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While in junior high, my mother gave me heavy doses of Vitamin B for acne. It mitigated the breakouts, so I continued taking it through high school. Due to that experience, I have been a heavy supplement taker all my life, from Vitamin D (since like most Americans, I’m deficient due to the lack of sun exposure), turmeric for anti-inflammatory properties, MSM for joints, calcium, magnesium, and herbs like Ayurvedic nootropics for brain and cognitive support, MACA for hot flashes (yes it works), and Doly methane (DIM) for healthy estrogen metabolism, to name a few.
I have always been fascinated to learn about everything “health and wellness,” whether it be clinically based or alternatively driven, and that interest has evolved into a career as a health and medical journalist.
When I worked in television news, my ‘newsbeat’ was, of course, health and medical. I spent years covering evidence-based medicine, whether it be innovative technology, regulatory issues, clinical disciplines, or my favorite, human interest stories about patients who survived life-threatening circumstances. When I pushed the limits in covering alternative medicine stories, I was often questioned. Even acupuncture, a discipline that has been around for over 3,000 years and practiced by medical doctors, DO’s (Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine), and chiropractors, was still frowned upon.
So, let us fast-forward. These days anything related to “health and wellness” is a trending topic, whether it be the importance of decreasing stress, increasing sleep, exercising, nutrition, and even sustainability.
Months ago, a film crew approached me about supporting a biohacking documentary titled, “BioHack Yourself.” Me? What’s biohacking? I quickly learned that I have always been somewhat of a biohacker, whether it be taking herbs, red light therapy, cryotherapy, probiotics to mitigate antibiotic gut health damage, colloidal silver use, and even micro-current therapy.
According to Wikipedia, “Biohacking” is a do-it-yourself (DIY) form of human enhancement or augmentation in which people attempt to change aspects of their biology to improve health, performance, or well-being. For that matter, we have technological options like smartwatches and Fitbits to monitor our bodies, allowing us to adjust to better health.
Though conversely, a large population believes biohacking is a rebellion against academic institutions of science, even though forms of this practice have been around for decades, such as intermittent fasting and cold-water therapy.
Though one doctor whom I was thrilled to interview, Maribelle Verdiales, MD, ND, applauds and utilizes biohacking disciplines in her OB/GYN private practice in Monroe, GA. Dr. Verdiales discussed multiple examples of how allopathic medicine should not be the sole option in medical care. After her husband was diagnosed with stage 3C colorectal cancer, they followed the traditional cancer intervention treatments, but after 32 surgeries, extensive chemotherapy, and radiation, “he was weaker and sicker,” said Dr. Verdiales.
“I had to get outside the box and started teaching myself about food, nutrition, supplements, and alternative modalities of healing,” added Verdiales. Consequently, Dr. Verdiales husband was given only six months to live, but through her alternative ‘biohacking’ style of care, he lived four years.
“I saw the miracles with my own eyes. He became cancer-free for one year. I could not unlearn or unsee what I had experienced. I had become forever another person and definitively a different doctor,” Verdiales added.
After his passing in 2013, Dr. Verdiales, already an MD, became a Doctor of Naturopathy. She says, “To this day I keep learning and exploring new technologies and pathways to healing and reversing disease or aging damage.”
When I asked about the easiest biohacking steps to increase a female’s metabolism and immune function, while decreasing inflammation, she said “Start with the basics, always. We are what we eat, what we drink, what we do, and what we think.”
She added, “Eat low carb nutrient-dense foods, do high intensity interval training, try fasting, meditation, yoga, prayer, and add nature walks.” These interventions can support metabolism reset, anti-aging, and detoxification. As time goes on, add red-light therapy along with cold plunges to support the endocrine system. The final layer of interventions should include supplements, nutrition manipulation, stem cell therapy, and PRP (using platelets from a patient’s blood to promote healing).
Nutrigenomics, according to Medical News Today, is a biohacking regime focusing on how food interacts with a person’s individual genes. Likewise, it explores how those genes affect the body’s response to food, and health risks to prevent disease in which one is genetically predisposed.
Similarly, bulletproof coffee combines organic coffee, MCT oil, and butter, to help energize the brain. Color therapy glasses, also known as chromotherapy glasses, are yet another biohacking discipline designed to filter out certain colors of light while allowing others to pass through. This therapy is believed to have positive effects on the mind and body.
The bottom line is this, maintaining good health is an ever-evolving complex puzzle of new regimens, treatments, and procedures. So, as I continue covering topics like this for my own health goals, and my health/medical journalism career, I will read and learn from all sides of the equation, from alternative to holistic, from homeopathic to evidence-based medicine, and everything in between, such as biohacking, to do the best I can for myself. A goal towards which we should all aspire.
And regarding that “BioHack Yourself” documentary, it was released in December of 2024, and made a big splash both nationally, and internationally. Check it out at www.biohackyourself.com/worldpremiere.
Dr. Maribelle Verdiales practices naturopathic and functional medicine, while specializing in fertility and pelvic floor, along with regenerative and anti-aging disciplines where she incorporates stem cell therapies. Her practice, Restaura Health, is in Monroe, GA.