Stem cell injections, weekly coffee enemas, wearing underwear that blocks electromagnetic forces: These are just a few of the futuristic tactics that fitness guru Kris Gethin uses to radically extend his lifespan. It's through these techniques the bodybuilder claims he's managed to almost halve his 'biological age.' 

Gethin is a biohacker, part of a growing community of affluent DIY fitness obsessives who use experimental treatments and technologies to 'hack' their biology in order to optimize their health. What is the ultimate goal? To live for as long as possible - which the more ambitious biohackers like the originator of the term Dave Asprey say could even be past 180 years.

While this fringe subculture is largely for wealthy Silicon Valley tech executives, with many biohacks still considered scientifically suspect, the pursuit of longevity is now entering mainstream consciousness. Gethin tells CGTN Europe, "it's something that everybody could and probably should partake in."

But what exactly does that involve?

Down the rabbit hole

"So I'm 46 years old - that's my chronological age," says Gethin, speaking from behind a pair of blue light blocking glasses at his Idaho home in the U.S.

"But my most recent biological age results came in at 25 years old, and that's what we really need to focus on - our biological age."

Prior to his "healthy obsession" with radical life extension - and long before intermittent fasting and sessions in a sensory deprivation tank became a common ritual - the biohacker broke into the fitness industry as a competitive bodybuilder. 

It was his ticket out of rural Wales and the heavy partying he was involved in in the late 1990s. Gethin built up a cult following that would develop into a fitness empire worth an estimated $3 million. With his own international gym franchise and health nutrition line, he even gave personal training sessions to the stars of India's Bollywood film industry. 

But it wasn't until 2014, when he was diagnosed with Mold Toxicity, that he went "down the rabbit hole" of radical health optimization and the quest for longevity.

Sleeping about three hours a night on average due to the condition, Gethin decided to check in to a Florida clinic for a major detox. 

Over six weeks, doctors intricately examined his biological makeup, from brain scans to blood samples, prescribing a regimen of daily intravenous therapy, colonic hydrotherapy - when waste material is forcibly flushed from the bowel - and a host of other invasive treatments. 

"That's when I realized there was a lot more to health and fitness than what I'd understood," he says: "I was advised to be at that clinic for six months, but there was no way I could do that, so that's when I took it upon myself to learn as much as I possibly could about biohacking."

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Ancestral wisdom

For Gethin, biohacking is a combination of modern technology and what he calls "ancestral wisdom" - essentially replicating the ways humans have historically - and naturally - kept themselves healthy. 

This ranges from reproducing the benefits of natural sunlight and contact with the earth to emulating a pre-industrial diet. "Forty or 50 years ago, we didn't have a lot of the contamination that we have now," he says, pointing to the high levels of herbicides and antibiotics in modern-day food and water supplies. 

"Our food system is very, very different to what our grandfathers and great grandfathers had before them, so we have to biohack our environment." 

And while Gethin's focus on organic eating, meditation, and hydration are natural enough, the majority of his biohacks would be better suited to a Sci-Fi movie. 

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Extreme multitasking

Starting the day at 4:00 a.m. with a cup of high-protein coffee, he jumps in his sauna equipped with infrared panels. Mimicking the beneficial natural light from sunrises, he says it provides him with "restorative" red light that gives his cells energy and repairs damaged tissue.

A committed multitasker, Gethin meditates at the same time, following this up with a three-minute ice bath for "emotional stability." 

Meticulously monitoring his nutrition stats during the day, he tops up any deficiencies with supplements, imbibing hydrogen-rich water and anti-aging oils like Carbon C60. Once a week, he'll even have a health specialist pump him with antioxidants and high levels of Vitamin C via intravenous therapy.

He also tracks his blood glucose levels around the clock to ensure they remain stable on a meter most commonly used by diabetics. "This is the perfect entity towards longevity," he says. "The more that your blood sugar is irregular, the chances of you living a shorter lifespan is heightened."

From special underwear to "earthing"

One of the biohackers' main concerns is countering electromagnetic forces (EMFs) from things like Wi-Fi routers, cell phones, and satellites. The World Health Organization does not attribute any major health consequences to EMFs, but one of its working groups did suggest they could potentially be carcinogenic.

To offset any such impact, Gethin practices "earthing" - standing barefoot on the ground "to absorb its negative ions." When it's too cold to go outside, he uses earthing mats.

He has one at his desk, an earthing bed sheet and an earthing mouse pad and has even invested in underwear that can block electromagnetic forces.

Dotted around his house, he has incandescent yellow bulbs and wears protective glasses to counter the blue light from electronic screens, which he says excessively ramps up cortisol levels and encourages age-related eyesight degeneration. 

If that wasn't enough, an EMF-proofing specialist was invited to Gethin's home to set up a protective tent - dubbed a Faraday cage - on the biohacker's bed, claiming it protects him from electrical fields while he sleeps. 

For someone who regularly undergoes hyperbaric oxygen chamber therapy, a treatment for decompression sickness that Gethin says prevents the shortening of telomeres - which "basically dictate our biological age" such measures don't appear that radical. 

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Stem cell longevity

Perhaps the most extreme of Gethin's biohacking techniques is the use of stem cell therapy, which he first had two years ago in Colombia. Taken from cells that develop in blood, the brain, bones, and body organs, stem cells have the potential to repair and regenerate cells, but because they're usually taken from human embryos, making the treatment remains highly controversial.

"I'll top up every now and again through IV," he says, "but this was quite invasive where I had it injected in my elbows, my shoulders, my knees along with IV - everywhere that I know that's going to have wear and tear." 

This is particularly important for the bodybuilder after years of putting intense strain on his joints through weight lifting and his participation in ultramarathons and Ironman triathlons. The procedure cost $15,000, but Gethin says, "it's probably the best money I've ever invested."

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Coffee enemas and critics

Gethin's goal of longevity is more humble than many of his peers, "I want to be 100 years old, but in good health - I still want to seek adventure, I want activity, my hearing, my eyesight, my mobility."

And based on the tests he continuously undergoes, he says, "I've been able to reverse that age from a biological standpoint every year that I take the test. So I'm hopefully doing something right."

Not unconscious of the skepticism surrounding biohacking or the scientific doubts around his prescribed methods, he defends his experimental approach.

"I get criticized because I do coffee enemas on a weekly basis," he says. "Now, is there much science to back it up? No."

But when he started them, his comparatively high liver enzymes and inflammatory markers apparently decreased: "So am I going to stop? No."

Instead, he says his followers, of which he has over a million on Facebook, should try what works best for them, "I encourage people not just to put their hands together, take this product and hope that it works."

"Put your trust in yourself with your own unbiased decision, which is only going to come from education."

To this end, Gethin has published several books, provides online training courses, and regularly updates his 'Knowledge and Mileage Podcast,' which covers all areas of fitness, longevity, and biohacking. And he says a lot of the major contributors to living a longer life are free.

"I get a lot of clients that want to get into biohacking, they want to reverse their age, but they want to buy it as opposed to applying it," he says. "It's usually people with a lot of disposable income and they will buy all these devices and the panels and the machines when, in fact, they could start with the meditation, they could start with the sunlight." 

So what is his principle advice for those that want to live longer? "Focus on your nutrition, sleep, stress and your hydration," says Gethin. "Then we can talk biohacking."
 

Video editing: Steve Chappell