Biohacking Is Everywhere Right Now. But What Is It?

You've probably seen the word biohacking floating around — attached to everything from cold plunges and red light therapy to expensive blood panels and guys on podcasts talking about their biological age. It sounds either like the future of medicine or a very elaborate way to spend money. Possibly both.

So, what is it really?

"In its most defensible form, biohacking is just applied geroscience — using data, interventions and iteration to optimize healthspan," says Dr. Eric Verdin, president and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. "At its worst, it's self-experimentation dressed up in scientific language, often in service of product sales."

That tension — between genuinely useful health optimization and predatory wellness marketing — is the whole story of biohacking right now.

What Companies Are Actually Offering

Function is one of the more prominent players in this space. For $365 a year the company runs more than 160 lab tests on you — far beyond a typical blood panel. Thyroid function, environmental toxin exposure, biological age, and more. Clinicians flag anything concerning, patients can pursue additional care or full-body MRIs on site, and the whole model is built around giving people access to health data they'd never see through a standard annual physical.

The pitch from Function's co-founder Pranitha Patil is direct — "your physician's actually no longer your first opinion." Not because doctors are obsolete, but because patients are arriving with more information than ever before.

Next Health operates similarly, building what founder Dr. Darshen Shah calls "an entire persona of you using your data." Blood tests, urine analysis, VO2 max assessments, balance testing, and more eyebrow-raising offerings like hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The goal is to stop people from dying preventable deaths by ending the medical profession's traditional "wait and see" approach.

Why It's Taking Off

The appeal isn't hard to understand. Millions of Americans don't have primary care providers. There's a worsening physician shortage. Health insurance costs keep climbing. People are frustrated with a system that often feels reactive rather than proactive — treating problems after they develop rather than catching them early or preventing them entirely.

Into that gap have stepped biohacking companies, longevity clinics, wearables, and AI chatbots that will analyze your symptoms and bloodwork without a three-week wait for an appointment.

Dr. Poonam Desai, an osteopathic physician dual board-certified in lifestyle and emergency medicine, traces her interest in preventative medicine back to her ER training. "I would always wonder, what if they met me 15 years ago, and what if they could have done something differently where they may not end up here?" she says.

That instinct — catching things before they become emergencies — is exactly what biohacking is trying to sell. The question is whether it's actually delivering.

The Real Concerns

Verdin is genuinely worried about what happens when biohacking gets ahead of the evidence — "sometimes by years or decades."

"The reason it's popular is that it offers agency, which is deeply appealing," he says. "Most of us don't want to be passive recipients of health care. The aspiration is legitimate; the execution is often premature."

Dr. Eric Topol, a physician-scientist and author of Super Agers, goes further. He describes biohacking as "predatory" when people promote supplements, chambers, and treatments without real data or evidence, purely to make money.

There's also the anxiety problem. Wearables and constant health data are genuinely useful for some people. For others, checking sleep scores every morning or fixating on biomarkers that science can't yet meaningfully interpret turns into a source of stress rather than empowerment. Knowing your "biological age" sounds compelling — but as Verdin points out, the science doesn't yet tell you anything actionable with that number.

Desai has seen it firsthand. She describes someone so anxious about what their Oura ring might show that they can't fall asleep — which is, to put it mildly, defeating the purpose.

And the definition of biohacker has gotten loose enough to be almost meaningless. Desai once attended a talk where the moderator asked how many biohackers were in the room. Most raised their hands — some while drinking Red Bulls and eating chocolate cake.

Where This Is All Going

Doctors themselves are already adapting. Shah envisions the physician of the near future as less of a gatekeeper and more of a medically-informed coach — someone patients come to with AI assessments, wearable data, and lab results already in hand, looking for guidance on what to actually do with all of it.

That's not a far-fetched vision. It's already starting to happen.

Whether biohacking is at its peak right now or just at its very beginning is genuinely unclear. WHOOP's chief marketing officer John Sullivan leans toward the latter.

"It feels like the golden age," he says. "But maybe we're just at the beginning of it."

Either way, the train has left the station. The question isn't whether people will have access to this kind of health data — they already do. The question is how to use it wisely, with appropriate skepticism about what it can and can't tell you, and when to let an actual doctor weigh in.

Curious for more stories that keep you informed and entertained? From the latest headlines to everyday insights, YourLifeBuzz has more to explore. Dive into what’s next.