"Biohacking Almost Destroyed Me" | Ben Greenfield on KTLA 5

His work took precedence in a really kind of narcissistic kind of way.

For a while, he wasn't really a part of the family. Everything I like grew up holding dear and knowing was most important just kind of started to get put on the back burner.

This is from a film called Boundless: The Man Who Became Jeffrey Jaime: It is from a man who chronicles his experience biohacking, and it's premiering this weekend here in Los Angeles. The star is a longevity, biohacking, and human performance expert.

He's joining us now to talk about it. Please welcome Ben Greenfield. Ben, I feel like you're ahead of your time. This is something a lot of people in the fitness community are talking about, but you, you were literally decades ahead of your time in your effort Let's start with that question. How did— was it just a feeling you knew, or was it— were you just like, this is something I'm genuinely interested? But you're like, you're literally on the cutting edge.

Thank you for making me feel old, first of all. Uh, you know, my, my degrees back in the day are advanced degrees in physiology and biomechanics, and I've been wired up for a very long time to be very curious. About the body and brain and how can we get the most out of it, right? How can we use science and technology and self-quantification to look, feel, and perform better? And I've been doing that from day one, like ever since I was a fledgling, you know, personal trainer after graduating from University of Idaho. But the, the shifts in what I might call a selfish obsession with looksmaxing and performing better and obtaining health optimization at all costs, I think has created a real imbalance in our society, and I'm concerned about it.

So this journey that, that you talk about, that we look at in this documentary, it started what, two decades ago? What do you think started it? Is this just kind of how you are wired? Is it something that inspired you? What do you think was the beginning of it for you?

Well, I mean, not to go too far back, but I will. I was homeschooled K through 12. I grew up in the hills of North Idaho, autodidact from a very early age. I started college when I was 15 and have always taken any subject matter that I want to get into, and I take a deep, deep dive into every last nook and cranny and intricacy. And as a result of that, the idea of using as many tools as possible to get the most out of the body, whether from an aesthetic standpoint or performance standpoint or anything else, is something that I've always been very interested in for myself and for my clients. And so, all these words that people are throwing around now, peptides and hormones and hormone optimization and looksmaxing, These are all things that have existed for a while. I think probably due to social media, for the most part, they're now entering the mainstream. But because my background is in fitness and health optimization, I was, as you alluded to earlier, a bit of an early adopter with a lot of this stuff.

The Man Who Became Human. Tell us about what you've put out to the world. What are we going to see? What's it about? The journey.

Yeah, so, so I, uh, like many people might be doing right now, was climbing the wrong mountain, right? I was actually seeking, uh, a good body and better performance and building my business at all costs while justifying to myself that I was sending a paycheck home to the family. Simultaneously, I was losing everything that really is most dear to us as human beings.. And my focus on self-optimization at all costs began to put me on the brink of a divorce, of losing my connection with my sons. The death of my father, which is a part of the documentary, rocked my world when it comes to a reminder of our own mortality. And no matter how much we put into all this, it's all going to go away eventually. And then what's left? Like, what's that eternal spark inside of us? That is really the most important thing in life. And this film is designed to be a wake-up call to people who are really wanting to get the most out of their body and brain and look smax and optimized to the tee, uh, to really realize what's most important. And don't get me wrong, like, there's a lot of cool, edgy, sexy stuff in this film when it comes to what happens behind the scenes in the whole biohacking and optimization world. But there's a message, a theme that threads through that that reminds people that, "Hey, this is not the final answer to true happiness and lasting fulfillment." And is there a healthy way to biohack?

And I'm talking mind, body. For people watching it who are saying, "You know, it is interesting to me, but is there a way to do it and stay healthy?" Yeah.

What are the levels? Like, should we go 100%? Should we back off and do like 80% yet enjoy our life more? To her question.

Yeah, yeah, you need a 4 to 6 hour long morning elaborate routine that includes a cold plunge, red lights, and 20 peptide injections ideally. But if you can't get to that level, um, the, the way that I think about it is there are certain things that simulate what we might have done primally, as you know, what our ancestors would have done, you know, walking throughout the day, perhaps using things like, you know, freaking red light panel beside me to simulate sunlight or using some of the electrical modalities that are used in biohacking to shift the brain into a more relaxed state or to help to heal up an injury more quickly or to use something like— oh, hyperbaric oxygen is another popular thing in the biohacking sector and that's great for the brain or for recovering from jet lag. I think— I mean, to really directly answer your question, Most people can stay pretty healthy if they devote anywhere from about 45 to 60 minutes per day on building their body or optimizing their body and brain in some fashion, staying mildly physically active throughout the rest of the day, whether it's taking the stairs or parking farther away in the grocery store parking lot, going outside, getting sunlight, touching the surface of the earth. Uh, it, it doesn't have to be quite as elaborate as I think, uh, a lot of influencers and social media has led us to believe, nor more importantly, does your, your real fulfillment inside come from doing any of those things. Those are just the icing on the cake of what is shown to be most important in the film: your family, your relationships, your community, your faith, etc.

I noticed in the clip that you were doing a triathlon, and I'm gonna guess you probably, based on your physique and everything, probably got up to Ironman, maybe even beyond in that level. I've done one of those and I know it's like a second job. Actually, I've done 3. But anyway, the point is, I know it's like a second job. My kids were really young when I did them and I, and I couldn't have done them later in life. And my point to my question is, is, is, is it like a holistic, like really judging where you are in your life, what level you were able to go to? Because I know I, for example, I know guys at the gym and they're like, my wife gave me 1 hour and then I got to get home and help with the family. I mean, and, and that's just the stage they're in. Is being self-aware a big part of it?

Well, two things. First of all, yeah, I did Ironman. I competed in Ironman World Championship 6 times. I raced thousands of miles all over the globe in triathlon and adventure racing and obstacle course racing, and you see a lot of that in the film. But the way I look at it is this way, right? Climbing your own personal Mount Everest by checking off a box like that, or achieving a bucket list item like that, whether it is an Ironman or a marathon or an adventure race, or you or climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or whatever that is for you, I respect that. And I think that that grows your confidence, your character, your perseverance, et cetera. I think the mistake that a lot of people make is that becomes a lifestyle, right? Like going off and slaying dragons and fighting battles and leaving the family and being on a constant quest for proving to the world or proving to yourself that you can achieve something greater and greater. Can become an obsession and can tear you away from the legacy and the love that you might find right in your own living room and backyard.

And I know Zac Efron, we all know him, of course, as an actor. He produced the film as well. What brought the two of you together?

Zac, like myself, is intensely curious about a lot of this stuff in the whole health and biohacking and longevity world. We're friends and we actually had the opportunity to screen this film together. I had never seen it before. The director, Caleb Zach Applegate is a friend of mine and had been having people follow me around with a video camera, but I didn't really know the extent of what he was working on. Zach and I watched the film together and walked out of the theater and said, "Hey, we need to do something with this. This is fun. This is edgy. This is perhaps most importantly meaningful." And again, because Zach is actually very into health and biohacking and optimization, this entire topic and the theme of this entire topic was right up his alley.

One of the things that I've noticed is— and people say gym bro and it has a derogatory connotation to it, but I'll just say people who are concerned about their fitness because I think that's a more appropriate way of saying it. They're really into it. You mentioned it and I want to touch on that, the peptides. Whether it's TRT, testosterone replacement therapy, just all these different things. If you have a piece of advice for these individuals, what would it be?

There is a lot of low-hanging fruit, first of all, before you get to pulling something into an insulin syringe and injecting it based on advice that you got on some deep dark Reddit forum. That's not to say there's not a time and a place for peptides, you know, a hot topic right now as they're currently under investigation in Washington, DC for which ones will be approved. Those can actually be really efficacious for certain issues like sleep or inflammation or healing a joint faster. Men and women reach a particular age in life where hormone replacement therapy or for men testosterone therapy does become a viable reality. And yet I think that people kind of look for the magic pill too quickly, right? Like, I, I tell people who want to spend their money on peptides and hormones, are you getting outside in the sunlight? Are you spending time in nature? Are you sleeping adequately? Are you lifting heavy things every once in a while? Are you walking throughout the day? Are you eating a diet that's nutrient-dense and close to nature? And when you check off a lot of those boxes, um, they may not be as sexy, but they move the dial a lot more quickly than some of these other therapies. And then the other thing you of course want to take into consideration is, uh, with all of these sexy new therapies, what's the research like, right? What's, what's research that's actually been done long-term clinically on humans and what are you injecting into your body that's mostly been studied on a little mouse?

Ben, thank you so much for your time. We want to tell folks they can get tickets to the premiere of Boundless this Friday, July 24th at the Belasco in Los Angeles. You can go to ticketmaster.com to buy those tickets.