🤖 Biohacking and Eternal Youth - An Upgrade for Your Body
Hello, friends! The Wizey team is back. Today, we’re going to talk about a topic that excites the mind as much as colonizing Mars or the mysteries of dark matter. We’re talking about biohacking and eternal (or at least very long and active) youth.
The word “biohacking” is everywhere today. For some, it’s synonymous with strange rituals like drinking coffee with butter or standing on a bed of nails. For others, it’s a serious science at the intersection of genetics, dietetics, and preventive medicine. So, where’s the truth? As usual, somewhere in the middle. Let’s try to “hack” this topic together, separating the wheat from the chaff, and science from marketing hype.
An Upgrade for Your Body: What is Biohacking, Really?
Imagine your body is an incredibly complex and intelligent computer. It runs 24/7, performs trillions of operations per second, and has its own operating system established by nature and genetics. Biohacking is, essentially, an attempt to become an advanced user of this “computer.” Not just pressing the “on/off” buttons, but getting into the “settings,” understanding how the programs work, and optimizing them for maximum performance and longevity.
If we strip away the esotericism and trendy fads, proper biohacking is based on three pillars:
- Check-up: Collecting data about yourself. You can’t improve what you don’t measure.
- Analysis: Understanding what this data means.
- Action: Implementing lifestyle changes based on the knowledge gained.
The goal is not to turn into a cyborg, but to unlock the full potential inherent in us by nature and to push back our body’s “expiration date” as far as possible.
Step 1: Inventory. Collecting Data About Yourself
Before you “hack” anything, you need to conduct a full system inventory. This is the most important and, perhaps, the most scientific stage. What does it include?
Genetic Passport
This is the foundation. Your genome is the instruction manual for the assembly and operation of your body. A genetic test can tell you a lot:
- Disease predisposition: Risks of developing type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, certain types of cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. This is not a sentence, but a warning. It means these are the areas that need your utmost attention.
- Metabolic features: How your body processes fats, carbohydrates, caffeine, and lactose. By learning this, you can finally understand why a cup of espresso after lunch keeps you awake until midnight, while a plate of pasta does the opposite.
- Athletic potential: Which types of exercise are more effective for you—strength or endurance? What is your risk of injury?
- Pharmacogenetics: How your body will react to certain medications. This is super important information that can save you from side effects and help find an effective dosage.
An analogy from Dr. Dubynin: Imagine you’ve received a detailed schematic of a complex device. You can see where the weak spots are, where the wires might overheat, and where there’s a powerful fuse. A genetic test is the same kind of schematic for your body.
Regular Blood Tests
If genetics is a static instruction manual, then blood tests are real-time system performance indicators. This is your “task manager.” What do we look at?
- Complete and Comprehensive Blood Panels: The absolute basics. Hemoglobin, white blood cells, ESR, liver enzymes (ALT, AST), bilirubin, creatinine, urea, total protein. This gives an overall picture of your health and the function of your liver and kidneys.
- Lipid Panel: Levels of “good” and “bad” cholesterol, triglycerides. A direct marker of atherosclerosis risk and vascular problems.
- Glucose and Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1c): Control of carbohydrate metabolism. Glycated hemoglobin is a brilliant indicator that shows your average blood sugar level over the last 3 months. No more “oops, I just had a piece of cake yesterday.”
- Vitamins and Minerals: Primarily Vitamin D, B12, ferritin (an indicator of iron stores), magnesium, and zinc. Deficiencies in these can cause a host of non-specific symptoms, from fatigue and hair loss to apathy and sleep problems.
- Hormones: A smart approach is needed here. You shouldn’t test “everything.” Usually, you start with thyroid hormones (TSH, free T4), especially if you have complaints of fatigue, weight changes, or mood swings. Further tests should be strictly based on indications and after consulting a doctor.
And this is where a problem often arises. You get a report with a bunch of numbers, abbreviations, and reference ranges. Something is high, something is low… Panic? Not necessarily. Making sense of this complex web, understanding which indicators are critical and which are just minor deviations, and figuring out which doctor to see is not an easy task. By the way, it is for such situations that we created our Wizey service. You can upload your lab results, and the system will help structure the information, highlight potential risks, and suggest which specialist (endocrinologist, gastroenterologist, or general practitioner) would be most appropriate to consult. It’s an excellent way to prepare for a clinic visit.
Step 2: “Hacking” the System. Main Areas for an Upgrade
So, the data is collected. Now the most interesting part begins—implementing changes. And there are no magic pills here. A biohacker’s work is routine, daily effort.
1. Fuel for the Brain and Body: Nutrition
Forget about diets. We’re talking about building a personalized nutrition system.
- Less sugar and simple carbs: This is perhaps the main enemy of the youth of our blood vessels and skin. Sugar causes glycation—the “sugaring” of proteins, including collagen. The skin loses its firmness, and vessels lose their elasticity. It’s as if flexible rubber tubes were turning into brittle glass ones over time.
- More fiber: Vegetables, greens, whole grains. This is food for our microbiome—the trillions of bacteria in our gut that, as it turns out, control not only digestion but also our immunity and even our mood. A healthy microbiome is a powerful ally in the fight against aging.
- Healthy fats: Omega-3s (fatty fish, flaxseed oil, avocados, nuts). This is the building material for our cell membranes and the main fighter against systemic inflammation—a silent killer that underlies most age-related diseases.
- Intermittent Fasting (IF): One of the most popular “hacks.” For example, the 16/8 schedule (16 hours of fasting, an 8-hour eating window). The point is to give the body a break from constant digestion and to trigger autophagy—a “spring cleaning” in the cells, where they get rid of old, damaged components. By the way, the Nobel Prize was awarded in 2016 for the discovery of the mechanisms of autophagy. This is serious science. But IF is not for everyone; there are contraindications (e.g., gallbladder problems), so you need to start cautiously.
2. Movement is Life (and Youth for Mitochondria)
Our mitochondria are our cellular “power plants.” With age, they become fewer and work less efficiently. The result is a loss of energy and a slower metabolism. The best way to make the body create new, healthy mitochondria is through physical exercise.
- Strength training: Helps preserve muscle mass, which rapidly declines with age (a process called sarcopenia). Muscles are not just for strength; they are also the main consumer of glucose, which helps prevent diabetes.
- Cardio (HIIT): High-Intensity Interval Training (e.g., alternating 30 seconds of sprinting with 1-2 minutes of rest) is one of the most powerful stimulants for mitochondria.
- Low-Intensity Steady State (LISS): Walking, swimming, yoga. This is the foundation for cardiovascular health and stress management. The ideal is 10,000 steps a day—not as an end in itself, but as a guideline.
3. Sleep: The Nightly Maintenance
Underestimating sleep is the biggest mistake of modern humans. During sleep, the brain literally “washes” itself of toxins, repairs damage, and synthesizes hormones (including growth hormone, which is important not only for children but also for tissue regeneration in adults).
- Routine: Go to bed and wake up at the same time. Yes, even on weekends. This synchronizes our internal clocks (circadian rhythms).
- Sleep hygiene: Complete darkness (blackout curtains, an eye mask), quiet, and a cool bedroom temperature (around 18-20°C or 65-68°F). No gadgets for an hour before bed—the blue light from screens blocks the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone.
4. Stress Management
Chronic stress means constantly elevated cortisol levels. This hormone is useful in the short term (it helps you run from a saber-toothed tiger), but it’s destructive in the long term. It suppresses the immune system, breaks down muscle tissue, promotes the accumulation of visceral fat (the kind around your organs), and damages the hippocampus—the area of the brain responsible for memory.
What to do? Meditation, breathing exercises, walks in nature, hobbies. The goal is to learn how to switch your nervous system from “fight or flight” mode (sympathetic) to “rest and digest” mode (parasympathetic).
What About Magic Pills? Supplements and Nootropics
This is the slipperiest slope in biohacking. The supplement market is huge, and 90% of what’s sold is, at best, a placebo.
The golden rule: Take supplements only for a confirmed deficiency (based on lab tests!) or if there is clear scientific evidence of their effectiveness.
What might actually be useful (after consulting a doctor):
- Vitamin D: Most people in northern latitudes are deficient.
- Omega-3: If you don’t eat fatty fish 2-3 times a week.
- Magnesium: Helps combat stress, improves sleep, and is involved in hundreds of biochemical reactions.
- Coenzyme Q10: An important element for mitochondrial function, its production declines with age.
As for nootropics (“brain enhancers”), most drugs with proven effectiveness are prescription-only and are prescribed by a doctor for serious conditions. Over-the-counter “smart pills” often lack a solid evidence base. The best nootropics are quality sleep, physical activity, and learning new things (like languages or a musical instrument).
Conclusion: Biohacking with Common Sense
So, can we “hack” aging? We can’t stop it completely—not yet. But significantly slowing it down while maintaining a high quality of life into old age is absolutely realistic.
Proper biohacking is not about extremism or chasing trends. It’s a systematic, scientific approach to your own health. It starts not with buying expensive gadgets and supplements, but with the basics: a balanced diet, adequate physical activity, quality sleep, and stress management.
This is a marathon, not a sprint. You don’t need to implement everything at once. Start small: get some basic lab tests, fix your sleep schedule, add more vegetables to your diet. And listen to your body. It is the smartest and most perfect system we know. Our job is not to interfere with its work but to provide competent support in a timely manner.
And remember, you have assistants on this complex journey. When you get your lab results or can’t understand why you have a headache, a gurgling stomach, and feel sleepy all at the same time, don’t hesitate to use modern tools. A service like Wizey can become your personal navigator in the world of medical data, helping you prepare for a conversation with your doctor and ask the right questions.
Stay healthy, stay curious, and don’t be afraid to become an “advanced user” of your own body.
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