Biohacking: What to Know

If you’ve read about chip implants, “bulletproof” coffee, or nutrigenomics, you’ve heard of biohacking.

Biohacking takes a strategic, DIY approach to improve your health and wellness. A favorite buzzword of Silicon Valley techpreneurs, its goal is to “hack” your mind and body to boost performance on every level. Some want to feel better. Others, taking a leaf out of the book of extreme endurance athletes, want to see how far they can push the human body.

Let’s take a deeper dive into what biohacking is and how it can help optimize your health and function.

What is Biohacking?

The biological equivalent of computer hacking, biohacking, uses quantifiable, incremental interventions to change how our bodies function. It combines what we know about science, nutrition, and nature together with self-experimentation to empower people to take charge of their own health and wellbeing. Biohacking adherents look to find the right balance of work, rest, play, nutrition, and mindfulness by making small changes, ideally seeing that 20% change with the 80% impact. Biohacking can range from mild interventions such as sleep monitoring, meditation, and dietary changes all the way through to tech implants and chemical injections.

For most, the goal is to improve physical and mental health, optimize overall performance, and prevent age-related disease and problems. The more extreme biohackers dream of slowing or halting the aging process or even becoming “cyborgs.”

Popular Biohacking Interventions

There are as many biohacks as there are biohackers. Some interventions are safe and simple, while others are highly experimental and should be undertaken only with medical supervision. Some common interventions are:

• Nutritional biohacking. Nutrition hacks are a common intervention. Intermittent fasting is used to regulate blood sugar and lose or maintain weight, while supplements or even wholesale meal replacements such as Soylent are used to optimize nutrition and convenience.
• Nutrigenetics. This takes nutritional biohacking up a notch. Nutrigenetics analyzes how your body responds to certain foods and nutrients, allowing you or a nutritionist to create a meal plan that optimizes how your body performs.
• Sleep cycle interventions. These explore changes to the sleep cycle to reduce or optimize time spent asleep and promote better performance and productivity throughout the day. Interventions can involve waking at dawn and sleeping at dusk, in line with natural Circadian rhythms, or polyphasic sleep approaches, where sleep is broken down into multiple smaller sessions over the day. There are also products like the Oura ring to track and monitor sleep.
• Stem cell injections. This involves taking stem cells from one part of your body and intentionally injecting them into a damaged or aging part of the body to promote regeneration and rejuvenation. This can help with tissue or tendon repair, improve joint strength, and help maintain an appearance of youth.
• Infrared saunas. Bathing in an infrared sauna is meant to help the body detox. It goes further than a regular sauna by heating your body at its core, stimulating metabolic activity, and the release of toxins.
• Coldwater therapy. Coldwater immersion helps produce an immune response, burn stubborn brown fat, improve sleep, and speed up injury recovery. While some biohackers use simple ice baths, professional cryo chambers allow for more targeted treatment.
• Hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Oxygen therapy creates conditions akin to deep-water diving, promoting deeper oxygen absorption throughout the body and nourishing tissues and organs. Oxygen therapy can boost wakefulness, improve blood and lymph flow, and accelerate injury recovery.

Explore Biohacking at Optimum Human

At the Optimum Human Performance Center, we believe in helping people maximize their health, wellness, and output. With a variety of on-site, evidence-based therapeutic options together with an expert staff of trainers and nutritionists, we can help you safely and effectively biohack your way to better performance. Our services include but are not limited to oxygen chambers, cryo chambers, theraguns, and the latest in nutrition and wellness advice.

For more information, or to arrange a tour, get in touch!