Serious Biohacking

When most people hear the word biohacking, they think of gadgets, wearables and expensive therapies promoted by influencers.

That’s not what saved my daughter.

The most powerful “biohacks” we used to help Anna heal were not devices at all. They were the basics: gut health, stress biology and sleep. Everything else—hyperbaric oxygen, neuromuscular stimulation, PEMF, gene-targeted nutrition and low-dose naltrexone—only worked because we built those foundations first.

In this article, I want to show you what serious, evidence-based biohacking actually looks like—and how you can start applying the same principles in your own life.

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Anna: The Ultimate “Biohack”

When we first met Anna, she was a tiny 12-month-old sitting in a Bumbo chair on a Winnie-the-Pooh blanket. She’d had a stroke before birth, was exposed to crystal meth throughout pregnancy, had agenesis of the corpus callosum, and was functionally blind. We were told she would never walk, talk, or see.

Today, at 19, she can read, text on her phone, care for most of her daily needs, and is a joy to be around. Every year she continues to improve—something that is virtually unheard of in the special-needs world for her diagnoses.

People look at where she is now and ask, “What’s the secret biohack?”

The truth is: there wasn’t one secret. There was a sequence.

First, we rebuilt her biology from the ground up. Then, we layered advanced therapies on top.

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The Real Biohack: Biology Done Right

Before we talk about chambers, devices or fancy interventions, we have to start with what I call the Triangle of Health: gut, stress and sleep. These three pillars are the true biohacks that do 80% of the heavy lifting for healing. If you skip this step, the “cool stuff” doesn’t work nearly as well.

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If you skip this step, the “cool stuff” doesn’t work nearly as well.

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1. Gut Health: Where Healing Actually Begins

For Anna, our earliest interventions started in the most unglamorous place: her gut.

We focused on:

• Real food instead of ultra-processed formulas and sugar-laden “nutrition” products
• Removing as many chemicals and toxins from her diet as possible
• Supporting digestion so she could actually absorb what we were feeding her

We refused a feeding tube that would have bypassed chewing and swallowing—skills that are crucial not only for nutrition, but for speech and brain development. At the time, that decision triggered a CPS investigation because we wouldn’t agree to the standard procedure. Six months later, my wife found the growth chart for children with cerebral palsy—on that chart, Anna was right at the 50th percentile. She was growing normally for her condition.

That moment confirmed what we were already sensing: the system’s priorities and our child’s biology were not always aligned.

2. Stress Biology & the Nervous System

You cannot biohack your way out of a chronically stressed, dysregulated nervous system.

Early on, I began to understand that Anna’s brain and body needed safety, predictability and calm in order to heal:

• A stable, loving home
• Reduced toxic exposures in our environment
• Therapies that supported regulation, not just “performance”

Later, as I dug deeper into the research on trauma, autonomic nervous system function and neuroplasticity, it became clear that a “stuck” nervous system can block healing, no matter how perfect your supplements or protocols look on paper.

3. Sleep: The Most Underrated Biohack

Sleep isn’t sexy, but it’s where so much healing actually happens.

We paid close attention to:

• Anna’s sleep environment
• Her schedule and routines
• The impact of therapies and medications on her ability to get deep, restorative sleep

Chronic sleep loss increases infections, impairs immune function and raises the risk of chronic disease. Even something as simple as getting six hours instead of eight can make a measurable difference in health outcomes.

Before we ever put Anna into a chamber or hooked her up to a device, we worked relentlessly on these three: gut, stress and sleep. Only then did the more advanced biohacks begin to really move the needle.

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If you want to dive deeper into this, we’ve built an entire series on the Triangle of Health that you can explore here: Triangle of Health Series

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The 20%: Evidence-Based Breakthrough Therapies

Once the foundations were in place, we began to layer in more advanced therapies—slowly, experimentally and always grounded in science.

Here are a few of the key tools we used as “amplifiers” on top of the basics.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy places a person in a pressurized chamber where they breathe oxygen at higher than normal atmospheric pressure. That simple change dramatically increases oxygen delivery to tissues and can stimulate stem cell release and gene expression related to healing.

We used HBOT with Anna because of her:

• Perinatal stroke
• Neurological and vision issues
• Ongoing developmental delays

After one of her first courses of hyperbaric therapy, something remarkable happened:

My wife had spent years working on Anna’s handwriting. Before hyperbaric, writing her name looked like a scribble. After a treatment block, she suddenly wrote “Anna Hartman” legibly—along with a heart. Her vision also improved.

Hyperbaric oxygen is FDA-approved for things like non-healing diabetic wounds and radiation injuries, but in the “biohacking world” it’s also being used to support brain healing, stem cell activation and aspects of healthy aging.

Neuromuscular Stimulation (NMS)

Another powerful tool in Anna’s journey was neuromuscular stimulation (NMS)—using gentle electrical impulses to get muscles to contract when the brain can’t do it effectively on its own.

We used:

• A footplate device (Revitive) for her calves
• Task-specific stimulation (TASES) for targeted movements
• Whole-body stimulation approaches inspired by rehab methods used with spinal cord injury patients, including therapies similar to what helped keep Christopher Reeve alive and functioning for years after his injury

At one point, multiple specialists recommended surgeries to cut her heel cords or perform nerve-cutting procedures in her spine to address spasticity. Instead, over 3–6 months of consistent NMS with a simple footplate device, we watched the tightness in her calves and hamstrings resolve. She developed real calf muscles. Her posture and ability to stand improved without surgery.

Today, at an age when many kids with her condition have had multiple orthopedic and neurosurgical procedures, Anna has had zero surgeries. That’s almost unheard of.

Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy (PEMF)

PEMF uses low-frequency electromagnetic pulses to influence cellular activity—particularly in mitochondria and the nervous system. The research goes back to the 1950s in Eastern Europe and Russia.

We used PEMF as part of her neuro-rehab toolbox to:

• Support mitochondrial function
• Encourage nerve and brain healing
• Complement her other therapies

It’s one of those therapies almost no conventional clinics use, despite decades of data and entire textbooks written on electromagnetic medicine.

Gene-Targeted Nutritional Therapy (SNPs & Epigenetics)

Another layer of Anna’s care came from looking at her single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)—tiny “typos” in her genes that can significantly alter how her body uses nutrients and regulates key pathways.

For example:

• SNPs in MTHFR can reduce the ability to recycle folate, with implications for brain development, cardiovascular risk and more
• Variants in vitamin D receptor genes (like VDR Taq and FokI) can mean a higher vitamin D level is needed to get the same biological effect as someone without those variants

I still remember reviewing a 60-page SNP report for Anna and realizing just how many of her systems had increased nutrient demands. We began to:

• Use methylated B vitamins where she had folate-related SNPs
• Adjust vitamin D dosing based on her receptor genetics
• Support other weak points with targeted nutraceuticals

Over time, that gene-informed nutrition contributed to improvements in her cognition, walking and vision. She was never supposed to see; now she can read and use her phone independently.

This is where tools like low-dose naltrexone (LDN) also come in—acting at the level of immune modulation and neuroinflammation, not just symptom suppression. In my practice, LDN has become one of the most practical “gateway” biohacks for patients dealing with chronic inflammation, pain and autoimmune issues.

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You Can’t Out-Hack Bad Biology

Here’s the key insight I want you to take from Anna’s story:

You cannot out-supplement, out-stimulate or out-gadget a broken foundation.

Hyperbaric, NMS, PEMF, targeted genetics, LDN—all of these are powerful tools. But they did not replace:

• Real food
• A clean environment
• Movement and physical engagement
• Emotional safety and family support
• Gut, stress and sleep work

Every time I’m tempted to get excited about a new technology, I remind myself: for about 80% of people, mastering the foundations produces most of the improvement. The advanced therapies are for the remaining 20%—the complex cases, the “hopeless” diagnoses, the ones where we need every possible advantage.

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How to Start Biohacking the Right Way

If you’re reading this and wondering where to begin, here’s the sequence I recommend to my patients—and the one we used with Anna.

Step 1: Start with the Triangle of Health

Ask:

• What is one step I can take this month for my gut?
• One step for my stress response?
• One step for my sleep?

This might look like:

• Swapping out ultra-processed foods for real, whole foods
• Removing obvious toxins in your home (yard chemicals, harsh cleaners, synthetic fragrances)
• Committing to a realistic, consistent bedtime routine

If you want a deeper dive, you can explore our Triangle of Health articles here:

Triangle of Health Series

Step 2: Add One “Breakthrough” at a Time

Once your foundations are improving, then consider adding:

• LDN (under the guidance of a qualified clinician)
• A trial of NMS for muscle tone or mobility issues
• A carefully structured course of hyperbaric oxygen if appropriate

The key is one new variable at a time. That’s how you learn what actually helps you.

Step 3: Personalize Your Path

Your biohacking roadmap won’t look exactly like Anna’s.

Your genes, environment, exposures and story are different. But the principles are the same:

• Restore biology first
• Add powerful, evidence-based tools second
• Always ask, “Is this moving me toward more function, or just more noise?”

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From “Uncurable” to Unexpected

When we adopted Anna, we were told her conditions were incurable.

What I’ve learned since then is that “uncurable” isn’t a diagnosis—it’s a reflection of the limits of a particular system at a particular time. Our bodies are often far more capable of healing and adaptation than we’ve been led to believe—as long as we give them the right inputs, in the right order.

If Anna can defy every prediction made about her, there is a good chance your story isn’t finished either.

Start with the basics. Layer on the breakthroughs wisely. And never forget: the most powerful biohack is not a device—it’s hope, applied through action, over time.

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Dr. Aaron Hartman is a triple-board-certified physician in family, functional, and integrative and medicine. He’s the founder of Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine. He lives in Virginia with his wife, Becky, and their three children — including Anna, who continues to teach him what’s possible every day.