Biohacking may not help those with complex chronic illness. Like many other areas of life, Medicine is divided into camps or approaches with different names and different camps work better for different issues. That makes some sense for why you should see a GI for gut problems versus a neurologist for brain issues, but it also applies at the higher level of conventional versus holistic/functional medicine. Conventional medicine works well for big acute or simple issues like heart attacks, broken bones, etc., while functional medicine addresses chronic and complex health problems in more long-lasting and fruitful ways. Combining these approaches works even better, given we face a combination of these two types of problems.
Likewise, within the holistic world, there is a ‘biohacking approach’ and a ‘complex chronic illness approach’ to health. The former (biohacking) is better for optimizing health while the latter (complex chronic illness) is better for restoring the multi-brokenness of complex chronic illness. Each of these have roles; each uses similar tools in different ways. Thus, like conventional and functional medicine camps, they both have a place—in different ways, at different times.
Real life and the internet alike give us a multitude of biohackers. A common goal is ‘to live to 110 years old at 110% optimal health.’ The general idea conveyed is that with micromanagement of all areas of health, dialing everything into perfection, you can feel amazing. Anyone who considers this approach for more than a moment, or tries for a week, realizes it is a full-time job. They also realize that to do it well, they may need 2 full time jobs to pay for it: supplements, Hyperbaric chambers, peptides, personal trainers forever. Promises of that magic therapy abound, hundreds of promises, all falling over each other, none sufficient.
Those struggling with complex chronic illnesses face major challenges when trying to apply a biohacking approach. They start with multiple interdependent systems whose individual and collective operations are already dysfunctional. With so many symptoms to track, they find it very challenging to measure results from a single therapy. Beyond that, life for them is already maxed out. Chronic illness leaves them barely energy or ability to make it through a day, much less micromanage the biohacking complexity.
Besides the practical difficulties of biohacking beneath such a burden, setting the goal at 110% wellness is emotionally overwhelming for the patient struggling around 20%. Those who start at 20% usually have to work slow on a few things at a time, and they have to do that for a long time to see tangible results. Often they must address symptoms and problems in layers. The thought of biohacking for life can be overwhelming when they just want to get back to “normal” like everyone else. They are not as concerned with biohack’s goal of being healthier than everyone else. Feeling normal would be a great blessing.
However, there are some similarities between biohacking and treating complex chronic illnesses. At some stages in chronic illness, we must make 1 or 2 changes in therapy and watch what happens. In the big picture, it is like an engineer adjusting knobs until things are fine-tuned (At least I was told that by engineer husband of a patient). In the big picture, those with the chronic illness do want to optimize for themselves, but their goal may need to be 70% for the first year, not 110% in a month. For both camps, everyone wants to feel their best and is willing to work at it. And both approaches do take work—lifestyle therapies and financial investment.
So what difference does it make in how Sanctuary approaches your complex chronic illness care? Yes, we biohack in one sense of the word, but we are not biohackers in general. That means we use a lot of the same tools, therapies, ideas, but we apply them differently in our patients with chronic illness. Sometimes we start at lower and slower doses. This approach usually comes at different times in the layers of recovery. Sometimes, some therapies are not meant for the chronically ill. They won’t work, they have a higher risk of harm, or they are just a waste of money until other things are fixed. But we do often micro-adjust and monitor, readjust and monitor repeatedly until your “optimal” for that specific issue—a sort of ‘biohacking.’
In contrast to average biohacking, though, we generally start further upstream on a patient’s health. Before turbocharging the mitochondria, we may need to take out some trash, like toxins, infections, and inflammation. Rather than pouring on more (excessive) hormones, we either get the already present hormones to cooperate and behave, and we get the body to respond better to hormones already there. Before rebuilding brain connections, we may need to lower inflammation, remove toxins, and optimize nutrition. Almost always, we must be sure the GI tract is functioning well enough so that we keep the gas tank full and the engine fluids clean with good nutrition. For chronically ill patients, we have lots to do before trying to turbocharge a dysfunctional system.
Overall, rather than going 110mph, we just need to keep the body going 20mph from breaking down on the roadside while it’s fixed. In other words, a lot of the biohacking promises of the amazing life if you just take this one magical supplement get pushed to the side, as they don’t work so swiftly with complex chronic illness. There are enough things to do to get someone’s health out of the ditch that we don’t want to overburden someone with biohacking therapies which probably won’t work any better than strapping a rocket booster onto a car with a broken axle and 2 flat tires.
Ultimately, helping chronically ill patients restore healthier, more abundant lives requires not only knowing what tools are available and how to use them but, even more importantly, the wisdom to use them at the right time, in the right way—or to use a completely different tool for the job. Hammers don’t turn screws very well, no more than biohacking turns around the lives of chronically ill patients with one quick-fix internet promise.
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Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
Dr. Eric Potter graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School and then went on to specialize in internal medicine (adult) and pediatric care, spending significant time and effort in growing his medical understanding while caring for patients from all walks of life.
