What is Biohacking: A Guide to Biohacking Devices

Ever tried a new supplement or eating schedule just to see what happens? If so, you're already familiar with the spirit of biohacking. Make no mistake, though: biohacking is more than your average workout plan or diet. Also known as Do-It-Yourself Biology, biohacking aims to push the limits of what the human body can achieve with the help of science and cutting-edge technology. 

You've probably heard a lot about miracle diets and quick health fixes, but what really works? Biohacking cuts through the noise, leveraging data and science to find proven ways to drive results. It’s about making strategic and often experimental changes to manipulate and optimize your biology. 

That might sound extreme. But biohacking has something for even the most cautious partakers. As you’ll learn in our comprehensive guide to biohacking methods, you can experiment with everything from herbal supplements to high-tech gadgets.

Biohacking has roots in early diet and exercise experiments, but the early 2000s was when the modern movement really took off. Driven by advances in biotechnology and a rising DIY ethos, biohacking has evolved into a global phenomenon. Today, it includes everything from digital tech-powered wearables to full-on gene editing.

Biohacking offers many potential benefits. These include:

• Enhanced Physical Health
• More Energy
• Longer Lifespan
• Improved Emotional Regulation
• Improved Mental Ability and Focus

Nutrition is a cornerstone of biohacking. By understanding how different foods and supplements affect your body, you can optimize your diet to support your health and performance goals. Nutrigenomics, for instance, involves tailoring your diet based on genetic information to reduce disease risk and boost other health outcomes.

Taking specific supplements and vitamins addresses nutritional deficiencies, supports cognitive function, and improves overall health. For example, omega-3 fatty acids can enhance brain health, while vitamin D supports immune function. The key is to identify and supplement what your diet might lack, ensuring your body has all the necessary nutrients to perform optimally.

Cold water therapy involves immersing yourself in cold water to reduce inflammation, boost mood, and improve recovery times. The sharp drop in temperature narrows your skin’s blood vessels and moves more blood to your core to keep your body warm. After you leave the water, your blood vessels expand, pumping oxygen-rich blood back to your tissues. This can help with inflammation and soreness.

Meditation is the practice of mindfulness to reduce stress, improve focus, and enhance emotional well-being. By focusing your mind and eliminating distractions, meditation can lower levels of cortisol, the hormone responsible for stress. Regular meditation has been shown to improve concentration, self-awareness, and mood.

Best for: Managing stress and improving sleep.

Apollo is a wearable device that uses gentle vibrations to help manage stress, reduce anxiety, and improve sleep. These vibrations send signals of safety to the brain that help users shift out of the fight or flight response into a state of calm, akin to the effects of meditation or deep breathing exercises. Apollo offers various vibration modes tailored to different needs, such as boosting energy, improving focus, or promoting relaxation.

Best for: Detailed fitness and recovery tracking

The Whoop Strap is a fitness tracker favored by athletes for its detailed insights into recovery and performance optimization. It monitors key metrics like heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature, sleep patterns, and calories burned. Based on these metrics, it offers personalized recommendations to optimize your performance and health. Its standout feature is the Day Strain metric, which helps users gauge their daily physical exertion and balance it with proper recovery. The Whoop Strap also provides a Recovery score every morning, guiding users on how ready their body is for physical activities based on overnight data.

Best for: Enhancing physical performance and reducing pain.

Taopatch’s Photonic Cap harnesses nanotechnology and the healing properties of light. It delivers specific wavelengths of light to the body, which can stimulate and improve cellular functions, promote healing, and aid in the management of chronic pain. The cap integrates seamlessly into daily life, offering non-invasive, drug-free pain relief and performance enhancement.

Best for: Comprehensive sleep analysis and health tracking

The Oura Ring is a smart ring that tracks a wide array of health metrics. This small yet powerful device monitors sleep quality, heart rate variability, skin temperature, and more. It provides detailed insights into sleep patterns, including the duration and quality of different sleep stages, breathing rate, and disturbances throughout the night. By monitoring these metrics, users can optimize their lifestyle choices to achieve better sleep, increased activity, and faster recovery.

Best for: Enhancing recovery and detoxification

The Infrared Sauna Blanket offers the benefits of infrared therapy in a convenient, portable form. Unlike traditional saunas, this blanket uses infrared light to raise your core body temperature directly, promoting blood circulation, reducing muscle soreness, and aiding in detoxification. Users can control the temperature for optimal comfort and effectiveness. Infrared therapy has been linked to improvements in chronic fatigue, cardiovascular health, and overall physical recovery.

Best for: Improving posture, balance, and pain management noninvasively

Phototherapy patches like Taopatch Start use advanced nanotechnology to emit specific wavelengths of light that interact with the body at a cellular level. This wearable patch uses light to stimulate the central nervous system, enhancing communication between the brain and body.

Best for: Understanding how your body uses different food sources for fuel and optimizing your diet

Lumen is a portable device that helps you gauge your metabolic flexibility, which is the ability to switch between using carbs and fats efficiently. It measures the concentration of carbon dioxide in your breath to determine whether your body is burning carbs or fats for energy. This information allows you to tailor their diet and exercise plans to optimize your metabolic health, manage weight, boost energy levels, and achieve other fitness goals. The device also offers personalized meal plans and lifestyle recommendations based on your real-time metabolic data.

Biohacking can be effective if you’re using the right tools and techniques. Many people have transformed their health, fitness, and physique through methods like phototherapy and personalized nutrition, but results can vary.

Biohacking is safe when practiced responsibly. Some methods are well-supported by science, but others, especially extreme or highly experimental practices, may carry risks and should be approached with caution.

For beginners, a wearable like a photonic cap or a phototherapy patch may be ideal. No need to master some complicated technology—all you have to do is slap on a cap or patch in the morning. Everything you need is built in and ready to go.

Sources:

• EMBO Reports
• Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
• Journal of Case Reports: Clinical and Medical
• Journal of Law and the Biosciences
• Sociology Compass
• Heliyon
• CellPress Reviews