Biohacking Journey

Biohacking has become a cornerstone of my lifestyle and personal research. The story of how I came to it is something I’d now like to share with you. It's important that you know where I started, and what happened along the way to understand how I got to where I am, and what I had to recover from to do it

Early Life

I was born five weeks premature, and spent the first two weeks of my life in an incubator. Growing up, I was always a sickly child, and very, very small. I had tonsillitis quite regularly until my teenage years and was on antibiotics a lot. I experienced terrible bouts of abdominal pain (especially as a pre-teen), dizzy spells, respiratory challenges. I was skinny, pale, and born with a lazy left eye that turned in toward my nose. When I was little, I had surgeries to correct the lazy eye, and wore a patch over my good eye in the hope of improving my vision. Unfortunately my brain had already learned to filter out the signals from the left eye, so even to this day, I am mostly blind in my left eye, and have no depth perception. Puberty came very late for me. I was still only 152 cm when I turned 16 years old, and it wasn't until that summer when puberty really kicked in. By my mid 20s many of my health challenges seemed to even out. For a while. In my late 20s I started working steady midnights, and over time my health began to suffer more and more

Trigger Event

In the early 2000s I was hit with a devastating health crisis. A kidney infection spiraled out of control when urine refluxed into my prostate, sparking a severe secondary infection. I was bedridden for days, wracked by high fever and passing blood clots with every agonizing attempt to urinate. I eventually landed in the emergency room where an intravenous antibiotic drip administered over the course of three days (later deemed a lifesaver by my urologist) pulled me back from the brink. Still, the ordeal was far from over. My urologist prescribed a powerful antibiotic regimen that would continue for four and a half months to fully eradicate the infection

Aftermath

As the infection faded, a new nightmare emerged. Symptoms crept in slowly at first. Crippling heartburn with every bite of food, then escalated into relentless diarrhea after meals and throughout the day. Breathing became a struggle, headaches pounded relentlessly, and exhaustion pinned me down. My body ballooned, packing on nearly fifteen kilograms. Over the next decade, my condition, relationship, finances, and career all deteriorated as more challenges piled on. Climbing a single flight of stairs would leave me gasping, coughing uncontrollably, forcing me to carry an inhaler with me everywhere. Eventually chronic bronchitis took root. All in all I was experiencing what seemed like Crohn's-like GI symptoms, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and acute asthma. By the end, I could barely work, spent twelve hours a day in bed, struggled to complete even the simplest of chores, and felt as though death's shadow was closing in. I doubted I'd see the age of forty-five

The list of prescribed medications and treatments grew endlessly, a desperate patchwork of relief attempts. I also experimented with a wide range of homeopathic remedies and non-pharmaceutical interventions, but nothing delivered lasting improvement. My health remained an ever-darkening shadow of what it once was

Recovery

Then, in early 2010, a glimmer of hope appeared. I watched the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, a documentary about juice fasting that resonated deeply. Inspired, I committed to try a month-long green juice fast and shared my plan on Facebook. A friend studying to become a nutritionist noticed my post and asked if I'd be willing to serve as a case study for her final project. Skeptical but eager to help (and certain that things couldn't get worse), I agreed. The juice fast brought a modest, temporary reprieve to my condition, but the benefits faded soon after the fast ended

Months later, I met with my nutritionist friend and completed an extensive intake questionnaire. Her detailed analysis revealed a chilling truth: the prolonged antibiotic treatment had likely obliterated my microbiome, allowing undigested food particles to leak into my system. This toxic breach triggered an immune cascade and rampant inflammation. Worse, some medications (like the anti-diarrheal I relied on) were amplifying my autoimmune spiral

She designed a rigorous raw, vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free fasting protocol, starting with a colon cleanse and lasting at least six months, or as long as I found it beneficial. Within days, I no longer needed an inhaler, and my headaches and fatigue vanished. In two months, the excess weight melted away, and muscle began to return. By the six-month mark, I felt vibrant, healthier than I'd been in my entire adult life

Personal Biohacking

Intrigued by her methods, I asked about her training. That's when this whole thing took root. She pointed me to the cornerstone of her education, her program's textbook, Staying Healthy with Nutrition: The Complete Guide to Diet and Nutritional Medicine by Elson M. Haas, MD, and Buck Levin. I bought it, devoured it, and ignited a continuing passion to study health, nutrition and longevity. Over time, I cobbled together a personal protocol including insights from luminaries like Dave Asprey, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Dr. Eric Berg, Peter Diamandis, Clint Ober, Dr. William Davis, Dr. Matthew Walker, Dr. Rhonda Patrick, and Bryan Johnson

As time went on, the vegan lifestyle started to show signs that it was not fulfilling the needs of my specific biology. I switched, and was far better served on a diet that included both plant and animal sources. I also began regular supplementation to make up for shortfalls. I continued to study nutrition science, biochemistry, and do N of 1 experimentation. Eventually, I realized that due to certain traits inherent in my individual genetic makeup, I would require significant supplementation to optimize my health. This inspired more research, more customization. Something I continue to do to this day

Now, I've sculpted a biohacking regimen tailored to my specific needs. Well into middle age, I feel better than I have at any prior point in my adult life

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The Intellectual Lineage

The protocol didn't arrive fully formed. It was built piece by piece, each person contributing something specific, something I needed at a particular moment. There's a clear thread. It makes sense. At the time it felt more like following curiosity wherever it led

The Gateway: Joe Rogan

Joe Rogan is how I found WHOOP. Once I had a device giving me daily signal (recovery, strain, sleep architecture), I could actually see what was working and what wasn't. Before that, I was flying blind

He also introduced me to ONNIT's Total Human protocol, which was the first time I saw a comprehensive stack laid out as a system. Morning pack, evening pack, everything accounted for. For the first time, systematic supplementation felt concrete rather than overwhelming. That's what opened it up. Everything else followed from there

Sleep Protocol: Dr. Matt Walker

The first thing I implemented after WHOOP and Total Human was the sleep protocol. Given fifteen years on midnights and the health history behind them, this was less about optimisation than repair. Dr. Matt Walker's work, Why We Sleep, the podcast appearances, the interviews, gave me a way to understand what sleep actually does and what it costs when you get it wrong for a decade and a half

The WHOOP made it immediately practical. I could see the deep sleep, the REM, the debt accumulating. I could see the consequences in the recovery score the next morning. WHOOP turned it into something I could measure every morning

The Genetic Turn: Dr. Rhonda Patrick

Doctor Rhonda Patrick's perspective had me rethink my entire approach to how I needed to build a protocol so that it would work for my specific needs. I started by consuming every podcast I could find with her, and then went looking for more. The depth of her knowledge, compounds, biological mechanisms, the way gene expression can modify how an individual actually processes nutrients and responds to interventions, was something I hadn't encountered anywhere else at that level of rigour

Population-level recommendations are almost beside the point for someone whose biology runs differently at the genetic level. She made that concrete, not theoretical. The question wasn't "what does the research say" anymore. It was "what does the research say for someone with my particular variants."

That shift inspired me to get my genome sequenced. Once I finally did, I started getting updated reports from FoundMyFitness once a year to get insight into the genes that were added to their expanding database. Each update helped to remove the fog from my understanding. I'm nowhere near perfect with it, but I continue to step closer with each iteration

She's the reason the personalisation layer exists at all

The Foundation: Dave Asprey

Dave Asprey is probably the single largest influence on how the protocol is actually built. The D/A/K/E fat-soluble vitamin architecture, high-dose TMG for MTHFR, the mineral complex, the ghee in the coffee, healthy fat as both substrate and hormonal signal, these came through him. The Perfect Amino protocol for long fasts too, which addressed a challenge I'd been running into. My quarterly fasts were costing almost as much as they were giving until I understood how to preserve lean mass during them without breaking the fast or stressing the liver

Time-Line, Vinia, Renue too, from the Human Upgrade podcast. What I trust about Asprey is that he tends to be early and right. Most of what he recommended when nobody was paying attention has since been validated. He does the homework and runs the experiments on himself. I respect that, even if I don't always appreciate his delivery

Carnivore-Mediterranean OMAD. Dr. Eric Berg

Dr. Eric Berg made the mechanistic case for OMAD in a way that landed. He went down to the cellular level: what's happening during a fast, what insulin does in that window, why timing matters as much as the food. Once I understood the mechanism, OMAD stopped feeling like restriction and started feeling like protocol

The carnivore-Mediterranean hybrid came through him too. The structure made sense for my specific situation, high protein density, fat-soluble nutrient delivery from animal sources, anti-inflammatory and polyphenol coverage from the Mediterranean side. Not random. Coherent

Longevity Science: David Sinclair, PhD, AO

David Sinclair (Harvard Medical School) brought the longevity science layer. NMN and the NAD+ pathway, resveratrol as a sirtuin activator, mitophagy and mitochondrial quality control, the biological age reversal framing. He gave me the language for what the mitochondrial stack is actually doing

He uses Withings for body composition tracking, which I found interesting. His visceral fat index sits around 2.8. Mine is around 3.8 (under 12 is considered the healthy range). Mine is well within healthy range, but the gap is worth understanding. He's vegan, runs a longevity research lab, and has resources most people don't have. The point isn't to close the gap by copying his approach. The point is to understand what's driving it and what levers actually apply to my biology

Mechanistic Understanding: Andrew Huberman

Dr. Andrew Huberman gave me the mechanistic layer: the neuroscience and physiology behind why things work, not just that they work. That distinction matters more than it sounds. If you only know what to do, you can follow a protocol. If you understand why it works, you can reason about new interventions, evaluate claims, and adapt when the situation changes

Huberman's contribution isn't a specific supplement or approach. It's depth of understanding

Systems Design: Bryan Johnson

Bryan Johnson contributed the operating philosophy. Build systems that run independent of willpower, motivation, or how you feel on a given day. The protocol doesn't ask whether I feel like taking the morning stack. It runs because it's designed to run. Decisions get made once, at the design level, and then executed automatically

His workout protocol is a future target. The discipline and precision of what he's built is something I want to move toward as retirement and the schedule it opens up allows for it

Amino Acid Optimisation: Gary Brecka

Gary Brecka introduced me to Perfect Amino. When I did my own research, the case was compelling. Near-complete (99%) utilisation, no insulin response, minimal hepatic load. For someone running OMAD and quarterly 72-80 hour fasts while trying to maintain 80%+ lean body mass at 56, this resolved a genuine challenge. The fasts had been costing me muscle. Dave Asprey's long-fast framing sealed it. Now Perfect Amino runs across all three stacks, and the fasts are delivering what they're supposed to deliver without the structural cost

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What the Lineage Produced

Joe Rogan opened the door and gave me the first tools. Matt Walker built the foundation. Rhonda Patrick turned the whole thing toward personalisation and made the genome sequencing inevitable. Dave Asprey built the architecture on top of it. Berg set the dietary and fasting structure. David Sinclair added the longevity science. Andrew Huberman gave me the mechanistic understanding to think for myself. Bryan Johnson gave me the systems philosophy. Gary Brecka solved the fasting protein challenge

On top of all of it sits the personalisation layer. Genetic data (MTHFR TT, COMT GG, PEMT CT, GSTP1 GG, TCF7L2 TT, and others) calibrates every dose and every decision to my specific physiology rather than a generic user. The WHOOP and Withings data give me continuous feedback that no influencer or researcher can give me. The signal comes from my own body

Thanks to the insight of these professionals, I've been able to cobble together a comprehensive protocol for myself. It may never be complete, but it's something I'm motivated to continue working on. Healthy isn't a destination as much as it's a process of constant, incidental improvement