From the age of five I proclaimed my love of acting. While growing up I flirted with a myriad of diets in an often vain attempt to lose weight, and support what constituted, in my mind, a camera-ready body.
Eventually, I moved to Los Angeles to study film and theater at the University of Southern California, where chronic calorie counting was a consistent theme.
My restrictive diet was colored by occasional extreme experimentations including, but not limited to, the "cookie diet," HCG drops, and apple fasts. Note: I highly recommend one does not eat only apples for 11 days, and then imbibe at film school prom. You just may never touch hard alcohol again.
The chain of seemingly endless yo-yo dieting was finally broken when I tried a low-carb, keto diet. For the first time, I not only started losing weight with seemingly little effort, but I also was no longer haunted by the "hangry" ghost, and noticed other improvements beyond weight loss, such as enhanced energy, glowing skin, and the evanescence of mood swings.
I became obsessed with the idea of measuring fat burning à la urinary ketone strips, as well as diving into the science of diet. I next adopted intermittent fasting, as well as the Paleo diet, after reading Robb Wolf's The Paleo Solution.
With Paleo and intermittent fasting, I was feeling peachy—until I didn't. I had graduated from USC and was finally pursuing my acting dreams 24/7. I was fueled by nourishing food and adrenaline, but it masked a creeping fatigue underneath.
One fateful day I got food poisoning that was so bad I willingly wore my hair in a ponytail with no makeup as a background actor on the set of Parenthood. If you knew one thing about me at this time, it was that I would never wear my hair in a ponytail with no makeup on television.
The chronic digestive issues stemming from that exposure, coupled with the toxic apartment I was unknowingly living, breathing, and sleeping in, led me to desperately seek tools and modalities to feel better.
I began implementing biohacking techniques before the term existed in the semi-conventional zeitgeist of today. I started religiously tracking my diet, supplements, sleep, and health biomarkers in elaborate, albeit convoluted, Excel docs, searching for trends in what practices improved my health.
To support my sleep, I started wearing orange glasses to block overstimulating blue light, which—while potentially energizing during the day—may short-circuit our melatonin production and disrupt our circadian rhythm.
While today you can buy official blue light blockers for this very purpose in an array of fashionable styles, at the time I had to go the orange construction glasses route.
As a perpetual night owl chronotype, I often found myself donning these literal rose-tinted glasses in the wee hours of Los Angeles grocery stores. Thankfully, anything goes in LA.
I also would experiment with mitochondrial support and grasp at solutions for brain fog, playing with different nootropics and compounds such as methylene blue.
While the latter is now a smidge more familiar in today's biohacking-sphere, at the time it was—and arguably still is—incredibly fringe, so I would find myself carefully diluting the shockingly blue liquid to take a few drops, wondering if I was going to become a blonde manifestation of Superwoman.
Wandering in internet forums and listening to Dave Asprey—who I am continually inspired by—I started crystallizing "biohacking" as a concept. That said, I didn't truly embrace the label until over half a decade later, when I sat down to launch my second podcast, The Melanie Avalon Biohacking Podcast.
Indeed, the more I researched, the more I found things that did help restore my energy. Ultimately I realized a large portion of my health issues involved my oh-so-cute 1970s apartment which just so happened to harbor black mold, and leak carbon monoxide every night from its adorable pink gas oven.
Despite what I call my dark times, I can now say I am truly grateful for my health challenges because they led me to the path of personal health agency, and biohacking optimization for healthspan, lifespan, and longevity.
While I've explored hundreds of biohacks over the years, some of the first true biohacking and longevity techniques I delved into included red and NIR light therapy, in an attempt to optimize the body's mitochondria; cold exposure, which may reduce inflammatory markers, support the immune system and release feel-good neurotransmitters; and infrared sauna, to try to provide cardiovascular benefits and further support the immune system.
Biohacking has truly revolutionized my mental and physical well-being. It plays a key role in helping me tackle my crazy, hectic, wondrous life as a female entrepreneur, podcaster, author, and influencer.
Using various techniques, I modulate my sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system to reduce my stress levels, enhance my sleep, and support my unconventional circadian rhythm at odds with society. I can honor my late-night chronotype, and address my light exposure and sleeping environment to still get ample rest and recovery.
Mentally, biohacking techniques make me feel alive. My daily cryotherapy session bathes me in endogenously produced endorphins, with no withdrawal.
Metabolically, I have been able to truly take charge of the foods I eat to support healthy blood sugar levels and ward off metabolic syndrome.
When my typical ~5.0 hbA1C—a general marker of average blood sugar levels over three months—shot up to 5.8 in a month, I used a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to keep track of my blood sugar levels. I realized my seemingly benign change of cooking my once-frozen fruit was likely to blame.
This small change had created an overwhelmingly taxing effect on my insulin and blood sugar regulation, which I wouldn't have realized had I not been tracking my bloodwork and using a CGM. In other words, with biohacking, I reversed my temporary pre-diabetes.
Biohacking has also been incredible for my immune system. With the exception of COVID-19, I haven't gotten sick in three years.
With biohacking, I truly can look, feel, and perform at my best.
I'm quite concerned with biohacking companies taking advantage of people with expensive and/or unverified technology. This often happens with products that may seem "woo-woo."
Because of this, I extensively vet all biohacking developments and technologies I encounter. I research their published literature and findings, and have personal calls with the founders to vet their stories and intentions.
The key, I believe, is trust—do we trust these creators and the tools they are creating?
And while I do not believe biohacking is inherently dangerous, anything can be taken too far. People should use caution in not overdoing it. New technology may also be untested, still being studied, and/or expensive.
In regards to being "overrated," I believe a primary issue lies in viewing biohacking techniques as salvation. I felt so much more free once I realized this. Biohacking can be simply enlightening and empowering, rather than a requirement for life.
Additionally, I believe any feedback we receive about our health is simply data. It bears no moral clause, and one cannot "fail" at biohacking, or even at health. We exist on a spectrum of health, and we can always aim to improve and optimize our vitality and performance.
Far too often, valuable techniques for health and wellness are sacrificed on the altar of clickbait and trends. Nuance gets lost in the dubious ethos of the latest fads. The benefits of ice baths are dismissed because they're "cool," the benefits of saunas equally because they're "hot."
I encourage people to look beyond the label, to what we actually know. And what we know is that one's health, propensity towards disease, and even lifespan—supercentenarians aside—are all likely largely influenced by epigenetics rather than genetics themselves.
All that said, despite having two top podcasts, a book, thousands of followers, and millions of yearly downloads, in which I explore the world of and share my findings of biohacking, I actually have no desire to convince anyone of biohacking.
I simply want to share what works for me, because it has had that much of a profound effect on my experience of the world, and I yearn for others to find what lights them up as well.
Biohacking pulled me out of some dark health situations, and I want everyone to know their genes are not their destiny, and their latest diagnosis is not their fate. I'm curious about biohacking for its longevity-boosting potential, so that I, and others, may live long, passionate, fulfilling lives.
It all comes back to agency, and it's there for the taking. Health and vibrancy is the lighthouse, and my shows are merely a flashlight. I truly hope people can find biohacking techniques that welcome vitality into their lives.
If the world could use one thing, it's more souls fueled by love, kindness, and the feelings of being alive. And I believe we can get there, one appropriate, individually-suited "biohack" at a time. You got this!
Melanie Avalon is a health influencer, entrepreneur, and host of The Intermittent Fasting Podcast and The Melanie Avalon Biohacking Podcast.
All views expressed in this article are the author's own.
Do you have a unique experience or personal story to share? Email the My Turn team at myturn@newsweek.com.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
