Interested in the wellness trend of biohacking? From monthly memberships to special retreats, here’s how to hack your health.

By Angela Caraway-Carlton 

A quick scroll through social media reveals a new world of wellness. Strangers squeal as they submerge themselves in tubs filled with ice-cold water, or bravely step inside freezing cryotherapy chambers to ease everything from muscle pain to inflammation. While TikTok-famous girlies don redlight face masks to fight wrinkles, or dump magnesium-laden powder into a nighttime cocktail with hopes of better sleep. 

Everyone seems to be jumping on the biohacking trend—which essentially uses a series of hacks for longevity, improved mental health and, to ultimately, feel (and look) better. Catering to the trend, there are now biohacking centers popping up around the South, offering high-tech tools and protocols that are meant to improve your health. 

THE BIOHACK LAB, Locations Around South Florida

Curious about biohacking, I recently spent a Friday morning at The BioHack Lab in Fort Lauderdale, Florida—which feels like a futuristic science institute housing a flurry of gadgets that target everything from brain fog to anxiety, and hi-tech machines meant to speed up recovery from an injury or improve athletic performance. The crowd is a mix of athletes looking to enhance their game, to very sick patients looking for help that surpasses conventional medicine, including powerful IV concoctions to stints in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber.

After a consultation, in which they decided to focus on helping my body to detox, the team devised a customized “biohack stack”—layering a series of modalities into a powerful protocol.

Over the course of a few hours, I profusely sweated in the infrared sauna (which uses infrared waves to heat your body from the inside, instead of the physical heat of a traditional sauna); stood in front of a redlight panel (touted for fighting inflammation, blood circulation and even increased collagen production); slipped into a space suit-type device for a gentle lymphatic massage while wearing a BrainTap headset with meditative voices. “This is very helpful for people who can’t shut down their mind,” says my lead therapist Caroline. While I’d need to continue these modalities on a regular basis to see real change, I left energized, and later slept like a baby—and woke up itching to do it again. 

EVOLVE HUMAN OPTIMIZATION LABS, Dallas, Texas

Walk into Evolve Human Optimization Labs in Dallas, and you’ll spot groups of all ages sweating together in an expansive Norwegian sauna, cheering each other on during dips into frigid cold plunges, and zoning out in guided group meditations. 

When Kurt Johnsen opened his Evolve franchise in March 2024, his goal was to make cutting-edge biohacking tools more accessible to everyone, with cheap day passes for curious newcomers and monthly memberships starting at $89. “At most places offering these modalities, you have to make an appointment and you’re paying a la carte. At Evolve, there are no reservations, members can just show up and use all of the modalities, twice if they want to,” says Johnsen, whose facility already boasts more than 400 members.

With more than 20 different modalities, guests can run through a series of “stacks,” including contrast therapy, where they alternate between cold plunges (set at different temperatures) and a toasty Norwegian or infrared sauna. “Our secret sauce is that you don’t do it isolated, it’s a community. People train together, now they can recover together,” Johnsen says. There are also redlight therapy booths, Japanese massage chairs and other favorites like cryo-compression wraps for the arms and legs, which harness freezing temps to reduce inflammation in those with injuries or sore muscles. “Everything in Evolve is set up to be safe enough and simple enough so that users can do it themselves,” he says. “People leave completely different than when they came.”

CREEK RETREAT, Serenbe, Georgia

A biohackers’ heaven is tucked away in the unique master-plan community of Serenbe, located in the Chattahoochie Hills of Georgia, about 30 minutes outside of Atlanta. The cluster of hamlets in the Serenbe neighborhood are purposefully centered around wellbeing and an active lifestyle—interwoven with miles of nature trails, forests and meadows and oak-lined streets. When Greg Kasparian and his wife Amanda moved to the area, they decided to capture the benefits of the serene surroundings by starting their own beauty and biohacking studio, Creek Retreat. “What we’re trying to do is optimize an individual’s health on a cellular level by increasing circulation and decreasing inflammation,” says Greg Kasparian, who is a spa industry vet. Like the aforementioned places, Creek Retreat flaunts hi-tech wellness gadgets and takes an individualized approach. After a deep-dive into a guest’s health and goals, the staff creates “stacks,” many of which focus on bettering sleep and increasing energy. That can look like slipping into an infrared cocoon sleeping bag with PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic field therapy); to standing in front of an infrared light while reaping the benefits of a vibration therapy on a Power Plate (mean to stimulate the lymphatic system); to sitting in front of a BioCharger, which has more than 1400 settings that take aim at a myriad of problems from menopause to anxiety. “I look at it like a human platform charging station,” says Kasparian, adding that more than half of what they suggest is outside of the walls of Creek Retreat. Kasparian specializes in creating corporate and personal retreats, where in addition to the curated wellness stacks, they’ll lead guests on meditative morning walks to the stone labyrinth by the lake or perform qigong movement sessions in the sunlight. “Having that 20 minutes in nature really resets the nervous system and brings down cortisol levels,” says Kasparian.

BIOHACK YOUR LIFE

Can’t afford a membership or drop-ins at a biohacking studio? Kasparian offers these tips for biohacking your life.

• Upon waking, get outside to allow the early morning sunlight to stream into the eyes, which resets circadian rhythms.

• Go to bed when you’re tired and prioritize sleep.

• Tap into your community, spending time with family, friends or neighbors. “If you look at Blue Zones, where people live the longest, one of the key ingredients is community. People living in close communities tend to live longer and with less disease.” 

• Get outside in the sun and nature daily. “We’ve been sold a bill of goods that the sun is bad for us, but I think it’s important to get sun on the skin, which helps to create vitamin D. My wife and I go out around 1 or 2 in the afternoon to the pool and spend anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes in the sun.”

• Don’t have access to a cold plunge? Try contrast therapy by alternating ice-cold and hot showers at home. “Ease your way into cold showers, starting with 10 seconds and then slowly increase the time. Don’t make it so bad that you hate it.”