What is Biohacking?

By now you’ve probably heard about biohacking. This highly individualized approach to optimal health and performance has been steadily gaining momentum in recent years, thanks to advancements in genetic science and other areas of cutting-edge medical research.  

The goals in biohacking include upgrading total-body health and fitness, slowing the aging process, boosting cognitive function, increasing vital energy levels, and avoiding chronic diseases. Essentially, to live life to the fullest.  

In this way, biohacking isn’t very different from other approaches to health and optimal aging. The distinction, according to experts, is the Do-It-Yourself mindset that empowers individuals to do their own research, create their own tests, and continuously refine their health strategies. This is why biohacking is also called Do-It-Yourself Biology.  

In biohacking, the quest is never-ending for the most effective and powerful strategies (aka “hacks”) to propel you to next-level health, and beyond. Statistics show it takes 10-18 years for proven, life-saving medical research advancements to finally become available to the general public. Biohackers are not content to sit back and wait this long. Instead, they’re taking matters into their own hands, and bodies, based on the wealth of information and research at our fingertips today.  

Is Biohacking Safe?   

The growing field of biohacking is extremely broad and can cover many different approaches and strategies. Some are well-known, safe, and proven. Others are dangerous and extreme. The wide range of biohacking methods fall into several main categories, including: 

1. DIY Biology—This type of biohacking empowers people to study their own biology using at-home tests and other do-it-yourself methods, as part of the ongoing effort to create an optimized health routine.   

2. Quantified Self—Refers to the measurement and refinement of performance and health, using wearable trackers and other self-monitoring devices.  

3. Nutrigenomics—This area of research blends genetics and nutrition, to determine how specific foods and nutrients impact your unique genetic expression. It’s an extension of the growing field of epigenetics, showing how different physical, mental, and emotional stimuli can cause changes in genetic expression, for better or worse.  

4. Grinder—This is the most extreme type of biohacking involving implants, injection of foreign materials, and other invasive procedures with various goals relating to performance and technology.  

Nootropics and Other Biohacking Staples 

While these approaches may sound complicated, biohacking can actually be quite simple—depending on your routine. In fact, you’re probably already doing your own biohacking every morning, with your cup of coffee or tea. That’s because caffeine is a “nootropic” agent. 

Nootropics are drugs or compounds that have a significant influence on your brain function, mood, memory, and other areas of neurological health. Since optimal cognitive function is a key goal in biohacking, nootropics are a key staple in the biohacking world. So, is your morning cup of coffee or tea a biohack? Technically, yes.   

Detoxification, especially heavy metal toxin removal, is another fairly common approach in biohacking. Safe, effective detox is an important biohacking strategy that can be measured and proven. When done correctly, detoxification can offer a dramatic improvement in health and the aging process.  

However, other more experimental biohacking approaches can be risky, or even illegal. These extreme biohacks include off-label drug use (using a drug for something other than what it is intended for), or body modifications aimed at enhancing certain aspects of biology. Experts strongly caution against the use of such extreme approaches.   

 What is the Best Supplement for Biohacking?   

A number of researched supplements can be considered biohacking agents, because they make a significant, measurable difference in your body’s health and performance.   

For the safest and most effective biohacking supplement, my top recommendation is the extensively researched nutraceutical Modified Citrus Pectin.  

With over 70 published studies, this form of modified citrus pectin is THE ideal biohacking supplement—specifically for the following reasons:   

• Quickly enters the circulation and goes straight to your cells¹  
• Regulates and optimizes cellular function, communication, and performance² 
• Blocks master alarm protein in the body, Galectin-3, to halt chronic inflammation, fibrosis and organ damage² 
• Supports and protects cognitive function³ 
• Protects heart, kidneys, liver, and other systems against organ failure² 
• Safely detoxifies heavy metals and environmental toxins⁴  
• Balances immunity, prevents immune overreactions and the cytokine storm^5,6 
• Supports antioxidant activity⁷  
• Synergistically enhances other compounds and therapies, including botanicals and nutrients, antibiotics, conventional oncology protocols, and more^8,9 

Biohacking and Galectin-3  

The reason for modified citrus pectin’s biohacking success, is that it’s the ONLY available agent that demonstrates the ability to halt and reverse the deadly impacts of master alarm protein in the body, Galectin-3. Thousands of published studies show how elevated Galectin-3 fuels chronic inflammation and fibrosis of organs and tissues. Galectin-3 is a primary driver of our most serious diseases including cancer, heart disease, kidney failure, autoimmune disease and suppressed immunity, dementia, metabolic diseases, arthritis, and much more.  

The clinically proven form of modified citrus pectin is repeatedly shown in independent research to bind to Galectin-3, and halt and reverse its deadly impacts throughout the body. This unparalleled ability is what makes this modified citrus pectin the most important daily supplement for protecting and promoting long-term health—and a number one biohacking strategy for achieving optimal, total-body wellness.  

   
Sources:  

1. Fraser L. Courts. Profiling of modified citrus pectin oligosaccharide transport across Caco-2 cell monolayers. PharmaNutrition. 2013; 1(1):22-31. 

2. Eliaz I, Raz A. Pleiotropic Effects of Modified Citrus Pectin. Nutrients. 2019 Nov 1;11(11):2619. 

3. Yin Q, Chen J, Ma S, et al. Pharmacological Inhibition of Galectin-3 Ameliorates Diabetes-Associated Cognitive Impairment, Oxidative Stress and Neuroinflammation in vivo and in vitro. J Inflamm Res. 2020;13:533-542. Published 2020 Sep 15. doi:10.2147/JIR.S273858 

4. Zhao ZY, Liang L, Fan X, Yu Z, Hotchkiss AT, Wilk BJ, Eliaz I. The role of modified citrus pectin as an effective chelator of lead in children hospitalized with toxic lead levels. Altern Ther Health Med. 2008 Jul-Aug;14(4):34-8.  

5. Ramachandran C, Wilk BJ, Hotchkiss A, Chau H, Eliaz I, Melnick SJ. Activation of human T-helper/inducer cell, T-cytotoxic cell, B-cell, and natural killer (NK)-cells and induction of natural killer cell activity against K562 chronic myeloid leukemia cells with modified citrus pectin. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2011 Aug 4;11:59.  

6. Fernandez-García CE, Tarin C, Roldan-Montero R, Martinez-Lopez D, Torres-Fonseca M, Lindhot JS, Vega de Ceniga M, Egido J, Lopez-Andres N, Blanco-Colio LM, Martín-Ventura JL. Increased galectin-3 levels are associated with abdominal aortic aneurysm progression and inhibition of galectin-3 decreases elastase-induced AAA development. Clin Sci (Lond). 2017 Nov 6;131(22):2707-2719.  

7. Ibarrola J, Arrieta V, Sádaba R, Martinez-Martinez E, Garcia-Peña A, Alvarez V, Fernández-Celis A, Gainza A, Santamaría E, Fernández-Irigoyen J, Cachofeiro V, Zalba G, Fay R, Rossignol P, López-Andrés N. Galectin-3 down-regulates antioxidant peroxiredoxin-4 in human cardiac fibroblasts: a new pathway to induce cardiac damage. Clin Sci (Lond). 2018 Jul 18;132(13):1471-1485. 

8. Hossein, G, Halvaei, S, Heidarian, Y, et al. Pectasol‐C Modified Citrus Pectin targets Galectin‐3‐induced STAT3 activation and synergize paclitaxel cytotoxic effect on ovarian cancer spheroids. Cancer Med. 2019; 8: 4315– 4329.   

9. Ramachandran C, Wilk B, Melnick SJ, Eliaz I. Synergistic Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Effects between Modified Citrus Pectin and Honokiol. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2017;2017:8379843.