27 Exciting Biohacking Trends of 2024 & The Future

Biohackers set the health optimization trends of the future.

We investigate, experiment, and integrate bleeding-edge technologies into proven ancestral practices.

We maximize both our quality of life and time alive (see my tips on boosting your healthspan and slowing the biological aging process).

There is someone alive today who will live to be 1,000 years old.

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We design rigorous, individual n=1 biohacking experiments to vet futuristic compounds, therapies, devices, and practices.

Years or even decades ahead of everyone else.

You can be at the forefront too.

In this post, we will investigate some of my favorite high-impact biohacking trends shaping the future of health optimization.

Current Biohacking Trends Shaping the Future of Health Optimization

These are some of the top trends in biohacking I expect to continue growing in 2024.

Biohacking Trend #1: Miracle Molecules

“There’s no such thing as a magic bullet”.

Health authorities temper expectations about the potential of therapeutics.

Of course, there’s no substitute for improving the foundational pillars of health.

Yet certain things work amazingly for large swaths of the population. With little to no downsides.

Some of these “magic bullets” include:

• Bioregulators
• Methylene blue
• Shilajit
• Micro-algae
• Therapeutic peptides
• Brown’s gas
• Ozone therapy
• Frequency medicine

Bioregulators are especially interesting. These mini peptides are pills that help regulate organ systems and tissues back into balance. Unlike most peptides, they don’t require injection.

And some of the research out of Russia shows tremendous promise.

Sure, these magic bullet therapies often don’t always have a large body of double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, peer-reviewed clinical research. Nonetheless, they’re worth looking into.

Biohacking Trend #2: Peptides

Want to slow aging? Recover like Wolverine? Build muscle like the Hulk? Essentially, get a magic bullet biohack that can solve different problems in one go?

Your solution might lie within naturally occurring tiny chains of amino acids called peptides.

These little amino pack quite the punch. Researchers are busy investigating them for anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, and muscle-building purposes.

You may have unknowingly used them.

Collagen supplements are the most widely used peptide. Insulin is also technically a peptide.

Other peptides are taking the biohacking world by storm:

• Melanotan II protects against UV skin damage.
• Thymosin Alpha 1 (TA1) for immune and intestinal healing.
• Semax as a cognitive enhancer.
• Selank to rapidly quell nervousness.
• Dihexa to improve learning and memory.
• Thymosin β-4 (Tβ4 or TB-500) for repairing and regenerating injured tissues.
• BPC-157 to heal the gut.

Right now they’re the wild west of performance enhancement. They’re hardly regulated. Similar to other dietary supplements, quality matters. Manufacturers often cut corners. To make matters worse, many peptides only work via injection. It’s one thing to swallow supplements contaminated with heavy metals and toxicants. Injecting them is a whole different league.

For more information, see my roundup list of the best therapeutic peptides for you. Before making any purchases, I highly suggest you look at this list of the best trustworthy online peptide sellers.

Biohacking Trend #3: Hacked Learning & Skill Development

Mastering a skill takes years. Malcolm Gladwell famously found that the world’s foremost experts put in well above 10,000 hours of quality practice to get where they are.

What do you want to master?

Assuming you live to the ripe age of 100 and work the standard 2,000 yearly hours, truly mastering each skill costs five percent of your life.

Little kids pick up new skills in a fraction of the time. Not mastery, but they learn quickly.

Select shortcuts can shave hundreds or even thousands of hours. Hours potentially spent elsewhere.

Meta-learning, or applying science to the learning process, promises greater memory, better knowledge integration, and faster expertise.

Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (C.E.S) is a growing hack that induces peak performance gamma brain waves by sending a tiny electrical current across the brain.

Applied properly, minuscule electric current is safe and effective, with DARPA showing a 40 percent increase in learning speed.

C.E.S. is one of many modalities seeking to improve the learning process by putting you into a brain state similar to a little kid (in terms of learning). Military, professional sports teams, musicians, researchers, biohackers, and other high-performers have taken a keen interest in this booming technology.

Biohacking Trend #4: Tech-Assisted Brain Training At Home

Conventional neuroscience wisdom told me that we’re stuck with our mind.

After childhood, it all goes downhill. Nothing we can do about it.

Well, a overwhelming body of research has overturned that paradigm.

We’re certainly capable of improving our brain health and function as we age.

Certain modern technologies enable and expedite the process. One of my favorites is called neurofeedback. It works like this.

A little device monitors brain activity and provide real-time feedback to teach you to control you mental states. Helping you change your mental state on command and excel at any chosen activity.

The vast benefits of neurofeedback training sound almost too good to be true.

Previously, you could only access this technology in state-of-the-art clinics. A full training program often costed over $10,000.

Now, however, advanced at-home neurofeedback systems sell for $300-$1,500. Best of all, you can use them as often as you like. Without the hassle or time cost of traveling to a clinic.

The cost continues to come down, and within the next few years, I imagine that most homes will have one.

I’d like to think you won’t even have to wait for that too since there are many cheap and even free alternatives to biohacks you can try out today. Not just in neurofeedback training.

Biohacking Trend #5: Customized Brain-Enhancing Nootropic Stacks

Nootropics are a special subset of supplements that increase brain function/health and fulfill specific criteria.

Such as having excellent safety profiles, creating long-term beneficial changes, improving resilience against stress, and more.

Although caffeine is the classic example, you have far better options.

Nootropic enthusiasts often create their own personalized “stacks” or combinations of nootropics tailored to their specific needs. To improve all kinds of things, including:

• Focus
• Energy
• Motivation
• Clarity
• Creativity
• Mood
• Social skills
• Confidence

This trend will be fueled by advancements in technology and self-quantified data. Allowing individuals to fine-tune their nootropic regimens for optimal cognitive performance.

Some companies are already making this a reality, customizing their formulas to your unique neurochemistry. Some of the ones I’ve tested and reviewed include:

• Nootopia Customized Nootropics
• Thesis Customized Nootropics

Best of all, when you stop taking a quality custom nootropic formula, the benefits persist!

Biohacking Trend #6: Minimum Effective Exercise

Three-hour iron-pumping sessions and jogging around the city are losing popularity.

You can stay healthy and transform your body with a tiny dose of exercise.

The industry is moving towards more frequent, short bursts of effort. Replicating what our ancestors most likely experienced. People are embracing the simplicity and effectiveness of small micro-movements throughout the day.

What follows are some of the best fitness biohacking tools & technologies available.

Biohacking Trend #7: Rapid Strength & Muscle Building

In a recent post, I outlined a hyperefficient and effective training technique called blood flow restriction (BFR) and its superior cousin, KAATSU training. Modern hacks are making long, inefficient workouts obsolete.

Not just for strength, muscle, and power, but also for cardio and to accelerate rehab from injuries.

This is the same technology used by Olympians, pro athletes, elite military personnel, and high-performers around the world.

Want to build muscle and strength in 12 minutes per week? It’s possible.

Have some disposable income?

Next-generation fitness tools like ARX, CAR.O.L, and Vasper promise incredible results in even less time.

Biohacking Trend #8: Hacking High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

HIIT has sprouted up across the world.

Some research shows HIIT to burn fat twice as effectively as low-intensity exercise.

Today you can find classes in every city. It’s an excellent “anytime” workout. Longer is not always better. That hour-long HIIT class may not yield desirable results.

Instead, you can hit every muscle group in four minutes flat.

This form of training gets results, safely. Remember, exercise is a stressor. That’s why trainers are seeing greater success with HIIT variations that emphasize rest between sets. It’s alluring:

This form of training, known as High-Intensity Repeat Training (HIRT) will eventually replace HIIT in most cases. As well as its cousin, ReHIT.

Biohacking Trend #9: Yoga & Restorative Movement in Most Fitness Programs

Science is catching up to what many have known for centuries.

Qigong, Tai Chi, and yoga all realign and benefit the body, mind, and spirit.

These forms of intentional movement put us into positions outside of our normal standing, sitting, walking, and laying down. They relieve the stress of modern life. All three distribute bodily pressure to areas that rarely receive it.

Each practice recognizes the importance of the breath. They also teach us to get comfortable with discomfort, something widely applicable to life.

Biohacking Trend #10: Electro Muscle Stimulation for Incredible Power, Strength, Cardio, & Injury Rehab

Electro (or Electric) Muscle Stimulation (EMS) is an exercise technology used in Russia since the 1950s. Yet it has only recently begun expanding into the rest of the world.

It offers several advantages over traditional training styles:

• Zero impact, very low injury risk
• Efficient, full-body workout in 20 minutes
• Recruits more muscle fibers
• Portable and travel-friendly
• Strength, powder, cardio, and recovery all-in-one system

Instead of using the physical resistance force of iron weights to cause muscular contraction, EMS uses a small current of electricity.

I’ve been regularly using EMS since mid-2023. So far the results have stunned me. I believe that the Katalyst Suit is the best EMS system.

Biohacking Trend #11: Precision & BioIndividual Integrative Medicine

Out with restrictive cookie-cutter diet plans. In with hyper-customization.

No one diet works for everyone. We are moving towards personalization across the board. Diet, environment, light exposure, meal timing, circadian typing, brain supplements, and exercise are following suit.

Your ideal lifestyle may look nothing like those around you.

Roger Williams wrote about this concept in his 1998 book Biochemical Individuality.

Organ size, function, enzyme counts, blood composition, metabolism, hormones, and even reactions to compounds like alcohol, nicotine, and food preservatives differ from person to person.

We’re talking HUGE differences. His experiments showed a 50-fold (that’s 50X) difference between individuals on the low and high end for a host of biomarkers.

What does science do with these extreme outliers? Averages them away. Data analytics sleight-of-hand hides the vast differences between humans.

Decades later, Roger’s concept of personalization is catching on.

There are countless ways to personalize your approach to biohacking and optimal performance. Some of my favorites include:

• SelfDecode (see my review) to understand and tailor your lifestyle to your genetics
• Nutrisense CGM (see my review) to identify “healthy” foods and habits sabotaging your progress.
• Self-quantification devices like Oura, Lumen, Signos, & Apple Watch create beautiful insights and visualizations to help us make the best decisions.
• Biological age testing provides a real-time report card on the status of the inner workings of our body so that we can adapt to our ultimate personalized routine.

Soon every part of your existence will be tailored to your genes, epigenetics, preferences, habits, specialties, microbiome, microviome, and more.

Biohacking Trend #12: Microviome Awareness

That’s not a typo.

An astounding number of bacteria live in your complex gut microbiome.

But it pales in comparison to the microviome.

What is the microviome?

The microviome is a large community of viruses, genetic material, and exosomes living inside the human body. Just like your microbiome contains both beneficial and dangerous bacteria, your microviome likely contains similar viruses important to good health. And the microbiome and microviome interact with each other. We know that the microviome is a treasure trove of complex information.

Dr. Zach Bush and David Wolfe claim that there are orders of magnitude more viruses in your microviome than bacteria in your microbiome.

Search the internet and you’ll discover an appalling lack of information about the microviome. Less still on the mysterious interaction between the microbiome and microviome.

Some scientists believe that disturbing the microviome populations may explain how symptoms of disease mysteriously come and go. The microviome may hold the key to understanding how a virus can lay dormant for years and then suddenly become active.

Today we’re focusing mainly on the microbiome, but the microviome is a new frontier.

Biohacking Trend #13: Food is More Than Calories

Time since harvest and soil quality determine the nutrition of foods.

Few of us appreciate soil.

Organic or conventional nutrition doesn’t matter much if the soil is dead.

Humans actively till it and kill it, relying on chemical fertilizers to save the day.

It doesn’t work that way, and with each harvest, our food becomes less nutritious.

Making supplementation increasingly critical.

“Food is medicine”, but only if it contains the necessary alkaloids. Current industrial farming processes and food testing largely ignore the alkaloid content of foods.

This likely explains the skyrocketing rates of sickness and disease.

Declining soil quality (and lack of nutritious options) pushed me to test out my green thumb. Or, for urbanites, DIY freshly sprouted produce. Both more than compensate for lackluster supermarket options.

I’ve also switched to 100% grass-fed, grass-finished, pasture-raised, wild-caught meat. Check out this review of the best yet cheapest online meat delivery service. It’s 25% cheaper than Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s.

Biohacking Trend #14: Functional Longevity (Aging)

Longevity is the pursuit of living a longer time. But most of us care most about the quality/functionality of those later years (called healthspan).

Anti-aging interventions have become especially hot over the last few years following the huge uptick in the research around particular ingredients like NMN, NR, Spermidine, and many others.

Biohackers are experimenting with all kinds of strategies, including senolytic therapy, stem cells, exosomes, PRP, VSELs, hormone optimization, and caloric restriction mimetics.

All to extend healthy lifespan.

The new approach to longevity isn’t just about altering cellular signaling and metabolic pathways. It’s about systems biology.

Some brands have formulated products that intelligently combine the right ingredients to make all-in-one longevity supplement complexes.

Understanding the bigger picture, formulating a comprehensive product, and testing the final result to ensure it actually performs as expected.

Yet most companies currently haphazardly just toss a bunch of ingredients together and sell their product with no verification that it does what it claims.

Biohacking Trend #15: Bioharmonization

Biosynergism and bioharmony are about realigning with the roots of humanity. Embracing natural practices.

How boring and low-tech, I know.

No matter how hard humans try to fight our biological past, we thrive most in natural environments. As Scott Carney points out in The Wedge (see the biohacker’s booklist for details), over-reliance on chemicals, insulation, and sedentary indoor lifestyles eventually lead to degeneration.

Our bodies and minds recalibrate with light and exposure to nature. Each exposure to natural hormetic stressors like the hot temperatures of saunas, or freezing cold showers builds our nervous systems to efficiently handle future threats. Turning us into more capable and resilient humans.

We can fight our DNA via the comforts of modern technologies, but ultimately we become frail and susceptible to disease. Practices like morning light exposure, clean environments, drinking clean filtered water, eating clean food, Earthing, and spending time in nature forest bathing send precious information to our biology.

I’ve been working on defining this concept for some time. For more information, see my post on the fundamental principles of bioharmony.

Biohacking Trend #16: Holistic Recovery

Life exists in a balance between growth (anabolism) and degeneration/repair (catabolism).

These two forces determine health or disease.

Yet most of us live in a constantly catabolic state.

Recovery is an active endeavor. Quantified through technology such as the wildly popular (and pricey) Oura Ring. And now many other devices.

Entire facilitates dedicated to the latest recovery-enhancing modalities and practices have cropped up around the world. With menus touting a dizzying number of services. Some of the top holistic recovery biohacks include:

• Whole-body vibration platforms
• PEMF
• Earthing
• Active tissue release
• Rolfing
• Red light therapy (hint: Joovv isn’t the best)
• Infrared therapy
• Compression therapy
• Hot/cold contrast therapy
• Electromagnetic stimulation therapy

And many more. World-class performers on the front lines have begun embracing the critical role in their daily performance. The best training program does no good without ample recovery.

Biohacking Trend #17: Ancestral Medicine Viewpoint

Humans have painstakingly discovered what works and what doesn’t.

Through tens of thousands of years of trial and error.

Believe it or not, some of modern science’s latest discoveries were written about thousands of years ago by the world’s ancient health systems.

India’s oldest medical system called Ayurveda, for example, first documented the existence of the mind-body connection and the gut microbiome in scripts determined to be over 5,000 years old.

As more novel problems stump Western Medicine, savvy biohackers will explore other paradigms. Including time-tested medicine.

Biohacking Trend #18: Focusing on Peak Performance

As longevity and anti-aging medicine advancements boost life expectancy, we’re moving beyond disease mitigation.

Once we satisfy the basics of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, we turn toward optimization and performance. Merely existing without disease isn’t enough.

In biology, structure dictates function. Similarly, peak performance follows peak health. Living a powerful life requires energy. So the first step after preventing disease is to biohack and maximize your energy. High energy supports every facet of your life.

Vast amounts of money will flow to those who can elevate the mind-body output of the world’s top performers. From Fortune 100 CEOs, to Olympians, and even everyday employees looking for an edge.

Biohacking Trend #19: Better Substance Alternatives

For most of history, health and “fun” clashed.

You could either go out and drink, or maintain a healthy circadian rhythm and lifestyle.

Slow metabolizers could either consume coffee and suffer, or completely abstain from the ritual.

Technology has changed everything.

We now live in an era in which advancements offer choice galore.

Everything now has alternatives, each with pros and cons:

• Better alcohol alternatives that give you a nice buzz without a hangover
• Stronger coffee alternatives for every use case

Basically, we can now choose any substance and find an entire list of viable alternatives. Each with particular strengths and drawbacks.

Biohacking Trend #20: Immune-Centric Health

What’s the main role of the immune system?

Ask 1,000 random people off the street, and every one of them will mention protection against viruses, bacteria, and pathogens.

Some may bring up the immune system’s role in inflammation.

I would have said something similar.

Until I discovered its true power.

It governs aging, weight loss, performance, and overall health.

Immune problems become systemic full-body problems.

Conversely, truly optimize your immunity, and you’ve fixed one of the fundamental (yet neglected) facets of human health.

Part of the reason gut health has become so popular lies in the fact that the vast majority of the immune system resides there.

Biohacking Trend #21: Gamified Health

This trend combines two powerful behavioral modifiers: social pressure and gamification.

For the last half-decade, smart tech companies have capitalized on an innate human drive.

Games.

They drive addiction to their apps via the power of game mechanics such as challenges, rewards, points, levels, and leaderboards.

Some of them also add social pressure via leaderboards, competition, and comparison mechanisms.

Gamified health uses both of these cues but for good. They tap into the innate human desire for achievement, competition, and social connection. Helping users improve:

• Exercise
• Diet
• Sleep
• Mindfulness
• Supplementation
• Habits (general)

So a meditation app might include multiple “levels” and show a badge on your profile of how advanced you are.

Or a fitness service might show your consistency compared to your friends/family.

These increase adherence and motivation to make lasting changes. Creating a positive feedback loop by reinforcing positive habits and providing social recognition and validation.

Check out this post on some of the top gamified biohacking apps, software, and tools.

Biohacking Trend #22: Women’s Health

Since the work of Roger Williams, we’ve known that every human has all kinds of unique features.

Until recently, medicine treated men and women the same. Because the vast majority of published research completely excluded women from the trials, we’re only now uncovering the vast biological differences between men and women.

In 2023, “women’s biohacking” experts emerged. This much-needed trend will grow significantly in the coming years.

A survey of 17,475 American adults found that “35% of women 18-50 structure their workouts
based on their menstrual cycle” [R].

We’ll have much more information about ideal protocols for women, which will certainly differ from current “knowledge”.

Biohacking Trend #23: GLP-1 Agonist Weight Loss Drugs

GLP-1 agonists were the blockbuster pharmaceutical peptide drug with a meteoric rise over the last few years. Today, one such drug (semaglutide) has almost become a household name.

Then comes the next generation of GLP-1 agonists:

• Liraglutide
• Tirzepatide
• Retatrutide

While these substances are near miracles for diabetics, obese, and those who struggle with weight loss, they’re often used improperly. And, thanks to widespread celebrity use, as “magic weight loss” substances among the already healthy.

Unfortunately, these GLP-1 agonist drugs have all kinds of consequences, dangers, and drawbacks that are hardly recognized. While on them, users often lose a huge percentage of healthy lean body mass (muscle). After two years, virtually everyone regains the weight (and some) too.

Over the next few years, we’ll see a continued influx of new users, as well as disgruntled ex-users who feel they’ve been duped.

Biohacking Trend #24: Regenerative Medicine

Regenerative medicine taps into the body’s own regenerative capabilities and/or uses advanced technologies to stimulate tissue repair, replace damaged or diseased cells, and restore normal bodily function.

Treating a wide range of conditions at the root levels.

The most famous regenerative medicine treatment is stem cell therapy. Stem cells uniquely can turn into any cell type and thus can help regenerate damaged tissues or organs. This therapy is used for conditions related to the skin, heart, spinal cord, and neurodegeneration.

But that’s just the beginning. Other regenerative medicine therapies include:

• Tissue engineering for organ transplants
• Gene therapy to treat/prevent disease
• Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) to heal injured tissues
• Very Small Embryonic-Like stem cells (VSELs)
• Exosome therapy modulates immunity and helps tissue regenerate

Eventually, regenerative medicine will revolutionize healthcare by providing innovative treatments that target the root causes of diseases and injuries.

Previously Predicted Biohacking Trends

These are some of the major concepts that I predicted would trend among biohackers in previous years.

Biohacking Trend #25: Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Tracking

I’ve measured and tracked it virtually every day for the last 7 years.

This incredibly sensitive biomarker gives a powerful window into the state of the nervous system.

With just HRV, I can prevent burnout before it occurs, and drastically reduce my chances of physical injury. Making it a powerful tool to fine-tune exercise and recovery routines for optimal performance.

A Sports Scientist friend of mine, Don Moxley, successfully uses HRV to predict which of his athletes will win.

It’s not just a passive metric, you can also practice HRV biofeedback training to build your resilience against all forms of stress.

Biohacking Trend #26: Upgraded Sleep

Thanks to Dr. Matt Walker, sleep is no longer seen as a passive activity for the lazy.

On the contrary, the best biohackers do everything they can to maximize their sleep. Both the quality and quantity. And not just the Deep and REM sleep stages. Light sleep also serves vital roles.

Whether you’re looking to improve athletic performance, elevate your brainpower, enhance immunity, transform your body, look physically attractive, or just optimize your overall health.

Pro health optimizers use all kinds of techniques and tools to biohack the best sleep quality and get a higher return on their time spent in bed.

Biohacking Trend #27: Vagus Nerve Stimulation

The vagus nerve acts as a bridge between our body and mind.

It shifts us between:

• Pushing ourselves hard and breaking down the body
• Regenerating and restoring in a relaxed state

By biohacking this crucial nerve, we can improve our cardiovascular system, digestion, inflammation and immunity, mental health, stress resilience, sleep, and even voice.

We have all kinds of tools available to modulate its function. From deep breathing to meditation, yoga, cold exposure, singing/chanting/humming, and acupuncture.

One of the best tools right now are vagus nerve simulation devices. Find a quick guide on how these work and what a great VNS device helps in my Hoolest VeRelief review.

Biohacking the Future: What’s Next?

Humans may have mastered overcoming acute injury, but chronic disease continues to rise.

Solely avoiding disease and injury isn’t enough though.

When you don’t feel great, your existence becomes dreary. Bland days blend together. You miss opportunities left and right.

We’re all seeking to improve the way we look, feel, and perform. With enough time, the scientific community will embrace countless “fringe” futuristic biohacking health trend that works. That’s the way science works.

Remember, not all that long ago, you’d be ridiculed for suggesting that the world is round.

The future of biohacking holds great promise.

Stay on the forefront with cutting-edge and time-tested books on biohacking. Use this list to choose topics and trends to research. Test what you learn.

People are different.

Biohacking is about determining what works for you.

What biohacking developments are you most interested in? Let me know in the comments below.