One of the areas where technology is particularly booming in 2024 is in biohacking. Biohacking technology is all about the pursuit of better health and quality of life.
Think Apple Watch and Fitbit - these were two of the first biohacking tech to go viral and garner a dedicated customer base. Now, there are so many more handy gadgets out there to help you become the best version of yourself and take control of your health.
With lots of different kinds of biohacking tech on the market (it can be overwhelming when first looking!), we’ve chosen a handful of the main types. These include our favorites for addressing health concerns, all of which are easy to use and wearable.
Red Light Therapy
Red light therapy sends specific wavelengths of light into a targeted area of the body to promote healing, aid recovery, reduce inflammation, and improve circulation.
In the past, red light therapy has been reserved for the rich and famous as it was only available through health centers due to the expense of it. Now though, it’s more accessible than ever.
Stationary light panels can be purchased which have a broader reach of energy dispersion, but better yet, handheld devices are affordable ways to treat targeted areas as they provide a much more concentrated delivery of light energy.
The Benefits of Red Light Therapy in Biohacking
When applied to the skin, the wavelengths of light trigger a series of events, For example, a red light therapy device can speed up healing as the wavelengths bring on cellular changes that accelerate the body’s natural healing mechanisms.
This results in enhanced tissue regeneration, collagen remodeling, angiogenesis, and nerve healing.
Overall, red light therapy is a truly valuable way to ‘biohack’ your health as it promotes healing, increases blood circulation and the flow of nutrients, and acts as a pain management tool. And this is all done with one small device that takes 10 - 20 minutes a day for multiple times a week.
With wearable devices you can often tailor the device’s application and intensity to suit your preferences and needs, helping you to build a recovery program that works for you. This one comes with a strap so you can truly wear it and go about your chores and daily tasks.
This means waving goodbye to expensive trips to a clinic as you can administer red light from home.
Why Red Light Therapy Works
It blocks pain signal transmission through two actions: it alters nerve cell membrane permeability to sodium ions and it modifies nerve thresholds, making nerves less excitable to pain stimuli.
It stimulates the release of endogenous opioids and endorphins which have natural analgesic properties.
This form of therapy has anti-inflammatory effects, so when the light is absorbed by cells it lowers the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and upregulates anti-inflammatory cytokines.
In terms of pain, prostaglandin E2 (PGE1) is one of the main players in the pain-inducing process. Light therapy has been shown to effectively reduce “COX-2 content, leading to the inhibition of PGE2 production, relieving pain, and swelling in joints.”
Fitness Trackers
Fitness trackers are perhaps the most familiar kind of biohacking technology and often the first form that comes to mind.
From Fitbit to Apple Watch, Whoop, and more, these devices have been on the market longest in this list, and therefore have had the most time to evolve and grow in response to consumer needs. Because of this, they can offer many different features depending on their target audience.
The Benefits of Smart Watches in Biohacking
The most common use of smart watches is for tracking physical activity - steps climbed, heart rate, hitting your 10k steps each day. You’ve heard all of that before!
Nowadays, smart watches can also be an extension of your phone’s features with the ability to make calls and reply to messages and emails.
There are also more wellness-related features - stress and sleep tracking, mindfulness, and more.
Why Smart Watches Work
In terms of physical movement, the watches use geographical information to measure how far you’ve walked and the speed of motion.
With regards to sleep and stress, etc. some watches measure heart rate through contact with a key blood vessel in the wrist while wearing.
Blue Light Glasses
Around the world, people average about 7 hours in front of a screen every day. These screens emit blue light.
Blue light is a specific spectrum of light and constitutes approximately ⅓ of all visible light and occurs naturally in sunlight. However, it’s also emitted by artificial light sources, i.e. screens.
Excessive exposure to this kind of light has been linked to eye cancer and cataracts. This is where blue light glasses come in…
The Benefits of Blue Light Glasses in Biohacking
In their primary function, blue light glasses are worn to reduce the amount of blue light that enters the eye when using screens.
However, there are also claims that blue light glasses can reduce eye strain and improve sleep.
Why Blue Light Glasses Work
The science behind this gadget is pretty simple: blue light glasses have a filter that reduces (and sometimes completely blocks) blue light energy and protects the eyes - making these a staple for anyone who stares at screens all day every day.
Fertility Tracker
Though a less well-known kind of biohacking technology, fertility trackers can be a great wearable technology to measure your body’s fertility at different points in your cycle (for menstruating people only - sorry!).
The Benefits of Wearable Fertility Trackers in Biohacking
Fertility trackers create convenience in wearers’ lives. By making the technology small (and comfortable) enough to work, this makes the tracker portable.
By doing this, it increases the accuracy of the tracker’s measurements, as it’s able to collect more data more frequently to better build a picture of the wearer’s cycle and the changes. It also makes data gathering a more passive and convenient process, putting power back in the hands of the people.
Why Wearable Fertility Trackers Work
The charm of wearable fertility trackers comes in the ease they bring to everyday life for both couples hoping to start a family and individuals wanting to avoid pregnancy.
They assess physiological changes in the body that are likely to be linked to the menstrual cycle. By gathering data such as heart rate, respiratory rate, and temperature, the device can give a pretty accurate prediction on the wearer’s fertility and therefore their likelihood of falling pregnant.
Smart Headphones
We’ve all heard of (and probably used) headphones at some time in our lives - whether some modern, small Bluetooth earphones or a set of retro-style, wired over-ear headphones.
Did you know that some headphones now go beyond simply playing music at a great sound quality as some can even support productivity?
The Benefits of Smart Headphones in Biohacking
In the new dawn of headphones, some are known to track brainwaves and use that information to optimize focus levels and productivity.
Why Smart Headphones Work
The most familiar way some headphones help with this is through ‘noise canceling’ and ‘focus’ modes which eradicate background noise, limiting the chances of distraction.
Smart Rings
Smart rings are another emerging biohacking technology. Much like a smart watch, they can be used to measure and track things like sleep, physical activity, and wellness.
The Benefits of Smart Rings in Biohacking
With a smart ring, you can quickly and easily obtain and hold various information about your body by wearing it as a normal piece of jewelry. So not only do some look the part, but they provide you with numerous insights too!
It makes measuring your body’s natural behaviors a quick and pain-free process, helping you to better understand what’s normal and abnormal in your own natural processes and responses to the world around you.
Why Smart Rings Work
Smart rings can gather lots of helpful information about your body to help you get the best out of it.
It does this by measuring body temperature and heart rate and makes informed observations about sleeping patterns and the effectiveness of physical activity. While it can’t change anything, it does give you all the information you need to make a change for the better.
Period Pain Relief Devices
Another newer and less common wearable technology includes devices for period pain relief. There are a few different options out there that use their own chosen technology to tackle period pain and provide instant relief to those who suffer at that time of the month!
The Benefits of Period Pain Relief Devices in Biohacking
Some of these devices are handheld, allowing for a personalized approach. Others adhere directly to the lower stomach, making them wearable and discreet but less easy to tailor in application.
Why Period Pain Relief Devices Work
As we said, different companies use slightly different technology as their chosen solution:
- Some devices send small electrical pulses to the target area to block pain signals
- Some devices use heat therapy to provide relief from period-related pain
- Some devices harness massage technology to reduce period pain
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