Ben Greenfield explains biohacking as using technology and science to enhance your biology, then walks through what it actually looks like now: young-donor plasma transfusions, stem-cell injections, gene-editing shots, vagus nerve injections. He warns most people get it wrong and frames his own experiments as research-informed but risky.
Last week and I'll link to that video in the caption. For this video, I told you I was going to be doing some myth busting and addressing some controversial topics in the field of health and fitness. And today I'm just going to jump right in with biohacking. But first, how did I get into this position, if you want to call it that in the first place? Great question. So I got my start in health and fitness in Moscow, Idaho. Actually very near to where I am right now. I won't disclose the exact location, but I'm definitely in the sticks, so to speak. While studying exercise physiology at University of Idaho, I managed a personal training program at North Idaho Athletic Club. The wellness program at University of Idaho Rec Center. I trained clients underneath the Old beach nightclub in downtown Moscow. I kept up business by working early mornings at the French bakery that used to occupy a bookstore downtown where. Where I'd sell chocolate croissants and Croqueman soise to the same customers I'd charged to burn calories for later on at the gym across the street. Well, eventually I graduated, I left Moscow and I opened a series of personal training studios and gyms in Spokane and Coeur d'. Alene. After a short stint in bodybuilding, I started to travel the world to compete in Ironman triathlon, adventure racing, obstacle course racing, open water swim competitions and all sorts of other masochistic endeavors. So, yeah, I've spent a lot of time wearing spandex. In 2008, I was voted as America's top personal trainer. And that really thrust me into the limelight of the health and fitness world, landing me on the COVID of magazines like Outside at Men's Health, launching me on this global speaking circuit, putting me multiple times on big shows, including three Joe Rogan appearances, getting me gigs, training Hollywood celebrities and pro athletes and billionaire executives, and pushing my podcast into the top charts, my book on the New York Times bestseller list, Yay. But along the way, as I took deeper and deeper dives into the extreme fringes of the health industry, and as podcast questions progressed from, you know, how can I bench press more? To what wavelength of red light do I use on my testicles? I also became known as a biohacker. Now, the general definition of biohacking is the use of technology, self quantification and modern science to enhance human biology. Usually to get yourself to a health, fitness, brain or lifespan goal faster or more efficiently than you might be able to do in your native state. Kind of like a computer hacker might overhaul the hardware with an upgraded graphics card or hack into the back end of an operating system to make some element of the software work more quickly. Well, as biohacking has become more popular, people can now call themselves a biohacker if they, like, put butter in their coffee or collagen in their lasagna. But the original biohackers were a bit more edgy. I even had a TEDx talk banned when I described what these OG biohackers did because the responsible folks at TEDx thought the information was too dangerous and feared that viewers might actually try some of the things I described. But I'm going to describe some of them to you anyways. You're responsible enough to handle this carefully, right? So these original biohackers were true cyborgs. They referred to their bodies as wetware and the technologies that they would use to upgrade their bodies as hardware. We're talking magnetics implanted in the fingers for human machine interfacing. Kind of like Tom Cruise immunority report. Or a compass installed in the chest that would vibrate every time you face true north. Or chlorophyll injected in the eyeballs for night vision or cryopreservation of the body or the head in hopes of future reanimation, which you could try. Good luck getting the freezer door to shut with your head stuck in it. But now fast forward and many modern day biohackers are doing procedures like vampire blood transfers in which multiple 1 liter bags of young human donor plasma are infused into the body via IV administration. That's only legal in the state of Texas. You've seen it if you watch the documentary Don't Die on Netflix. Umbilical cord stem cells injected into every joint of the body from the tissue of the toes to the tissue of the brain. A gene editing which involves an intramuscular injection that flips on one to two solid years of muscle growth, brain neuroplasticity or testosterone production. IV administration of highly concentrated vials of killer cells to rejuvenate the immune system. Long needles inserted just past the carotid artery to reboot the nervous system with a vagus nerve BL injection, and even laying in a hospital bed in Tijuana while all the blood is sucked out of the body via tube, jammed into the jugular, passed through a filtration device, then infused back into the body as a sort of human oil change. Now the reason I'm so familiar with these modern day biohacks I've just described is that as a part of my job as an immersive journalist and content creator in the health space. I've actually done them all and the hospitals are actually pretty nice in Tijuana. But don't get me wrong, I don't think these type of protocols are something you should rush out to do later this week as it alternative to say, hitting the gym or doing better meal prep. It may not be the best use of your budget right now, depending on how advanced you are as a health seeker to purchase bags of human plasma. But it is part of my job to try fringe protocols like this and anecdotally report back on what works and what doesn't for purposes like health, fitness recovery, aesthetics, mental acuity or biological resilience, and to pair that with a hefty amount of research. So I'm not being reckless or irresponsible with my body or brain. Now it does turn out that many of these fringe protocols that biohackers and transhumanists turn to for the hope of a perfect body and brain paired with extreme life extension can, in reasonable and balanced doses, also produce meaningful results for things like general health and vitality, staving off early muscle and bone density loss, brain degradation and metabolic disease. And by using these so called biohacks, a person could remain more vigorous and energetic with age, which which isn't necessarily the same thing as the idolatry that comes with selfishly pursuing a permanent fountain of youth. But that quest for immortality can definitely go too far. And in my next video I'm going to tell you where I draw the line and where you might want to think about doing so also. Now in the meantime, I want to hear your take on fringe versus basic protocols for health and longevity enhancement. Do you think all biohacking is silly? Or time wasting? Or selfish or narcissistic? Or do you think it has a certain time and place? Well, share your thoughts here in the comment section. I read them all. I would love to hear what you think and thank you for watching.
The Solution to Aging Might Be Closer Than Anyone Realizes - With Ben Goertzel
