Why Biohack? (Hint: It’s Not to Live Forever) — Part 1

Last week, I told you that I was going to be doing some myth-busting and addressing some controversial topics in the field of health and fitness.

Today, I’ll begin… with biohacking.

But first: how did I get into this position in the first place?

Great question.

I got my start in health and fitness in Moscow, Idaho, very near to where I live now (I won’t disclose the exact location, but I’m definitely “in the sticks,” so to speak). 

While studying exercise physiology at the University of Idaho, I managed the personal training program at the North Idaho Athletic Club and the wellness program at the University of Idaho rec center, trained clients underneath the old Beach nightclub, and even kept business up by working early mornings at the French bakery that used to occupy a downtown Moscow bookstore, where I’d sell chocolate croissants and croque-monsieurs to the same customers I’d later charge to burn off those calories at the gym across the street.

Eventually, I graduated, I left Moscow, and I opened a series of personal training studios and gyms in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene. After a short stint in bodybuilding, I began to travel the world to compete in Ironman triathlon, adventure racing, obstacle course racing, open water swim competitions, and all sorts of other masochistic endeavors. 

So yeah, I’ve spent a lot of time wearing spandex.

In 2008, I was voted America’s top personal trainer, and that really thrust me into the limelight of the health and fitness world, landing me on the cover of magazines like Outside and Men’s Health, launching me on a global speaking circuit, putting me multiple times on big shows (including three Joe Rogan appearances—here, here, and here), getting me gigs training Hollywood celebrities, pro athletes, and billionaire executives, and pushing my podcast into the top charts and my book onto the New York Times bestseller list.

But along the way, as I took deeper and deeper dives into the extreme fringes of the health industry (and as podcast questions progressed from “how can I benchpress more” to “what wavelength of red light do I use on my testicles?”), I also became known as a “biohacker.”

The general definition of biohacking is the use of technology, self-quantification and modern science to enhance human biology, usually to get yourself to a health, fitness, brain or lifespan goal faster or more efficiently than you might be able to do in your “native state,” kind of like a computer hacker might overhaul the hardware with an upgraded graphics card or hack into the back end of an operating system to make some element of the software work more quickly. 

As biohacking has become more popular, people can now call themselves a biohacker if they put butter in their coffee or collagen in their lasagna—but the original biohackers were a bit more edgy. 

I even had a TEDx talk “banned” when I described what these OG biohackers did, because the responsible folks at TEDx thought the information was too dangerous and feared that viewers might actually try some of the things I described. But I’m going to describe some of them to you anyway (you’re responsible enough to handle it, right?).

These original biohackers were true cyborgs. They referred to their bodies as “wetware” and the technology they would use to upgrade their bodies as “hardware.” 

We’re talking magnets implanted in the fingers for human-machine interfacing (kind of like Tom Cruise in Minority Report); a compass installed in the chest that would vibrate every time someone faced True North; chlorophyll injected into the eyeballs for night vision; and cryopreservation of the body or head in the hopes of future reanimation (I did try this once, but I couldn’t get the freezer door to close with my head stuck in it).

Now, fast forward, and modern-day biohackers are doing procedures like “vampire blood transfers,” in which multiple one-liter bags of young human donor plasma are infused into the body via IV administration (this is only legal in the state of Texas, and you may have seen it if you watched the documentary Don’t Die on Netflix)…

…umbilical cord stem cells injected into every joint of the body, from the tissue of the toes to the tissue of the brain; gene editing, which involves an intramuscular injection that flips on 1–2 years of muscle growth, brain neuroplasticity, and testosterone production;

…IV administration of highly concentrated vials of killer cells, to rejuvenate the immune system; long needles inserted just past the carotid artery to “reboot” the nervous system with a vagus nerve block injection;

…and even lying in a hospital bed in Tijuana while all the blood is sucked out of the body via a tube jammed into the jugular, passed through a filtration device, then infused back into the body, as a sort of human “oil change.”

The reason I’m so familiar with these modern-day biohacks I’ve just described to you is that, as part of my job as an immersive journalist and content creator in the health space, I’ve actually done them all. 

And the hospitals are surprisingly nice in Tijuana. 

But don’t get me wrong: I don’t think these types of protocols are something you should rush out to do later this week as an alternative to hitting the gym or doing better meal prep. It may not be the best use of your budget right now—depending on how “advanced” you are as a health seeker—to purchase bags of human plasma.

But it is part of my job to try fringe protocols like this, and anecdotally report back on what works and what doesn’t for purposes like health, fitness, recovery, aesthetics, mental acuity, or biological resilience, and to pair this with a hefty amount of research so that I’m not being reckless or irresponsible.

It does turn out that many of these “fringe” protocols that biohackers and transhumanists turn to for the hope of “a perfect body and brain paired with extreme life extension,” can, in reasonable and balanced doses, also produce meaningful results for general health and vitality, staving off early muscle and bone density loss, brain degradation, and metabolic disease. 

By using these so-called “biohacks,” a person can remain more vigorous and energetic with age, which isn’t necessarily the same thing as the idolatry that comes with selfishly pursuing a permanent fountain of youth.

But the quest for immortality can definitely go too far. So next week, I’ll tell you where I draw the line, and where you might want to think about doing so, also. 

P.S. If you missed my first newsletter, you can read it here.

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