Who doesn’t love a good hack? Whether it’s whitening your teeth with a banana peel or spackling a wall with ramen noodles (we have so many questions), we’re all looking for shortcuts to better living. That concept is at the core of the health industry’s ongoing obsession with biohacking.  

It might sound fancy, but it’s pretty simple: Biohacking is any strategy you implement to improve your health. This is a great sentiment, as it can help you take a proactive approach to your wellness and personalize your routine according to your needs. But, contrary to what major lifestyle brands want you to believe, you don’t need to spend copious amounts of time or money to make biohacking work for you. 

We consulted with three medical experts to get their take on biohacking and whether it can truly benefit your health and longevity. We also picked their brains about various treatments that often fall under the biohacking umbrella, including wearable tech, fasting, and light therapy. 

The Experts

• Tisha Titus, MD, MPH, double-boarded physician with a focus on prevention and public health
• Muhammad Usama, MD, FACP, sleep physician at MultiCare Sleep Medicine in Washington
• Austin Shuxiao, MD, board-certified internal medicine physician and founder of Peach IV

What is Biohacking, Anyway?

While we’d love to nail down a black-and-white definition of biohacking, it’s a fairly fluid concept. It involves making strategic lifestyle improvements, often to reach a particular health-related goal (like boosting longevity, upping energy levels, enhancing athletic performance, or losing weight).

When people opt for safe, research-backed strategies to biohack their way to better health, it can yield excellent results. But when they buy into questionable trends or combine multiple treatments without consulting a physician, things can get hairy.

In Dr. Shuxiao’s words, “When approaching biohacking, it’s good to start with the basics, like a healthy, nutritious diet, regular physical activity, quality sleep, and maintaining social connections. Most measures that aim to improve these core fundamentals will likely be safe and backed by evidence.” 

Dr. Usama echoes this sentiment: “Sleep, nutrition, movement, and stress management: These aren’t flashy, but they are the foundation.”

Dr. Titus suggests a mindset reframe to avoid extremes and stick to safe, proven methods: “Let’s start with not thinking about health as needing to be ‘hacked’. Biohacking means nothing more than making small incremental diet or lifestyle changes that result in small improvements in health and well-being.”

And while the Internet makes health content wonderfully accessible, she suggests consulting your doctor before making major adjustments: “There’s an abundance of information online, some more beneficial than others, and some more validated than others. Your physician can sort this out and help you make a plan.”

Dr. Titus recommends prepping for that talk with your provider by gathering information from reputable sources, like academic organizations and research journals, to help you have a productive chat that addresses your particular interests. 

Breaking Down Biohacking Strategies

Biohacking methods can run the gamut from simply eating better to investing in high-tech treatments at dedicated clinics. We chatted with our experts about some of the most popular options to confirm which are legit and which are better left behind. 

Wearable Tech

Wearable tech, like smartwatches and fitness trackers, is one of the most commonly used tools for health optimization. With the ability to record various metrics (like step count, distance, heart rate, etc.) in real-time, they’re widely used by athletes looking to boost athletic performance. But their capabilities extend far beyond fitness tracking—they can reveal insights into your sleep quality, cardiovascular health, and even stress levels. 

Dr. Usama says, “Wearables are like health mirrors, they reflect back patterns you may not otherwise notice. They help you spot trends, like how your sleep quality dips after late dinners, or how your heart rate variability improves when you exercise regularly or manage stress better. The best thing a wearable can do is make invisible habits visible.”

Dr. Shuxiao adds, “Wearable tech may serve as a motivating factor to live a healthier lifestyle. Many people will try to walk more if they’re aware of their daily step count. A large analysis showed that just using a tracker can lead individuals to take around 1,200 extra steps per day and get about 50 minutes more of moderate exercise per week.” 

Rest assured, Stridekick is compatible with most major fitness trackers and apps (including smartphones, smartwatches, and wearables), making it ultra-simple to gather your workout data and align it with your biohacking strategy. 

Fasting

Fasting is both popular and divisive as a biohacking strategy. On one hand, when done right, it may improve insulin sensitivity and lessen inflammation. However, it’s not for everyone, and it can do more harm than good when done improperly. 

Dr. Usama says, “For most healthy adults, shortening the eating window (say, to 8 to 10 hours during the day) can improve metabolic markers like insulin sensitivity and reduce inflammation. But people with diabetes, low BMI, or a history of eating disorders should proceed cautiously and only with medical guidance. If your fasting protocol makes you go to bed hungry or wired, it could raise cortisol and sabotage your recovery. That’s a red flag.”

“That said, the benefits are amplified when fasting is paired with consistent sleep and good nutrition,” he adds. “Poor sleep can disrupt glucose metabolism, even if your eating habits are perfect. If you're fasting all day but sleeping only five hours a night, you're missing the bigger picture.”

Since fasting isn’t safe or beneficial for everyone and can be tricky to do successfully, we recommend talking to your doctor before incorporating it into your routine. 

HIIT

All three of our experts mentioned HIIT (high-intensity interval training) as an effective way to improve cardiovascular and metabolic health. It involves short bursts of high-intensity exercise followed by rest or lower-intensity movement. This workout approach has been proven to help boost metabolism, fat loss, and muscle development, among other health benefits. 

“HIIT is proven to boost cardiovascular fitness faster, in a shorter time, compared to long, drawn-out, low-to-moderate intensity exercise. It can be particularly attractive to those with a busy lifestyle who want to have two to three short HIIT sessions per week, as opposed to jogging every day. HIIT can also be scaled to almost any fitness level and doesn’t require special equipment,” says Dr. Shuxiao. 

Dr. Usama agrees, adding that even short HIIT sessions can make a difference in your cardiovascular and metabolic health. Thankfully, HIIT can be done at home—all you need is space that’s free of trip hazards and items that could get knocked over. And if you’re not sure how to get started, there’s no shortage of free online HIIT workouts to follow.    

Sleep

Yep…biohacking can be as simple as getting more zzz’s. As a sleep physician, Dr. Usama hails good sleep habits as one of the best (and cheapest) biohacking methods out there. 

“I genuinely believe that sleep is the most overlooked and cost-effective biohack available to us. It influences nearly every aspect of our health and performance, yet it’s often the first thing people sacrifice,” Dr. Usama says. “Improving sleep duration and quality alone can optimize hormone regulation, cognitive performance, metabolism, and even immune function, without needing to buy a single supplement or gadget. And it’s free.”

Need a good starting place to prioritize high-quality sleep? Try these tips:

• Cut out all blue light exposure at least 30 minutes before bedtime. We, too, fall victim to the occasional in-bed doomscroll, but it’s really worth nixing the habit for a blissful night’s rest. 
• Prioritize at least seven hours of sleep per night, and stick to a consistent sleep schedule.
• Put a time cap on your caffeine. It’s best to avoid it entirely in the afternoon and evenings, especially if it makes you jittery. 
• Keep your bedroom at a cool temperature and consider adding a few calming touches, like extra-soft bedding and a diffuser with lavender essential oil. 

Dr. Usama isn’t the only one who values high-quality sleep: We have an entire sleep section in our shop. Here are a few of our favorite products to make dozing off a little easier:

• MUD/WTR’s Rest Starter Kit includes an organic mushroom blend that can sub in for that post-dinner coffee while helping you unwind before bed. 
• Brandless’s Sleep Well Gummy contains melatonin and passionflower to encourage REM sleep (the sleep stage that’s crucial for memory, mood, and brain function). 
• Dream Well from More Labs is a sugar-free drink that can help you drift off quicker and wake up refreshed. In a consumer study, 76% of people who drank Dream Well before bed fell asleep within 30 minutes, and 62% of them slept deeper than usual. 

Light Therapy

From athletic recovery to sleep quality and even skin health, light therapy has been the wellness industry’s darling for the past several years. Depending on the light wavelength used, it’s thought to provide various health benefits: Red and near-infrared light therapy may help boost ATP production (ATP is your cells’ primary source of energy), as well as reduce inflammation and curb free radical damage. Other potential benefits include improved tissue regeneration and blood circulation.

Both Dr. Usama and Dr. Shuxiao mentioned light therapy as a biohacking method to help with sleep quality. Dr. Usama says, “I consider light therapy one of the most effective and universally safe biohacks; it’s low-risk, evidence-based, and remarkably effective for improving sleep and mood.” 

Dr. Usama also notes that you don’t need a light therapy device to add this method to your biohacking strategy: “Morning exposure to bright light, even just 15 to 30 minutes of natural sunlight, helps reset the circadian clock, boosts alertness, and supports melatonin production at night.”

Dr. Shuxiao acknowledges the benefits of red light therapy for people who struggle to get a full night’s rest: “Users I’ve talked to attest to being able to fall asleep faster at night when exposed to red light just before bed. Some new parents also use red light in the middle of the night, so that they can attend to the newborn, while also being able to return to sleep more easily, since the red light does not trigger their cortisol response as much as white light.” 

Biohacking, The Safe Way

When approached as a way to personalize your routine and work toward long-term health goals, biohacking can be a positive force. But as you forge ahead, keep our experts’ safety tips in mind:

• “Start small. Don’t try to optimize everything at once, consistency beats intensity when it comes to longevity. Stick to strategies with real science behind them,” says Dr. Usama. 
• “When implementing a new biohacking regime, research the method thoroughly, and prioritize strategies supported by peer-reviewed studies or medical consensus rather than wild claims or anecdotal evidence,” says Dr. Shuxiao.  

“Being an informed patient is extremely important, but that doesn’t negate the need to have actual medical input into a health plan. Be mindful that not every option works for every person; sometimes achieving health and wellness takes some trial and error,” says Dr. Titus.

‍

Written by Megan Foley