A few weekends back I found myself reading an article in one of the papers about the rise of female ‘biohacking’ influencers on social media. As I read the accounts these women gave of their daily lives, my initial interest quickly turned into disbelief, and then horror (see below). By the time I’d reached the last line, though, the main feeling I had was frustration. Because, although the content was compelling and the women more than generous with the detail, the interviewer simply hadn’t asked any of the most important questions.

Knowing what to ask and when to ask it can be the difference between a passable piece of writing and a great piece of writing—one that leaves the reader feeling that the time and attention they’ve invested in it was worthwhile. And it’s a skill that every good journalist, and to an even greater degree, every ghostwriter worth their salt, needs to have.

In case (like me) you didn’t know, a ‘biohacker’ is someone who uses science and technology to improve how efficiently their body functions, and thereby optimise their physical health.

To this end, advocates are resorting to ever more extreme measures—some based in science, others most decidedly not.

The latest generation of biohackers have something even more ambitious in their sights—attempting to reverse the aging process, in a bid to attain the kind of longevity the human race has never yet seen. Some are now citing 150 years as a potentially attainable lifespan; others are even suggesting that the prospect of eternal life for humanity may be just around the corner (!).

The three 30-something US- and UK-based influencers in the article—Kayla Barnes-Lenz, Coral Golding and Sarah Fraggis—are committed to their ‘reverse-aging’ goals with a level of devotion normally reserved for religious fanatics. Each has devised their own incredibly demanding and rigid schedule for daily life, a life in which every waking moment is occupied by activities and practices expressly engineered to bring them closer to their goal of being on this planet for a very long time. Barnes—the most high profile of the three, who shares her biohacking lifestyle with over half a million online followers—truly believes that a 150-year lifespan is within her sights. 

For all, their day routinely begins between 4.30 and 5.00 am, and the hours which follow are taken up with an astonishing regime of pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF), hyperbaric oxygen sessions, intranasal photobiomodulation and high-intensity gym workouts.

An important part of the early morning schedule, too, is an in-depth analysis of their respective ‘biometrics stats’ from the day before. Interestingly, all three women build some time for reflection into this part of the day—ten minutes for journaling, making gratitude lists or praying, because ‘it’s important to set [the] mind before the day sets it for [you]’.

Detailing their daily routines, each of the women is at pains to point out that every action they take is fully aligned with the latest thinking in biohacking ‘science’.

The parlance of this thinking is second nature to them: Barnes goes outside for ten minutes of daylight at 6.00 am every day ‘to anchor [the] circadian rhythm, which controls the body’s sleep-wake cycle’; Fraggis walks barefoot in her garden for some minutes after waking ‘to maintain her electrical connection with the earth’.

There’s a lot of multi-tasking and zero time for spontaneity of any kind. Before Golding embarks on an exhaustive oral hygiene routine at 5.05 am, she ties a hairband around each ear, to ‘help with lymphatic drainage’. When, at 5.50 am, Fraggis spends time in front of her infrared light panel, she makes sure to sit on a PEMF mat, to keep her ‘in tune with the earth’s frequency’. When, almost four hours after waking, Kayla Barnes finally sits down at her office desk (on a biohacking Anthros chair), she keeps an array of biohacking gadgets close to hand, so that she can use them as she works. These include two red light caps—‘one to thicken [the] hair and the other to improve focus’—which she’ll alternate throughout the rest of the morning.

She and her husband routinely eat dinner at 4.00 pm daily, because ‘eating late reduces melatonin production and disrupts sleep’. A cup of bone broth is a precursor to a ‘microplastics-free fish delivery’, as it’s ‘a great additional protein for gut health’. Fraggis and Golding have similarly early evening meals, so that ‘the body can detox overnight rather than focusing on digestion’.

At 5.30 pm, it’s time to switch off all blue lights in the Barnes-Lenz household—screens, smartphones, overhead lights—and turn on red lamps instead, which ‘promote better, deeper sleep’. Golding has a similar routine, and also dons special glasses, ‘to block sleep-disrupting blue light’; her husband and daughters do the same.

For all three women, bedtime is routinely no later than 8.30 pm.

Barnes and her husband sleep inside a Faraday cage, ‘which is threaded with silver to keep out electromagnetic fields’. Before stepping into the cage, she applies mouth tape and nose strips, ‘which stop mouth breathing and improve sleep quality’, puts on a collagen face mask and straps a ‘rejuvenating’ castor oil pack around her stomach ‘to help with detoxification’. The other two women don a similar array of paraphernalia at bedtime, to which Fraggis adds a chin strap, which ‘contours her face and prevents sagging skin’. Golding and her husband sleep on ‘grounding bedsheets’ which keep them ‘in harmony with the earth’s frequency’. 

Each of these women is convinced of the absolute necessity of sticking to their punishingly restrictive schedules, day in, day out.

Kayla Barnes never wavers from her routine, even on holidays, special occasions or birthdays. Which means that if she does indeed live until she’s 150, she can look forward to another 42,000 (or thereabouts) identical days.

Perhaps you’re beginning to understand my sense of horror. And yet I kept reading, waiting – and waiting – for the interviewer to dig a bit deeper; to ask some more searching questions.

What, for example, does Kayla Barnes imagine her life will be like if she does manage to stay alive until she’s halfway through her second century—with the certain prospect that all of her loved ones and friends will no longer be around, and AI will probably be running the world?

How does beauty guru Fraggis think her skin will look by the time she turns 120?  Won’t any of them one day rue the fact that they may live for an unfeasibly long time without ever enjoying such freedoms as having a lie-in, eating a guilt-free gourmet meal or going on a riotous night out with friends?

But what I wanted to know most of all was this—what on earth does each of them pray about?

Asking the right questions takes imagination and courage, but not doing so may risk more than leaving your readers bored, frustrated or wondering why they bothered.

In fact, there’s a certain point at which asking crucial questions becomes a responsibility. If only the editors of Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path had asked her some tough questions regarding her husband Moth’s allegedly terminal condition, and about some of the other claims she presents as fact, before the book was sent out into the world…