What is Biohacking
Biohacking means making changes to your body, mind, diet, and lifestyle with the purpose of improving your health and well-being.
Biohacking is a trending topic today in which people do self-experiments and combine science and technology to boost their vitality and energy.
In Biohacking, the goal is to focus on weight loss, enjoy a vacation, do meditation and yoga, sleep well, spend time with nature, learn new skills, learn dancing, take biohacking supplements, and do many other things that can enhance brain functions, promote anti-aging and longevity.
Types of Biohacking
Based on my research from Google, there are various types of Biohacking, including meditation, wearable technology, DIY biology, Nutrigenomics, Infrared light therapy, grinder, dietary supplements, genetics, cognitive, implantable, mastering sleep, exercise, and more. However, the most popular types of Biohacking are grinder, DIY biology, and nutrigenomics.
Grinder
Grinders are people who do experiments with their bodies and utilize chemical injections, a variety of gadgets, and cybernetic devices to make their bodies as they want to. It is a biohacking subculture in which modifications are made with the use of technology and non-institutional science, nutritional, electronic, and various medical technicques. Biohackers may also use non-toxic substances and nootropics to experience changes in their bodies.
DIY Biology
DIY biology is do-it-yourself biology that is a kind of Biohacking that includes structured experiments, the study of life science and biology, traditional research methods, and limited research training to understand own body. The goal of DIY biology is to obtain ideas, improvisation, inclusivity, and freedom.
Nutrigenomics
Nutrigenomics is another type of Biohacking in which the focus is given to the food you eat and how it interacts with your genes. Biohackers conduct testing in order to analyze the nutrients that affect your health.
What are the Problems Associated with Biohacking?
Safety is the primary concern with Biohacking. While activities like meditation, physical exercise, dancing, or adopting a new hobby as a form of Biohacking are generally safe, more invasive methods can pose risks.
Doctors often recommend cryotherapy for early-stage cancers and skin conditions such as dark spots, warts, and skin tags. This treatment involves the use of argon gas or liquid nitrogen to freeze and destroy abnormal tissue.
However, cryotherapy carries certain risks, including nerve damage, severe pain, swelling, bleeding, and, in rare cases, bone fractures due to extreme cold exposure. Patients should consult a healthcare professional to assess whether cryotherapy is a suitable option for their condition.
Top Biohackers in the World
Dave Asprey
An American entrepreneur born in 1973, Dave Asprey is also known as the father of Biohacking has put control in his mind and body with cold therapy, meditation, and diets.
Wim Hof
According to Wim Hof, Biohacking is about understanding and knowing your spirit and body. It helps you set specific goals to improve your mind and body and beat problems that you may face with your health. Adjusting daily exercises, coping with depression and anxiety, cold therapies, and getting quality sleep are some of the practices and examples of Biohacking.
Peter Attia
Peter Attia is another famous biohacker based in Toronto, Canada. He is a researcher physician, and popular for his work in longevity medicine. His book The Science and Art of Longevity delivers innovative techniques and nutritional interventions to achieve good sleep and well-being. He focused on therapies related to the immune system and spent two years as a surgical oncologist at the National Institutes of Health and performed research for melanoma.
Elizabeth Parrish
Elizabeth Parrish is the CEO of a Seattle-based company namely, BioViva focuses on providing treatments to reduce ageing. Elizabeth has a passion for gene therapy research and development, serves on the board of ILA (International Longevity Alliance), and plays a role in international educational media outreach.
Dr Josh Axe
Another biohacker is Dr Josh Axe, who focuses on genetic engineering, fecal transplants, DNA-based vaccines, brewing glow-in-the-dark beer, eating healthy meals, outdoor activities, paddle boarding, and other do-it-yourself experiments to boost health.
Tim Ferris
Tim Ferris is an American investor, entrepreneur, podcaster, author, and lifestyle guru concentrated on the optimization of lifestyle. He is popular for The Four-Hour Body and is well known in the New York Times for his best-selling books. He indulged himself in design, mental performance, psychedelic treatments, and biohacking.
Effective Ways to Biohack
Optimize your Sleep
Good sleep is important to improve your mood, brain performance, and health. Whether you are a man or a woman, you need quality sleep. Otherwise, you can experience many disorders and diseases, such as dementia, stroke, and obesity.
Try Elimination Diet
Eliminating some foods from your diet is an elimination diet. After that, you can check the results in your body because some foods, like processed sugar, omega 6 fats, refined carbohydrates, and dairy products, can cause certain health problems, such as constipation, fatigue, rashes, stomach pain, etc. One of the best ways to avoid one or two foods from your diet and by doing this you can avoid allergies or good bye to problems.
Blue Light
Blue light helps in improving brain and memory function, alert your body. It helps develop vision in children. Sunlight is the biggest origin of sunlight but this blue light also comes from smartphones, LED TVs, table screens that are dangerous and can damage retinal cells over time.
Drink caffeine
Caffeine is well-known as a productivity booster.
If you don’t use it already, start with an 8-ounce serving of black coffee, green tea, or caffeinated foods like dark chocolate. Have your caffeine at the same time every day and keep a journal of how it makes you feel in the minutes or hours afterward: Do you feel more focused? More anxious? Tired? Try tweaking the dose until you find the amount that works best for your goal.
There’s even coffee with a biohacker twist, known as bulletproof coffee. The coffee contains compounds like medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) oil, known as an energy booster and weight-loss tool
There’s debate on the safety of bulletproof coffee. If you’re interested in biohacking your coffee, talk to your doctor first, especially if you have underlying health conditions.
Try intermittent fasting
Intermittent fasting is a type of dieting method that involves only eating between certain times, then fasting for an extended period until the next designated time to eat.
For example, you may only eat during an eight-hour period from noon to 8 p.m., then fast from 8 p.m. until noon the next day.
Fasting in this way has several proven benefits:
- lowering insulin
- levels so that your body can burn fat more efficiently
- helping your cells repair any damaged tissues
- protecting you from diseases like cancer
Talk to your doctor before beginning an elimination diet if you:
- have diabetes or problems regulating your blood sugar
- have low blood pressure
- are taking medications
- have a history of an eating disorder
- are pregnant or breastfeeding
Physical health biohacking
Athletes often look for biohacking modalities to improve their physical performance and trigger recovery from injuries. Exercise itself is a valuable biohacking method that helps increase mitochondrial biogenesis, cellular energy metabolism, insulin sensitivity, and growth factor release, which collectively support cellular repair and regeneration.
Common physical health biohacking methods include cold therapy, heat therapy, whole body vibration therapy, pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, red light therapy for healing, and consumption of athletic supplements, such as creatine, amino acids, electrolytes, and energy drinks.
Age biohacking
Age biohacking mainly focuses on cellular senescence to improve longevity. Apoptosis, also known as programmed cell death, is a natural physiological process to remove damaged cells (senescent cells). With age, this process slows down, leading to the accumulation of senescent cells, induction of inflammation, disruption of adjacent cells, acceleration of the aging process, and onset of age-related diseases.
Inhibiting the production of senescent cells or reversing the process of cellular senescence is the primary area of focus in age biohacking to promote cellular health and regeneration. Commonly practiced methods include red light therapy, stem cell therapy, cryotherapy, non-ablative laser therapy, and consumption of anti-aging and mitochondrial support supplements (coenzyme Q10, polyphenols, L-carnitine, and Urolithin A).
Brain biohacking
Various neurotransmitter modulators, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), play vital roles in promoting neurogenesis (formation of new neurons) and neuroplasticity (formation of new connections between neurons). High levels of these modulators in the brain are associated with improved cognitive and memory functions and neuroprotection.
In addition to increasing BDNF levels through exercise, brain biohackers often rely on consuming nootropics to enhance their cognitive efficiency. Other common practices include brainwave entrainment, transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy, neurofeedback therapy, brainwork, brain games, and meditation.
Energy biohacking is one of the most commonly used categories, which frequently includes sleep support and stress relief practices. These two practices are particularly crucial as sleep deprivation and chronic stress can negatively affect overall energy metabolism.
Dietary biohacking
Dietary and nutritional modifications are common biohacking practices that involve the consumption of dietary supplements (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, essential fatty acids, and prebiotics and probiotics) to improve metabolism, boost energy production, improve insulin sensitivity, trigger weight loss, improve physical performance, prevent chronic diseases, and increase lifespan.
Dietary biohacking also includes specific dietary patterns, such as a ketogenic diet or intermittent fasting, to modulate energy production and metabolism. Understanding the relationship between the human genome, nutrition, and health (nutrigenomics) is a prerequisite for getting desired health outcomes from dietary biohacking. Another vital step included in dietary biohacking is the continuous use of cellular metabolism monitoring devices, such as blood glucose monitoring devices and ketone breath analyzers.
