Interest in shorter work hours and four-day workweek models has grown globally, with trials and experiments reported in countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Belgium, Iceland, Japan, and New Zealand.

The COVID‑19 pandemic and the rise of hybrid and remote working accelerated interest in reduced-hours experiments by changing employer and employee expectations about flexibility and performance measurement.

Designs vary across pilots and policies and include a one-day-per-week reduction with pay retained, compressed workweeks (same total hours condensed into fewer days), fewer daily hours, and arrangements that give employees half-days off.

High-profile trials include the UK 4 Day Week Global pilot (about 70 companies and roughly 3,300 workers over six months, often working 80% of normal hours with no pay reduction) and academically supported evaluations.

Several pilots and company experiments have reported productivity gains, for example Microsoft Japan’s 2019 month-long experiment (reported 40% productivity increase) and UK trial data reporting a 22% productivity increase, an 88% rise in job applications, and a 66% drop in absenteeism in some reports.

Multiple studies and pilots have reported improved employee well‑being outcomes, including reduced stress and sleep problems after cutting hours to around 30 per week, lower fatigue, reduced burnout, and higher life satisfaction in specific trials.

Employer surveys and trial reports list business benefits such as cost savings, improved productivity and output quality, reduced employee stress, and easier hiring and retention.

Monetary concerns are a common barrier: some implementations reduce pay, and one 2022 study found 45% of reduced‑hours workers worried about future retirement income while 33% found it harder to make ends meet.

Implementation challenges include meeting customer demands, managerial complexity, and higher perceived work intensity; for example, employers cited customer‑service concerns and 75% said customer demand was a top challenge, and a UK trial found 36% of employees felt work was more intense.

Equity and sectoral issues arise because shorter or reduced‑hours models are easier to implement in IT and roles where output is measurable, while customer‑facing, healthcare, shift‑work, and firms with diverse role mixes face greater barriers.

Some national approaches compress hours rather than reduce total weekly hours, which can create very long days for employees who opt to condense time into fewer days.

Researchers and commentators caution that many positive outcomes are documented in short‑term pilots and that longer‑term impacts are not yet fully established; some surveys report that early well‑being gains can level off and that burnout can increase over time.

Successful implementations often combine process changes (for example, limiting meeting length and participants), gradual reductions in hours, managerial and cultural change, and sector‑specific planning rather than an overnight switch.

Trials continue worldwide and are often paired with academic evaluation to assess which designs balance productivity, well‑being, equity, and business continuity.

Overall, trials and surveys show four-day workweeks can improve employee well‑being and sometimes productivity, but they pose real challenges for equity, customer‑facing operations, and long‑term business continuity, and outcomes depend on design, sector, and supportive management.

Interest in shorter work hours and four-day workweek models has grown globally, with trials and experiments reported in countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Belgium, Iceland, Japan, and New Zealand.

Title:

Content: The 4-day work week: Who is trialing it and does it work? | World | Breaking news and perspectives from around the globe | DW | 17.02.2022

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World

The 4-day work week: Who is trialing it and does it work?

Belgium will now offer employees the opportunity to work a four-day week. Various countries and companies have experimented with the idea, which is gaining traction in many parts of the world.

Who doesn't dream of less time spent at work?

Four days working, three days relaxing with friends and family. And all this for the same money. What's not to like? Surely most employees would jump at the chance. Advocates for the four-day work week suggest that when it is implemented worker satisfaction increases, as does productivity.

Belgium will now be introducing four-day work weeks for those who want it. However, employees will not be working less. They will simply condense their hours into fewer days, if they want to. They will be allowed to decide flexibly on whether to work four or five days a week.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo hopes that the model will help to create a more dynamic economy and will make it easier for people to combine their family lives with their career. But some full-time employees will be working very long days if they choose to condense their hours. Others, like shift workers, will simply not have the option of that flexibility.

DW explores which countries and companies have already experimented with the four-day working week.

Iceland: Fewer hours at full pay

Iceland tested a similar model from 2015 and 2019. However, it reduced the working week from 40 to 35 or 36 hours and maintained pay levels. Some 2,500 people took part in the test phase.

A study by the Icelandic non-profit Alda (Association for Democracy and Sustainability) and the British think tank Autonomy found that the well-being of participants had improved significantly, working processes had been optimized and there was closer collaboration between colleagues. Productivity either stayed the same or improved.

After the test phase, trade unions and associations negotiated permanent cuts in working hours. Some 86% of employees now have the right to a four-day week.

The shorter work week is a success in Iceland, whose prime minister is Katrín Jakobsdottir

Scotland and Wales: An expensive experiment

Scotland is also currently testing the four-day work week, with the state supporting participating companies with about £10 million (ca. $13.6 million). In Wales, Sophie Howe, the future generations commissioner, has also called on the government to introduce a similar four-day working week trial, at least in the public sector.

Mixed results in Sweden

In Sweden, a four-day working week with full pay was tested in 2015, with mixed results. Even left-wing parties thought that it would be too expensive to implement this on a large scale. But some companies chose to keep reduced hours for their workers. The car firm Toyota had already decided to do this for mechanics 10 years ago and has stuck with its decision.

Watch video 02:25

Working less for the same money

Fake news from Finland

Finland also hit the international headlines for a brief moment, after reportedly cutting working hours dramatically. The northern European country allegedly wanted introduce a four-day working week, as well as a six-hour day. But it turned out that this was fake news, which the government then had to put straight.

Spain struggles to start trial phase

In Spain, the four-day working week will also be tested on request of the left-wing party Mas Pais. Some 6,000 employees of 200 small and medium-sized companies will be able to extend their weekend by one day, with full pay. The trial phase is due to run for at least one year, but it is not yet clear when it will begin.

From start-ups to corporate giants

In Germany, it is mainly smaller start-ups that are experimenting with a shorter working week. But in other countries, such as Japan, it is bigger companies that are venturing into this territory: For example, the tech giant Microsoft has experimented with the model by offering employees three-day weekends for a month.

In New Zealand, the consumer goods giant Unilever is currently trialing a four-day work week at full pay. If the experiment turns out to be a success, it will reportedly be extended to other countries.

This article was originally written in German.

Title:

Content: Four-day workweek’s popularity grew during the pandemic — survey

As companies scrambled during the COVID-19 outbreak to reorient their workplace procedures and processes, one idea that gained ground was a shorter workweek.

More businesses adopted a four-day week during the COVID-19 pandemic as the shift to remote working spurred a major rethinking of work practices, according to a poll of senior leaders at 500 UK businesses by the University of Reading’s Henley Business School.

The survey, an update to research from 2019, showed that 21% of respondents adopted a four-day workweek for all staff in 2021, up from 18% in 2019. The majority of respondents (65%) said a four-day workweek is in place for at least some of their workers, up from 50% who said that in 2019. A four-day workweek is defined in the report as involving a reduction from five to four workdays for the same pay or a compressed workweek with the same hours across four days instead of five.

Though a four-day workweek has gained popularity, the UK numbers are perhaps higher than expected; job posting site Indeed told Computerworld that less than 1% of job postings on March 11 included the term “four-day week,” for example. A Gallup survey of full-time U.S. employees in March 2020 — prior to the pandemic — indicated that only 5% put in four days a week, with the vast majority (84%) working five days (and 11% working six days each week).

That said, numerous organizations have adopted or trialled a shorter workweek for staff since the start of the pandemic, including firms such as Atom Bank, Bolt, Buffer, and Kickstarter. And pilot projects are under way in several countries, including the US, UK, and Spain.

Such projects are not new, of course; Microsoft launched a trial at its Japan offices in 2019 that resulted in higher productivity, for example, while the UK’s Wellcome Trust ran into issues around complexity with its own project the same year.

A shorter workweek has been talked about for decades, but a shift from the five-day, 40-hour week that has been the standard for over a century has so far failed to gain momentum.

What’s behind the recent interest in the idea? One reason is that the widespread, and largely successful, shift to remote work during the pandemic showed the benefits of a more flexible approach to work, said Rita Fontinha, associate professor in Strategic Human Resource Management at the University of Reading’s Henley Business School.

“The pandemic led to a situation where most firms were forced to implement remote work and this has accelerated previous discussions that we have been having over the last two decades on flexible working,” said Fontinha. “Working from home led to increased trust [between employers and employees] and awareness of other ways of measuring performance that go beyond presenteeism. The pandemic showed that flexibility works.”

Report highlights four-day week advantages

The Henley Business School survey pointed to several advantages for businesses that implemented a four-day workweek, including costs savings (66%), improved productivity (64%), better quality output from staff (64%), and  less-stressed workers (78%).

Improved employee wellbeing is connected to business outcomes too, said Jack E. Gold, founder and principal analyst at research firm J. Gold Associates.

“Keeping employees happy and motivated makes for far more productive employees, no matter what hours they work,” said Gold. “Maximizing employee productivity is a much more important way to gain business value than hours worked.”

Another benefit, noted by 68% of survey respondents that had adopted a four day week, involved hiring and retention. “People were less likely to take sick leave, people were more productive, and it was easier to attract new staff, and to retain them,” said Fontinha.

The so-called Great Resignation is also likely contributing to interest in a shorter workweek.

“What’s different now than prior to the pandemic is that we’re seeing a temporary spike in the difficulty that firms are having in hiring and retaining workers, and the four-day work week is a relatively easy benefit to extend to help ease the challenge in the short term,” said David Brodeur-Johnson, principal analyst at research firm Forrester.

A shorter workweek can mean challenges

The survey also highlighted several challenges around implementing a shorter workweek, though employer concerns have softened during the pandemic.

Among companies that did not offer a four-day week, 65% said they were worried staffing costs would outweigh any productivity benefits (though that number was down from 80%). The biggest challenge cited by employers was meeting customer demands (75%), while 70% thought a shorter week would be too complicated to manage.

Some companies may find a switch to a four-day week easier than others, said Fontinha. IT-focused firms are more likely to switch, she said, largely due to the relative ease with which tech worker output can be tracked in comparison with other roles. “Areas where we were less likely to see the four-day week were sectors that involve contact with customers, or healthcare, for example,” she said.

A shorter workweek is also more suited to companies with a relatively homogenous workforce in terms of job roles, she said, meaning large businesses with a diverse workforce may find a short workweek complicated to roll out. At the same time, the smallest companies might not have the resources to support the shift, said Fontinha, adding that there are steps all businesses can take to implement a four-day week, even if they are more gradual.

“Having this overnight shift to a four-day working week will be hard for smaller firms,” she said. “What we suggest is a progressive reduction in working hours, moving towards a four-day working week by assessing how things are going and how needs are being met, how productive people are.”

Even if the benefits outweigh the costs for many, businesses should consider their reasons for moving to a four-day week. While a shorter week provides clear benefits to work/life balance and employee wellbeing, Brodeur-Johnson warns against adopting a four-day week as a shortcut to improving employee experience. “[T]he science is clear that what really engages people is being able to make progress in meaningful work every day; to know that they can and are succeeding,” he said.

“Employee experience peaks when we can leave work knowing that we made a difference, and had a really good day," he said. "It also comes from having a supportive manager, a supportive team environment, and feeling recognized and seen uniquely for the work that we do.

“All of these things are much harder for businesses to do for their people, because it involves behavior changes, manager development, culture changes, deeper resourcing and more that a four-day work week won’t solve on its own.”

Copyright © 2022 IDG Communications, Inc.

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A Psychologist Explores The ‘Shorter Workweek Paradox’

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Have you ever wished you never had to work on a Monday? Your dream might be closer than you think. The concept of reduced working hours is gaining traction globally as organizations and governments recognize the detrimental effects of long hours on employees and employers.

This perspective is catalyzing a shift toward rethinking and reducing work hours to promote healthier life practices. For instance, the post-pandemic adoption of hybrid work models contributed to the understanding that a healthy work-life balance boosts employee satisfaction and productivity. Shorter workweeks can be achieved in different ways. For example:

  • Four-day week. Apart from the weekend, you are also given a day off on Monday or Friday.
  • Fewer daily work hours. You still have to work a five-day workweek, with a reduction in your daily working hours.
  • Half-days off. You are given two afternoons off in a five-day workweek.

What Are The Benefits Of Reduced Working Hours?

In several countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and Spain, trials have been carried out to test the efficiency of shorter workweeks, highlighting the following benefits:

  1. Improved work performance. Shorter workweeks might encourage you to finish your work quicker and with fewer distractions. In 2020, Buffer, an American company, introduced four-day weeks. Based on their extensive trials, 34% of their employees felt more productive, resulting in Buffer permanently shifting to a four-day workweek in 2021. The reduced hours also incentivize you to be creative with your time and encourage efficiency. In their 2019 four-day workweek project, Microsoft Japan initiated collaborative online communication, reduced meetings to 30 minutes and limited meeting participants. Not only were the workers happier, they also experienced a 40% increase in productivity.
  2. Improved health and well-being. Having more time to recuperate from work can positively influence your well-being. A 2022 study found that upon reducing work hours to 30 hours per week, individuals experienced reduction in stress and sleep problems. A four-day week trial conducted in the USA and Ireland showed that employees experienced a 9% reduction in fatigue and 67% also experienced a drop in burnout levels.
  3. Higher life satisfaction. Shorter work hours and more free time tend to improve one’s perception of their life situation. A study in Sweden examined the effects of reduced work hours and canceled lunch breaks for nurses while retaining their wages. The participants reported greater life satisfaction and higher energy levels. “You get a life. I can say as much. You do get it, actually—it is unbelievable what a big difference these two hours make,” a participant explained.
  4. Better work-life balance. Reduced work hours can foster a healthy balance between work and leisure activities. A study found that reducing employees’ work hours while retaining their full pay led to positive work-life balance. They experienced more positive emotions before work, reduced work-related worries and improved relationships with partners, colleagues and their children.

While reduced working hours might seem like a revolutionary idea from afar, reality may be more complex up close. Which brings us to:

What Are The Potential Pitfalls Of Reduced Working Hours?

Here’s why ditching the time-tested five-day workweek needs to be considered carefully:

  1. Monetary issues. Some companies provide shorter workweeks with salary deductions. Employees might also face issues in wage regulations and overtime pay. These can adversely impact their living standards and savings. A 2022 study found that working reduced hours left 45% of individuals worried about having low future retirement income and 33% of individuals found it harder to make ends meet.
  2. Reduced employee bonding. The time crunch to complete tasks in less time can impede social aspects of the job. Some companies also shorten lunch breaks to compensate for missed hours. In such cases, employees rarely get to meet their colleagues and miss out on social interaction.
  3. Higher work pressure. Reducing work hours can increase strain on employees when implemented without foresight. A four-day workweek trial conducted in the UK found that work felt more intense for 36% of the employees. Forty-five percent of employees also felt that their productivity either remained the same as before or decreased in comparison.
  4. Short-term effects. Extensive research on reduced working hours has yet to establish its effectiveness in the long run. A 2022 Gallup survey revealed that the high well-being once associated with four-day workweeks leveled out to match that of the five-day workweek. Four-day workweeks also led to greater burnout than five-day workweeks.

Your desire for a shorter workweek is well-founded. However, initiating a conversation about reduced work hours with your team requires tact and consideration. You must engage in open dialogue, highlighting the potential benefits and addressing concerns to ensure a healthy consensus and eventually, a smooth transition to a work environment that accommodates diverse work styles.

Working less can improve your quality of life. It’s also important to find a “psychologically safe” workplace. Learn if your employer is meeting your needs by taking the evidence-based Psychological Safety Scale.

The COVID‑19 pandemic and the rise of hybrid and remote working accelerated interest in reduced-hours experiments by changing employer and employee expectations about flexibility and performance measurement.

Designs vary across pilots and policies and include a one-day-per-week reduction with pay retained, compressed workweeks (same total hours condensed into fewer days), fewer daily hours, and arrangements that give employees half-days off.

High-profile trials include the UK 4 Day Week Global pilot (about 70 companies and roughly 3,300 workers over six months, often working 80% of normal hours with no pay reduction) and academically supported evaluations.

Title:

Content: Finally, the four-day work week trial is here

  • Marie Claire is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.
  • Progressive change is coming

    Britain is officially trialling the four-day work week and I’m thrilled. No, I’m not a skiver, I just believe that flexible working is the key to making life work, and the next step is the four-day workweek.

    Organised by 4 Day Week Global, the world’s biggest trial of the four-day work week began in the UK on Monday 6 June. The six-month-long trial will see 70 companies – totalling more than 3,300 workers – test out the four-day week (working 80% of their normal hours) with, it’s critical to note, no reduction in pay.

    Marie Claire has long advocated flexible working rights, supporting writer Anna Whitehouse with her Flex Appeal campaign, which started in 2019 when she was denied flexible working and told it would ‘open the floodgates’ to others seeking it.

    But for the majority, it was Covid-19 that truly changed attitudes towards the workplace, because the pandemic had so profoundly affected people’s working lives.

    Prioritise flexible working

    In 2020 Marie Claire‘s first Future of Work collaboration with LinkedIn explored how the British population felt about the prospect of returning to the pre-pandemic routine.

    The message was clear: employers need to prioritise flexible working going forward, because we realised we could work from home successfully (and that was during an unimaginably stressful period).

    The future of work

    The believed benefits of the four-day working week include:

    • More productivity through greater focus
    • Drive to adopt more efficient processes
    • Greater mental health through more time spent with family or on passions

    As with all trials, it’s important to recognise the potential negative effects – less manageable workloads, less breaks and longer hours, but I hope this pioneering movement will help shape the future of work for the better.

    Work-life balance

    It is currently impossible to have a work-life balance when we work five days and have two days off. Where is the logic? In my opinion, the four-day working week is less about motivating me to work harder – I already work hard, thank you. The four-day working week is actually about giving people enough free time to be healthy, happy and fulfilled.

    Reading now

    Popular Life stories

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Wouldn’t it be nice if the weekends were just a little longer?

A study is currently being conducted to determine if employees benefit more from four-day work weeks.

A movement named 4-Day Week Global has launched an experiment in Britain. For the past few months, thousands of employees have worked four days per week.

Even if there are only four days instead of five, the employees are still paid the same and expected to complete the same amount of work. The largest experiment of its sort has reportedly been conducted.

CNN reports that several employees say the new timetable has changed their lives. Everything from chores and errands to rest and relaxation is done on that extra day. But that does not imply that everything has gone smoothly.

Working fewer days means doing more work in a shorter amount of time.

The planned duration of this experiment is six months. The study includes 70 businesses and more than 3,000 employees. Researchers from Boston College, Oxford University, and Cambridge University are participating in the study.

The involved companies will decide whether to keep the shorter work week in November.

Read the full story here.

Several pilots and company experiments have reported productivity gains, for example Microsoft Japan’s 2019 month-long experiment (reported 40% productivity increase) and UK trial data reporting a 22% productivity increase, an 88% rise in job applications, and a 66% drop in absenteeism in some reports.

Title:

Content: New normal | Will 2024 be the year of the four-day week boom? Probably not…

At one point in time, flexible working was a prime example of the benefits that truly had the power to lure and retain talent.

Those days are now behind us.

This isn’t because the prospect of working from home, or altering office hours around childcare or medical appointments isn’t still alluring. In fact, far from it. It’s because in the interim, the world experienced a massive shift. One that not only forced many businesses to adopt remote working policies or face the prospect of inactivity, but also changed the perceptions of workers about their careers, and the value of wellbeing in their working lives.

In a post-pandemic world, the concept of flexible working is largely considered a given. This is acutely true among companies that understand the persistent challenges in the talent market. So, where do we go from here? Where are those looking to push the boundaries of their benefits offering to turn? The answer is the four-day week.

You’ve likely heard the words ‘four-day week’ uttered at conferences, or read it plastered all over LinkedIn. In short, whilst there’s some variation in implementation, for most adopting a four-day week involves quite literally ditching one full working day. Employees work their normal hours, minus one fifth, and get paid the same amount for their effort.

The concept may sound ludicrous to some, yet the value of the idea goes far beyond simply being a valued benefit. Data from the largest trial ever to have taken place in the UK, as reported by Buffer, found that productivity among workers increased by 22%, job applications went up 88%, absenteeism went down by 66%. Employees are also reportedly less tired and happier.

So, we have an exciting new concept with stellar outcomes when trialled and the vast majority of businesses are yet to adopt it. Inevitably, this will be the next big thing in 2024, right? In reality, this is doubtful. Here’s why.

Whilst flexible working has been adopted en masse, let’s not forget the impetus that caused this boom – the pandemic. According to data from IPSE, the proportion of workers reporting they work exclusively at home rose from 5.7 per cent in January 2020 to 43.1 per cent in April 2020. Whilst flexible working was no new concept in early 2020, the pandemic served as the catalyst for huge change, convincing many traditionalists that ditching the nine-to-five and introducing remote working could actually work.

The pandemic was the biggest trial of such a concept in recent history. And herein lies the issue with the four-day week. Leaders need to be convinced. Yes, it’s likely that it will grow in 2024, but without a major shift in working culture to encourage those who dismiss it to give it a try, there’ll be no sudden boom. So no, 2024 will not be the ‘year of the four-day week’, but for early adopters, it could well be a vastly positive development.

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Multiple studies and pilots have reported improved employee well‑being outcomes, including reduced stress and sleep problems after cutting hours to around 30 per week, lower fatigue, reduced burnout, and higher life satisfaction in specific trials.

What did  the trial of 4-day workwee in New Zealand show?

What did surveys conducted in London before and after the experiment of 4-day workweek  find?

What did  the trial of 4-day workwee in New Zealand show?

What did surveys conducted in London before and after the experiment of 4-day workweek  find?

What did  the trial of 4-day workwee in New Zealand show?

What did surveys conducted in London before and after the experiment of 4-day workweek  find?

Employer surveys and trial reports list business benefits such as cost savings, improved productivity and output quality, reduced employee stress, and easier hiring and retention.

What did  the trial of 4-day workwee in New Zealand show?

What has the implementation 4-day wrokweek in Dubai, UAE indicated?

Increase in productivity
Increase in work quality indicators

Monetary concerns are a common barrier: some implementations reduce pay, and one 2022 study found 45% of reduced‑hours workers worried about future retirement income while 33% found it harder to make ends meet.

Implementation challenges include meeting customer demands, managerial complexity, and higher perceived work intensity; for example, employers cited customer‑service concerns and 75% said customer demand was a top challenge, and a UK trial found 36% of employees felt work was more intense.

Equity and sectoral issues arise because shorter or reduced‑hours models are easier to implement in IT and roles where output is measurable, while customer‑facing, healthcare, shift‑work, and firms with diverse role mixes face greater barriers.

What did Labor economist Jonathan Boys say about 4-day workweek?

Food and beverage industry may face more problems.

Healthcare industry may face more problems.

What did Labor economist Jonathan Boys say about 4-day workweek?

Food and beverage industry may face more problems.

Healthcare industry may face more problems.

Some national approaches compress hours rather than reduce total weekly hours, which can create very long days for employees who opt to condense time into fewer days.

Researchers and commentators caution that many positive outcomes are documented in short‑term pilots and that longer‑term impacts are not yet fully established; some surveys report that early well‑being gains can level off and that burnout can increase over time.

Successful implementations often combine process changes (for example, limiting meeting length and participants), gradual reductions in hours, managerial and cultural change, and sector‑specific planning rather than an overnight switch.

Trials continue worldwide and are often paired with academic evaluation to assess which designs balance productivity, well‑being, equity, and business continuity.

Overall, trials and surveys show four-day workweeks can improve employee well‑being and sometimes productivity, but they pose real challenges for equity, customer‑facing operations, and long‑term business continuity, and outcomes depend on design, sector, and supportive management.


Biohacking is commonly described as making lifestyle tweaks to optimize health, performance, and longevity.

Popular nutrition approaches among biohackers include intermittent fasting, time-restricted eating, and ketogenic-style practices using MCTs.

Common physical strategies include high-intensity or extreme exercise, cold-water therapy or ice baths, saunas, and targeted training such as zone 2 and HRV monitoring.

Many biohackers use multiple supplements or prescription drugs such as metformin, NMN, creatine, collagen, and MCT-containing products.

Some interventions have clinical research support; for example, creatine has been associated with increased muscle mass and cognitive benefits in studies.

Other popular interventions lack clear clinical proof and can cause side effects; a reported case described headaches, sleepiness, and anxiety after taking metformin without diabetes.

Experts and experienced biohackers recommend blood testing and individualized assessment before adopting supplement regimens, and diagnostic measures can be used to tailor programs.

Wearables and continuous monitors like WHOOP, Evie, and continuous glucose monitors are used to track HRV and other metrics, but monitoring data can provoke anxiety or obsessive behaviour in some users.

Sources caution that biohacking culture can become extreme, male-dominated or obsessive, and they advise prioritising whole-food diets and sustainable changes over indiscriminate supplement stacks.

Conclusion: some biohacking practices have supporting studies, but many popular supplements and extreme routines are unproven or risky; clinical testing and medical supervision are recommended.

Biohacking is commonly described as making lifestyle tweaks to optimize health, performance, and longevity.

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Biohacking & Toxic Masculinity: How Women Dismantled The Boys Club

Author: Medical reviewer:
Beauty & Health Editor
By Jamie Schneider
Beauty & Health Editor
Jamie Schneider is the Beauty Editor at mindbodygreen. She has a B.A. in Organizational Studies and English from the University of Michigan, and her work has appeared in Coveteur, The Chill Times, and Wyld Skincare.
Medical review by
Bindiya Gandhi, M.D.
Physician
Dr. Bindiya Gandhi is an American Board Family Medicine–certified physician who completed her family medicine training at Georgia Regents University/Medical College of Georgia.
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We carefully vet all products and services featured on mindbodygreen using our commerce guidelines. Our selections are never influenced by the commissions earned from our links.

Take a quick search for “biohacker” on TikTok (a tag with over 137 million views), and you’ll discover a slew of men discussing their muscle gains, testosterone levels, and cold plunge routines. You’ll see some women on the page, but the space is undoubtedly dominated by male energy. And think of the outspoken biohackers you may listen to on podcasts—chances are most of them are men, too.

This gendered approach to biohacking, while pervasive, is simply misguided. But now, women are asserting their authority in health optimization, and we expect their emphasis to soar in the year ahead.

Meet the experts

Molly Maloof. M.D.

Molly Maloof. M.D. provides health optimization and personalized medicine to high-achieving entrepreneurs, investors, and technology executives. Since 2012, she has worked as an advisor or consultant to more than 50 companies in the digital health, consumer health, and biotechnology industries. Her company, Adamo Bioscience, is working on sexual health optimization.

Gabrielle Lyon, D.O.

Gabrielle Lyon, D.O. is a board-certified family physician leading a disruption in modern medicine that focuses on the largest organ in the body: skeletal muscle. With a background that includes a combined research and clinical fellowship in geriatrics and nutritional sciences at Washington University and undergraduate training in nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois, she is a subject-matter expert on protein for health, performance, aging, and disease prevention.

Stacy Salvi

Stacy Salvi is the vice president of product and strategy at the medical device company Movano Health—the creator of the Evie Ring, the first medical-grade health wearable designed for women.

Mona Vand, PharmD

Mona Vand, PharmD studied pharmacy at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences before developing her platform that shares holistic wellness advice.

Why biohacking isn’t just for “bros”

“Women are the original biohackers,” declares family physician, Molly Maloof, M.D. “Our hormones change throughout our lives, and this requires us to adapt accordingly.” Our biology means that women often need to constantly edit their health routines and experiment with lifestyle habits as time goes on. Isn’t that the very definition of biohacking?

Let's back up: Here at mindbodygreen, we think of “biohacking” as the practice of making lifestyle tweaks to optimize health and promote longevity. Not shortcuts—contrary to popular belief—but low-lift, everyday habits that complement and enhance an existing well-being routine. Think: optimizing your exercise regimen using tools and techniques (the “biohacks”) to enhance muscle growth. It’s essentially all about advancing health with “do it yourself” biology—a topic that can pique anyone’s interest, regardless of gender.

“[Women] have a most complex physiological lifecycle that requires us to track and manage fertility, pregnancy, breastfeeding, sexuality, perimenopause, and menopause. So we should be looking at biohacking as a path to even greater health and owning the opportunity to improve our lives,” says Maloof.

Yet many women feel intimidated to enter the biohacking scene as it exists today, turned off by the male-dominated energy in the room.

Women are the original biohackers

Molly Maloof, M.D

“Biohacking has always grabbed my attention, and I want to learn, but it sometimes makes me really stressed out, because I go into this state of perfectionism where I have to do all the things,” says doctor of pharmacy and wellness practitioner Mona Vand, PharmD. “The few biohackers that I followed were all males… it just doesn't really resonate with my energy.”

This male energy is not only frustrating but can potentially harm women’s health in the long run. After all, building muscle, prioritizing protein, and keeping an eye on various health metrics are crucial for longevity—in some cases, these proactive measures can save lives. When women don’t get involved, it can totally impact their well-being.

“Physical strength is nonnegotiable,” says functional medicine doctor Gabrielle Lyon, D.O. “I've been a physician since 2006, and I've never heard someone say, ‘I regret being physically strong.’” And the muscle-building space impacts more than just physiological changes, she says. “You optimize fertility, you make healthier babies, you help the epigenetics of your child,” Lyon adds. “You age better, your skin is better, you're less likely to fall and break a hip… There's nothing that doesn't get better the stronger you are.”

So let’s be clear: Dismantling the biohacking boy’s club is not just about helping women feel included; there are real health implications at stake here.

Why the biohacker space actually really needs a dose of feminine energy

I’d be remiss not to mention how biohacking culture can easily become synonymous with hustle culture (some experts don’t even like to use the term, as it implies you can achieve optimal health with quick fixes). But as more women enter the biohacking space, we expect it to become more intuitive and less about hitting every single benchmark. From there, we predict women will focus more on sustainable changes long-term instead of a gazillion quick hacks.

“I used to think it was a flex to do a million things at the same time and habit stack,” Vand recounts. “I now carve out time for doing things that have no efficiency to them, that are strictly for joy or rest and relaxation, versus benefiting my longevity or health. It can be a little bit obsessive when you get into this thought pattern, and I just don't resonate with it.”

This doesn’t mean biohacking will become “softer” as it embraces feminine energy. But there’s an opportunity here for women to introduce some much-needed flexibility into a space that has long felt needlessly rigid.

How the biohacker game is changing — and where it’s headed next

Thanks to a growing awareness that healthcare protocols should not be gendered, more women are now starting to pay attention to markers of performance like lean muscle, hormetic stressors, VO2 max, HRV, zone 2 training, etc. “Cold plunging, saunas, and harder, more physical activities are not just for the boys anymore,” adds Lyon—and we expect an even bigger shift to come in 2024.

“I think it’s super exciting to see biohacking become more mainstream and more women joining the conversation,” adds Maloof. She praises apps like Wild.AI, for women who aim to make lifestyle adjustments based on their menstrual cycle, and Zero, for women who want to dabble in time-restricted eating, both of which have helped to herald the shift.

Other existing health optimization companies are now inviting women into the conversation by introducing specific features informed by their unique physiology. WHOOP, for example, is currently working on upgrades to their popular health-tracking band: “We did a study recently where we learned a lot about how a woman's body changes during pregnancy and how her heart rate variability (HRV) will evolve. It'll decrease, and then about seven weeks before she gives birth, it will increase sharply,” explains Will Ahmed, WHOOP founder and CEO, on the mindbodygreen podcast

If a woman didn’t know that this was supposed to happen, she might look at this stark increase with a critical (or anxious) eye. “We've been able to take population-level data on pregnant women and now have a feature in the app, where a woman can see how her body is evolving alongside what other pregnant women are experiencing,” he adds.

Similarly, creatine supplements—from the ingredients to the packaging—are no longer marketed toward dudes looking to bulk up, and we are certainly here for it. After all, muscle mass is a predictor of longevity and healthspan, so supplements that promote it can help all of us “hack” our health in a big way.

And as Lyon notes, women have lower endogenous creatine stores compared to men (meaning, they have less available). And the amino acid has been associated with significantly increased muscle mass1 in both men and women, without increasing the risk of adverse outcomes2, like weight gain. “Most of the women in my practice will go on creatine, and they find anecdotally that it really improves both anaerobic and aerobic exercise performance,” Lyon shares.

Not to mention the supplement’s brain health perks: Taking creatine has been shown to benefit both working memory and processing speed3 as well as cognitive longevity4. “It is above and beyond simply sport performance,” adds Lyon, who has certainly seen an uptick in women curious about creatine.

As women feel intimidated (or even restricted) by biohacking spaces, some experts have taken it upon themselves to create new ones that center the feminine. For example, neuropsychophysiologist Kayla Osterhoff, MPH, offers a Women's Biohacking Mini Course, consisting of lifestyle routines and tips aligned with female physiology.

Osterhoff also recently presented at the 2023 Dragonfly Live Conference—among other female biohackers—to discuss the latest advancements in women's well-being and the “health revolution” that’s sweeping the mainstream. This conference aims to gather the “who's-who” in the health space to discuss cutting-edge strategies and innovations that optimize well-being—by having women biohackers at the forefront of the conversation, we can expect them to hit the main stage in a broader sense.

Or take the brand new Evie Ring, the first medical-grade health wearable designed for women, created by medical device company Movano Health. The technology ties hormonal information to a woman’s sleep, activity, and heart health data (among other metrics).

For instance, “If we notice a more restless night of sleep in the luteal phase, we'll point it out and also give some strategies for how somebody may attack their day, despite having not gotten as good of a night of sleep,” says Stacy Salvi, vice president of product and strategy at Movano Health. Similarly, “We know that there are cardiovascular implications when your estrogen drops, so they would want to keep a better look on the function of their heart,” she adds. “This would be something that they would be able to do from our app.”

Even the design itself was made with women in mind: The ring features an open band meant to accommodate how women’s fingers change in size throughout the day, so it can stay comfortable.

To avoid needless stress, Evie also limits the amount of goals you can set on the app. “You can only set three at a time, because we do not want to overwhelm [users] with a bunch of different things,” says Salvi. “I mean, I'm an overachiever. I probably would set every single goal and then fail at them.” And heaven knows we don’t need yet another way for busy, overwhelmed women to feel like they’re failing in a society with unsurmountable standards.

Forecasting the future

A woman walks up to the weight rack in 2024. She sees the usual suspects—bros pounding protein shakes and grunting through their bicep curls—but now she also sees a fair amount of women on the scene. They’ve got creatine supplements! Fitness trackers! Kettlebells! (And no, they aren’t pink.)

Granted, we still have a ways to go before women feel totally embraced by the biohacking space (we’d first have to close the centuries-long gender gap in science and medicine), but it’s clear that the arena is becoming way less of a boy’s club. “And the world is ready, my friend,” says Lyon. “The world is absolutely ready for this.”

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Content: Home » biohacking, reprogramming mind and body to live better

biohacking, reprogramming mind and body to live better

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It’s called “biohacking” and it comes from Silicon Valley. Listen: The long life diet: the longevity formula is calorie restriction …

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It’s called “biohacking” and comes from Silicon Valley.

A relatively new word that comes from the union of “biology” and “hacker” and indicates the attempt to positively influence the functioning of the organism, by hacking, ie trying to “force”, one’s genetic heritage. A strategy to live better and longer launched years ago by Californian top managers and which then spread throughout the world. How to upgrade the “operating system” of the human body? No manipulation, here we are talking about “reprogramming” and new lifestyles. “Our genetic heritage has enormous unexpressed potential that can be activated,” he explains Fabio Piccinidoctor and psychoanalyst, researcher of Food Sciences of theMarche Polytechnic University, author of the book “Biohacking Techniques: how to optimize metabolism to increase health and longevity”. “Biohacking aims to activate epigenetic modifications by awakening dormant genes to enhance the body’s resources.” While genetics studies the structure of DNA, epigenetics the way genes express themselves, i.e. how much they are turned on or off. “We’re talking about a set of strategies that aim to strengthen the body from a physical and mental point of view, first of all through nutrition, sleep quality, physical activity, cognitive stimulation”. One of the pillars of biohacking and the intermittent fasting, Piccini adds, which plans to concentrate the diet in a precise time span of the day (to be followed always under medical supervision). «But it is equally important to take care of sleep, we know very well that sleep debt accelerates aging and that 30-40 percent of people sleep too little. Just as it is essential to check thehydration. Physical training must also be intermittent, with recovery periods in place to allow the muscle layers to rebuild. And then, you have to keep learning something at any age, another pillar of biohacking: studying music or a new language, for example, to counteract cognitive degeneration”.

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THE QUALITY OF LIFE

Sandra Milo is one of the supporters of this well-being and longevity strategy. «I’m lucky, at 90 I’m in full health and I still have a great desire to enjoy life. I don’t know if it’s a matter of genetics, nor do I think there is a “magic formula” of longevity, but I have certainly always been careful to lead a healthy life. There is nothing more beautiful than reaching old age with a smile and in full autonomy », says the actress who baptized the first Biohacking Suite in Rome. “Our mission is not so much to lengthen life but to improve its quality by lowering the rate of morbidity,” explains Dr. Claudio Urbani, specialist in regenerative medicine, neuroscience and stress therapy, head of the longevity center Umb. «Biohacking aims to modify dormant functional responses from non-use, from muscular or cardiovascular function to flexibility. It is about regaining possession of the body and the mind-body axis, starting with stress management». Diagnosing your own state of “aging” involves a series of tests. «The measurement of oxidative stress which measures the quantity of free radicals and indicates any inflammatory states, plethysmography to evaluate the functionality of the microcirculation of the legs, impedancemetry to study body composition, fat and lean mass, nutritional status and hydration level. And only after the check is a tailor-made program created for each person. Among the suggested therapies, there is also that of the cold which stimulates the metabolism and reduces inflammation ».

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Popular nutrition approaches among biohackers include intermittent fasting, time-restricted eating, and ketogenic-style practices using MCTs.

Title:

Content: TV legend Davinia Taylor has revealed how well she is feeling after undertaking a new lifestyle that involves biohacking.

Biohacking occurs when someone changes their nutrition and lifestyle in order to make themselves healthier. Each person who biohacks does so in a different way whether it’s cutting out alcohol, taking supplements, or engaging in anti-ageing procedures.

Davinia – who starred in Hollyoaks – has explained that her biohacking involves cold-water therapy and removing inflammatory foods from her diet.

As a result of her new lifestyle, which also includes the use of saunas and supplements, Davinia has said that she now feels healthier than she ever has before.

Speaking to Hello! Davinia said that she entered a difficult period of poor mental health after the death of her mother when she was 35.

She added: “Boredom drove me to drink and then to eat unhealthily. I don’t want to go into my 50s feeling bored, so I had to find another way to get the dopamine I crave.”

On the techniques she uses for her biohacking, Davinia reveals that one of her routine acts is taking supplements from a company she founded. Known as WillPowders which contain collagen, protein, bone broth, and MCT (a healthy form of saturated fat) they have become an essential part of her routine.

Davinia explained: “If I don’t have my morning keto creamer and collagen, I’m going to end up binging on croissants or brownies. It’s how I’m wired after my 1980s upbringing.”

This isn’t the first time Davinia has spoken about biohacking. Earlier this year she told the Evening Standard that it wasn’t a case of taking big measures to improve one’s health.

She said: “There's so much doom and gloom… There's so much doom and gloom…There are so many little hacks you can do just to make yourself feel mentally better.”

Davinia highlighted the benefits of cold-water therapy, a method she said can be cheap to access: “The water’s freezing in this country two-thirds of the time. And on the few months a year when it’s not, just go to the supermarket, buy some ice bags and empty them into the bath.”

Title:

Content: Overthinking

Is intermittent fasting just another form of disordered eating?

The latest diet fad to pick up steam among Brits involves periods of prolonged abstinence from food. Men in particular are becoming loyal followers of the trend, and it’s why Oliver Keens suspects more people aren’t approaching it with necessary cynicism

Sunday 18 February 2024 06:00
Comments

What if, and I’m just floating it here, intermittent fasting turns out to be… a fad? Something on a par with the long-forgotten “baby food diet” of the early 2010s, let’s say. In the current clamour to acclaim fasting as a way to treat cancer, boost brain power, repair cells and shred fat, I feel like it’s worth recalling the faddy food regiment rumoured to have been taken up by Lady Gaga, Cheryl Cole, Jennifer Aniston and many other female celebrities a decade ago.

It involved eating around 14 portions of pureed baby food every day, with the occasional actual meal thrown in. Papers chuckled as sales of wet baby food soared, and jars of Ella’s Kitchen organic chicken and sweetcorn mash were snapped up before they could be aeroplaned into their intended infant mouths. Despite the hilarity, this diet was simply a form of prolonged abstinence, much like intermittent fasting (IF). So it’s curious why one diet gave people the giggles and the other is being treated as a miracle. I think the answer is simple: because it is men who are suddenly all over IF, nobody’s calling BS on it the way they did when Cole was allegedly eating tiny jars of creamed porridge.

I was conflicted to hear earlier this month that our prime minister Rishi Sunak practices an extreme fasting ritual for 36 hours every week. After all, we’ve only just diagnosed “hanger” as a full-on societal ill – only to learn that the most powerful man in the land is voluntarily parachuting himself into the hanger zone every Monday. Yet the press around Sunak’s adoption of fasting had an unexpected side effect: it brought two very distinct fasting tribes to the fore.

The first camp includes people who have come to IF because they’re suffering from an illness or a medical issue. For example, there have been studies that show a link between a pared-back diet and chemotherapy being more effective, which has naturally brought those with cancer to IF. It has found proponents in people with polycystic ovary syndrome, which can cause irregular menstrual cycles or infertility – ditto people combating severe inflammation like arthritis or reducing type 2 diabetes. Some in my life came to it this way, via their medical needs. Coincidentally, they’ve all been women.

Now let’s look at the other camp. For shorthand, let’s call them the men who have absolutely nothing wrong with them. Before Sunak, a familiar kind of male ecosystem had been evangelising the diet. Elon Musk and Jordan Peterson have sung its praises, while it’s also been covered several times on the alpha podcast Diary of a CEO. Episodes on the topic of fasting are subtitled with terms like “Get your sex life back”, while its YouTube version deploys crude graphics that explosively tell you of a “1,300 per cent increase in testosterone!”

IF has also been the topic du jour of many a Silicon Valley exec, who as a group commonly stress a perceived increase in “longevity”, while that same desire to live a lot longer than mere mortals has interlaced with self-help gurus such as Tony Robbins who promote the concept of “biohacking”.

It’s no surprise that IF has been promoted by a certain demographic of men who think a lot about their own manliness. IF is often explained as a way for us – the overfed, over-pampered, useless modern man – to return to the purposeful days of the hunter-gatherer or caveman, where men were supposed to be able to survive just fine on a drastically scaled-back regiment of food. Bizarrely, one of this group’s biggest enemies seems to be breakfast. Ahh, poor breakfast – once feted as the most important meal of the day, now the subject of endless angry videos titled “Why breakfast is a scam”.

I will never begrudge someone for doing something that makes them feel good, but if it sounds like I have an axe to grind, it’s true, I do. My main suspicion of IF comes from the fact that – without exception – all the men I personally know who are practising it are very healthy and very thin.

I care because we live in an era in which male eating disorders are both rife and yet totally under-discussed. An estimated 10 million men and boys suffer from an eating disorder in America. One in three sufferers are men. In the UK, men like former cricketer Freddie Flintoff or actor Christopher Eccleston have tried to shift public opinions on male eating disorders by very openly discussing their experiences with bulimia and anorexia, respectively. Yet I think there’s still a sense of total denial in most of us that men can manifest these kinds of diseases.

How can they not though, when it’s becoming increasingly rare to see men in the public eye who are anything other than completely slim – something that is simply unachievable for a lot of us. As you browse online today, keep an eye out for all the slim men you see, and think of all the averagely sized or plus-sized men you don’t see. A recent Israeli study even went as far as to suggest that a hegemony of male body shapes in porn was leading men to have eating disorders. Intermittent fasting feels like just the latest thing making totally healthy men in my life do slightly barmy and extreme things.

I’ve seen it in myself since I joined a gym. I’ve hurtled into a totally new self-doubt around my own weight and physique, just by being in the same environment as men. I’ve seen it in many male friends too, after just a few scratches of the surface. I worry that when a male pal takes up extreme cycling, starts devoting themselves to gym life, begins training for an Ironman or Tough Mudder event, or starts intermittent fasting, that there’s more going on than just a basic desire for health.

As algorithmic male messaging gets more and more primal, and this bizarre evocation of the caveman continues, it’s worth checking in with your male friends more about this. Perhaps over breakfast?

For anyone struggling with the issues raised in this article, eating disorder charity Beat’s helpline is available 365 days a year on 0808 801 0677. NCFED offers information, resources and counselling for those suffering from eating disorders, as well as their support networks. Visit eating-disorders.org.uk or call 0845 838 2040

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Common physical strategies include high-intensity or extreme exercise, cold-water therapy or ice baths, saunas, and targeted training such as zone 2 and HRV monitoring.

Many biohackers use multiple supplements or prescription drugs such as metformin, NMN, creatine, collagen, and MCT-containing products.

Title:

Content: 18 +
• Health
• Health
Health care
Naive biohacking: why is it dangerous to take vitamins “just in case ” and is it true that hacking the body is the way to nowhere (and not to eternal life)
To live longer (for herself and her family), to avoid cancer and heart disease, biohacking enthusiast (now in the past!) and lifestyle podcaster Teresa Skrobanek conducted an experiment and plunged into the world of a thousand and one supplements for longevity.
Whose infectious example was she inspired by?
What was the danger of taking her medicine for diabetes and vitamin B capsules (it is recommended for everyone to calm down!)?
After what biohacking did Teresa really feel better?
Let ’ s share her story.
Master1305
Biohacking experiment
At the end of 2022, Teresa Skrobanek, a responsible mother and grandmother, decided to try to include “longevity ” supplements in her diet.
The general goal is to live as long as possible (for yourself and your family) and avoid breast cancer and heart disease, the risk of which is higher in women over fifty (and Teresa was 57 at the time).
Anti-age drugs were prescribed by a doctor, but, apparently, the specialist was free to relate to the ratio of anamnesis and goals of taking drugs.
In April 2023, Teresa discovered that the capsules in her medicine cabinet were metformin, which is usually prescribed to patients with type II diabetes.
Although the woman did not suffer from this disease, the doctor prescribed the drug due to the fact that the results of the studies were encouraging (but not guaranteed!) - it helps to fight aging
Teresa has also tried over-the-counter drugs, such as nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) supplements, which supposedly, but not proven, speed up metabolism and reduce signs of growing up.
According to the experimentalist, she followed the example of the brightest biohacker – IT billionaire Brian Johnson, who takes about two dozen supplements a day, uses at least 7 skin creams and annually spends $2 million on unusual procedures to restore youth (for example, bowel photos, blood transfusions, weekly acid peels and laser therapy).
20 supplements a day and no rejuvenation
The more and longer Teresa took the drugs, the more she doubted.
Feeling worse, and Skrobanek plunged headlong into the study of dietary supplements - the results were contradictory.
For example, studies have shown that the widely advertised low-age supplements of nicotinamide riboside (a form of vitamin B3) increase the risk of brain cancer.
And the unpleasant consequences of the use of metformin (remember, Teresa took the medicine for diabetes, not being a diabetic!) were headaches, drowsiness and anxiety.
“I started to have a headache.
I felt very tired, although the pills were supposed to give me strength, ” Skrobanek told The New York Post, with whom she shared her entire story.
How do I know that taking these substances will not harm my kidneys or liver and will not cause cancer in 5-10 years? ”
beast01
Errors made by Teresa, which can not be made by biohackers novice
At TikTok, where the hashtag # BioHacking has garnered more than half a billion views, proponents of the biohacking movement boast of swallowing 70 to 150 different rejuvenating dietary supplements every day.
For example, to slow down the aging process, businessman Joe Cohen takes rapamycin, an FDA-approved drug that a 2014 study found could help increase life expectancy.
However, Cohen told The Post that he does not recommend a strict regime to his followers: mindlessly copying from and to the anti-age program of trendsetters is dangerous!
Instead, an experienced biohacker (Joe says he ’ s been studying this phenomenon for 20 years!) encourages newcomers to take blood tests first to determine the body ’ s biological needs and deficiencies, carefully examine the benefits and side effects of any supplements, and take only what seems right.
Cohen clarifies: “By understanding your physiology, you can take certain medications that will boost your energy, mood, and chances of avoiding age-related illnesses.
Preserving health is much more important than simply prolonging existence. ”
According to the businessman, his goal is to live as long and healthy a life as possible (and not necessarily up to 150 years)!
Roman Samborskyi
If not biohacking, then what (spoiler: food)
New York City Nutrition nutritionist Diana Rodriguez agrees with Cohen.
But to start your way to longevity offers still not with tablets, but with a healthy diet: “It is recommended to use food as the first method of preventing dangerous diseases.
Fruits, vegetables, low-fat proteins, nuts and legumes, in which "tons" of vitamins and minerals, can be very useful. "
Increasing nutrient intake through organic whole foods is something Teresa Scrobanek started doing in June 2023, when she gave up the supplement diet once and for all.
And she never felt better:
“If a long life meant that I got it with terrible side effects due to taking supplements, then I would prefer a shorter, but better life, which is based on proper nutrition and training, ” concluded Teresa.
The editors remind that drugs, vitamins, dietary supplements and food products have contraindications.
A specialist consultation is required.
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Some interventions have clinical research support; for example, creatine has been associated with increased muscle mass and cognitive benefits in studies.

Other popular interventions lack clear clinical proof and can cause side effects; a reported case described headaches, sleepiness, and anxiety after taking metformin without diabetes.

Experts and experienced biohackers recommend blood testing and individualized assessment before adopting supplement regimens, and diagnostic measures can be used to tailor programs.

Wearables and continuous monitors like WHOOP, Evie, and continuous glucose monitors are used to track HRV and other metrics, but monitoring data can provoke anxiety or obsessive behaviour in some users.

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Home > Health> Wellness > When wearable technology leads to obsessive behaviour

When wearable technology leads to obsessive behaviour

Yes, data could help us meet or maintain our fitness goals. But it may also have a negative impact on mental health

While trackers can be fantastic tools to kick ourselves into gear and achieve our goals, they do have a dark side to them (Pexels)

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I have this friend; let's call her Priya. She is a high-powered executive, and her world revolves around analyzing data. Her love affair with numbers transcends her work and follows her home at night via her smartwatch, which records (to some degree of accuracy) her daily movements and food intake. She loves her data so much that when her smart watch dings an alert to move, she will dutifully get up and move around. When her smartwatch reminds her to be calm and breathe, she takes a deep breath. If she absentmindedly checks on her step count and sees that she is behind, she will pace up and down her driveway to rack up her daily 10,000 steps. It's only a matter of time before I walk into her house and find her walking on a treadmill desk. Recently, her love of data expanded into a wearable continuous glucose monitoring device, which pokes out of her dress shirts like the dressing of a battle wound. Now, to my utter dismay, lies an email from her waiting patiently in my inbox requesting my take on the benefits of a wearable fitness tracking ring.

Also read: Why being neutral about your body is the best form of self-love

I wish I were joking, but alas, I am not. Not only am I confused by the desire to wear technology that looks like you escaped from the hospital, but I also don't see why one needs so many forms of data collection to determine if they are on the right track with their health and wellness goals. Optimizing your health is one thing; obsession is quite another.

Let me first say that fitness and nutrition trackers can be fantastic tools to kick ourselves into gear and achieve our goals. Fitness trackers can help determine if we are moving enough, and nutrition trackers can help monitor your calorie and macronutrient intake. We can monitor our sleep, which impacts our health, and now, according to an article in Fortune, there may even be wearable technology that registers our emotions. All these gadgets and wellness devices provide fascinating data that may impact our future decision-making.

However, I say "may" because I have found that people can take three actions when using a fitness or nutrition tracker. One, you can analyze the data and decide on a new course of action the following day. For example, let's say that by eating a bagel, your blood glucose levels catapult within an hour of eating it. Instead of choosing a bagel from the canteen tomorrow, you opt for some fruit and a small portion of nuts. You review the data and see that your blood glucose didn't elevate as much, so you pat yourself on the back for playing nutrition detective, and you continue with the change in your snacking patterns. Alternatively, you can view the data and do nothing with it. You might look at that same piece of data regarding your bagel intake and muse to yourself that the spike in insulin is an interesting phenomenon, and you go on your merry way, changing nothing. And finally, you can be someone whose heart races as they look at their data, feeling stressed or anxious that you have fallen short. You may even start beating yourself over the bagel but feel powerless to change your ways. Feeling powerless can be a terrible, limiting feeling for some people, and they will stop using the data to make informed decisions to better their lives.

I informally interviewed a large audience on their attitudes toward fitness trackers. I found there was an even spread between the three types of people, enough to take notice of the ones who felt paralyzed by the data. There is a great quote by French cultural theorist Paul Virilio that says, "the inventor of the ship is also the inventor of the shipwreck." Not all ships sink, but some do. And it's safe to say that not all people suffer from the stress and anxiety of tracking their habits, but some do.

Science is starting to back this finding up. An article published in Digital Trends titled The Hidden Psychological Drawback of Fitness Trackers tells us of a study conducted by the University of Copenhagen, showing that data could be interpreted as calming or alarming, depending on the experience of the users. What they found in the study was that the participants who slept and ate well felt calm when looking back at their data. If they hadn't done those things, they reported a heightened level of anxiety, although reviewing the data confirmed what they already knew. An article published by the website of the Sports Psychotherapy Academy, which provides psychological well-being courses in the UK, also notes that the downside of trackers may also come from people feeling as if their routines are dictated by their devices. Some users will even go as far as to skip a workout if they forget to wear their device.

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The excitement of wearable technology is understandable: it can be the key between the person you are now and the person you want to become. However, just like orthorexia, a clinical condition regarding the obsession with clean eating rules, causing anxiety and depression, pursuing perfection through data can also imprison us. The idea that everyone can use data to make dispassionate and objective decisions is fundamentally flawed; it disregards that everyone's attitudes on food, exercise, skills, abilities, and self-worth are different. Instead of data being a positive force in your life, you may start embodying unhelpful, negative self-talk (I'll never be good at this, I'll always fail, this isn't working for me), and that kind of thinking will sabotage your efforts to change. Sometimes the data needs to be paired with human-to-human coaching to help someone develop the mental and emotional tools to change.

The purpose of having this data is to become more motivated to move better and eat well, which can substantially improve our moods and elevates our quality of life. Second, there is nothing you can do about data that has been recorded. Mentally shackling yourself to past poor decisions doesn't allow you room to learn and grow. To be successful with our decision-making supported by data, we have to decide early on what we want to track and analyze and to what degree that data will be helpful for us. Will it help change our decisions, or is it just the fashion to wear a sports watch? The key is to own the relationship with your data and results, not let it own you.

If you notice that you're becoming affected by the data and want a data detox, here are some ways to see other data points in your life.

 Frequency: Are you being consistent with your exercise? Try and get at least 150 minutes of purposeful activity a week.

Intensity: When you exercise, are you doing something vigorous enough to at least feel your heart beating harder and breathing a little heavier?

How do you feel once you've completed your exercise? Happy and satisfied or down and lethargic? Exercise should boost your mood, not leave you feeling low.

Food: Follow the 80/20 rule. Are you eating fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, lean cuts of meat, and small amounts of essential fats throughout the day/week? And are your treats (junk food, alcohol, highly processed, sugary foods) kept in moderation?

Jen Thomas is a Chennai-based weight-loss coach

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Sources caution that biohacking culture can become extreme, male-dominated or obsessive, and they advise prioritising whole-food diets and sustainable changes over indiscriminate supplement stacks.

Conclusion: some biohacking practices have supporting studies, but many popular supplements and extreme routines are unproven or risky; clinical testing and medical supervision are recommended.