Biohacking: The search for eternal life
DNA injections, RFID implants and stem cell infusions - biohacking is much more than a keto diet or sleep optimisation.
Microchip implants are nothing unusual in biohacking.
‘Hackers’ - they're those nerds who sit at their computers day and night in hoodies, eat crisps and illegally gain access to blocked websites. Aren't they? Those days are long gone.
In English, a ‘hack’ is an unorthodox approach to achieving a goal. Usually do-it-yourself. People who break new ground, experiment - whether digital, biological or technical - are hackers! So nothing dark or mystical.
Just as a computer hacker looks for ‘alternative’ ways to gain access to an IT system, a biohacker looks for alternative ways to optimise his or her body. A biohacker collects his or her own body data and analyses it strategically.
There is no precise definition of the term ‘biohacking’. People who equip themselves with technical gadgets (such as a compass implanted in the chest to enhance the senses or microchip implants to create a digital interface in the body) also refer to themselves as biohackers.
The American Dave Asprey is considered a biohacking pioneer. The inventor of Bulletproof Coffee aims to live to be 180 years old with the help of biohacking. However, the 45-year-old did not develop the approach. Rather, it comes from American elite sport. With the help of various measurements, the performance of athletes was analysed and improved accordingly. So it's no wonder that tracking sleep, heart rate variability, body fat and many other factors is also part of the biohacker's everyday life.
We could all do with becoming a hacker. Eat more vegetables, sleep better and disconnect from our electronics. These basic principles of healthy living hold the power to unleash energy, productivity and happiness. For most people, that's more than good enough - if they do it at all.
For others - for true bio- or bodyhackers - nothing is good enough. They see life as an endless quest to become better, stronger, healthier and more efficient. And what are the things they do to themselves to achieve this level of unrivalled performance? They can be quite adventurous and bizarre.
What is biohacking?
The definition of biohacking depends on who you ask. If you ask Dave Asprey, the inventor of the ever-popular keto drink ‘Bulletproof Coffee’, biohacking is the art and science of gaining complete control over your mind and body.
Asprey is just one example of the many biohackers who are engaged in all kinds of futuristic attempts to optimise the human body. Asprey is doing this primarily to achieve his widely publicised (and rather PR-effective) goal of living to be 180 years old. He regularly undergoes stem cell infusions, takes infrared baths and takes dozens of supplements every day.
The practice of biohacking involves various techniques and experiments aimed at improving both physically and mentally. It is about creating an environment - internally and externally - that leads to peak performance.
Biohacking is, in short, the endeavour to grow old in good health for as long as possible. This is what sets biohacking apart from conventional medicine, especially in the area of health. The biohacker's goal is not to become ill in the first place. The following overview illustrates this quite well:
| Western medicine | Biohacking |
| Treat symptoms | Focus on more energy and better energy production |
| Disease-orientated | Health-orientated |
| The body as a collection of independent organs | The body as an integrated quantifiable system |
| Prescription of medication | Other lifestyle, science, nature, technology, food supplements |
| Longer life expectancy | Higher health expectation |
| Doctor-orientated | You-orientated |
Different approaches between traditional Western medicine and biohacking
Image source: digiwell.com
Types of biohacking
Biohacking is much more than sleep and nutrition - sometimes it's about mental performance, sometimes it's about physical performance and sometimes it's just bizarre.
Image source: unsplash
There isn't just one way to biohack yourself. Biohacking encompasses all aspects of human life, including diet, exercise, sex, sleep, and mental health. In extreme cases - what some would call "true biohacking" - it's about more than just healthy living.
More ambitious biohackers undergo medical procedures, implant chips in their bodies, use neurofeedback to regulate their brain waves, and more. Inspired by biotechnology and transhumanism, these people want to blur the line between humans and technology.
Whether moderate or radical, biohacking generally falls into these four categories:
1. Nutrigenomics
In addition to classic health and mind hacking (sleep, fitness, meditation, etc.), this form of biohacking involves manipulating the body's diet. It is essentially a diet on steroids. Nutrigenomic biohackers make all their nutritional decisions based on how the food or drink will affect their physical or mental performance.
2. 3D-Bioprinting
Bioprinting is a 3D printing process for organic substances. Bioprinters come from the research field of tissue engineering, the computer-controlled techniques for creating organic structures from living tissue. Biohackers see opportunities here to print extensions and so-called enhancements for their own bodies based on their own tissue.
3. DIY biology or DNA hacking
While we used to do chemistry or physics experiments for school at the kitchen table, DNA hacking is now taking things to the next level. Some hack the DNA of bacteria and make it glow, others carry out biological experiments on themselves or their environment. DNA hacking is particularly common in the USA in dog breeding. Designer babies are apparently already possible in other countries. Blue eyes? Coming soon.
A DNA biohacker might take his own body cells and study them at home or, on the more extreme side, perform his own fecal transplants or inject CRISPR DNA into his body.
4. Grinder biohacking or body hacking
The most extreme form of biohacking, grinder biohacking or bodyhacking, depicts humans as machines and is fixated on using technology to expand the limits of the human body. Grinder biohackers are known for implanting microchips, magnets, RFID transponders, data transmitters and other devices into their bodies to make life easier and smoother.
Not always just as a lifestyle. Microchip implants can help physically disadvantaged people, for example by replacing their front door key or by carrying their emergency medical data under the skin, always within reach of the emergency doctor. Body hacking can be something like a microchip implant the size of a grain of rice, which is inserted under the first layer of skin in a second using a syringe. Or it can take on more extreme forms of digital possibilities.
Biohacking is much more than sleep and nutrition
Image source: digiwell.com
For starters - typical biohacks from the field of health and mind hacking
For most people, biohacking is simply about optimizing their fitness and nutrition.
Image source: fotolia
For most people, biohacking is really just about feeling better and achieving more. You don't need microchips or stem cell infusions to do this. Most people can improve their everyday habits quite simply:
1. Have your blood and hormone levels checked
Without data, there is no biohacking (quantified self). You can't know what to change if you don't know where you are now and where to start.
A blood and hormone analysis will help you identify nutrient deficiencies, hormone imbalances, and other health problems you may be dealing with unknowingly.
With this kind of data, you can make smarter health decisions and manage common but often unexplained symptoms like fatigue, mood swings and gastrointestinal distress. To take it a step further, you could also take an at-home DNA test to learn more about the health impacts of your genes.
2. Change the way you eat
A safer form of biohacking is to track what, when and how you eat and eliminate foods from your diet that cause health problems.
Image source: slowcontrol
Experiment with what you eat, when you eat, and how you eat to find out how your body responds to certain foods, meal size, meal timing, and the rate at which you eat. An elimination diet is a good place to start. By removing foods from your diet and gradually adding them back in, you will uncover intolerances and sensitivities.
Many biohackers fast intermittently to achieve optimal performance, including Twitter's Jack Dorsey, who reportedly only eats one meal a day. So if you want to really get your mitochondria (cell power plants) going, then go without food for a certain period of time. This means you skip one of the three meals a day, usually breakfast. Ideally, you should then eat healthy, protein-rich meals. Short-chain carbohydrates and trans fats (bread rolls, cereal) have no place there.
Other biohackers, on the other hand, swear by keto, paleo, vegan diets or even insects.
If you want to try something completely new, you can even optimize the way you eat. The smart fork from Slow Control can help you with this, for example, by analyzing the speed and rhythm with which the fork is brought to the mouth. When you gobble it down, it gives you appropriate advice. Health lies in calmness!
3. Track and prioritize sleep
Sleep is vital for physical and mental performance, but is often left out of conversations about fitness, health and recovery. Improved sleep hygiene will undoubtedly lead to improved performance in every aspect of your day.
Try painting your bedroom a calmer color, establishing a consistent bedtime routine, wearing noise-canceling headphones, using a weighted blanket, investing in a better mattress, lowering the temperature in your home, and wearing blue-light-blocking glasses at night. Taking melatonin may also help.
Here, too, the better the data about your sleep, the better the opportunities for optimization. Unbeatable here - the OURA ring. This ring records a wealth of data (e.g. breathing rate, body temperature, heart rate variability, etc.) and condenses this data into useful information. A real must-have... not just for celebrities like Prince Harry, actor Will Smith, fitness woman Caro Daur or influencer Xenia Adonts, who already track their sleep with the OURA ring. All NBA basketball players have also been equipped with it because the ring is one of the few gadgets that can be used to identify typical Covid19 symptoms based on data, 3 days before you even feel the first symptoms, and with a 90%(!) probability (proven in a study). The ring is available here for 319 EUR (5 EUR discount).
The app clearly displays all health parameters and gives tips on how to optimize your sleep
Image source: digiwell
4. Experiment with movement
Image source: fotolia
There's no denying that exercise impacts your health and therefore your ability to perform as a human being. Physical activity is one of the most fundamental aspects of a healthy life, and if you're not exercising regularly, you need a damn good way to start biohacking right now.
Exercise leads to all sorts of beneficial physiological changes in your body and brain, but the key to reaping these benefits is figuring out what kind of exercise (and how much) works for your body. Too little exercise won't lead to drastic changes; too much exercise can actually make things worse.
Start small if you don't already exercise. Try walking two or three times a week and increase the frequency from there. If you already have a fitness routine, try different types of exercise and play with the frequency, duration and intensity of your workouts to find the best combination for you.
Many biohackers swear by HIIT training. HIIT, or high intensity interval training, is a general term for workouts in which short, intense training sessions alternate with equally short recovery phases. The entire workout is intense, but only lasts 15 to 20 minutes.
One of the biggest advantages of HIIT is that you can achieve maximum health benefits in the shortest amount of time. So you can perfectly integrate HIIT into your existing training plan or start regular training with HIIT!
If you want to “hack” your training even more, train with a breathing mask. The training mask can be individually adjusted and thereby reduces the oxygen supply. Depending on the desired effect, training at between 1,000 and 6,000 meters can be simulated. The reduced oxygen supply intensifies breathing and trains the lungs and diaphragm extremely well. You can’t get more than that!
5. Retrain your brain
Human performance is not just about physical performance. On the contrary, a big part of achieving optimal performance – whatever that means for you – is training the mind. High performers handle stress well, understand emotions and demonstrate resilience in the face of challenges.
Training your brain to think in new or different ways isn't easy, but you can start with simple practices like meditation, journaling, reading books, learning new skills, and talking to people who have a different opinion (and actually trying to understand their perspective).
Anyone who wants to go even further can use modern technology here too. We all know it - eating less, smoking less, less chocolate, less social media, less snoozing; or more. More training, more mindfulness, more fresh air. Changes are shaped by the subconscious. The more automatic, the more sustainable. But how do you program the subconscious? Pavlok helps with this. The electric shocker on the wrist, coupled with an app, gives appropriate impulses when you become weak. In this way, the subconscious learns very quickly whether a certain action is good or not.
6. Bodyhacking – Now it’s getting serious!
If you are really serious about an "upgrade", you cannot avoid a smart implant. Technology that literally gets under your skin and gives you new capabilities - without any disadvantages.
An implant consists of a microchip, an antenna and a carrier material. Some implants are embedded in a 2 x 12 mm biocompatible glass capsule, others are made of flexible biopolymer. Both variants are extremely small and sit subcutaneously directly under the first layer of skin (so they can be removed at any time). If they are inserted correctly, they cannot be seen or felt in everyday life. They cannot be located and there are no problems at airports or during similar checks.
So you're fed up with front door keys? They're also annoying - every day you have to make sure that you don't forget your keys, lose them or have them stolen. Simply replace them with a tiny little RFID implant the size of a grain of rice in your hand. The "keys" are then always with you, you don't see them or notice them. It couldn't be more convenient and it relaxes the mind!
If the implant is not just meant to replace the key, how about replacing the wallet, business card, employee ID, gym access card, Tesla car key or emergency information in case of an accident? No problem. A grain of rice like this costs between 39 and 199 EUR. No price you should be afraid of. Good implants are available here
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding your medical condition or health goals.
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