Beating the clock

From biohacking to wearable technologies to IV therapies, humankind's latest strategies for preserving youth deserve a skeptical eye. Gennady Oreshkin reports.

Back in April, Malaysian news website The Star published images of Hong Kong actors Rosamund Kwan and Ray Lui (aged 60 and 66 respectively) attending model Cissy Wang's birthday party. The article included netizens' - understandably - awestruck comments about the actors' youthful looks. And then there is Christy Chung: Now in her 50s, the Canadian-born actor looks about as young as she did in 2005, when she starred in the horror film Set Up. Her youthfulness is something Chung herself attributes to intermittent fasting and forgoing alcohol. Other celebrities, meanwhile, swear by anti-aging cosmetics - from Drunk Elephant (popular among influencers) to luxury brands Cle de Peau, La Mer and Xove (whose biggest admirer is, perhaps, its founder: actor and singer Gigi Ma).

Recently, local influencers have been promoting the services of Boost, an alternative health center whose Intermittent Hypoxic Training (IHT) involves inhaling alternately high and low concentrations of oxygen. The popular treatment has its roots in sports medicine, where it's used to help enhance athletes' performance and muscle recovery. According to various claims, IHT is effective at combating aging, fatigue, high cholesterol and abnormal blood sugar levels.

IHT is a wellness modality that falls into the category of biohacking - a term coined in the 1980s to mean traditional, DIY-style biological enhancements. At the basic level, biohacking involves lifestyle adjustments such as intermittent fasting, cold showers and supplementing with nootropics ("smart drugs" or cognitive enhancers, from plant extracts to amino acids to good old caffeine). More advanced biohacks include nutrigenomics - using one's genome to design a tailor-made nutrition plan; and wearable, or even implanted, technology - aka applied transhumanism.

Dr Jonathan Seah, nonexecutive chairman of LifeHealth, a Hong Kong provider of integrative medicine, suggests a customized regimen of supplements to combat aging, boost energy and improve one's sex life. Seah is a practitioner of functional medicine - a form of alternative medicine that's been described as pseudoscience. LifeHealth clients receive their supplement recommendations based on the results of blood tests as well as micronutrient-level tracking. And while people with conditions such as lactose intolerance (which arises due to a recessive gene) do benefit from excluding foods they aren't able to process, the jury is out on whether nutrigenomics can provide trackable, reproducible results.

Current affairs

Invented in the 1960s, the original purpose of wearable technology was to help gamblers cheat in the casino. When it comes to biohacking, a "bioresonance" device, The Healy, is one of the newer players in the field. Designed to promote optimal aging and weight loss, as well as treat myriad forms of physical and mental illness - from chronic pain and fibromyalgia to anxiety, depression and sleep disorders - The Healy works by applying mild electric currents to the body, which - it is claimed - are effective at bringing the voltage of unhealthy cells back into the healthy range.

As for preserving youth, The Healy's Individualized Microcurrent Frequency programs include Beauty, which according to a company website, "is intended to bioenergetically harmonize your inner and outer beauty". (How the application of microcurrents could make you a kinder or more compassionate human being is anyone's guess.)

Held in May at the lifestyle complex Sugar+, in Causeway Bay, the free-to-enter Future of Wellness Symposium revealed itself to be a glorified sales pitch by Healy World, the company behind The Healy. At a panel discussion on how to "biohack your health for optimal well-being", "yogipreneur" Erika Lee kicked things off with a quote frequently misattributed to Albert Einstein: "Everything is energy, and that's all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want, and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics." What this means, elaborated Lee, is that "everything we can imagine is possible".

Healy World's executive director and a self-described "multidimensional visionary leader", Ariel Tang attempted to lend scientific credibility to The Healy, stating that "microcurrents help to increase ATP (adenosine triphosphate, an energy-carrying molecule) in cells". While an American study published back in 1982 found that direct electrical stimulation increased levels of ATP in rat skin, insufficient levels of the compound are only one of the myriad factors contributing to cell death. Tang's "When your cells literally have more energy, the process slows down" came across as yet another reductive take on the complexities of cellular aging.

Line 'em up

Intravenous drips have been around for hundreds of years, although the technology only really became safe and effective during the last century. In 21st century Hong Kong, you can pay thousands for purportedly health- and youth-enhancing infusions packed with vitamins and antioxidants. According to the website of Reviv - a major purveyor of the service, with clinics on five continents - IV therapies can give you "the edge to live a lifestyle without boundaries" and "will help you work hard and play harder".

The company's popular Glutathione Booster Shot "helps to prevent and reverse the effects of free radicals", says the product description, giving the recipient "a natural cosmetic rejuvenation".

"IV hydration is great for people who need it. But when it comes to IVs on demand, the short answer is: 'Buyer beware,'" says Dr Robert Shmerling, senior faculty editor at Harvard Health Publishing and a retired doctor. "They are expensive and not helpful in any scientific, proven way."

'Fill me in'

Making their debut in the 1980s, dermal fillers used to be made of bovine collagen, but happily, today they are mostly composed of hyaluronic acid. The injectables are used to reduce wrinkles and restore volume to the face, but come with a host of concerns including delayed inflammatory reactions, longevity and migration. When it comes to side effects, the alarmingly blown-up and bee-stung results obtained by certain celebrities say it all.

In 2019, Australian cosmetic physician Dr Gavin Chan published a video on YouTube in which he dispelled a myth about fillers' longevity. The doctor had discovered that fillers can remain in the face for as long as 12 years, while previously it was believed that they dissolved within about 18 months. Through a series of experiments involving more than a hundred facial MRIs, Chan and his research partner, aesthetic radiologist Dr Mobin Master, uncovered the peculiar ways in which fillers can migrate and deform over time.

Many of us have fallen prey at some time or another to conflating a youthful look with health and worth. Our society's obsession with youth can lead the more insecure, impressionable and wealthy among us to believe savvy marketers peddling snake oil on the basis of so-called scientific findings. In the best-case scenario, such practices hit our wallets while offering little or nothing in return. In the worst, the vulnerable are given false hope and can do real damage to their health.