In a candid BBC spotlight on the future of wellness, I joined Prashant Desai and Aggie Lal for a refreshing conversation that cuts through the noise of biohacking hype. From walking through pregnancy to standing desk meetings, we unpacked what Biohacking 2.0 really looks like—rooted in strength, sleep, simplicity, and self-love.
If you’re over the flashy tech and looking for grounded, proven ways to feel better, age slower, and thrive as a woman, this episode is your new blueprint.
To open, the panel grounded “biohacking” in everyday life — pregnancy, walking meetings, and sleep routines — before moving into definitions and tactics.
Transcript
Aggie Lal:
I am 38 and nine months pregnant. And, we got pregnant naturally , And I'm just on my morning walk and I feel incredible. So I feel like there's a testament to biohacking is energy. I think every biohacker would tell you. And I'm still, you know , on my six-mile walk. So, so far, so good.
Brittany Ford:
I'm standing and kind of doing steps in my office. So it's like the same thing. But yeah, I feel great. And biohacking has honestly changed my life.
Prashant Desai:
I am preparing to sleep, which is my top priority biohacking hack in terms of sleep is the foundation to everything you do in biohacking.
What “Biohacking 2.0” actually means
The panel drew a clear distinction between the flashy “1.0” era and a saner, evidence-respecting “2.0” that centres sleep, strength, protein, and sunlight.
Transcript
Prashant:
2.0 is learning from the mistakes that I made.
1.0, which was falling for all the snake oil supplements that were being marketed through very poor science and evidence, but with a lot of marketing. When you look at supplements like NMN, resveratrol, I guess too much marketing went into promoting them as zero protective longevity supplements, which I also fell prey to.
I started believing in you know a lot of statements like you know longevity, immortality, and starting to believe that I can abuse my body as much as i want and somebody somewhere will develop a pill or a technology. Which will which will undo all the abuse that i've done to the body and then I'll pop that pill and suddenly i'll reverse my age, become immortal.
I think one has become a lot more saner now and has understood that the foundation needs to be in place and then my whole transition you know if you look at longevity has two components lifespan and healthspan.
The first longevity 1.0 was all focusing on the lifespan side of it I think for me longevity 2.0 is purely healthspan.
Defining biohacking — without the hype
Asked to define biohacking for listeners who find the term off-putting, Brittany translated it into something familiar and doable.
Transcript
Brittany:
I think that biohacking is like the new trendy term but honestly it's what we have kind of been seeing in the health space for quite a while. The way that I define it is holistic health for holistic self-care for optimal health.
So it's kind of what we were just talking about is like really implementing these foundational strategies to try and be as healthy as we can be. And I don't think it necessarily needs to take in all the coolest or latest tech and supplements.
We can do things like going for a morning walk in the sunshine and that can actually seriously move the needle when we're talking about optimal health and longevity.
A women-first lens: hormones, energy and self-respect
The conversation pivoted to women’s health, where extreme weight loss culture often collides with hormone balance and low energy.
Transcript
Aggie:
I would say that for women the focus has been weight loss and we realize that extreme weight loss often leads to disrupted hormones and low libido and just like lack of energy and i would say that biohacking without such a very techie bro-y term I don't like it either.
It's essentially just focusing on how I can just feel incredible in my body and all else falls into place and I think Brittany agrees that like once you focus on your hormones for us women like we lose weight almost automatically.
It literally sheds itself but the focus is more on like self-love and longevity over - Hey i want to look skinny in my jeans and i don't care what's gonna take me there if that makes sense.
Brittany:
Yeah, absolutely . It's almost like the weight loss is like a bonus. But if we bring in these healthy routines and habits, and like you said, like self-love, fulfillment, we have purpose in our life, connection, then we can get all of the extra benefits like weight loss, healthy skin, hair , fertility , all of these other things, especially for women.
The simple playbook: KISS, lab work and VO₂ max
From there, the panel offered a pragmatic checklist: keep it simple, listen to your body’s signals, and build cardiorespiratory fitness.
Transcript
Prashant:
So I guess to keep things pretty simple if you honestly ask me. I have a KISS philosophy - keep it simple silly. Don't try to over complicate things and you know I generally like to tell people that if you learn to listen to your body your body is shouting. It's just that we are not listening.
Every morning you go to take a shower, just look at yourself naked in the shower. Look at yourself. If you can look at yourself, great. Otherwise your body’s shouting that it needs some kind of a repair to do.
So from a tips perspective I just tell people the moment you go into the washroom, just look at your poop. Your poop will tell you what your gut health is. It prints your gut health report card every single morning.
Prashant:
Unfortunately, we don't pay attention to it. Keep things simple. Get your regular bloodwork done every six months, whether it's a complete blood count or your CMP panel. Get it done.
Check your EPOP levels. Do your simple insulin, uric acid tests. Your body biomarkers are telling you where you stand, right? We all know with age your muscle mass, strength, power, is going to decline. You know , please, please, please work on your VO2 max please.
Prashant:
So I spoke about a longevity predictor called VO2 max, which is the maximum amount of volume that your body can use with age. Your ability, you look at yourself 20 years back, the stuff that you could do with ease, today you cannot do because your body cannot get that much amount of oxygen is not reaching your muscles for you to do that activity.
VO2 max declines with age, but you can do a lot to better or slow down that decline.
So these are some of the things that everybody must do to increase your healthspan. The idea is very simple.
Reading cravings as data (not moral failings)
Brittany unpacked how to decode cravings and make “nearest-neighbor” upgrades back to whole foods.
Transcript
Brittany:
Well, it depends on the type of food, right? I think that our cravings say a lot about actually what's going on internally with our health.
If you're craving sugar, what does that mean? If you're craving salt, usually that's a sign of overstress. The adrenals aren't functioning as they should.
If you're craving fat, what does that mean?
So I think it really looks at, you need to look at the food that you're craving or wanting and then figure out, hey, how do I make healthier substitutes in order to actually nourish my body?
You don't want to just like eliminate all the food that you're eating and try to eat super healthy and that's how people kind of get into the yo-yo dieting which can be very toxic and really hard to kind of get out of that cycle.
But if we look at whole foods and food that comes from the earth and that's not processed whether that's animal based or not we can actually get so much nutrients from that and that's a healthy easy place to start.
When I talk to people about nutrition it's always like whole foods first. When you buy something, the less amount of ingredients is on it, the better.
Like a head of broccoli versus buying a frozen broccoli quiche that has like all of these other things in it and there's like 30 ingredients. Obviously it's very easy to tell which one's healthier so just examples like that.
Let's be more connected to nature and eat closer to nature, I think is just such an easy, simple way to start. But I know it's obviously harder in practice. It's not very easy.
The closing note: curiosity over criticism
The final message: treat symptoms, weight, and low energy as information, and respond with curiosity rather than self-attack.
Transcript
Aggie:
I think it's very fair that you really honor your body and listen to your body instead of getting angry with yourself, feeling like, oh, I'm lazy or I'm not feeling it or I'm craving it. Your body's trying constantly to communicate with you. And instead of trying to override it and power through, just listen to the cues.
Like if you're tired, what does it mean? Am I not sleeping efficiently?
If it's my diet, what isn't working? And even like extra weight it's information from your body that your diet isn't optimal for you. So just instead of like getting angry with yourself and hating yourself, just take it. Come from a place of okay this is information, this is we're having a conversation, how can i tune into my body?
And I believe that energy, like endless energy, and just loving what you do is our birthright and this is where everyone should aim for, not just like a luxury for people that have time.
This is a BBC Radio interview featuring guest interviewer Brittany Ford on women’s health and longevity.
Book Brittany Ford for your next keynote, panel, or media interview — contact her team to tailor a women’s health and longevity talk for your audience.