(Parade) Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has created a lot of buzz over the years, but perhaps one of the biggest was when he admitted he only eats one meal per day with longer breaks on the weekends (a practice known as intermittent fasting or OMAD), meditates twice per day, and uses a combination of sauna and ice baths at night (among other daily habits). The virality was swift, and fasting was even referred to as a Silicon Valley trend. It actually has another name, though, and that is biohacking. While tech guys certainly didn’t invent biohacking, they have helped increase its visibility, leading a lot of people to wonder: What exactly is biohacking and should I be doing it?
What is biohacking?
Oxford University Press defines biohacking in a shocking way: “The activity of exploiting genetic material experimentally without regard to accepted ethical standards, or for criminal purposes.” This harsh definition is hardly what I’ve found in my research on the topic; while ‘hacking’ and ‘criminal’ are often synonymous in our minds, biohacking in its more extreme forms is hardly done with malicious intent (unless you think taking science and medicine out of the hands of big corporations with the hopes of making personal discoveries and breakthroughs is malicious).
Aside from that definition, there seem to be two camps on what biohacking exactly is. On the one hand you have the side that says biohacking is anything that changes the biology of your brain function. This includes many everyday pursuits such as nutrition, sleep habits and meditation(among others). However, there are others who believe biohacking is a deeper, more intentional do-it-yourself exploration of biology. Surprisingly, it doesn’t always directly involve the body; for example, some biohackers seek to learn more about biology by engineering the genes in yeast.
Since the lines are blurry, we’re taking a look at both sides of biohacking and the science behind it. What you may find is that you’ve been biohacking your brain this whole time and didn’t even know it.
Why biohacking doesn’t have to be as complicated as you’d think
You don’t have to be in Silicon Valley using some never-heard-of technology and supplements to biohack your brain. That’s according to Karima Benameur, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at Emory University, who teaches the open course Biohacking Your Brain’s Health and shares the view that biohacking can absolutely consists of really anything that enhances brain function.
“A lot of people think biohacking is this high-tech thing, but it really doesn’t have to be,” she explains. “Exercise is biohacking; nutrition is biohacking. What I go through in my course is how to biohack using things that are accessible to you in everyday life.”
Benameur’s main focus of study is nutrigenomics; specifically nutrition and its effect on neurological diseases. She notes that if you eat properly you can actually change the structure of your brain, making it a form of biohacking. In the same vein she specifically notes that meditation and exercise have been proven via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to have structural and functional changes in the brain.
“Everything is interconnected; for you to change the structure of your brain, the nucleus of that neuron has to have expressed proteins to build more material for those areas to increase,” Benameur explains. “Anything that changes in the body has a correlate in the molecular genetic model; that is called epigenetic modification.”
Thus lies the argument that biohacking is actually a broad process than just scientific experiments. For example, studies have been done that show aerobic activity has direct effects on the structure of the brain. Benameur notes that exercise increases certain neurotransmitters in the brain and that MRIs have confirmed it increase the size of your memory center. She admits that we often exercise to increase muscle mass and lose weight, but in fact, we are also unintentionally biohacking. While genetics are a consideration in our overall health and well-being, they can be changed through exercise, proper nutrition and more all because you are making an impact at the molecular level.
When Biohacking Gets a Bit More Extreme
Can biohacking really be that simple? According to Josiah Zayner, PhD, founder and CEO of The ODIN (and a biohacker himself), no; it is a technical discipline. Formerly a research scientist at NASA in their Synthetic Biology Program, Zayner left and founded The ODIN to make biohacking courses and kits available to the masses. Zayner believes that biohacking gives people the chance to directly contribute to science and medicine, in order to rely less on the scientific and medical systems already in place.
“I want people to learn to be their own hope, because with million-dollar drug prices science and medicine are failing us,” Zayner notes. “F*** the scientific and medical systems that are killing us with opiates, taking 9 years on average to approve drugs and having the audacity to charge people to read and access scientific papers.”
Zayner does the type of biohacking that probably comes to mind when you first hear the word; he has given himself a fecal transplant, experimented with various ways to genetically engineer his skin and even injected himself with DNA that underwent CRISPR gene-editing (which in part led to an investigation for practicing medicine without a license).
Zayner is far from the only person doing this type of experimentation, some extreme cases include one woman—a magician—who had chips and magnets implanted in her body that are used during her shows (some by herself and some by a friend who is a nurse). There is also a man that has a chip implanted that can unlock his house. These examples don’t directly involve changing the structure of the brain or DNA, but biohacking in this sense doesn’t have to have that result. In fact, you can genetically engineer yeast to make your own glow-in-the-dark beer thanks to a kitZayner’s company sells; you’re still experimenting with biology and exploring a new field—all from the comfort of your own home.
How to Become a Biohacker
As biohacking is an ever-evolving field with different interpretations, how you biohack is up to you. Benameur speculates the practice is gaining popularity because of Silicon Valley. Other reasons include trendy new diets (take the rise of intermittent fasting popularized by celebrities including Jennifer Aniston and Vanessa Hudgens) or simply the hope to stay young forever (like biohacker Eric Matzner).
“People are always interested in making themselves better,” she adds. “They are curious about what they can do to make themselves better and if they can find shortcuts to do that, they will.”
Even self-help guru Tony Robbins touts biohacking as a means to take charge of improving your health. Of course, some biohacking practices involve a certain amount of risk, but it isn’t just those that are seen as more extreme; this can even include trying to biohack your nutrition. Intermittent fasting, for example, is noted to carry the risk of eating too restrictively and also affecting cortisol levels (which impacts stress).
Zayner asks, “Want to get started in biohacking?” It’s more simple that it seems, he shares. “You can start by reading scientific journals. buying equipment, taking classes and exploring the science of the field in which you wish to understand.”
