sleep. This foundation needs to come before nutrition.

Heart Rate Variability Trends Predict Burnout Days Before

Heart rate variability measures the variation between each heartbeat. We actually want variation, which is opposite of what most people think. More variation means you are more resilient to stress. Who doesn't want that? Stress isn't going anywhere, especially in 2026. But if you can be more resilient to that person cutting you off in traffic or your boss yelling at you in a meeting, or your spouse upset about the dishwasher, you want to brush those things off. Strong nervous system with higher HRV and more resilience lets you do that.

The biggest confusion around HRV is everyone wants to compare it to everyone else. Oh I have a high HRV, you have a low HRV. Doesn't matter. It's a very personal number. It's all about your baseline and your trends. Renee looks at 20 to 40 percent increases or decreases from baseline. So 20 percent increase, ask what did I do yesterday. Did I do sauna, cold plunge, some hormetic stress that increased it. Track what works for your body specifically.

If HRV drops 40 percent below baseline, put the brakes on immediately. Clear your schedule as much as you can. Take a nap, do breathwork, meditation. You're definitely not going to CrossFit that day. Maybe you're not going to that party you got invited to. Use these signals to prevent burnout. Because if you see that drop in HRV and push through it anyway, guaranteed within the next couple days you're going to get hit by a virus, cold, flu, something will get you because you tried to override that warning. HRV changes before you feel sick. It's predictive.

Genetics Versus Epigenetics Only Eight To Twelve Percent

Genetics are about 8 to 12 percent of the health equation. The rest is epigenetics. Epigenetics are how your lifestyle factors turn genes on or off. Everyone should get a genetic panel done once in their life just to help guide decisions. For Renee, she carries one of the Alzheimer's genes. Some people might be scared to find that out. It wasn't shocking since she lost her grandfather to Alzheimer's. But knowing that information empowers her to do all the biohacks, nutrition, lifestyle interventions to help regulate that gene. No alcohol, no sugar, prioritizing sleep, managing stress, things that increase BDNF. She can hone in because she knows, and she's empowered with that information.

But here's where people get confused. They say diabetes runs in my family. Does it actually run in your family or do poor diet and lifestyle strategies run in your family? Kids eat the way their parents did. They exercise the way their parents did. They're modeling after you constantly. It's not actually in your DNA. It's just in your lifestyle that you're passing down generation after generation. Genetics give you potential risks. Epigenetics, which are your lifestyle choices, including what you eat, how you move, sleep quality, stress management, turn genes on or off based on what you're doing every single day.

Respiratory Rate During Sleep Reveals Stress State

Other metrics that help assess nervous system health include respiratory rate during sleep which you can track on wearables like Oura Ring. High respiratory rate is a perfect sign your nervous system is not regulated. You're probably living in a sympathetic dominant state most of the day. Respiratory rate on Oura looks at how fast you're breathing per minute while sleeping. A great goal is 13 to 15 breaths per minute. If you're upwards closer to 20, your body is really stressed while you're sleeping.

When we're sleeping that's when we do repair, rejuvenation, detoxing the brain with the glymphatic system. A lot of beautiful things are happening during sleep. But if you're breathing 20 times per minute, your body's way too stressed to be doing repair work. It's just trying to get through the night. The number one thing you can do here is HRV biofeedback which is a type of breathwork where you measure your HRV in the moment using an app like Optimal HRV. Bio-individuality matters here too. People are jumping on breathwork bandwagon but are you doing the right breathwork for your body?

HRV biofeedback tells you exactly how to breathe in the moment based on your HRV. For Renee, it's resonance breathing at four breaths per minute. During the day, she trains her body to breathe four breaths per minute. How you breathe during the day is typically how you sleep at night. There's so much more to sleep optimization than just eight hours and avoiding blue light. Nervous system and how we breathe is a huge piece most people miss.

Sympathetic Versus Parasympathetic Balance Critical

Those are the two branches of the nervous system. Sympathetic is fight or flight. Parasympathetic is rest, digest, and repair. Both branches are always working. You're never just sympathetic or just parasympathetic. It's a seesaw. But humans were not designed to be in a sympathetic fight or flight state all day long. Our ancestors were maybe sympathetic 10 percent of the day when chasing their next meal or in battle or famine. Those times, sympathetic saved their lives.

Here in 2026, we're sympathetic all day long. Every time someone calls you, your phone pings, Instagram alert, email alert, every input including music, sound, and your kids screaming, that's all inputs causing a sympathetic state. We're not going to get rid of all of that, but put your phone on do not disturb mode. That's a huge easy biohack. Not getting pinged all day long. Carve out time specifically for parasympathetic activity. Even just two minutes. Close your eyes; silence, not even music, nothing. Just close your eyes and do a couple of deep breaths.

Deep sleep is another important metric. If your body's in a stress state all day, it doesn't just shut that off when you get into bed because you say it's bedtime. Your body needs signals that we are safe. Through evolution, when we go into deep sleep, we're out dead to the world. Not a good time for another tribe to attack your tents. So if we're not safe, we're not going into that deep restorative sleep. Send all the signals including HRV biofeedback, breathwork, down regulation, meditation, mindfulness to say hey we're safe enough to go into this really important phase of sleep.

Basics Before Biohacks Always Foundation First

Renee always says basics before biohacks. Don't jump to fancy tech and gadgets if you're not doing the basics. Basics are still the foundation. We're seeing a huge movement where data tracking tools are becoming more accessible and cheaper. You could probably Google VO2 max test near you and do it tomorrow. Oura Ring, continuous glucose monitors don't even need prescriptions anymore. Versus five years ago you were fighting doctors for those. Accessibility is exciting, but people shouldn't feel overwhelmed like they need all these extra things.

If you're wanting to take health to the next level, data can be helpful. But if you're not sleeping well, eating whole foods, managing stress, moving your body, all the wearables in the world won't fix that foundation. Look at blue zones where there's a large percentage of centenarians. They're not biohacking. They're in sunshine. They're walking. They're eating food picked from less than a mile from their house. They're socially connected. If you can do that great, throw out all the gadgets. But most people living in America today can't live that lifestyle. That's where you bring in the hacks to balance modern life.

Subscribe to Legacy and Longevity Podcast wherever you listen to learn why your nervous system determines if any biohack works and how to stop wasting money on supplements when the foundation isn't regulated. Regulate your nervous system before another biohack fails you. Stop ignoring the foundation that determines whether anything else works—discover how, click the link below:

https://navacenter.com/

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