The Selfhacked House
I put a lot of thought into finding the absolute best location. It started with taking out a map of the US and writing down a list of environmental criteria that I wanted for healthy living (from most, to least important).
This newer home is almost right on the beach and is one of the most healthy homes in existence. The house is surrounded by green parks and sandwiched between the ocean and mountains. The air is clean, and we’re far from major highways, and far enough out of the city for you to see stars at night.
Pictures
The ocean views from our two front decks.
Moonstone Beach Boardwalk – a beautiful boardwalk to walk or jog along the ocean (close to the house). You can find lots of pebbles, some sea glass, and maybe even moonstones and jade if you look hard enough 🙂
Kitchen
Bathroom
Important Factors For Optimal Healing
To some extent, there is no perfect location. There is a problem everywhere you go, but you can try to get the best overall.
There are a few things that most people respond well to:
- Sun
- Being outside in fresh air
- Fresh ocean air
- Nature
- A clean relatively toxin/mold-free house
- Stress-free/positive environment
These were all requirements of mine because I realize the healing potential of these things.
Important Location and Environmental Factors
These are some important environmental factors that I looked at.
Elevation
We wanted to get a place that wasn’t elevated because chronic hypoxia can be a problem. People who live at high elevation receive some benefits regarding more UVB and lower pollution, but this isn’t ideal for many, so any location above 1,000 ft was a no-go and ideally, we wanted it below 500 feet.
The Selfhacked House is on the beach and is at sea level.
Air Quality
We get ocean ions when we’re close to the beach, and fresh air blows from the Pacific oceans.
Since the central coast of California is relatively remote, there’s not much pollution from cars. It’s not next to any airports, shipping ports, nuclear power plants or military installations, all of which are sources of various kinds of pollution.
There’s no coal or natural gas powerplants anywhere near us (according to this map).
As a plus, radon concentrations are very low next to oceans [1].
Noise, EMF, and Light pollution
The area has low noise pollution – our house has maybe one car every 3 minutes pass by. Super quiet.
Our part of town has low nnEMF (I have an EMF meter). Cellular signals are really bad in our house, which is good because we’re less bombarded with nnEMF. Verizon is the best, and it only gets about 1 bar in the house.
Our home doesn’t have light bombs, which means there’re no street lamps that invade your house. This can be bad in a lot of suburban neighborhoods and cities.
Latitude
I wanted to get a place that was south enough to get more UVB.
According to the Harvard School of Health, people who live above 37 degrees latitude don’t get enough UVB energy from the sun to make all the vitamin D they need. The same is true for people who spend most of their time indoors or use sunscreens [2].
Human skin exposed to sunlight on clear days in Boston (42.2 degrees) from November through February produced no vitamin D3. In Edmonton (52 degrees), humans couldn’t produce D3 from October through March [3].
At 34 degrees, humans can make vitamin D3 even in the middle of winter (Central coast=35 degrees) [3]. This is why ~35 degrees latitude was the upper limit of a place I’d move to.
Pollution will reduce UVB, so even though LA is at 34 degrees latitude, you might not get enough UVB to produce adequate D3. Clouds will likewise reduce UVB. In the winter it rains a lot on the east coast, which will result in less UVB. Elevation will increase UVB, so a place like Colorado will be better for UVB (but elevation is worse in other ways).
The Central Coast has clear skies in the afternoon almost all year round and very little pollution, making UVB more accessible. Since the average weather ranges from 65 – 71 °F (18.3 – 21.7 °C) all year round, it’s always comfortable to be outside.
Here are latitudes of various locations, rounded (the higher the number, the further from the equator, the less UVB year round – with other factors constant):
- Reykjavik – 64
- Oslo – 60
- Moscow – 56
- London – 52
- Warsaw – 52
- Vancouver – 49
- Seattle – 48
- Portland – 46
- Minneapolis – 45
- Toronto – 44
- Boston – 42
- NYC – 41
- Fort Collins – 41
- Madrid – 40
- Denver – 39
- Baltimore – 39
- San Francisco -38
- Mosul – 36
- Las Vegas – 36
- Tokyo – 36
- Tehran – 35
- Charlotte – 35
- Central Coast – 35
- Santa Barbara 34
- LA – 34
- Sydney – -34
- Atlanta – 34
- San Diego – 33
- Tel Aviv – 32
- Pensacola Beach – 30
- New Orleans – 30
- Miami Beach – 26
- Bangkok – 14
Some Benefits of the Selfhacked House
There were some things in a house and neighborhood that we were able to find:
35 Yards From the Ocean
The house is close to the beach and right across the street from the ocean. You can walk a block to a park and a beach area where you can take a dip in the ocean and ground.
In California, the water is cold, and you can do some amazing cold thermogenesis in the ocean to supercharge your health.
The beach and ocean air have special healing properties. Also, being next to the beach is a good temperature buffer so that the area is never too hot nor too cold. Only by the coast is the temperature in California the best in the world.
The ocean area by us is the largest US national marine sanctuary and has a shoreline length of 276 miles. Being protected, it means companies can’t drill, and there are much stricter laws against polluting, which means the ocean is even cleaner than other oceans [4].
The “Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary” Supports one of the world’s most diverse marine ecosystems, and it is home to numerous mammals, seabirds, fishes, invertebrates and plants in a remarkably productive coastal environment [4].
We also have equipment to ground our laptops while using it at the beach and smelling the ocean air.
Like New
The house is completely remodeled but had adequate time to off-gas, so you’re not breathing in the new-house chemicals. I did all of the necessary testing to make sure there was not a mold/biotoxin issue.
Humidity
We have two dehumidifiers and a humidifier to keep moisture at about 50%. Too much over 50% causes bacterial and mold growth.
Grounding
The house has an area to ground – which isn’t always easy if you live in a big city.
Ground Floor
Two of the bedrooms are ground floor, which blocks off EMFs coming from below (ground blocks EMFs, which is why you can’t get service in a tunnel). Being on the ground also supposedly allows you to get more of the Schumann Resonance and the magnetic properties of the earth. These areas are not supported much by the scientific literature, but it’s believed that these have healthful properties [5, 6]. At this stage, I don’t know what kind of effect this has.
California Pros Over Florida
I’ve researched all the areas to live, and there are only two warm states with coastlines that I’d live in.
I flew out and found a lot of places off the coast of West Florida (north and mid) and some small pockets of California that are ideal for a healing house.
Most of the coast in California, especially in the south, is crossed off because of pollution of all kinds (air, noise, light, nnEMF) and overcrowding. In Northern California, it gets too cold, and you don’t get enough UVB. In southern California, it’s too crowded and polluted. After Santa Barbara (such as Pismo) you start getting down winds from Diablo Nuclear.
When it comes down to it, I prefer California because Florida has too many mosquitos, is too humid, rains too much and for four months of the year is too hot.
These factors make it much more annoying to be outside for longer. You will live in an air-conditioned room, and that’s not healthy. Outside you have fresher air (more oxygen, less CO2, fewer contaminants like mold and you can ground).
The problem with living right by the beach in California is that it’s expensive no matter where you go along the coast, so this does make it less affordable to people who need it but don’t have money.
California Pros vs. Florida:
- Less humid
- Fewer mosquitos
- Cool in the summer
- Warm in the winter… the weather is an average of 65 degrees F (18.33 degrees Celsius) in December, January, and February)
- National parks to camp and hike
- Better views of mountains and beach
- Closer to the health scene
- More organic food stores
- People are more health-conscious and similar demographics
- Close to international urban centers (San Francisco, LA)
The House Equipment
These are the devices in our equipment toolkit, plus some more.
- Hyperbaric oxygen machine – costs $14,000 (daily therapies are usually $100 – 150)
- Infrared Sauna ($1,200)
- 2 Magnetico 10 gauss (~$2,000) – I plan on buying more for people to sleep on. The magnetico will go with a 6-inch mattress to get more gauss.
- 1 Mattress that is 100% latex and absolutely no chemicals (I might buy more if the need arises). 99.9% of mattresses I’ve seen on the market have flame retardants and other chemicals. Latex is super expensive, but I decided to get it so that people with chemical sensitivities have something pure to sleep on. It goes with a latex pillow. The mattress is also 6 inches, which goes well with a magnetico. The other mattresses used with the magnetico are certiPUR-US. They are made and certified to be without ozone depleters, PBDEs, TDCPP or TCEP (“Tris”) flame retardants, heavy metals, formaldehyde, phthalates and low in VOCs.
- 3 Hepa Air Purifiers ($300)
- 1 Water Purifier ($1,300… Takes out all contaminants and structures water).
- 1 Treadmill Desk ($1,400)
- 2 ICES
- Earthpulse ($700),
- 2 CES devices (from Mind Alive – Oasis Pro and David Delight Pro)
- One tDCS device (Mind Alive – Oasis Pro – $450)
- 1 AVE – Audiovisual Entrainment (Mind Alive – David Delight Pro – $595)
- Special high-powered ear Laser ($1,500)
- Oxygen Concentrator ($800)
- 2 Molecular hydrogen machines ($2,000)
- EMF clothing and sheets ($1,000) including Hoodie, Hat, Hat 2, Silver Laced Pants, EMF Coat, and a bunch of other Silverell clothing and others. EMF Sheets -Ksilver1# and Ksilver32#.
- Ozone Generator
- Inversion Table – to increase blood flow to the brain, circulation, decrease back pain…
- Light Therapy Vielight pocket miracle ($350)– use discount coupon code JOSEPHCOHEN for 10% off all Vielight products. Vielights are better than the cheaper ones.
- Light Therapy Vielight 810 ($500) – use discount coupon code JOSEPHCOHEN for 10% off all Vielight products.
- Light Therapy Vielight 655 ($400) – use discount coupon code JOSEPHCOHEN for 10% off all Vielight products.
- Light Therapy Vielight Neuro ($1,500)
- LLLT – (light relief), LLLT – 850nm (CCTV camera), Light Therapy – Intranasal LLLT, Infrared Light Bulbs ($200)
- Light Therapy – LLLT 660nm grow light ($190)
- 2 Cryohelmets, Cold Hat, Cold Vest, ($350)
- 2 Dehumidifiers ($350) to prevent mold from growing…
- Lighting devices: Wake up alarm, Bright light device, Bright Light Device, Bright Light Device with EMF Cap ($400)
- Infrared Mats – 3 different sizes ($250)
- Pressure Cooker – to get rid of lectins
- Beach Chair – for people to go to the beach or yard and ground…to be used with one of 3 umbrellas UV Umbrella 1, UV Umbrella 2, UV Umbrella 3
- Red glasses, Blue Blocking Glasses (more stylish), UVEX orange or amber glasses…This way you can try them all out and see which ones you like.
- Blue-blocking light bulbs, Blue blocking Red sheets – no lights in the house with blue given off….in the day, it’s lit with natural sunlight ($100)
- Heart Rate Variability Monitor ($60)
- Anti-Motion Sickness Glasses ($180)
- Juicer ($131)
- Acupressure mat ($47)
- Enema Bags ($50) and instructions to use them.
- Elevation Training Mask ($80)
- Glucose Monitor, Heart rate monitor, Pulse Oximeter, Ph paper, – Checking your resting and recovery heart rate
- Distiller ($150) – you can see if you want a distiller.
- Berkey Filtration System ($260)
- Many Infrared Retaining Shirts and Pants ($45 each)
- Infrared/LLLT for hair growth: Hairmax Grow Laser ($22)
- Exercise bike with desk ($300)
- Back massager ($36), Back massager, vibrating ($63), for pain relief.
- Vibrational plate ($250)
- Trifield Meter ($136) and RF Meter ($113) – to measure EMFs
- Ultrasound ($50)
- TENS unit ($31)
- Standing desk ($64)
- Hammock
- Pull-up bar, Push-up bar, Resistance Band, Weights ($100)
- Pill dispenser, Tongue Depressor
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