Biohacking BS

this show, which shows that it's the perfect topic. It's the perfect topic, and I said, I have to do this show after I received yet another pitch for a potential guest on this show that had this term in their bio. And yes, thanks to having done this show for several years now, I get pitched guests every day. Different PR firms reach out and I love it. Um there's a lot of bad, bad pitches, but you know

that's life. And when this word is in their bio in the pitch, especially at the top, I just cringe. And you've probably figured out what that term is from the title of this podcast. It's a four letter word. And it makes me nuts. And it's hack, and it's specifically bio hack, bio hack, bio hacker. And then yes, using that verb in so many different ways hack your metabolism.

I've talked about that before. What does that mean? But after receiving yes yet another potential guest who's a bio hacker, he said, I got to do a show on this, and I will do many more shows where I specifically go into the specific hacks. I don't want it today. I'm annoyed that I I'm going to talk about them just the way they are. But many of them you've people have reached out, and yeah, they're worth doing a show about. I have to preface all of this by saying,

do listen to my podcast. You know my philosophy. I approach everything I do with the completely open mind. I want to find all of the best ways for you to live your best life too. Yeah, get the greatest results in the shortest amount of time with the least likelihood of injury. That's my job. And so when it comes to bio hacking or hacking, just saying the words makes me cringe. It's just had a loss for words.

I really am oh so yeah, just doing this. The research for this show annoying me, and I actually stopped maybe a little earlier, like I didn't need anymore examples of of unsubstantiated, unscientific mumbo jumbo, which is what so much of this is, okay, bio hack. Bio hack is a twenty one century you know, Silicon Valley silver bullet, shortcut turn for me, that's how I look at it. It sounds great, it's so like you know, it's so Silicon Valley, and so many of the guys pushing it

are that type. And and I'll finish up with that. But what is it some of you going, I don't, I don't know what bio hack is. Well, even those of you who think you know what it is, you really don't, because it's it's basically d I Y biology, do it yourself right, And that that's what I love too about so many of these notable names within this community.

They have no scientific background. They're one of those people who you know, in equals one figured something out for themselves, it worked, and now their way is the only way. And many of them are making a killing off of selling products and supplements. I would argue with the twenty one century equivalent of snake oil. But yeah, bio hacking is give you one definition I found, and it's not even really It's an extremely broad and amorphous term that

can cover a huge rage of activities. And I added in with the hope of what boosting physical and cognitive performance bio hacking. But when you say it, when people read it, what are you reading that for bio hacking? It's basically a shortcut. It's something new and novel, which is problematic right then and there, but it's a shortcut bio hack. And that's when we talk hacky metabolism, hack your exercise routine. It's it's just basically common sense, which

is why the term annoys me so much. It's excessive moderation at the end of the day. And so it's also just taking that scientific breakthrough, right the stuff we heard on late night TV. Never before you know, heard of results or or you know, uh science, Yeah, scientific breakthrough. Leave it at that, bio hacking. All right, let's take a break, take a deep breath, get more amped up. We're gonna go into this and this, you know, let's take a break. We'll be right back talking about bio hacking.

Just it's I'm worked up. Let me just throw out one of the myriad supposed benefits of these bio hacks, because it kind of just puts it perfectly. One of the biohacks. I don't even give you the specifics because it doesn't matter. So many of them claim these two things, well three things, boosts cellular regeneration and fights aging by detoxifying your body. Actually they say detoxing, not that there's a difference, but you know, boosts celluler regeneration, okay, and

fights aging by detoxifying your body. All right, let's get into just some really interesting supposed bio hacks. Now, again, as I read in that one definition, it's broad. It's a morphous but boosting physical and cognitive performance. I so want to just skip to the end here. And that's what annoyed me so much about doing this research for this show, because I just want to skip to the takeaway. And I'm actually not gonna spend too much time here on that. It's gonna be a shorter show because it

doesn't deserve that much attention. And again, I'm gonna say one more time, I'm reading all the latest research because I want to know. I want to be the best I can be. If there is a bio hack out there, people, I will bring it to you. I will bring it to you. And you'll also hear about it in the news and in journals and in you know, reputable media outlets and sources, not from someone selling you crazy potions and supplements and then gadgets that. Yeah, you get in

or get on or put on. M hmm, alright, So here's just a here's like six or seven drinking salt juice, injecting DNA, injecting a younger person's blood into your body. That's a bio hack, younger transfusion so you feel younger. That makes sense. Let's let's do the Keith Richards Uh supposed righty transfusion at old myth? So yeah, that's that's supposedly. It's not supposedly, it's what some people are doing, injecting younger people's blood into their body. Okay. Uh, different light systems,

infra red lights and things like that. And listen, have a bunch of these products and pitched these products all the time. It's the proposed benefits that I have. Shoot, I take issue with all right. Fecal transplants. Yeah, that came up. That came up in my research. That was fun.

That was fun. It's like, yeah, that cryotherapy. Now, I did a whole show on that with Lindsay Barra, right Yogie Betters, Barra's granddaughter, incredible fitness writer, and talking about how actually it's the opposite when when you're using cryotherapy for recovery. As listen, I read about and started doing when I first started doing triathons, that's what triathletes did.

And then when you read the research, you go, ah, actually, maybe that's preventing delaying recovery and muscle synthesis and things like that. But that aside, like the other benefits they are proposing for cryotherapy, far exceed that. I mean, there's certain things I go okay, And as you know, if you've listened to my podcast and know my philosophy is

if it doesn't hurt you, I'm open to anything. But as I will get to at the end here, there's one of the main reasons I have a problem with this will make sense when I get to I want to give it away. Yet all right, other words they use all the time in bio hacking is optimizing in that great optimizing, upgrading, upgrading, Now, what what is what is one incredibly obvious aspect of these terms that I just threw out to you, optimizing, upgrading, boosting. You can't

measure it. You can't measure it, so there's no way to disprove it. And unfortunately, I'm just gonna be honest as I always am. You know, there are people have been in this industry long enough that I know did some pretty calm kookie for lack of a or what. I don't want to throw a scientific term out there,

they're along with us. Now. The problem is when these people do some crazy things in the fitness world and nutrition world and then they pass at a younger age is almost never you can't definitely say oftentimes why they passed earlier. It's not connected. I'm just gonna leave it at that. So, in other words, a lot of these people who are pushing these bio hacking things strategies, will they really live to be? Will they live to be? Se Okay, But you can't measure it, and so it

actually goes against the science. Right. So in other words, what's the line that's used all the time. If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Well, how do you measure upgrading? How do you measure cellular regeneration? How do you even measure detoxifying? Well, there's there's snake oilways. You know. You put the pads on the bottom of your feet and see them get dirty, and that's toxins

supposedly in many different snake oil ways like that. But you start to see what I'm talking about with how vague these terms are, and I got it. You know you probably no one of the people I'm referring to here don't need to use this person's name, although they are one of the proponents like putting bio hacking on the map, and he says he wanted to take control of his own biology. I'm all for that. What this shows about also goes into that he wants to push

the bounds of human possibility. I'm I'm for that, But that's what does that mean? What does that mean? Okay? Uh? And again I'm just bringing you this person's bio because it goes to what we're talking about here, and because he is someone who pushes this. This person claims to have upgraded his brain. Okay again, show me, shoe me. And finally, this was a great quote because this person says, one of the fathers of bio hacking. I don't want to be just healthy. That's average. Uh No, it's not.

I'm gonna stop there. There's one more sentence, but I gonna stop there. Being healthy is not average. It's not even close to being average. In today's world, over of people are dealing with weight issues. Many of you are listening to the show for that reason. And that's why I'm just gonna know. See, I'm getting worked up. I can't, you know, kind of skip to the end here. This is wasting your time and money. That's my main problem with this. When the number I do, how fourteen minutes in?

I thought i'd get farther this. This is why I was so annoyed when reading all of this stuff into this doing I don't even want to call it research. I could have spent my time really looking into stuff that is going to help you. That's my job. But part of my job is debunking these really popular, questionable practices. Now, prove me wrong, prove me wrong. But here's the thing.

All the stuff I give you, and all this stuff we we talked about I talked about here with you, I know works right, the excessive moderation, the strength training, the drinking water, the eating healthy, the whole foods. You know, there's no blue zones into any of this stuff. In other words like evolution and people living to be you know past a hundred or you know, nineties hundreds and beyond and and and just healthy lives, vibrant lives at

that at that age. The people that are trying to bio hack are not doing the basics to begin with. It's a short cut, it's avoiding the work. I'm throwing out a bunch of notes here. It's thrown out a bunch of work. But but you know what, let me back up, because I want, I want you to I did grab three different bio hacking machines protocols that are are pitched by that same person. Okay. One is an

atmospheric cell trainer, and I'm quoting here. It is a workout for your cellular energy systems experienced improved cellular energy, enhanced detoxification, and increased production of stem cells. Can any of that be proven? Do they show that you've increased stem cells? Do they show that you've enhanced your detoxification? And how how do you how do you show that you've improved your cellular energy. Let me give you two more The Big Squeeze that's a full body detox massage

and lymphatic drainage technology system. And one final one Breather Ease Experience performance gains of up to and reduced oxidative stress by breathing exclusion zone water. This energetically charged water simulates and amplifies your body's natural natural I'm getting worked up your body's natural cellular repair process, allowing yourselves to

produce energy more effectively. I get worked up and I get tongue tied because it's just it's hard to It's like, it's hard for me to do a bad push up because I'm so used to maintaining proper form It's hard for me to read this garbage. And I'm gonna like, that's a strong word for me to say that. But this stuff is expensive, and even then if you have

the money, it wastes your time. These machines you gotta you gotta go to that facility, you gotta get in it spend like I don't know, half hour hour depending on what you're doing. And that is at the expense of doing what doing Some strength training, doing some cardiovascular activity, meditating, stretching. The five components of fit is when the number one reason for lack of exercise is time. Why do you have the time to waste on something unproven? Unproven? Okay,

let's take one more break. Oh I knew I'd be all over the place, but that's okay because this topic calls for it. All right, we'll be right back all right, talking about bio hacking what I like to call silicon valleys, silver bullet. You know, they're looking for an edge. I get it. But let's let's go there. I do the triathlons, you know, running marathon's ultras, been competitive. I've done it to just finish and have goals for years, getting back

to getting competitive. If this stuff worked, all the top people would be doing it. All the top people would be doing it, all the top athletes. If it worked. They want that edge, and so let me go there. Actually, I'm gonna skip ahead again. Who can do this? You know who can do this stuff? Professional athletes like I just said Tom Brady, Right, if you have the money and do have the time, because it's your job, because all these people do, you know, is sleep, train, eat, train, recover,

sleep train eat recover, which is part of sleep. And so yeah, they're gonna try all of these novel things because they've already done the work and they are still doing the work. They are doing their strength training, they are eating healthy. This is like supplements. People. You can go sit in a pod and and pay it, you know,

a fortune for that, or pop some pills. But if you're not exercising your heart and making it stronger and taking control of stress and and you know, lifting weights and getting strong and working on your weaknesses and imbalances and getting your blood work in line through all the above, it's worthless and it's a waste. But if it's your job, of course, And that's why I'm going to go off on a tangent for a very short amount of time,

trainers to like Tom Brady. You know, I haven't gone into his program yet, but like thirty depends on the person's time. It's gonna be stuff like this because they have the time and they've done the work, and so how do you get that little advantage. They're gonna try different things like this, Sure all sleep and you know, going an infrared sauna and I'll do this kind of stuff. But I've already done all of the other stuff. All of the other stuff. Okay, that's the difference until you

get the basics in line, which people don't. Okay, none of this is going to make a difference as of right now, according to the science, according to the literature, according to the numbers we see with people that goes for health metrics, overweight obesity, the results from COVID, you know, people's immune systems, people getting sick. And I'm gonna say it one last time. I have the most open mind. I don't want someone else to have an advantage that

I don't have. But I'm sure as heck not gonna waste time or money on something when I can be doing things that no work. That's the problem. Okay, let me truly keep this short. One of the lines I pulled out in one of the articles as I was researching this topic, it said, why why do people I want to bioac what's the point? And it said, actually, blew me away. One of the more ambitious types of bio hacking is life extension, the attempt to live longer. Really,

that's that's the more ambitious type of bio hacking. Guess what we have the answers. The answers are there. They're in all the podcasts I have done. They're in all the podcasts I will do. The trouble is people finding what works for them and then doing it. Okay, when you waste time, let me read. I pulled this out.

So what was that machine? One of the pods when you sit in a comfortable futuristic pod that uses a change in air pressure to create a workout for your cellular energy system, instead of doing something you know that works for you, that's not extending your life the way we need to do it right now. I love fitness technology. I have it all, most of it. I try a couple of times, and then I go back to what works.

Because I don't have a lot of time. I gotta find time to stretch and to do my strength training and to work on my weaknesses, and to do my shoulder internal external rotation, and to do my lower body workout that I'm not as crazy about, and to go swim and do all these things. And this is my job. So I'm not a professional athlete, but similar space and I will try these things. I will try everything. But when we have twenty four hours in the day, and I want to extend my life. I'm gonna do things

that I know work. Okay, that's why this whole show made me nuts. We should be focusing on how to get people doing things that we know works. You think getting in a pod a couple of times a week it's going to change anything if you don't do all the other things we've talked about. And let me wrap it all up with this. I get offended. I get somewhat offended when I read a bio hacker like that that says to me, you figured something out that I

don't know. You're gonna You're gonna bring something to me that I don't like. As I say, this sounds a little, you know, egotistical, But listen, I'm reading everything. It's gonna be in a journal, it's gonna be in a paper, and I'm open minded, and listen, I'm sure at some point, for whatever reason, I will have well, I don't even know that I was gonna say of these people on some of these people, but they gotta be bringing something else. And as soon as I see that that word it

the red flag is flying, is flying. We don't have a lot of time. We are busy people. My goal is to get you the greatest results in the shortest amount of time, with the least likelihood of injury, with stuff that I know works. So I'm not wasting your time and your money. I'm gonna bring you the latest, greatest everything. But the term bio hack bio hacker annoys me. It's rarely a PhD person. And the PhD people I bring to you on the show, what do they all say?

It depends, but they go back to what we know works. Getting your heart rate up through exercise, whatever that is for you, lifting heavier things, putting healthy things in our body, not focusing. By the way, intermittent fasting, all that stuff came up as as bio hacking. That's been around forever. It's been around forever. It doesn't work, of course it works, and you know cellu regeneration or something like. That's why

most people are doing intermittent fasting. They're doing it to lose weight, and they're going for long periods of time without eating, and then they're not eating healthy when they do. Let's see, I'm getting worked up and going off on a tangent. But this is a perfect example of where I get annoyed because things that are simple are made to seem complex, and things that are complex are made to seem simple to sell you stuff at at a ridiculous price and keep you from doing what you should

be doing to guarantee results. And when it takes time, people, you don't have time. You know, everyone wants the results in the shortest amount of time. Right, I want to lose weight. You know, it's one to two pounds a week. And by the way, this is this the same person UH, you know, vilifies healthy foods. Here's a quote, vilifies healthy foods and UH suggests you can lose a pound to day through their science based products. All right, enough, this was this was This was all over the place, but

for a reason. It's a perfect example of when I started this show what I knew I needed to bring to you. And it's hard to sell the basics. It's hard to sell excessive moderation. I'm living proof it works. And you know, at fifty three and no issues with all that I've done as far as events and stuff. I'd like to think that I'm yes and an equals one example, but you know, leave you with this with that that person, that person wants to, you know, maximize

their potential. Show me what you're doing. Give me quantifiable stuff. Are you are you pring your your five k are you biking? What are you doing physically? Show me, don't give me these vague things cognitive you know, upgrades and guess what, as soon as you start doing anything, you're gonna feel better. You start pick a pick a exercise modality. If you've done nothing and you start to do yoga, it's gonna be the greatest that you've ever done because

you're starting to move your body. If you've done nothing for a long time or ever, and then you start to do you know, a certain movement, generally, it's gonna feel good if you do it, you know appropriately, and you know, give a time, sure we're meant to move. And so there you go. I just I haven't been this annoyed doing research because it's just it sounds good, it's made to sound smart, and it's just another way

to avoid doing what works. And if the supposed smartest people, by the way, who don't have the fitness backgrounds, education, if they're not looking at the science and doing what works to begin with, that's a problem. That's a problem, all right, Enough, kept it under thirty with the at least you know. All right, thank you for listening, putting

up with my insanity. But it's it's for you. I get really annoyed when your time is wasted and you're made to be confused, because this is about living our longest lives and that is so important. And people who shouldn't be in the space are playing in the space, and you know they don't need to name them, but I will debunk their bunk with the science and what works. All right. If you want to reach out, Tom h Fit Instagram, tom h Fit is Twitter, Fitness Disrupted dot com.

You can email me through the site. Thank you so much for reaching out. We love your questions and comments. I love to hear success stories. Got a bunch today. That makes my day. People, That's what I want. You know, I'm not selling you garbage products, not selling you garbage supplements. I never will. I never will. I take what I do way too seriously, all right. If I don't do it, if I don't use it, not talking about it, and I'm not bringing it to you. Thank you for listening.

I am Tom Holland this is Fitness Disrupted. Believe in yourself Fitness Disrupted is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.