Biohacking

About

Biohacking often referred to as DIY biology, encompasses a broad range of activities and practices that focus on enhancing the human body through various interventions, both technological and biological. It represents a merger and integration of health and technology as newer feedback systems and monitoring devices revolutionizing healthcare.

Biohacking refers to refinement and remodeling the human body to work in an optimized way and in an intelligent fashion. It aims to achieve the goals of enhanced, augmented human performance and longevity. As a broader term, it mainly encompasses lifestyle modifications to achieve weight loss, augmented brain and body function and longevity.

Types of Biohacking

Biohackers have devised several ways to hack the human body. The main types currently available are based on the following:

Wearable Devices

The advent of these devices over the last decade have created a constant buzz and heightened the awareness towards self-care and improvement. Wearables such as fitness trackers, smartwatches, and now even implantable chips can monitor various aspects of a person's health, including heart rate, oxygen saturation, sleep patterns, and physical activity. This data can be easily ported and interpreted to make lifestyle adjustments to improve well-being. Wearable have indeed been a boon for personal healthcare and lifestyle management(1^✔).

Nutrigenomics and Nutrigenetics

It refers to the study of human genes and its interaction with human diet and health. It encompasses genetic tests, health supplements, dietary modifications and routines to target weight loss, and achieve optimized physical and metabolic targets(2^✔).

Personalized nutrition recommendations for weight management and disease prevention or for food intolerance are all rapidly emerging and influencing lifestyle management. This approach has added another dimension to longevity medicine.

Do-It-Yourself Biology

It refers to incremental self-made changes to achieve a better state of mental, physical and emotional wellness. It is a social movement wherein groups and communities come together and involve in practices or self-experimentation to achieve the desired targets(3^✔).

Transhumanism-Grinder movement

This involves transformation of the human body by using technological advancements such as magnets, sensors or implants(4^✔).

Genetic Manipulation

Scientifically speaking, biohacking works by CPISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology, where human genome is altered and manipulated so that new strands of DNA can be created with the desired sequences. It's important to note that while CRISPR holds great promise in areas such as cancer therapy, genetic disorders and treatment of certain types of inherited blindness but most of these interventions are still art research stage.

Artificial Intelligence Analysis Tools

Other modalities that drive these bio hacks are evidence based Artificial Intelligence analysis tools that work at cellular level to improve and devise treatment journeys that are right for us. This is in the form of more energy production for the body(5^✔).

Biohacking Tools Used by the Wellness Industry

• Dietary regimes: Intermittent fasting, Keto-based diets, Low carbohydrate diets, Nutritional supplements and vitamins have all been documented to have several health benefits, especially metabolic and cardiac health provided they are practiced under supervision of a nutritionist(6^✔). The upcoming role of magnesium and theanine (major amino acid uniquely found in green tea) supplements is noteworthy(7^✔).
• Sleep tracking: Sleep promotes body rejuvenation, disease prevention, repair and longevity. There are several applications / smart trackers available in the wellness industry that help monitor sleep thus serving as a Bio-hack(8^✔).
• Cardiac routines: Aerobicworkouts, Endurance regimes like walking, cycling or swimming and Strength training by body-weight exercises are examples of Cardiac bio-hacks. Evidence suggests that these have significant benefits to cardiovascular health and longevity. Monitoring of heart rate, Blood pressure and routine blood markers serve as biomarkers for measuring the efficacy of these hacks(9^✔).

• Meditation and therapy: Time has been a testimonial to the fact that meditation, music therapy and body therapies such as sauna or massages help relieve stress and lower the levels of cortisol like stress hormones in the body. They help in healing and recovery and help one feel detoxed, recharged and refreshed(10^✔).
• Caffeine: Coffee has been linked to several health benefits one being improved brain It boosts attention, alertness, and focus. Long term consumption also help to decrease the occurrence of several diseases as well(11^✔).
• Newer hacks: Non-invasive therapies like Cryotherapy, Hyperbaric oxygen therapy and Aqua aerobics are the newer trending hacks that have drawn the interest of biohackers and wellness experts alike(12^✔, 13^✔).

Risks and Benefits of Biohacking

With humans hacking and taking control of mortal nature of life itself, it is unclear whether we are headed for prosperity or destruction ahead. Gene therapy promises cure to several diseases, and is emerging as a boon for medical science. However, with indigenous and extreme forms of biohacking including man-made bio-modified organisms and viruses discovered in the last decade, is certain that we are headed for a new world of biohacks.

The need of the hour is to define what is morally and ethically acceptable, especially in terms of genetic manipulation and trans-humanism. For example Koreans have hacked the genes of carts to glow in the dark, so that their owners can find them easily. Are these kind of interventions necessary at all, will consumerism overtake our values and our ethics.

With advancing technology, it's likely that there will be even more integration of health and technology, and potentially new forms of biohacking will emerge. It's important for regulations and ethical considerations to evolve alongside with these innovations to ensure they are used responsibly and for the betterment of human health and society.

References:

1. Accuracy and Acceptability of Wrist-Wearable Activity-Tracking Devices: Systematic Review of the Literature - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35060915/)
2. Nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23113033/)
3. Do it yourself biology-committed hobbyists or dangers to the public safety? - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29638277/)
4. Focus On: Biohacking - (http://www.rsb.org.uk/biologist-features/focus-on-biohacking)
5. Biohacking, Bodies and Do-It-Yourself - (http:///library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/52068)
6. Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31881139/)
7. The neuropharmacology of L-theanine(N-ethyl-L-glutamine): a possible neuroprotective and cognitive enhancing agent - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17182482/)
8. Immune, inflammatory and cardiovascular consequences of sleep restriction and recovery - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21835655/)
9. American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Quantity and quality of exercise for developing and maintaining cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, and neuromotor fitness in apparently healthy adults: guidance for prescribing exercise - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21694556/)
10. Cortisol level modulated by integrative meditation in a dose-dependent fashion - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23696104/)
11. Effects of coffee/caffeine on brain health and disease: What should I tell my patients? - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26677204/)
12. Whole-Body Cryotherapy Is an Effective Method of Reducing Abdominal Obesity in Menopausal Women with Metabolic Syndrome - (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7563463/)
13. ANZHMG statement on the administration of mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23111898/)

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