Is it biohacking, or just biology?

I love the concept of human optimisation. I love exploring the body and tapping into what we, as humans, are innately capable of. Our bodies (and that includes our mind) are incredible self-healing, self-optimising systems. I’ve spent my entire adult life exploring ways to enhance my own health + wellbeing to help navigate the challenges of living with chronic health conditions.

So I should be excited about where the biohacking industry is going… but somehow, I’m not.

As a culture, we have a lot of modern conveniences that are making us sicker. Processed foods, toxic cleaning products that pollute our homes, and digital devices that chain us to desks and sofas.

I fear that - to people who haven’t already mastered the (mostly free) fundamentals of human wellbeing - new ‘biohacking’ technologies will become another modern convenience that steers us further from our human nature. I also fear that it will perpetuate the idea that living a healthier life is expensive and inaccessible.

For this reason, I think it’s important to consider biohacking across as spectrum, from 'freely available' to 'inaccessible'.

Biohacking on a spectrum

Many 'biohackers' lump all health optimisation activities into the biohacking category. By separating them out, we can better assess what is most available to us and where to focus our own biohacking journeys.

Here are the three categories that I find it helpful to separate 'biohacking' into

1. 'Hacks’ for enhancing our biology, naturally. We can ‘hack’ our health through cold exposure, eating unprocessed food, sleeping more, avoiding artificial/blue light before sleep and more. THE THINGS THAT HUMANS DO WHEN LIVING NATURALLY, without interference from the modern world.

2. 'Hacks’ for our external environment, to optimise it or restore it to a more natural state. This may involve using technology to ‘correct’ the things that modern life has damaged in our natural environment. For instance, modern technology has led to polluted air and water. To return them to a more ‘natural’ state, we have to use more modern technology to filter them.

3. 'Hacks' to alter our natural programming using elite, cutting-edge technology that can enhance human performance to a point beyond where it would naturally exist.

Is it ‘hacking’ if it’s what we were naturally designed to do?

Part of my struggle with the concept of biohacking is this: is it even 'hacking', if it's how humans were designed to live naturally? I don't personally believe that it should feel like a 'hack' to return to how we are meant to live.

That said, in the modern world where are ‘normal’ lives as so far removed from nature, perhaps you could argue that it is ‘hacking’ in our current systems of living.

What’s the definition of the word ‘hack’?

Hack. verb.

1. ‘gain unauthorized access to a system’ - In the context of ‘biohacking’, the body is the system
2. ‘a strategy or technique for managing one's time or activities more efficiently’ - In the context of ‘biohacking’, it’s about the body working more efficiently (so that other actives in our lives can be more efficient + fulfilling)

I believe we should never have lost access to ‘the system’. Our connection to our bodies shouldn’t feel ‘unauthorised’.

We should never have to ‘hack’ our body to work more efficiently. Our bodies are one of the most efficiently designed systems in the universe. In fact, we are multiple systems, within a system, within the larger system of nature. The most stunningly efficient system, when untampered with.

How to approach ‘biohacking’

With all of this in mind - these different 'categories' of biohacking and the idea that we can leverage our organic nature to improve efficiency - this is the way that I approach health optimisation and biohacking:

1. Go back to ‘natural living first’.

Master the basics of how we were supposed to live and thrive. Add more of the ‘natural’ and remove the ‘unnatural’.

Move more, eat unprocessed foods, sync your natural rhythms with the sun, get your feet on the ground, spend time in nature, remove toxic chemicals from your home, sweat often, seek cold exposure, build community, breathe with your mouth closed, use breathwork and meditation to alter your state, find spiritual connection, focus on ‘feeling’ as much as you ‘think’, reduce reliance on over-the-counter pharmaceuticals… the list goes on.

We came from nature. We ARE NATURE. The natural world (in it’s natural state) provides what we need to thrive as a species.

2. Use modern technology to ‘correct’ the things that modern living damaged in our natural environment

Our water isn’t as clean as it once was. Neither is our air. Maybe this is where you use air purifiers and water filters to remove contaminants generated by modern living.

We used to be in contact with the earth, grounding. We’re the only animals on the planet - aside from our domesticated pets - that do not sleep in contact with the earth. If you can’t get outside to ground with the earth because of where you live or the demands of your job, maybe this is where you start exploring grounding mats.

If your microbiome lacks diversity due to aspects of modern living, maybe this is where you start exploring lab-made probiotics.

3. Explore more highly-engineered tools to modify your biology in limited instances

When you’re ready to achieve the extra few % of progress or when you’re experiencing dysregulation that can’t be naturally corrected, it's time to try the 'proper' biohacks.

This is likely to be the expensive and less-accessible stuff. Complex supplementation, advanced pharmaceuticals and highly-engineered technology.

I, for instance, have a progressive, genetic health condition that only advanced pharmaceutical technology can correct at a DNA level, to our knowledge. I have a condition called cystic fibrosis. The closest thing we have to a cure is a CFTR modulator drug that corrects the defective protein made by the CFTR gene.

Equally, elite sportspeople - whose job is it to have mastered the other stuff - may have the resource and motivation to explore the advanced biohacking space for the 1% gains that could make them world champion.

The biohacking pyramid

I believe our approach to health optimisation should look a little something like this pyramid. In the same way that nutrition pyramids where the majority of the base/lower half is real foods and the top portion is ‘supplements’, this indicates that the majority of your health optimisation ‘inputs’ should come from the natural stuff, only to be ‘supplemented’ by more advanced engineering.

Summary: Nature first, biohacking second

Technology will never be able to recreate the benefits nature better than nature creates itself. The interconnectedness of nature is something that technology cannot replicate. We may be able to isolate individiual features, but can't capture the whole, complex system.

For example: a nutritional supplement may isolate a micronutrient like vitamin C, but typically will not capture the other nutrients (fibre, phytonutrients, etc) that it occur with naturally; things that enhance its bioavailability and offer other health benefits.

Another example: if you use a grounding mat indoors, you may experience the benefits of the free flowing electrons. If you walk barefoot outdoors, you may also benefit from natural light exposure, your senses interacting with plants (the grass under your feet, the scent of flowers, the visual surroundings), you will move your body, and more.

I believe it's beneficial for us to appraoch our own wellbeing according to this hierarchy:

1. Nature first
2. Tools to enhance our environment
3. Technology to hack our biology

What’s your take on biohacking? Share in the comments or find me on Instagram or LinkedIn to have a conversation.