Aesthetic practices and medspas worldwide are incorporating lifestyle hacks, technologies, and wellness therapies in their quests to become one-stop destinations for beauty and optimal health
Facial plastic surgeon Kay Durairaj, MD, FACS (Pasadena, CA, USA), says biohacking aligns with her philosophy of how she wants to be age-independent, vibrant, and feel good for as long as possible. She’s so impressed with the practice of biohacking that she has incorporated it into her aesthetic practice and talks on the topic at professional meetings worldwide.
True beauty isn’t just skin deep, Dr. Durairaj explains, ‘… it’s a reflection of our metabolic health, hormonal balance and mitochondrial energy. Biohacking beauty means being proactive, empowered and informed—leveraging data, technology, and personalised protocols to age gracefully, radiantly, and intentionally.’
Rachel Varga, BSN, RN, CANS, a double board-certified aesthetic nurse specialist and founder of The School of Radiance, educates clients and providers about biohacking and other topics. Like Dr. Durairaj, Ms. Varga learned about biohacking through personal experience, then integrated it into aesthetic practice and educational platforms.
‘I started to incorporate a number of these different practices, including cold plunging, “sauna-ing,” doing very specialised gut and genetic tests, and incorporating different supplements to stimulate cellular repair, support mitochondrial function, and reduce inflammation,’ Ms. Varga says. She noticed not only improvements in her skin quality, but also in the way she felt, her body composition, and sleep quality.
Near the same time, around 2018, Ms. Varga noticed her patients wanted more than aesthetic treatments to address cosmetic concerns. They wanted information about wellness and strategies for how to improve skin health.
From trend to mainstream
Blending whole patient wellness has developed into the mainstream for aesthetic providers. Today’s aesthetic clinics and medspas are becoming one-stop destinations for the intersecting worlds of aesthetics, longevity, antiageing, weight loss, hormonal therapies, peptides, and biohacking, according to Ms. Varga. ‘The beautiful thing about biohacking is that in essence it’s a way of modulating our environment to support our biology.’
Think beyond genetics
Think DNA is the end-all? Think again, according to Dr. Durairaj, who defines biohacking as the ability to modulate, improve, and change the biology of the ageing process.
‘To me, biohacking beauty is the art and science of enhancing our natural vitality by aligning internal wellness with external aesthetics. It’s about using cutting-edge tools — like peptides, exosomes, regenerative injectables, and longevity-focused skincare — not just to reverse the signs of ageing, but to optimise the way we look and feel at a cellular level,’ she explains.
Expanding aesthetic practice
The conversation among aesthetic clinicians has gone beyond lasers and light, neurotoxins, fillers, and surgery. Professional meetings and scientific journals catering to the specialty are allocating time and space to biohacking and other approaches that are more about creating internal health and wellness in order to project external beauty.
‘My goal is to get patients to where they’re having excellent sleep and excellent performance in terms of resilience when they’re sick. I help them to maintain muscle mass, bone density, flexibility, and mobility—things that are going to keep them really vibrant. It doesn’t do me any good if everyone is wrinkle-free, lifted and tightened, but they’re wheelchair bound or using a walker or are not very energetic in their life,’ Dr. Durairaj says.
Ms. Varga calls biohacking in aesthetics the next-level approach to aesthetics because it gets to the root cause of ageing, which is reducing inflammation. To help aesthetic providers get started, Ms. Varga shares her protocols, including a framework of foundational cornerstones for inflammation reduction in ‘Oxidative Stress Status and Its Relationship to Skin Aging,’ a research paper published in Plastic and Aesthetic Nursing1.
Biohacking in aesthetic practice
Dr. Durairaj uses an integrative aesthetic approach, incorporating modern medicine for diagnostics. She does a series of blood tests to look at biomarkers of chronological age. She often follows testing with supplementation to fill in the gaps and restore optimal health.
‘Once we get them to a normal level of replenishment, then I’m using things like peptides, IV drips, collagen biostimulators, exosomes, and treatments that can up-level the performance of their cells so that they’re healthy and nourished,’ explains Dr. Durairaj.
Vetting credible options
Biohacking is all the rage, attracting unproven and sometimes harmful fringe treatments, according to Dr. Durairaj.
‘My main focus is to only bring and teach things that have an evidence base and clinically proven benefit, without risk,’ Dr. Durairaj says.
Ms. Varga recommends and markets products on her website that she says address basic environmental causes of poor health, from bad air and water quality to cellular radiation. Among her hacks are low-tech and affordable solutions, simple lifestyle recommendations, as well as higher-tech devices for the home. Low-tech lifestyle strategies people can do at home include:
Instead of buying bottled water, invest in a water purifier, like a reverse osmosis or distilled water purifier
Instead of going out to eat or eating fast food, start to cook your own meals and focus on high-protein, nutrient-rich, dense foods that provide the building blocks of making collagen and elastin
Drink enough water during the day and get core, key minerals
Move the body. Exercise and lift heavy weights to build lean muscle mass.
After addressing the foundational hacks for good health, Ms. Varga might recommend options such as red light for mitochondrial support, or detox to clear overgrowth of yeast and heavy metals.
Possibilities at the cellular level
Biohacking practices can be quality-of-life changing, according to Dr. Durairaj. ‘It’s really looking at what’s breaking down at the cellular level, which is to say I don’t want to have adult tiredness anymore. I want my mitochondria firing at all channels,’ she says.
Among the popular treatments to help patients feel better are nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and NAD precursors, including peptides that benefit skin, hair, and nails.
‘Depletion of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), a central redox cofactor and the substrate of key metabolic enzymes, is the causative factor of a number of inherited and acquired diseases in humans,’ authors wrote in a paper published in 20212.
Still more therapies include collagen biostimulators, exosomes, polynucleotides, and salmon sperm treatment, as well as oestrogen replacement and muscle-building hacks and therapies.
Become biohack aware
Biohacking is a learning process that requires outside reading and ideally attending conferences and symposiums, including AmSpa, Vegas Cosmetic Surgery, The Aesthetic Show, as well as A4M conferences and educational events, according to Dr. Durairaj, who will chair the biohacking beauty session at AmSpa in 2026.
Dr Durairaj recommends that providers find credible experts who are conducting strong, scientifically based biohacking work and start following them.
‘Learn the protocols and start to implement them. It’s also important to find a company, distributor or pharmacy that can distribute peptides legally in your state because there have been a lot of changes in the regulations, such as the 503A and 503B compounding pharmacies. You want to make sure to protect your licensing and follow the state guidelines,’ she shared.
Biohacking’s future
Patients are driving demand for clinicians who understand and use biohacking for whole-person health, according to Ms. Varga. Social media and celebrity influence continue to pique consumer interest in NAD+ and more.
Often it comes down to the providers themselves, having experienced benefits—better sleep, more energy and looking better — and investing in the training needed to add functional labs into practice and offer different rejuvenation options, Ms. Varga explains.
The time to implement biohacking into your clinic is now, according to experts. ‘Biohacking is no longer the domain of fringe enthusiasts. Today, it’s a global movement driving advancements in health and longevity. Cutting-edge innovations are transforming how people approach wellness, enabling individuals to optimise performance, enhance recovery, and prevent disease,’ Alana Sandel, chief experience officer at Marketing For Wellness, writes in a council post for Forbes3.
In her article, ‘The Next Frontier Of Biohacking: Five Trends Poised To Redefine Health,’ Ms. Sandel predicts these five breakthrough trends positioned to reshape the health landscape ‘and unlock unprecedented potential for human optimisation’ are:
- Personalised medicine for tailored healthcare
- Nanotechnology to revolutionise targeted treatment
- Stem cell therapies in regenerative medicine
- Cognitive optimisation, or biohacking the brain
- Metabolic optimisation as a foundation for longevity.
Written by Lisette Hilton, contributing editor
References:
- Varga, Rachel BScN, RN, CANS; Gross, Jeffrey MD. Oxidative Stress Status and Its Relationship to Skin Aging. Plastic and Aesthetic Nursing 43(3): p141-148, July/September 2023. | DOI: 10.1097/PSN.0000000000000515
- Zapata-Pérez R, Wanders RJA, van Karnebeek CDM, Houtkooper RH. NAD+ homeostasis in human health and disease. EMBO Mol Med. 2021 Jul 7;13(7):e13943. doi: 10.15252/emmm.202113943. Epub 2021 May 27. PMID: 34041853; PMCID: PMC8261484.
- Sandel A. The Next Frontier Of Biohacking: Five Trends Poised To Redefine Health [Internet]. Forbes. 2025. Available from: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2025/03/12/the-next-frontier-of-biohacking-five-trends-poised-to-redefine-health-and-longevity/
