Biohacker, coach of Olympic athletes and consultant for large multinationals, TEDx speaker and bestselling author. He is Stefano Santoriengaged in personal development for over thirty years, and the most famous Biohacking Coach in Italy.
“Biohacking – explains – is based on protocols capable of “altering” the body and the brain and, consequently, 360-degree psychophysical performance”.
This set of practices that combine biology and technology “hack”to put it in English, one’s body and the surrounding environment to obtain results that every person would like to achieve: slow down aging, live longer, and above all better. Much better.
Jennifer Lopez, Hugh Jackman, Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus these are just a few celebrity names who have made the use of these models their inspiration.
Stefano, how did you approach Biohacking?
“I led the ultra-hectic life of many business consultants, with the myth that at forty you still have invincibility and can sleep 3 hours a night, except that, at forty-one, I was presented with the bill: chest pain and a trip to the emergency room. They admitted me to the hospital for an alleged heart attack. In reality it was a medical error, fortunately it wasn’t, even though all my values were off.”
I loved that healthcare mistake: heart attack or not, I had learned the life lesson in an extreme way. I realized how ignorant I was, as we all are, about many values of our bodies. After incorporating a good dose of fear, I realized I had to change my life and I started studying.”
You started studying “simply” to feel better
“Absolutely. The beginning was dictated by individual and selfish interests: I didn’t think I was teaching anything to anyone. I first discovered the American world, then the Northern European one, Dave Asprey, the “father” we could say of biohacking and Tim Ferriss. Over the years I began to study flexible metabolism, I changed my diet, I controlled the microbiota, I turned everything around, radically!”
What are these changes?
“From food, to training, to sleep, to lights. I gradually start taking only cold showers (I haven’t touched hot water for nine years now), I study breathing from the same master who today teaches it to the American Navy and the Special Forces. Stig Severinsten, a man capable of holding his breath for 21 minutes; I see first-hand that breathing techniques are a big button capable of managing even the nervous system.”
Can you give us some examples?
“Sometimes it would be enough to simply return to the logic of nature, with its common sense. Once upon a time, electricity didn’t exist: for thousands of years we were hunters and farmers who followed the rhythms of light. We have entire biological clocks that accompany it. When the light goes down, the body no longer needs ready energy, glucose is fast energy, while fats are slow energy. So the biological and digestive system prepares for sleep, for rest. The microbiota itself slows down. For this reason it is better not to eat carbohydrates in the evening, in fact, intermittent fasting is very effective, eating only for breakfast and lunch, to allow the body to reduce inflammation during the night and sleep better.”
Sleep care is also a fundamental lever
“Before going to sleep you should avoid TV, tablets, smartphones, and even LED lights, which are the worst luminous endocrine disruptor.
Just, once again, look at nature: what is the color of the sunset? Yellow and then red. What is the light like when we need to be more awake? Clearer and brighter. At midday it reaches the maximum blue spectrum and in the evening it switches to yellow and red. It is the light spectrum that tells cortisol to unplug and let the pineal gland produce melatonin. This is the circadian rhythm.
With devices that shoot blue light, it’s as if cortisol is being told that it’s still daytime, so to stay active. Cortisol which is an antagonist of melatonin, whose task is to prepare for sleep. It happens that we still collapse as soon as the light is turned off because we are very tired, but the melatonin has not managed to adequately prepare sleep and the phases are already altered. It would be advisable to use special glasses capable of protecting your eyes from blue filters during the evening hours.
All of this, obviously, can be measured with precise data thanks to apps and sleep monitors.”
In fact, an essential concept of Biohacking is objective measurement
“Pure Biohacking is agnostic, in the sense that it takes from everything, for example, meditation, yoga, focusing on the more technical part. In doing so, it becomes much more pragmatic going to the result. We look for the result which to be such must be based on the numbers. The biological data must correspond. If I want to calm a person with a technique, I analyze their values to see if they have actually dropped. We are skeptical and for this reason we rely on the numbers. If the technique works, the numbers must tell me. If the data doesn’t confirm, it’s not Biohacking.
This applies for example to the intestine, where one does not go “by sensation”
Meaning what?
“We start with the microbiota test, a test that we put at the basis of the deepest processes of change in the person, because the intestine is so central that it impacts everything: on mood, on the immune system, on energy, on digestion, on mitochondria. It has such a violent impact on a person’s life that having dysbiosis almost means having half of one’s health in difficulty.
The reading and data interpretation part is absolutely done by doctors (I collaborate with excellent clinics such as the Microbiota clinic in Salento and Genomix4Health), the word then passes to me for the entire part relating to lifestyle. This is real Biohacking.”
In a world where everyone pretends to be an expert and tries to propose more or less questionable solutions, knowing that there is a discipline where real results do the talking is reassuring.
“Seeing, hearing and understanding is the basis of any change. It is also useful for the reputation of Biohacking itself, because the closer you see it to doctors, the more you understand that it is not a trend or a fashion.
We can say that it is a link that crosses medicine; the last part which explains how lifestyle can best maintain the functionality of the organs and body.
The highest level of Biohacking is “over performance” where generally only super VIPs and athletes arrive. You have followed several Olympic athletes
“Exactly. Now I follow the Swiss Federation of MMA Fighters, where we work on everything: mind, breathing, nutrition, we use the cold to recover from bruises. This discipline is extreme, however, if we think about it, apart from the physical pain component, some managers find themselves in the same situation, “working themselves to death”. There are many ways to get really hurt.”
You are scientific director of the first European Master in Biohacking Coach, recognized by the Mur
“It is the only European university master’s degree, held by the University of the Italian Chambers of Commerce (UniMercatorum), which trains the professional figure of the Biohacking coach. It is attended mainly by doctors, physiotherapists, osteopaths to strengthen the part that combines the pure treatment of the pathology with the functionality of a healthy and optimal lifestyle.”
Healthy eating, sun exposure, regular sleeping and waking times, physical training, cold showers and meditation to manage everyday stress.
Small practices, which if consistently maintained, bring enormous benefits, demonstrating that biohacking, at least at the first levels, is truly within everyone’s reach.
The most difficult ingredients, probably, as in all things, are discipline and will.
