Biohacking has become a buzz word in recent years. From American multi-millionaire Bryan Johnson trying a plasma exchange with his son and dad as part of his ‘Don’t Die’ mission, to wellness treatments like oxygen chambers, cryotherapy and infrared saunas promising to hack our health. For some, staying well has become more than just eating five a day.
But, what is biohacking? Is it as extreme as it sounds? Tim Gray – known as the UK’s leading biohacker and founder of the flocked-to annual Health Optimisation Summit – speaks to Yahoo UK.
Gray, who is 44, but says he has a ‘biological age’ of 21, shares everything from his daily routine and what the best free biohacks are to how he funds his lifestyle and what he thinks the future of biohacking holds.
What is biohacking?
According to Gray, “It is using conventional and non-conventional ways of optimising your health and performance, so some fringe things [which might include tech] and some ancestral things [like being in nature], and that’s where the two meet.”
While we would all love to prolong our lives, is Gray’s end goal as extreme as the likes of Johnson’s? Does he want to live forever?
He says: “My ego doesn’t need to live to 180 and we would be overrun with people. We do need extreme people to help stretch the boundaries, but I don’t think it’s that realistic.
“I just want to help as many people as possible and live as healthy and vibrant for as long as possible,” he adds. “
“Everyone should be able to live their existence healthy and happy without relying on too many medicines.
“I want to live optimally… and then drop off a cliff at some point [he laughs].”
So it’s more about health span, than life span for him.
Getting into biohacking
Gray, whose background is in e-commerce and digital marketing, started getting sick around 2014 with kidney infections and UTIs.
“If you get a UTI, traditionally, doctors will give you antibiotics to kill off the bad bacteria. But why do you get them in the first place? I thought, Why don’t they ask these things?
“I realised these antibiotics destroyed my gut, I wasn’t digesting food, I was getting all sorts of extra infections and needing more medicines. It spiralled out of control until one day, the doctor just shrugged and said, ‘I can’t find anything wrong’. And I was like, there clearly is.”
So, Gray started doing his own research.
“I then started searching all the different symptoms and mapped them out on post-it notes on the wall. I worked out what caused what and figured most of it out. My gut bacteria was really deficient in some of the most important ones which were then causing me to have lower immunity and not dealing with bad bacteria as well, hence getting UTIs,” says Gray, of his interpretation.
“I fixed it by optimising my gut, though the urologist said that was impossible.
“Then I kept going because I realised I had been operating at 60% for the last 10 years, and I wanted to operate as close to 100% as possible. Since then it’s become a lifestyle thing.”
Gray began sharing his health endeavours on Instagram – from his blue pee after taking methylene blue to wearing his blue-light-blocking glasses with mouth tape on – to make people laugh. But, he then started talking about the science behind it, and it grew naturally from there.
Gray’s daily biohacking routine
“My prep for the day actually starts before I go to bed,” he explains.
“I start by wearing blue-light-blocking glasses three hours before bed every night. That helps my deeper REM sleep significantly, because the blue light stops us from secreting melatonin, our sleep hormone.
“I don’t eat much after sunset, because we have certain genes that downregulate when the sun goes down, meaning we don’t process carbs and sugar at the same rate.”
From waking, he says he keeps it simple with these rules:
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No Instagram or social media for at least 30 mins
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Open curtains to get natural light and trigger circadian rhythm
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Hydrate with reverse osmosis, demineralised water, not tap water (he uses glass bottled water throughout the day but “doesn’t go crazy” if he has to use a plastic bottle)
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Have a fully filtered tap water shower
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Always have a breakfast, generally high protein (and carbs after working out) – he advocates for the health benefits of eating meat, though others may disagree
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Wait an hour and a half before coffee to let cortisol spike naturally and prevent afternoon slump
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Read at least 30 minutes, meditate, and journal two-three pages a day – “It’s almost like talking therapy every day”
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An exercise a day, which may be tennis, the gym or a self-defence class (weekend rests) – “If you don’t pick a time to relax, your body will pick it for you”
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Track everything with an ultra human ring, while also wearing an aura ring to compare
Gray typically drinks alcohol around five or six times a year, but is currently on a zero drinking policy. “I think a lot of biohackers say, ‘I won’t ever eat processed food. I won’t ever have a croissant, I won’t ever have a drink’, and I’m just like, ‘You’re boring. What’s the goal here?'” he says.
“I love the saying, ‘A guy goes to the doctor and says, ‘Doctor, Doctor, I want to live forever’. And the conversation goes, ‘Okay. Do you drink?’ ‘No.’ ‘Do you smoke?’ ‘No.’ ‘Do you have unprotected sex?’ ‘No’. ‘Do you ever eat any junk food?’ ‘No. ‘Do you go skydiving?’ ‘No.’ ‘So why do you want to live forever?'”
It’s about what you do the majority of the time that matters. “Being too stressed about all this stuff is actually a bigger killer than the stuff itself.”
Deciding what company to keep
“Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future. It’s a line I love. If you hang around with five smoking people, you’ll be the sixth. If you hang around with six miserable fuckers, you’ll be the seventh,” says Gray.
“But I don’t judge anyone that doesn’t live the way I do. But when they see how well it works for me and how much happier and full of energy I am, they generally start asking me questions and implementing these things, like with my girlfriend of four months.
“My mum and stepdad are the healthiest they’ve ever been because they don’t eat shit, get their 10,000 steps in, sleep properly, turn the wifi off. I think health is contagious.”
So while the biohacker says his “circle is pretty tight”, he does allow some people that aren’t as healthy in “without guilt-tripping them or expecting them to change”.
He also understands that “not everyone’s had the same gun to their head saying ‘if you don’t do this stuff, you’re going to be ill’.”
How does he make sure his content is reliable?
Gray regularly posts health videos on things like ‘why you shouldn’t spray perfume on your skin‘.
“I’ve got a qualified science researcher, writer, scripter, fact checker, all of this stuff internally to make sure it’s not just my opinions. And if it is, I’m very open to saying this is my opinion, because there’s no science to back this up yet,” he says.
“Sometimes I get told I’m fear-mongering. But it’s like, no, your nervous system is just wrecked and you’re not calm, and things like this stress you out.
“I think it’s usually the ones that are quick to jump and hate that are the ones who need to take the advice the most. I try to say things with love and compassion wherever I can.”
The future of biohacking
Gray thinks the future of biohacking involves having proper tests to know what you’re deficient in and only supplementing in that, while the pharmaceutical world will tie more in with the natural health world.
“I also think it won’t be known as biohacking for much longer, but health optimisation,” he adds.
Consult a health or medical professional before making any changes or decisions about your health and wellness.
Watch: Evgeny Lebedev meets biohacking expert and fitness coach Ben Greenfield