The bullshit of biohacking

The epitome of toxic capitalist individualism

As I teeter in and out of the wellness space, I spend a lot of time deciphering what is actually advancing our wellbeing, and what is utter bullshit (unfortunately the majority of what I see is the latter). And the king of bullshit, in my humble opinion, is biohacking.

Let’s call it how it is: Biohacking is hyper-individualism, capitalism, and toxic masculinity at their finest.

First things first, let’s define biohacking. Doing a google search for the definition is like taking attendance at the biohacking gala, a roll call of biohacking (mostly) bros defining what this term means.

According to healthline.com, “Biohacking can be described as citizen or do-it-yourself biology. For many “biohackers,” this consists of making small, incremental diet or lifestyle changes to make small improvements in your health and well-being.”

To me, biohacking is taking hyper-focused and often micro-focused actions to optimize your wellbeing. You may remember that I believe strongly that there’s a difference between wellness and self-optimization (the latter neglecting community care, an essential element of wellness). Biohacking, from my vantage point, fits squarely and solely into the self-optimization bucket.

The biohacking sphere is made up of mostly white men (there are exceptions, of course) who spend an ungodly amount of time and money trying to optimize their health. They take dozens of supplements, build ice baths and saunas in their homes, get regular vitamin injections, avoid canola oil more than they avoid COVID-19, and go to extremes to optimize their health and wellbeing.

And while it may, for some, maybe, increase their wellbeing and vitality, it undoubtedly ignores the systemic oppression and lack of access to healthcare and other resources that keep most people, especially marginalized communities, unwell. Rather, biohacking influencers focus on the idea that we all have “personal responsibility” to “take care of our health” at all costs.

Easy to say when you’re a wealthy white dude.

The term “personal responsibility” makes my hair stand on edge, a term weaponized during COVID-19 to give these folks carte blanche to do whatever they want (including not getting vaccinated) because, according to them, it’s up to you and only you to ensure you stay healthy. Cue Joe Rogan’s wild biohacking stack when he got COVID-19, touting “it’s not so bad!” when he was spending thousands of dollars to have people come to his house and give him IV drips and ivermectin. Of course, this approach ignores the fact that your health is not entirely in your hands, to say the least, and often lead to shame when you do get sick or diagnosed with something.

Perhaps the most incessant and well-known biohacker is Dave Asprey (the bulletproof coffee guy), who claims to have invented biohacking (in fact, the term biohacking has been noted as far back as 1988, also originally being called DIYBio). He has a goal to live to 180 years old and has supposedly spent $2 million to date attempting to biohack his way there. His lifestyle and ‘teachings’ to his 630k+ Instagram followers and many podcast listeners revolve around that—but guess what? Most of us don’t want to live to 180, don’t have millions to spend on this (not to mention the time and mental energy), and don’t want to fear kale, either.

Asprey defined biohacking to vox as “the art and science of changing the environment around you and inside you so that you have full control over your own biology.” When do we ever have full control of our biology, though? A multi-millionaire, Asprey has set up his whole life in pursuit of “optimal health.” Where does it end? Where does happiness begin? I’d rather live a life of delicious food, spending time with loved ones, traveling, taking care of those around me, and doing the things that bring me joy than spend hours a day going between my cold plunge and sauna while drinking green juices and shoveling piles of supplements down my throat in pursuit of living longer to continue to do these things.

And the list of these biohackers goes on and on, often amassing giant social media followings as well as podcast listenerships. They post “informative,” easy-to-share infographics that make this information spread like wildfire. And even if there is some truth to some of the things they are saying, it’s more often than not things that an average person does not need to be worrying about or spending their or money time on. Sometimes it gets dangerous too, for example veering into “go off all your medications” territory which is truly horrific advice and that could even prove to be lethal.

The thing with biohacking is that it never ends. It’s a rabbit hole that you can forever go down trying to tweak the most minuscule actions and ingestions in order to forever strive towards being the healthiest version of yourself. This also makes biohacking never-endingly profitable for wellness brands. There’s always some obscure supplement or tool that they can sell you to make your health that .0001% better (theoretically). And these biohacking folks profit off of that, too, through peddling these wares on social media and podcast ads.

Those who are vulnerable and desperate for ways to take control of their health are most likely to turn to these folks, in addition to rich folks that only want to spend their time optimizing themselves. I’d know, I started listening to Dave Asprey and other biohackers podcasts back in 2017 when I got my cancer diagnosis. I was desperate to feel in control of my health. Granted, I am pretty sure these podcasts were way less extreme 6 years ago than they are now (which makes sense considering they’ve exhausted the usual routes of wellness and now need to find even more niche things). But I was seeking any information that could to help me feel in control of my wellbeing during a time when I felt so out of control.

While biohacking may give you an illusion of control, there are diminishing returns.

You can’t biohack your way to a society that feels safe for your nervous system to live in.

You can’t biohack your way to joy and your way out of systemic oppression. And biohacking leaves little to no room, time, or resources for community care.

The fact that biohackers are more likely to speak up against canola oil in their oat milk than they are to speak up against racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, antisemitism, and other oppression that surrounds them speaks volumes.

Late-stage capitalism teaches us that it’s each man (person) for themselves. That we are in competition with those around us. That it’s up to us to take care of ourselves financially, physically, emotionally, and beyond. Capitalism’s hyper-focus on individualism is in literal contrast to true wellness, focusing on community care and taking care of those around you.

I’d argue that taking care of others doesn’t involve spending thousands of dollars on our own self-keeping when your neighbors are hungry and don’t know where their next meal will come from.

I yearn for the day when we build a society based on true care for all. Not a hyper fixation on our looks or our health, but ensuring everyone has access to basic needs, is cared for, and is safe. One where we ensure there’s enough for everyone before taking an extra serving. Biohacking is not helping us get there. I can promise you that.