The Basics
Biohacking is an emerging trend that involves altering both your body and mind to enhance health and performance, whether that means lifestyle changes, supplements or wearable technologies. While some biohacking strategies have been widely recommended by health professionals and some could even pose risks if you have medical conditions or take prescription medication, others could be riskier and even harmful.
“Biohacking” refers to an emerging phenomenon combining scientific concepts with DIY experimentation, similar to computer hacking in the 1990s. One early form of biohacking involved feeding mushrooms peanut shavings and sawdust to see if they would grow chairs and blocks of wood; more recently it has also included genetically altering plants or animals to produce specific results such as making them glow in the dark.
Though there is plenty of advice available online about living healthily, it can be challenging to tell which advice is real or false. When searching for health trends online, make sure that evidence-based research from multiple sources supports what you find.
The Mind
Mind is responsible for phenomena like thought, feeling, perception and action as well as memory and imagining; often seen as a bridge between body and spirit. Psychoanalysis, neuroscience cognitive science as well as philosophy of mind all study the mind extensively.
From dietary optimization to biohacking of technology, biology, medicine, and the material foundations of life are being revolutionized through DIY self-experimentation. This practice presents an unprecedented challenge to traditional cultural narratives of empowerment versus requirement or promise versus prescription while raising new questions about the nature of human consciousness.
The Spirit
With so many health trends constantly floating around social media, it can be difficult to know which are credible. Luckily, there is an abundance of information on healthy lifestyles available if one knows where to look.
Biohacking, the emerging trend that seeks to maximize health and performance through experimentation and self-tinkering, has quickly become a hot trend over the last several years. From self-tracking apps and home health tests to diet modifications and nootropic supplements, biohacking brings biology and medicine into do-it-yourself self-improvement realm. Empowerment meets experimentation to provide holistic results without an official prescription from medical practitioners.
Biohackers are exploring new methods of unlocking human potential – much in the spirit of computer hackers in the 1990s – which could revolutionise how we view our bodies and minds. This trend promises to bring positive change.
