There’s a variety of descriptions for what Bio-hacking actually is but all of them fall back onto the same phrases and words.
Bio-hacking is the use of methods drawn from science to enhance and improve your body’s health, well-being and ability to function.
As an adjunct it may even extend ones lifespan.
Some examples of bio-hacking to enhance and improve your skins ability to function are lengthening telomeres, stem cells into the skin and removing senescent cells that are causing havoc. There are possible new skin bio-hacking therapeutics in the pipeline like artificial mitochondria transfer. I list these because they cause no damage or ageing to the cells because if you are damaging - you are not improving ‘ability to function’.
What we do here at One Truth 818 is bio-hacking. We are all about skin longevity (extending the life of your skin cells) enhancing and improving their ability to function (by making them biologically longer) and we use an Epi-genetic mode of action (drawn from Nobel Prize winning science) to repair the DNA damage (telomere shortening).
Bio-hacking is also a big buzz-word at the moment and like most things in-vogue it is being bandied around by companies in an attempt to make their products, services and/or advice seem more beneficial than they actually are.
More and more frequently I’m receiving emails from skincare companies claiming to be ‘bio-hacking’ skincare products. Their emails then go on to tout the phenomena of such things like exfoliating or moisturising as the next new big ‘bio-hacking’ breakthrough.
I’m sorry…what???
I know you’ll see through this nonsense, but what about other people who are simply trying hard to be their best but know less about the science of skin ageing than you? What about your friends and family that may be falling for this? They are literally being spouted the same nonsense (accelerate the ageing process of your skin for soft, smooth skin) under the headline ‘Bio-hacking’.
This week’s ‘grabbed my attention’ award goes to the company that claims to delve “into the world of micro-needling and bio-hacking to unveil the future of skincare” saying it will “revitalise your skin’s functional age”
Damage to your skin, even this “controlled skin injury” causes cells to divide in order to heal and every time your cell divides the telomeres shorten, thus ageing the cell. There is nothing revitalising about literally ageing yourself faster!
Older cells do not have the ability to function as well as younger cells so there is certainly no enhancement or improvement here!
Next in their newsletter was ‘bio-hacking’ by using Vitamin C. Now I suppose Vitamin C could tick the boxes of what is a bio-hack as it can improve cell function without causing damage, but then so does drinking coffee, so do many things that we have known about for a long, long while. So I guess this just didn’t really excite me, it seemed they were grabbing at straws and in my mind dropped their credibility even lower.
Beware of scientific and cutting edge words like ‘bio-hacking’ being used by companies who clearly don’t understand how skin ages. Cause damage so your face has to repair? We’ve been hearing this un-scientific nonsense for decades. As crazy as it seems most skincare companies seem to completely overlook or not comprehend the ageing process of the skin.
If you are having treatments that cause damage, cell-turnover, inflammation, skin thinning (the list goes on) please make sure you are relengthening your telomeres by activating telomerase to mitigate ageing your skin cells faster.
You’re pretty savvy on telomeres now, don’t believe everything you read just because the headline says ‘bio-hackers’. Cell division = Ageing. You know it!
The goal? To live healthier and longer.
With Truth, Trust and Earnest,
Rachael
PS. The same email from this company went on the tell me that exfoliating my skin was bio-hacking! This one really caught my attention and had me chuckling!!
