Biohacking booms as clinics and influencers go mainstream (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Biohacking was once a fringe pursuit of Silicon Valley executives and elite athletes, but it's fast becoming big business. The idea is that precisely measured, often small adjustments to your physical routines and behavior can lead to major health benefits. It can even help you live longer. The term can cover everything from quirky therapies to longevity labs. The BBC's Michelle Fleury reports now from New York. I'm Anthony.

[00:00:24] Speaker 2: I'm Theresa. I'm Legend. I'm Love. And we are the Biohack Yourself family.

[00:00:32] Speaker 3: The Lolly family isn't chasing wellness. They're fueling a movement. Biohacking treats the body like a machine, measured, optimized and tracked. Once fringe, it's now mainstream. And for these influencers, it was born out of necessity.

[00:00:49] Speaker 1: This didn't start as an optimization journey. This really started as survival.

[00:00:54] Speaker 4: We have to really make this information available to others because you have to biohack yourself.

[00:01:01] Speaker 3: And the kids are all in.

[00:01:03] Speaker 2: I want to biohack for the rest of my life because I want to stay healthy, young, live to like 150.

[00:01:11] Speaker 3: And as families like the Lollies push the boundaries, a wave of new biohacking businesses is popping up in an industry set to nearly triple by 2030. Let's be honest. I could do with a bit of an upgrade. So I've come here to see firsthand what biohacking looks like and perhaps in the process give myself a bit of a tune-up.

[00:01:31] Speaker 5: People are no longer accepting that aging and decaying are the same thing.

[00:01:37] Speaker 3: Dr. Chuck Morris runs Midtown Biohack. He says that what used to be reserved for elite athletes is now for everyone.

[00:01:45] Speaker 5: In the beginning, I think people thought it was a bit of a luxury or an offshoot. But it's on its way to becoming the standard.

[00:01:52] Speaker 3: One of his most popular treatments, a 10-second electric workout. Eight, nine, ten. That was 100 crunches in 10 seconds and I was just lying here relaxing.

[00:02:06] Speaker 5: That's the biohack.

[00:02:07] Speaker 3: And business is expanding fast.

[00:02:09] Speaker 5: So we already have two additional locations. We have one in the Hamptons and we have one in New Jersey because this one's in Midtown Manhattan. We have three more that we're looking at.

[00:02:18] Speaker 3: His target customer is the industrial athlete. Anyone glued to a screen for 12 hours a day.

[00:02:25] Speaker 5: Not a fad anymore. It's actually the reality of human experience. It's no longer a fad. This is the standard.

[00:02:32] Speaker 6: What they're doing is not science. It's not based on science and it could be also dangerous.

[00:02:38] Speaker 3: But not everyone is convinced.

[00:02:40] Speaker 6: This massive growth is because people want it, people need it. And eventually it'll become scientifically based. For now, it's a jungle out there.

[00:02:55] Speaker 3: A multi-billion dollar industry built on hope. And for the Lolli family, a question science has yet to answer. Can it really buy you more time? Michelle Fleury, BBC News, New York.