By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She has completed a Stanford Genetics Longevity Research certificate, a Stanford Medicine Nutrition Science certificate program and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine GLP-1s & weight loss certification program. She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).

I love the Amish. I mean that sincerely, not as a quirky aside. I visit friends in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania every single year, and a few years back I even went on Fox TV as an “Amish expert” to talk about their culture. (Yes, I was wearing a wig for that interview. Don’t ask, it’s a long story involving a some genetic issues that led to me losing my hair. Photos below, judge me gently.)

Share

Now here’s why I’m writing about them today, and it has nothing to do with quilts or buggies.

Amish communities are small and tightly closed, most descend from a tiny handful of 18th-century founding families, outsiders essentially never join, and everyone marries within that same small circle, generation after generation.

This is exactly why Amish communities have some of the highest documented rates in the world of certain rare, and often devastating, inherited conditions: Ellis-van Creveld syndrome, maple syrup urine disease, glutaric aciduria, a lethal form of microcephaly, and elevated cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy in some groups. It’s a well-documented pattern, serious enough that specialized clinics for Amish genetic health exist in places like Lancaster County and Ohio.

Share

So when the founder effect hands you something protective instead of something devastating, that’s rare enough to stop and pay real attention to. This is the story of exactly that.

A family, a bleeding disorder, and a mystery that took decades to pay off

Read more

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She is recently completed her Stanford Genetics Longevity Research certification program and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine nutrition science program. She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).

Share

Want to move again? Ready to shake off the sedentary stretch? Good for you. But watch out for the mistakes that send you right back to square one.

You stopped moving. Not out of laziness:

• a professional burnout that took over everything

• perimenopause or menopause that upended your sleep, energy, and motivation

• an illness

• a schedule so packed that exercise ended up at the very bottom of the list

This happens to hyper-capable, hyper-busy women who managed everything, except that one slot for themselves.

And then one day, you decide to start again.

You climb a flight of stairs and your legs protest.
You lose your balance putting your pants on standing up.
You can’t touch your toes anymore.

This is exactly the moment most women get it wrong.

Why your body doesn’t respond the way it used to

During perimenopause and menopause, the drop in estrogen accelerates bone loss: studies on the menopause transition show bone density decline speeding up sharply in the years around the final period, not gradually or in a straight line.

That same hormonal shift weakens muscle mass and changes how you recover from effort.

The good news: a recent clinical trial (STOP-EM, conducted in peri- and early post-menopausal women) shows that properly dosed strength and impact training protects both bone and muscle through this window.

Add months or years of inactivity on top of that, and balance (proprioception, your ability to sense where your body is in space) is the first thing to decline, often before you even notice it.

The result: you restart at the exact moment your body is least equipped to absorb a shock.

Share

The 3 mistakes that sabotage the comeback

Share

1. Too fast. You pick back up at your old pace, as if the months off changed nothing. Except your tendons, ligaments, and nervous system can’t keep up with that tempo anymore. This is the classic recipe for the sprain, the strain, or the tendinitis that benches you again three weeks later, usually more discouraged than when you started.

2. Too heavy. You come back with the loads or distances you used to handle. A deconditioned muscle hit with a pre-break load doesn’t “catch up” to its old level, it gets injured. In extreme cases, an intense, unaccustomed effort after a long break can trigger rhabdomyolysis (acute muscle breakdown): rare, but documented in people who jump back into intense exercise with no transition.

3. Too intense. You go straight into HIIT or a full-throttle group class, because “no time, might as well make it count.” Except during a hormonal transition, your recovery capacity is already stretched thin. Stacking a maximal training stress on top of that adds up as fatigue instead of building anything. The result: soreness that lasts a week, total burnout, and a reset back to zero.

The common thread in all three: they start from a good intention (”I want to get back to my old level fast”) and produce the opposite effect.

The right method: think in stages

Share

I’ve climbed more than 45 high-altitude summits and done polar expeditions. In the mountains, you never gain altitude all at once: you climb in stages, let your body acclimate, and that’s precisely what lets you go further, faster, safely, afterward. Getting back into exercise follows the exact same logic.

In practice:

→ Start with mobility and balance before strength or cardio: these are the first capacities you lose, so they should be the first you rebuild.

→ Increase volume or intensity gradually, never both at once.

→ Aim for consistency (2 to 3 short sessions a week) rather than intensity in a single session: the body responds to regularity, not to heroics.

→ Soreness that clears in 48 hours is normal. Soreness that stops you from moving for a week is a sign you went too far, not proof that it worked.

How to actually ease back into a fitter life

You don’t need a comeback plan that looks impressive on day one, you need one that’s still running in six months. That means giving your body a real on-ramp instead of a cliff edge.

Start with two weeks of mobility and balance work alone, nothing else: ankle circles, single-leg stands while you brush your teeth, hip openers, a few minutes of stretching before bed. It looks too easy. That’s the point, you’re rebuilding the sensors before you rebuild the engine.

From there, add short strength sessions, bodyweight first (squats, wall push-ups, glute bridges), twice a week, with a full day of recovery in between. Only once that feels genuinely easy, not “I can push through it” easy, do you add load, distance, or intensity, and even then, change only one variable at a time.

Track how you recover, not just how you perform: if you’re bouncing back within a day or two, you’re in the right zone. If you’re wiped out for a week, you jumped a stage. There’s no prize for getting there fastest. The only version of this that works is the one you’re still doing a year from now.

If you recognized your own situation in this article, that’s probably where to start.

And remember….you can do it!

Share

Valerie Orsoni

Biohacker since 1998 | Longevity Expert
University of Hartford Hall of Fame
Top 50 Longevity Leaders (by Lifespanning Magazine)
Explorer: Skied to the South Pole, Climbed 45 peaks over 16k ft
Instagram : Valerie Orsoni
My fave brands + super promo codes here ==> ValerieOrsoni.com
My made-in-the-usa, clean, no fillers supplement line ==> ZellNova

🎙 HealthSpan Summit — Los Angeles (2–4 oct. 2026)
🎙 Reclaiming Health & Longevity Symposium — El Salvador (8–9 nov. 2026)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — Miami (Jan. 2027)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — San Francisco (13-14 Mar 2027)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — Chicago (8-9 May 2027)
🎙 Corsica Longevity Week — Corsica (12-19 June 2027)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — Los Angeles (10-11 Jul 2027)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — New York (18-19 Sept 2027)

This is NOT a sponsored post. I have tested this modality for months and I truly love its impact on my sleep.

Share

Some people have a smartwatch, others a smart ring, and others still have gadgets that make life easier or workouts more enjoyable (my AI bike, for example). But for me, sleep remains the foundation of any longevity protocol. It’s a bit of an obsession of mine.

Here’s the thing though: when it’s cold, unless you have a nice heavy comforter and warm socks (which you end up kicking off in the middle of the night because you get too hot), sleep gets disrupted.
And when it’s hot, or you’re having hot flashes, or dreams and nightmares that leave you rattled, your nights turn into an outright disaster.

The truth is, to fall asleep, the body needs to cool down slightly: it’s this slight drop in body temperature that triggers the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone. In other words, a body that’s too warm sends the wrong signal to the brain and delays falling asleep.

So I thought to myself: why hasn’t anyone invented a mattress that cools itself down? Not an air-conditioned mattress that makes you cold, just a mattress capable of dropping a few degrees at the right moment.

I searched everywhere, and I finally found the perfect solution. Well, not a mattress exactly, but a mattress topper: cutting-edge technology, used by top athletes (including my darling, F1 driver Leclerc), and it emits very low electromagnetic waves (yes, that’s another one of my obsessions).

The name of this miracle: Eight Sleep.

I have been testing it for months now. You know me….I do not share a new modality unless I have thoroughly tested it.

As for setup: super easy. You receive two boxes (see the photo in this article). Everything is very well organized, and the app guides you step by step. Plan on about 30 minutes to get everything properly set up.

At first, I was skeptical: more electronics, do I really need this? But then, as the days went by, my nights got longer and most importantly I got more deep sleep.

Share

Every morning, my Eight Sleep (yes, that’s the product’s brand name) tells me it made 25, 28, or 32 (the number obviously varies) temperature adjustments overnight to keep me asleep, neither too hot nor too cold. The mattress can raise or lower its temperature by 5°C (about 9°F) in just a few seconds.

It also tracks sleep quality and snoring. I can proudly report that except for one night when I snored for 45 minutes following a biohacking protocol to eliminate an aspergillus colony in my sinuses (an article on that is coming soon), I never snore more than 1 to 6 minutes a night.

In short, I now understand my friends who tell me they can’t live without theirs anymore, to the point of installing one in their primary residence and another in their family vacation home.

The fully immersive thermal comfort adapts in real time to keep you in deep sleep longer, you and your partner both. Yes, the mattress knows who’s sleeping where, so both sides can have two different temperatures.

The smart Base automatically adjusts the incline (up to 5 degrees) to relieve back pressure and reduce snoring, all while you sleep. Measured impact, impressive results!

The immersive sound built into the Base helps you relax, block out background noise, and keep your sleep environment stable all night long.

I also use it to recover after workouts. Why? Your muscles recover while you sleep. The Pod lowers your body temperature to reduce tension and tracks indicators like your heart rate and sleep depth. So you’re doing more than just resting: you’re actually recovering.

Share

But this time, I’m won over, and I’m panicking because after writing this article I was leaving for a month in Tahiti, and of course, I could not bring my Pod with me! Should I have canceled my trip? #JustKidding

Want to try it: the manufacturer offers a risk-free 30-day trial, which I find very convenient and, above all, honest. I’ve noticed that high-quality brands readily offer this kind of trial because they know their product is top-notch.

Valerie Orsoni

Biohacker since 1998 | Longevity Expert
University of Hartford Hall of Fame
Top 50 Longevity Leaders (by Lifespanning Magazine)
Explorer: Skied to the South Pole, Climbed 45 peaks over 16k ft
Instagram : Valerie Orsoni
My fave brands + super promo codes here ==> ValerieOrsoni.com
My made-in-the-usa, clean, no fillers supplement line ==> ZellNova

🎙 HealthSpan Summit — Los Angeles (2–4 oct. 2026)
🎙 Reclaiming Health & Longevity Symposium — El Salvador (8–9 nov. 2026)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — Miami (Jan. 2027)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — San Francisco (13-14 Mar 2027)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — Chicago (8-9 May 2027)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — Los Angeles (10-11 Jul 2027)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — New York (18-19 Sept 2027)

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She is recently completed her Stanford Genetics Longevity Research certification program and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine nutrition science program. She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).

Share

Warning: This is a LONG piece with a ton of info…take your time reading it. Sit down….drink some water….breathe…and read :)

Lung function is one of the biomarkers almost nobody in the longevity space tracks.

We obsess over HRV, glucose, telomeres, epigenetic age.

I had a full pulmonary function work-up done in Berlin in August 2025 at the YEARS CLINIC: whole-body plethysmography, spirometry, diffusing capacity, respiratory muscle function, FeNO for airway inflammation, the whole battery.

I had no problem and no symptoms.

Nothing on that panel would have raised a flag with a pulmonologist, and I wasn’t chasing a diagnosis.

But a handful of markers, specifically airway resistance, gas transfer efficiency, and respiratory muscle strength, weren’t sitting where I wanted them: below the reference range instead of comfortably inside it.

Nothing was broken.

That’s exactly the point. I didn’t wait for something to break, or for a symptom to show up, before I acted.
I decided to make my lungs a dedicated 12-month focus anyway, because this is what biohacking actually is: acting on the earliest, quietest signal of a potential future problem, years before it would ever surface as a symptom, instead of waiting for a diagnosis to force your hand.

Again, I had no lung disease, no symptoms and nothing a pulmonologist would have considered alarming.

I focused on four specific interventions, including one unusual daily practice from a country most of us totally ignore when it comes to longevity. I believe this particular intervention played a major role in my biggest improvement.

Here is exactly what I did, what each test revealed and what the science actually supports.

Read more

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She is recently completed her Stanford Genetics Longevity Research certification program and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine nutrition science program. She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).

Every year, Prescrire, a French medical journal funded exclusively by its subscribers, without a single cent from the pharmaceutical industry, publishes its blacklist of drugs it considers to have an unfavorable risk-to-benefit ratio.

For 2026, 108 drugs made this blacklist, the 14th year in a row.

If you're American and have never heard of Prescrire, that's kind of the point.

There's no real equivalent inside the US government: the FDA's drug review program is partly funded by the industry it regulates, through what are called user fees. The closest thing we have is Public Citizen's Worst Pills, Best Pills, an independent, donor-funded watchdog doing similar work.

One important note before we start: in drug safety science, not every risk comes with a clean, single number attached.

Some drugs have been studied in massive cohort studies with precise relative risks. Others only have scattered “reported cases,” with no known denominator, which doesn’t mean the risk is low, only that it hasn’t been publicly quantified yet. I’ll flag this every time rather than inventing a percentage that doesn’t exist.

But, let me tell you…..fair warning, the numbers are scary.

One very commonly prescribed anti-inflammatory is linked to

Another extremely common drug increases bone fractures by 200%.

Yet another, prescribed very casually for digestive issues like nausea, is linked to an estimated 200 sudden deaths a year in France alone.

You probably don’t know what’s coming in this list and believe me, you will be shocked!

Read more

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She is recently completed her Stanford Genetics Longevity Research certification program and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine nutrition science program. She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).

Share

Warning: It took me 2 weeks to finalize this article. It’s a bit technical….so I had to get all the pieces in place :) Hope you enjoy the analysis!

Every few months, a genuinely good longevity paper gets swallowed by a bad headline. This time it’s a molecule called IU1, and the claim making the rounds is that it “could extend the human lifespan to 250 years.”

As a biohacker and longevity expert I could not not investigate. And what I learned is mind blowing.

Read more

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She is recently completed her Stanford Genetics Longevity Research certification program and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine nutrition science program. She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).

Share

Summer hits different when you’re in perimenopause or menopause, and not in the fun way. One minute you’re fine, the next you’re drenched, your heart is racing, and everyone around you is raving about the “beautiful weather.” If it feels like your own body declares war on you every single summer, you are not imagining it.

Now… can we do something to reduce the problem to a tiny little bothering thing? Yes! There are 6 specific things that actually work: not more breathing exercises, not another “cooling fabric” gimmick, but physiology-backed fixes you can start using today.

Read more

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She holds a certificate from the Stanford Genetics Longevity Research Lab, and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine nutrition science program.
She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).

Share

You had your last blood test. Your liver enzymes (ALT, AST) were normal.

Don’t know what those odd acronyms mean? Go pull up your last lab report and look for those numbers — they’re in every standard panel. Your doctor said nothing. And yet, there’s a one-in-three chance your liver has been quietly accumulating fat for years.

Together, let’s explore this condition with potentially serious consequences, one almost no one tells you about.
I’ll explain it in simple terms.
You’ll then be able to pull out your latest blood work and do a few calculations to see exactly where you stand. I know this subject very well, since I was affected at the most severe level and made a full recovery.

That’s why, once everything is explained, I’ll give you a simple protocol to get out of it: because this is one of the few diseases with potentially dramatic consequences that can be pushed back without a single prescription.

Read more

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She holds a certificate from the Stanford Genetics Longevity Research Lab, and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine nutrition science program.
She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).

Share

I often see anti-doctor posts and anti-health-and-wellness-influencer posts circulating on social media.

Doctors who fire away at influencers are convinced that ten years spent on university benches gives them absolute authority the moment health is at stake.
Influencers who fire away at doctors are convinced, for their part, that the entire profession is outdated and that no practitioner has bothered to update their knowledge.

Who’s right? Who’s wrong?

Both.

There’s a non-negligible number of doctors who haven’t updated their knowledge since leaving medical school.
They’re easy to spot: they do very little prevention, functional medicine is foreign to them, and when you mention hot flashes, they tell you “that’s menopause, nothing to be done.” These are the ones who’ll refuse to prescribe in-depth blood tests (often the ones I suggest myself), or who’ll dismiss the idea of a full hormonal panel with “that doesn’t make sense, that number fluctuates all the time.”

Share

There’s also a fine category of doctors specialized in functional medicine, at the cutting edge of knowledge.
They’re easy to spot too: they generally charge above standard rates, because after all their expertise is worth more than a regular consultation. I have nothing against paying for expertise. But always check what other patients say about them: be wary of the social-media-star doctor who charges $1,500 a consultation to hand you the same bloodwork as everyone else, with no real follow-up behind it (not forgetting the same list of supplements sent to everyone else, with affiliate links of course.)

Coming back to health and wellness influencers — or, more specifically, biohacking and longevity influencers — here are a few things to check before following them blindly.

Their age, first. A 25-year-old “longevity expert” — I struggle to buy into that: saying things is one thing, but you still have to prove they work, even with a simple N=1.

Share

Their experience, next. Are they just repeating what’s already been said a thousand times (do cryo sessions, go to bed early, eat more protein), or are they bringing cutting-edge knowledge that actually teaches you something? Are their posts just charts spat out by ChatGPT? Is their content too?

Finally, are they constantly promoting products with affiliate codes? That’s not a problem in itself if the person actually uses those products, consistently, and genuinely acts as their spokesperson. But if the promoted product changes every day, be wary — that’s shifting into Kardashian-style marketing.

For my part, I offer highly specialized longevity programs (you can find them on the About page), designed with state-certified doctors specialized in functional medicine. To me, that’s the only way to get the best of both worlds.

I’d rather avoid sweeping judgments: no, not all doctors are out of touch, and no, not all influencers are ignorant, money-obsessed public figures.

We have a brain, and we take care of it. It’s up to us to make it work, and to ask ourselves the right questions to make the right choices.

Valérie Orsoni

Biohacker since 1998 | Longevity Expert
University of Hartford Hall of Fame
Top 50 Longevity Leaders (by Lifespanning Magazine)
Explorer: Skied to the South Pole, Climbed 45 peaks over 16k ft
Instagram : Valerie Orsoni
My fave brands + super promo codes here ==> ValerieOrsoni.com
My made-in-the-usa, clean, no fillers supplement line ==> ZellNova

🎙 RAADFest— Sedona (4-6 septembre 2026)
🎙 HealthSpan Summit — Los Angeles (2–4 oct. 2026)
🎙 Reclaiming Health & Longevity Symposium — El Salvador (8–9 nov. 2026)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — Miami (Jan. 2027)

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She holds a certificate from the Stanford Genetics Longevity Research Lab, and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine nutrition science program.
She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).

Share

Imagine a head separated from its body.

It has no heart. No kidneys. No reproductive organs. Almost no digestive system.

And yet, it keeps moving forward.

A few hours later, it even starts eating again. Then a wound closes. A heart reappears. A new body gradually forms beneath the head. Three weeks later, the animal is whole again.

No, this isn’t science fiction. It’s the astonishing power of a small sea slug called Elysia cf. marginata.

In 2021, Japanese researchers described this phenomenon of “extreme autotomy” in Current Biology: some young individuals voluntarily shed almost their entire body, then regenerate a new one. The decapitated body can still move for a while, but it never regrows a head and eventually dies. The head, however, survives and rebuilds everything it’s missing.

Evolution has been running experiments for hundreds of millions of years. It has created animals capable of regenerating a limb, repairing their heart without scarring, resisting radiation, continuously renewing their stem cells, or living two centuries while keeping cancer at bay.

We obviously won’t become sea slugs, hydras, or whales. But we can study their mechanisms, identify the molecules and biological pathways that make them extraordinary, and then try to reproduce them in humans.

And this transfer is no longer just theoretical. In several cases, it has already begun.

In several cases, it has already begun — and the results are fascinating!!!

A little further down in this article, I share a still-overlooked peptide that reproduces one of the longevity mechanisms of one of these animals (and yes, I inject it myself, of course!).

Read more

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She is recently completed her Stanford Genetics Longevity Research certification program and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine nutrition science program.
She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).

Faire warning: This is a very long article with tons of resources. Hope you will like it!

I get this question more than any other, and it almost always arrives in the same shape: what’s the one thing?

Share

There isn’t one. But there is a hierarchy, and almost nobody publishes it honestly — because the things at the top are unglamorous and cheap, and the things people want to sell you sit in the middle.

Here is the real ranking, built from twenty years of reading the literature and testing on myself. I’ll tell you what has human randomized trials behind it, what has plausible mechanism and no human data, and what is being sold to you on the strength of a mouse study and good graphic design.

I’m also going to tell you about a $10 serum.

It contains one of the best-documented collagen-stimulating compounds in cosmetic science, at a concentration most brands don’t bother with. The prestige labels sell you the same active for ten times the price, in nicer packaging, with a longer story attached.

This one is better. I’ll name it below.

(I ordered ten bottles before publishing this. I’d rather look paranoid than watch it sell out :)

Fair warning: The single biggest lever in this article is

Read more

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She is recently completed her Stanford Genetics Longevity Research certification program and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine nutrition science program. She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).

Share

For years, I had a stubbornly high HbA1c paired with a fasted glucose that was consistently, boringly excellent, usually under 90 mg/dL. (right now, I have been able to lower it using a special technique, which I will talk about in a future post).

More than once, a doctor looked at that HbA1c and told me I was borderline diabetic, and most definitely pre-diabetic . And more than once, I went looking for an explanation that fit the story: I was on an expedition, so surely I’d been eating more sweets, more processed food, running on adrenaline and trail snacks. That had to be it. Right?

It wasn’t until I was at the YEARS Clinic in Berlin, sitting across from a genuinely impressive physician, Dr. Ann Netzler, that I got an answer that actually made sense, one that explained why, for some people, a high HbA1c doesn’t mean prediabetes at all.

I’ve since talked to several of my doctor friends about this. Not one of them had ever thought about HbA1c this way, or been taught to take the number with as large a grain of salt as it sometimes deserves.

So, without further ado, here’s what I found. I’m genuinely excited to share it with you. If you’ve ever been told you’re “borderline diabetic” on the strength of an HbA1c that didn’t match anything else in your bloodwork, expect to be blown away.

There’s a well-documented, if under-discussed, reason this happens: HbA1c doesn’t actually measure your blood sugar.

It measures

Read more

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She is recently completed her Stanford Genetics Longevity Research certification program and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine nutrition science program. She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).

Share

I usually refuse to join boards.

I receive invitations regularly, and most of the time, I say no.
Not because I am uninterested or unwilling to contribute, but because I have learned that saying yes to everything eventually means having no time left for yourself.

I may be good at multitasking, but I also need time off. Time for my private life. Time to think. Time to do absolutely nothing.

We tend to fear empty space in our schedules. We fill every available hour, as though constantly being busy were proof that we matter. I know this pattern very well. I have worked hard to stop living in permanent “go, go, go” mode and to learn how to slow down without feeling guilty about it.

So today, I protect my time carefully.

But when the Lifeboat Foundation invited me to join its Life Extension Board, I could not say no.

And, in the end, I didn’t join just one board. I joined three:

• The Life Extension Board

• The Business Board

• The Sustainability Board

Three subjects that may appear separate, but that I believe are deeply interconnected.

These are not abstract questions anymore.

Share

Safeguarding humanity

The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization whose mission is to encourage scientific progress while helping humanity prepare for existential risks and the possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies.

That includes artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, biotechnology and robotics, but also pandemics, asteroid impacts, environmental collapse and other threats capable of affecting civilization on a global scale.

The organization does not take the position that technology is inherently dangerous. Quite the opposite: technology may be our most powerful tool for improving and protecting human life.

The same scientific advances that can cure disease, regenerate tissue, extend healthy lifespan or solve environmental problems can also create risks when they are developed carelessly, released prematurely or placed in the wrong hands.

The Lifeboat Foundation explores defensive strategies ranging from improved methods for combating viruses to safeguards surrounding nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and other emerging fields. It even considers long-term resilience solutions such as self-sustaining space settlements, should our defenses on Earth ever fail.

Some of those ideas may sound futuristic. In 2010, The New York Times introduced the organization through its work on threats involving artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, black holes and other scenarios that, at the time, probably seemed very remote.

Sixteen years later, conversations about uncontrolled AI, engineered pathogens, climate instability and technological misuse no longer feel like science fiction.

They feel urgent.

Share

The minds around the table

Another reason I accepted is the extraordinary range of people involved.

The Lifeboat Foundation’s advisory network includes scientists, physicians, economists, entrepreneurs, environmental experts, futurists, ethicists and technology leaders from around the world.

On the Life Extension Board, I join figures such as longevity researchers Aubrey de Grey, Nir Barzilai, Matt Kaeberlein, Brian Kennedy and Morgan Levine, as well as futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil. The official board also includes many other researchers, physicians and innovators working on the biology and technology of human longevity. See the Lifeboat Foundation advisory boards.

The Business Board includes economist and technology scholar Erik Brynjolfsson, among many entrepreneurs, investors and leaders examining how ambitious scientific solutions can become economically viable.

The Sustainability Board includes oceanographer and explorer Sylvia Earle, environmental advocate and actor Ed Begley Jr., former NASA chief scientist Dennis Bushnell and paleontologist and conservationist Louise Leakey.

This diversity matters. No single discipline can address the scale of the challenges ahead.

Scientists need entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs need ethicists. Longevity researchers need environmental experts. Technologists need people willing to ask not only, “Can we build it?” but also, “Should we build it, how should we protect it, and who might be affected if it goes wrong?”

Share

Why these three boards make sense for me

The Life Extension Board is an obvious continuation of work I have pursued for decades.

I have been researching, testing and writing about longevity since long before the word became fashionable. My approach has always combined scientific evidence with real-life experimentation. I am interested not merely in adding years to life, but in extending the years during which we remain strong, lucid, mobile, curious and independent.

But longevity cannot exist in isolation.

That is why the Sustainability Board matters just as much to me. Human health depends on environmental health: the air we breathe, the water we drink, the quality of our food, the stability of our ecosystems and the resilience of the planet supporting us.

There is little point in adding decades to human lifespan if those decades are lived amid polluted air, contaminated water, collapsing food systems and increasingly unlivable environments.

And then there is the Business Board.

I have spent much of my life building companies and communities, turning ideas into programs and translating complex science into information people can actually use. Science cannot transform society if it remains confined to research papers, laboratories or small circles of experts. It needs responsible business models, communication, funding and execution.

This is where I believe I can contribute something specific: at the intersection of longevity science, entrepreneurship, public education and sustainability.

Saying yes to what matters

Joining an advisory board should never be about collecting another title for a biography.

I will continue to say no to many invitations. I need to. Preserving time, peace of mind and room to think remains essential to the way I want to live.

But protecting your time does not mean withdrawing from the world.

It means saving your yes for the things that matter most.

The Lifeboat Foundation’s mission is, quite literally, to help safeguard humanity. At a moment when science is advancing faster than our collective ability to anticipate all its consequences, I believe that mission is too important to ignore.

So this time, I said yes.

Three times.

Share

Valérie Orsoni

Biohacker since 1998 | Longevity Expert
University of Hartford Hall of Fame
Top 50 Longevity Leaders (by Lifespanning Magazine)
Explorer: Skied to the South Pole, Climbed 45 peaks over 16k ft
Instagram : Valerie Orsoni
My fave brands + super promo codes here ==> ValerieOrsoni.com
My made-in-the-usa, clean, no fillers supplement line ==> ZellNova

🎙 Life Summit— Berlin (29-30 mai 2026)
🎙 Corsica Biohacking — Corsica (6-13 juin 2026)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — New York (juin 2026)
🎙 RAADFest— Sedona (4-6 septembre 2026)
🎙 HealthSpan Summit — Los Angeles (2–4 oct. 2026)
🎙 Reclaiming Health & Longevity Symposium — El Salvador (8–9 nov. 2026)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — Miami (Jan. 2027)

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She is recently completed her Stanford Genetics Longevity Research certification program and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine nutrition science program. She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).

For more than 50 years, I suffered from SIBO, gut dysbiosis, Giardia, Salmonella, and a long list of other digestive issues.

Share

Over the decades, I consulted some of the most respected experts in the world—from renowned heads of gastroenterology departments at major institutions to lesser-known researchers whose work I deeply admired.

Not one of them was able to heal me.

I tried virtually everything: antibiotics, elemental diets, herbal protocols, prescription medications, fasting, non-fasting approaches, carnivore diets, high-fiber diets, probiotics, prebiotics, and countless other interventions.

Nothing worked for more than a few days.

Then, using what I had learned through years of study, experimentation, and continuous education, I designed a protocol for myself.

Today, I have been symptom-free for more than 12 weeks.

Even more surprising: I can now eat foods that used to trigger symptoms almost immediately—and experience none.

This is still an N=1 experiment, and I remain cautious. My next goal is to continue documenting the results over time, refine the protocol, and eventually test it in a larger group.

But after half a century of frustration, I can honestly say that I am amazed by the results.

Here is the paper:

Valerie Orsoni Final Paper Sinus Gut Axis Paper

421KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Let me know your thoughts after you have read it.

Share

Here is the video in case you did not see it:

Valérie Orsoni

Biohacker since 1998 | Longevity Expert
University of Hartford Hall of Fame
Top 50 Longevity Leaders (by Lifespanning Magazine)
Explorer: Skied to the South Pole, Climbed 45 peaks over 16k ft
Instagram : Valerie Orsoni
My fave brands + super promo codes here ==> ValerieOrsoni.com
My made-in-the-usa, clean, no fillers supplement line ==> ZellNova

🎙 Life Summit— Berlin (29-30 mai 2026)
🎙 Corsica Biohacking — Corsica (6-13 juin 2026)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — New York (juin 2026)
🎙 RAADFest— Sedona (4-6 septembre 2026)
🎙 HealthSpan Summit — Los Angeles (2–4 oct. 2026)
🎙 Reclaiming Health & Longevity Symposium — El Salvador (8–9 nov. 2026)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — Miami (Jan. 2027)

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She is recently completed her Stanford Genetics Longevity Research certification program and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine nutrition science program. She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).

Twelve years ago, I added KPV to my peptide rotation.

Almost nobody in the wellness world had heard of it.

There were no Instagram protocols, influencer stacks or peptide clinics promoting it.

Just a handful of researchers in Minnesota and Milan studying a tiny three-amino-acid fragment that barely anyone outside immunology cared about.

And there was me, reading every paper I could find, sourcing it from a research supplier and watching very closely what happened in my own body.

Now, KPV is suddenly having its moment. In July 2026, an FDA advisory committee narrowly voted to recommend adding it to the list of substances compounding pharmacies may legally use. Overnight, the peptide almost nobody talked about became the peptide everyone had an opinion on.

But what does KPV actually do?
Why have I kept it in my cabinet for twelve years?
And why do I consider this quiet little peptide far more interesting than many of the heavily marketed ones?

Here is my honest assessment, based on twelve years of personal experience with KPV, more than twenty years of peptide use and the research I have actually read.

Read more

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of valbiohacker.com. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She is recently completed her Stanford Genetics Longevity Research certification program and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine nutrition science program. She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).

Share

July 26th, 2026 — ValBiohacker.com

🧬 Peptides: The FDA Decision That’s Freaking Everyone Out

“Turn off the TV” isn’t the only warning going around this week — “hide your peptides” is the one actually trending in biohacking circles right now.

On July 23-24, 2026, the FDA’s PCAC (Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee) met at White Oak to decide whether 7 of the community’s most-used peptides — BPC-157, KPV, TB-500, MOTS-c (7/23), then Emideltide, Semax, Epitalon (7/24) — get added to the 503A Bulks List, the roster of substances legally allowed in compounded prescriptions.

→ FDA briefing documents released ahead of the meeting recommend adding none of the 7 peptides
→ Cited reasons: insufficient characterization, thin human efficacy data, lack of safety data
→ Backstory: in April 2026, the FDA had already pulled these same peptides off the restricted-substances list, without moving them into Category 1 (permitted). They’ve been sitting in regulatory limbo ever since.

The real shock isn’t the decision itself, it’s the gap between what the community expected (roughly 14 of 19 restricted peptides returning to Category 1) and what FDA staff are actually recommending (zero).

⚠️ Caveat: this is an advisory recommendation, not a final ruling. Even a favorable committee vote would kick off a rulemaking process that typically takes 6 to 18 months before anything changes on the ground. Nothing shifts legally overnight — but the signal it sends to the compounding industry is immediate.

My N=1: Personally, I’m not panicking. I’m sticking with my peptide protocols. If peptides stop being available in the US, I have very reliable sources in China (yes, let’s not kid ourselves — even the best US and European labs source their raw materials from China).

Final decision: 6 peptides got a YES, and 1 got a NO (Emideltide). More on this in the coming months.

Share

📺 TV Is Shrinking Your Brain (Literally)

“Turn off that TV, it’ll rot your brain” has been a household refrain for decades. A study just published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia gives it real scientific backing.

Researchers followed roughly 1,700 adults (average age 53) enrolled in the ARIC study between 1987 and 1989. They self-reported TV-watching frequency, then underwent brain MRI more than two decades later.

→ Heavy TV watchers (”very often”) showed smaller volumes in brain regions tied to early Alzheimer’s signs → Smaller frontal and occipital lobes (executive function and visual processing) → Greater white matter hyperintensity volume — a marker of small blood vessel disease linked to stroke risk and cognitive decline → Differences held even after controlling for physical activity, diabetes, BMI, smoking, and alcohol use

“For years we’ve focused on how much people sit. Our findings suggest we should also pay attention to what they’re doing while they’re sitting.” — David Raichlen, USC Dornsife

Here’s the twist: other sedentary activities showed no such association. So this isn’t just about sitting — it’s about something specific to TV watching, possibly the lack of active cognitive engagement, or its effect on circadian rhythm and sleep.

⚠️ Caveat: TV consumption was self-reported (less reliable than objective screen-time tracking), and there was no baseline MRI at study start — so this shows an association measured twenty years later, not a tracked change over time.

My N=1: I don’t watch TV, ever! Except in 3 occasions: World Soccer Cup (every 4 years), Super Bowl (once a year) and F1 (which I watch on my rowing machine or on my Peloton)

.

Share

Subscribe now

💊 Statins: Big Pharma Wins Again

The new 2026 cholesterol guidelines don’t create more statin patients overall — they shift the typical profile toward younger, lower-risk adults. And that’s exactly the problem.

→ Per NHANES (2017-2023), 87.5 million U.S. adults (ages 30-79) are now statin-eligible
→ Of those, 21.5 million are newly eligible, with a notably lower 10-year cardiovascular risk than previously eligible patients (3.1% vs. 6.1%)
→ The key shift: adoption of the PREVENT risk equations, which produce lower risk estimates than the older model but also lower the treatment threshold (3-5% risk = “consider,” 5-10% = “recommended”)
→ Three JAMA studies agree: the overall eligible population stays roughly the same size, but its profile skews lower-risk, while higher-risk patients remain well short of their LDL targets

“This is a huge public health burden for a medical condition that should be highly treatable.” — JAMA editorial, Greenland & Lasser

⚠️ My take: the science on display here, recalibrated, on-paper-more-precise risk equations, mostly serves to justify expanding the statin market into younger, lower-absolute-risk people. The real conversation about individual long-term benefit-risk (muscle, metabolic, and cognitive side effects that are documented but consistently downplayed) is basically missing from the guideline debate. The fact that the first oral PCSK9 inhibitor (enlicitide) got FDA clearance the same week as these new guidelines probably isn’t just a scheduling coincidence

.

My N=1: I refuse to take statins despite elevated cholesterol numbers (a deliberate choice — I think the current guidelines are set too low). Statin side effects are not something to brush off.

🍉 Longevity Recipe — Watermelon-Coconut Ice Cream

This five-minute granita is my go-to summer dessert — and it’s not a random pick this week: watermelon is loaded with citrulline, a precursor to nitric oxide that supports vasodilation and endothelial function — exactly the territory you want to protect when you’re talking cardiovascular health (see the statin story above).

It also brings lycopene, a cardioprotective antioxidant. Coconut cream adds healthy fats, and stevia skips the blood sugar spike of a regular sweetened dessert.

→ Freeze 4 cups (about half a small watermelon) of watermelon flesh, cubed → Let sit at room temp for 5-10 minutes to soften slightly
→ Add coconut milk and a few drops of stevia ( you can also add some vanilla extract)
→ Scrape with a fork until you get a granita texture and voila ¡

Share

Let’s keep going! Forza!

Valérie Orsoni
Biohacker since 1998 | Longevity Expert

Instagram :
My fave brands + super promo codes here ==> ValerieOrsoni.com
My made-in-the-usa, clean, no fillers supplement line ==> ZellNova

🎙 Life Summit— Berlin (29-30 mai 2026)
🎙 Corsica Biohacking — Corsica (6-13 juin 2026)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — New York (juin 2026)
🎙 RAADFest— Sedona (4-6 septembre 2026)
🎙 HealthSpan Summit — Los Angeles (2–4 oct. 2026)
🎙 Reclaiming Health & Longevity Symposium — El Salvador (8–9 nov. 2026)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — Miami (jan 2027)

Disclaimer: This article reflects one individual’s personal experience, research, and interpretation of scientific information. It is not medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis or treatment. Health conditions—whether metabolic, hormonal, digestive, neurological, cardiovascular, immune-related, or otherwise—can vary widely in severity and may require urgent or specialized medical care. Always seek advice from qualified healthcare professionals before beginning, changing, or discontinuing any medication, supplement, lifestyle protocol, or therapeutic approach. Personal experiences described here, including mild or atypical presentations, are not representative of all clinical situations or of serious or acute medical conditions requiring immediate attention.

Share

Share

Yes, you read me right — history. For the first time ever, the Biohackers World Conference came to New York City. Even more remarkable: to my knowledge, this was the first large conference dedicated to longevity and biohacking ever held in the Big Apple. And I got to be part of it.
ps: if you want to go to the next one in Chicago, use my code VALERIE30 to get 30% off your ticket!

Before I forget! There was a super Grand Giveaway! Thousands of gifts to win!

I was elated — stoked, really — to share the gifts of well-being with the community. In my prize basket :

A HeartMath sensor to master heart rate variability and cardiac coherence (a non-negotiable in my own daily routine, and I have been using it non stop for the past 140 days!)), a MitoGlow red light therapy mask for skin and mitochondrial love (which I use daily), NADH patches from BioBloom — the very ones I use myself, and supplements from Zell Nova, clean and made in the USA (my brand).

And because tools are only half the equation, I added something personal: two free longevity coaching sessions with me, so the winners can turn these gifts into a real, sustainable protocol. Want to be coached by me? Head to the About section of ValBiohacker.com and scroll down, then choose your program.

Watching people win modalities and tools that can genuinely change their health span trajectory? That’s my kind of joy.

Share

My Talk: The First Documented Case

I was humbled and thrilled to be invited back on stage — my fifth Biohackers World after Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles (twice). Each time, I bring a completely new subject, and this time it wasn’t about me at all.

It was about my dad.

Twenty years ago, he was given six months to live. Today, at 85, he is thriving — to our knowledge, the first documented case of someone overcoming his condition. I walked the audience through his journey and the exact modalities we used to put him back on his feet. The feedback afterward was overwhelming. To everyone who came up to me after the talk: you made my day.

If you want the slides I use during my presentation let me know in the comment section and I will share them.

Why I Keep Coming Back

This community is a beautiful one. We reunite with old friends, meet new faces, and welcome excited “baby biohackers” alongside deeply knowledgeable veterans. That mix — without judgment — is the soul of this conference.

Here are the humans and discoveries that made this edition unforgettable.

Share

Dr. Nathan Bryan — The Nitric Oxide Pioneer

My usual suspects, Susan and Dr. Nathan Bryan from N1O1, were there with their super powerful nitric oxide products. Dr. Bryan has spent 25 years making seminal discoveries in nitric oxide research — he was recruited to the University of Texas Health Science Center by Nobel Laureate Ferid Murad himself, and his company Bryan Therapeutics is developing nitric-oxide-based therapies for heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and diabetic wounds. He is, quite simply, the international reference in this field.

My personal ritual: at the end of each conference day, I hop on a vibration plate with Nathan to help my lymphatic system recover from hours of standing in place. Highly recommended.

Susan is always here, supporting the brand and helping us, biohackers, reach higher levels of performance. Thank you for being part of my life! And yes, we keep on chatting between the conferences because she is such a beautiful human.

Get N1O1 products with a cool discount here ==> My Fave with Promo Codes

Lea Llovio — The “Doc Whisperer”

My dear friend, Lea, is a Conscious Wellness™ thought leader and the master of bridging the spiritual and physical dimensions of our health journey. She’s the one top doctors and global change makers call when no one else can identify what’s blocking progress or healing. Her framework — The Dance between Scientific Medicine and Spiritual Medicine™ — is practical, results-driven, and unlike anything else out there

Share

Arabica Cunegin — Leela Quantum Tech

Arabica (with a huge smile 24/7) is a transformational mindset and spiritual coach with over a decade in healthcare, and General Manager at Leela Quantum Tech — one of the brands I love testing each time we gather. Her work invites people to return to their inner wisdom and live in alignment with their deepest truth

What I Tested (and Loved)

The Vision Suit. I finally got to try one, and boy did I love the torture (I must be a bit of a masochist!). One 15-minute session left my muscles sore for days. Verdict: I am most definitely getting one.

CodeOne genetic testing. I finally did my genetic testing to get 100% customized supplements. Founder Kim Ressler is such a solar human — you just want to work with her! Oh, and when I received my reports? Not your run of the mill “eat more salmon and move”, but a very VERY detailed analysis of which gene variants are impacting your life and how this or that supplement could support my health. Cannot wait to try their formula next (in the works).
Get your CodeOne with a cool discount here ==> My Fave with Promo Codes
Seems Kim and I got the memo “Dress in white!”.

Share

BrainTap. I test-drove the famous device from Dr. Patrick Porter, and what a great tool. I got one for myself and cannot wait to see how my brain evolves with daily use. Fun fact: during my neuro check, my brain showed up all blue — apparently so rare (and excellent) that I ended up interviewing Dr. Porter about it. His insights are coming soon on my Instagram, stay tuned.

AuraO3. Kera Lynn showcased her beautiful modality (I want one at home!!!). Kera is the co-founder of Aura O3 and creator of the Ascension Therapy System — a multidimensional approach centered on nervous system regulation, cellular communication, and restoring the body’s natural alignment. Her path into this work is rooted in lived experience, and it shows. I tried it last time in LA and really wanted to try it again this time…but no time….so in Miami it will be!

The Experts in the House

Dr. Sogol Ash — the master of NAD⁺ and concierge medicine, and a pure ray of sunshine. If you’re curious about concierge medicine, she is the person to talk to.

Dr. David Karli — talk about an expert in regenerative medicine. He knows his subject like no other and is fascinating to listen to. One of the earliest physician leaders in PRP and bone marrow cell therapies, he has treated thousands of patients worldwide — elite athletes, executives, high performers — and now works at the convergence of stem cells, exosomes, systems biology, and longevity science. His practice is in Florida, and he’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and ESPN. He also hosts the Make Me Good podcast. I am most definitely paying him a visit very soon and maybe he should get me on his podcast? Tell me in the comment what you think about that.

And you cannot meet Dr. Karli without Matt Dillon being around. The fashion expert who has. passion for longevity (and who is also adjust my OOTD just before I step on the stage!). If you missed it, there is a cool video of Matt teaching me how to walk elegantly (apparently I walk like a hippo :)))

Share

Claire Martinsen from BioBloom — my dear friend was there explaining everything you need to know about NADH and other compounds that are truly changing my life. I diligently use her NADH patches and NADH injectables depending on my needs.
Get $150 off the patches or injectables with a cool discount here ==> My Fave with Promo Codes

Andrew Daye — this mental performance coach and award-winning speaker made us breathe and become better versions of ourselves. His zone of genius: turning complex neuroscience into practical tools that sharpen focus and regulate stress on demand. His story is remarkable — raised in a trauma-filled household, told by teachers he’d be dead by eighteen, he became an international speaker instead. From chronic asthmatic to half-marathoner. His clients range from Olympic athletes to Fortune 500 teams.
I definitely need his expertise for my next expedition!

Jonathan Ramalho — founder of The Longevity Network and director of one of the most urgently needed documentaries in our space: Beyond The Pill, currently on its global premiere tour with a cast including Wim Hof, Prof. Tim Spector (ZOE), Marisa Peer, and UFC fighter Michael Page. Jonathan’s own story gives the film its power: a journey from a London psychiatric ward — following an ayahuasca-triggered psychosis and a schizophrenia diagnosis — to a complete, reverse-engineered recovery built on four pillars: Food, Mood, Move, Sleep. His model replaces the Sick Care paradigm with Recovery → Performance → Prevention

Colette Schnabel — the “Biohacking Mama” (follow her on IG!) is a respected voice connecting cutting-edge science with real-world application. She works with LumiVitae on strategic partnerships, serves as Casting Director for the documentary sHEALed, and advises longevity centers and wellness destinations worldwide. Her own journey overcoming chronic pain, anxiety, and trauma is what makes her mission so authentic. I was so jealous of her beautiful Hyperoptics glasses that I had to get a pair! (and you can get yours with a super promo code here ==> My Fave with Promo Codes)

Share

Klaudia Balogh — no event would be complete without this powerful and unstoppable longevity journalist. After moving to America from Europe and falling into every health trap imaginable (weight gain, a PCOS diagnosis, all the fads), she transformed her frustration into a mission: helping others stop settling for feeling “just fine.”

Sam Tejada — Saturday’s Emcee, Founder and CEO of Liquivida®, and a nationally recognized voice in preventative wellness. Under his leadership, Liquivida has evolved from an IV therapy pioneer into a state-of-the-art longevity destination. Cannot wait to test drive it!

And I got interviewed by Lauren Lowrey, an Emmy Award-winning journalist and primary evening news anchor at WSMV 4 Nashville (NBC) with more than 20,000 hours of live television under her belt. She now coaches founders and innovators to communicate authentically beyond the script.

The Visionaries Dinner

The night before opening day, the Visionaries Dinner gathered sponsors and speakers for the third time — a beautiful moment to reconnect with my crew and meet new humans. Olia and Mick also offered a glimpse into the future of BWC, and boy is it growing (and yes, it’s coming to San Francisco yeahhh). They’ve even launched a Longevity Science Academy — a great opportunity for practitioners ready to take the next step in this booming market.

Share

Doing the Thing That Scared Me

I’m known for saying you should do one thing a day that scares you in order to grow. Well... I did.

When Olia, co-founder of the conference, asked me if I’d like to Emcee the entire Sunday, I said YES without thinking twice. Then I realized: I had never done this. EVER.

Oh well. I pulled up my big girl panties and took the stage Sunday at 9am. I didn’t try to emulate the Emcees I’d seen before — the “Good morning NY, I can’t hear you, LOUDER!” style — because that’s not me. Instead, I joked with the audience and tested their longevity with mini challenges, like a 20-second single-leg balance hold. I had a blast.

Let’s be honest, though: a full day of Emceeing is draining and demands total commitment from morning to night. For an ADHD lady like me, this was quite the exercise! And…I loved it! It made me feel “useful”.

But….at the end of the day, one of the stage producers told me it was “okay, but being a speaker is not the same as being an Emcee.” At first, I let that lukewarm feedback bring me down. Then I reframed: A) he’s probably used to Oscar-style Emcees jumping around and warming up the house, not my more natural style, and B) everyone is entitled to their opinion. As long as the room was filled with people eager to learn, I had done my job. And yes — the room was FULL, standing room only. That put a smile on my face.

Thank you, Olia, for this opportunity. I grew.
Oh, and as I am putting the final touches to this article, I got contacted by an event organizer who asked me if I would like to Emcee at his event…seems I did a good job after all.

Winding Down

I spent Sunday night at a quiet dinner with Lea Llovio (the queens of photos have ZERO photo of just us 2!), chilling, reliving our past two days over a high-protein (fish), low-carb (veggies with a touch of rice) meal. The perfect way to close a perfect weekend.

Until next time... I’ll miss you in Chicago, but I hope to see you in Miami in January — and of course, in San Francisco. Yeah!
ps: if you want to go to the next one in Chicago, use my code VALERIE30 to get 30% off your ticket!

Share

Valérie Orsoni

Biohacker since 1998 | Longevity Expert
University of Hartford Hall of Fame
Top 50 Longevity Leaders (by Lifespanning Magazine)
Explorer: Skied to the South Pole, Climbed 45 peaks over 16k ft
Instagram : Valerie Orsoni
My fave brands + super promo codes here ==> ValerieOrsoni.com
My made-in-the-usa, clean, no fillers supplement line ==> ZellNova

🎙 Life Summit— Berlin (29-30 mai 2026)
🎙 Corsica Biohacking — Corsica (6-13 juin 2026)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — New York (juin 2026)
🎙 RAADFest— Sedona (4-6 septembre 2026)
🎙 HealthSpan Summit — Los Angeles (2–4 oct. 2026)
🎙 Reclaiming Health & Longevity Symposium — El Salvador (8–9 nov. 2026)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — Miami (Jan. 2027)

Disclaimer: This article reflects one individual’s personal experience, research, and interpretation of scientific information. It is not medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis or treatment. Health conditions—whether metabolic, hormonal, digestive, neurological, cardiovascular, immune-related, or otherwise—can vary widely in severity and may require urgent or specialized medical care. Always seek advice from qualified healthcare professionals before beginning, changing, or discontinuing any medication, supplement, lifestyle protocol, or therapeutic approach. Personal experiences described here, including mild or atypical presentations, are not representative of all clinical situations or of serious or acute medical conditions requiring immediate attention.

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert

Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She is currently enrolled in Stanford Medicine’s longevity research certification program.

Share

I left home on April 1st and was on the road until July 1st — three months of travel, no fixed base, moving through different countries, climates, and time zones.

So I made a bet with myself: what if I flipped that? What if, instead of treating travel as time to endure, I used it as a base to build something better than my baseline — not just avoid the damage, but come back healthier than I left? I wanted to know if the usual excuses (I’m traveling, I can’t control my food, I’m jet-lagged, there’s no gym) were actually true, or just convenient.

Here’s what I did differently for 90 days:

Read more

Share

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert

Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She is currently enrolled in Stanford Medicine’s longevity research certification program.

Read more

By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert

Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She is currently enrolled in Stanford Medicine’s longevity research certification program.

What the world’s most measured human teaches us about biomarkers, nutrition, autoimmune disease—and why the biggest health lessons often come from unexpected diagnoses.

Share

Imagine spending approximately $2 million every year trying to become the healthiest human on Earth.

Every bite of food is measured.
Every workout is optimized.
Every hour of sleep is tracked.
Blood tests.
MRI scans.
CT scans.
DEXA scans.
Microbiome analyses.
Continuous glucose monitoring.
Wearables measuring everything from heart-rate variability to sleep architecture.

If anyone could detect disease early, you would expect it to be Bryan Johnson.

Which is exactly why his recent announcement surprised so many people.

“I have an autoimmune disease,” Johnson wrote on X. “My stomach is eating itself.” Despite years of unprecedented medical monitoring, he revealed that he has autoimmune gastritis—a disease in which the immune system slowly destroys the stomach’s acid-producing cells.

The first clue? Not pain. Not fatigue. Not dramatic symptoms.

Just one stubborn biomarker that refused to cooperate.

For years, Johnson’s ferritin—a protein that reflects the body’s stored iron—stayed persistently low.
But his hemoglobin and hematocrit, the values doctors typically use to diagnose anemia, looked normal.
That combination made the problem easy to dismiss, again and again, because it didn’t fit the pattern anyone was trained to flag.
The body drains its iron reserves first to protect circulating hemoglobin, which means it’s entirely possible to be meaningfully iron deficient while every “standard” number still looks fine.

That single laboratory value eventually led physicians to test for anti-parietal cell antibodies (Johnson’s came back at 103 U/mL, well above the threshold that gives this test roughly 93% sensitivity and 98% specificity), then to a bi-directional endoscopy, and finally to biopsies that confirmed the diagnosis.

Most headlines focused on the disease—the striking image of a stomach “eating itself.” I think they’re missing the real story.

Because Bryan Johnson’s diagnosis isn’t primarily about Bryan Johnson.

It’s about every one of us.

Here are seven of them.

Lesson 1: A Trend Is Worth More Than Any Single Number

One of the things I’ve learned after decades of tracking my own biomarkers is that trends matter far more than isolated values. A single low ferritin reading is a data point. A ferritin that stays low, visit after visit, year after year, is a signal—and signals deserve a different kind of attention than noise.

Johnson’s ferritin didn’t dip once and recover. It stayed low, persistently, for years. That’s the pattern that should stop a clinician (or a self-tracker) in their tracks: not the number itself, but its refusal to move.

🧬 Biohacker’s Note A “normal” laboratory value isn’t necessarily optimal. But the opposite is also true. An abnormal value isn’t something to suppress without understanding why it’s abnormal. The number is often the messenger—not the problem itself.

Lesson 2: “Normal” Hemoglobin Can Hide an Iron Problem

This is the detail that let Johnson’s condition hide in plain sight for so long. Ferritin measures stored iron. Hemoglobin and hematocrit measure circulating iron. Because the body protects circulating hemoglobin at almost any cost, it will quietly deplete its reserves—ferritin—long before hemoglobin ever budges.

That means a person can be genuinely iron deficient, even heading toward anemia, while every test a routine physical orders comes back “fine.” Gastroenterologists who specialize in this condition now argue that anyone with persistently low ferritin, treated or not, deserves a closer look—not just a repeat prescription for iron pills.

Share

Lesson 3: When a Biomarker Won’t Normalize, Get Curious—Not Anxious

When one biomarker refuses to normalize, I become curious—not anxious.

Anxiety makes people either obsess or avoid.
Curiosity makes people ask better questions: What else could explain this? What haven’t we tested? Who else should be looking at this data?

That distinction matters because autoimmune gastritis is, by every account from the physicians who study it, notoriously insidious.
It can stay silent for decades, sometimes announcing itself only through symptoms that seem to belong to a completely different system—fatigue, weakness, neurological complaints—rather than anything resembling a stomach problem.
A single strange lab value, followed patiently over time, is often the only early warning available.

Lesson 4: Autoimmune Diseases Rarely Travel Alone

🔬 Biohacker’s Note Autoimmune diseases often travel together. If someone is diagnosed with autoimmune gastritis, physicians commonly consider evaluating for other autoimmune conditions such as autoimmune thyroid disease, depending on the clinical context. One diagnosis is often a reason to look for its neighbors—not a reason to stop looking.

Lesson 5: Blood Work Can Point the Way, But It Can’t Close the Case

Share

I’ve changed my protocols countless times over the past forty years. That’s not inconsistency. That’s what following evidence looks like. And the evidence, in Johnson’s case, eventually required more than a blood draw.

Ferritin and antibody tests can raise suspicion, but the gold standard for diagnosing autoimmune gastritis is still an upper endoscopy with biopsies of the stomach lining, taken from more than one location. No wearable, no at-home panel, and no amount of quantified-self dashboarding replaces that step.
Biomarkers are a compass.
They tell you where to look.
They rarely tell you, on their own, exactly what you’ll find.

🧬 Biohacker’s Note Autoimmune gastritis carries a real long-term cost beyond iron deficiency: it disrupts vitamin B12 absorption (raising the risk of pernicious anemia) and is linked to a higher risk of gastric neuroendocrine tumors and stomach adenocarcinoma. This is why ongoing endoscopic surveillance—not just iron repletion—is part of long-term management.

Lesson 6: Even the Most “Optimized” People Skip Routine Screening

Here’s a detail worth sitting with: Johnson mentioned he was “48 years old and overdue” for the colonoscopy that was part of his eventual workup.

Guidelines have recommended colon cancer screening starting at age 45 since 2021—a full five years earlier than the previous standard.

Even someone spending millions of dollars a year on biomarker surveillance can still fall through a gap created by a guideline change he simply hadn’t registered.

Myth vs. Reality

MYTH: Low ferritin simply means you need more iron.

REALITY: Sometimes. Sometimes it’s blood loss. Sometimes it’s poor absorption. Sometimes it’s celiac disease. Sometimes it’s autoimmune gastritis. Sometimes it’s something entirely different. Always ask why.

The lesson isn’t that Johnson made a mistake.

It’s that optimization and routine preventive care are not the same project, and one doesn’t automatically cover for the other.

The most sophisticated wearable in the world won’t remind you that a screening age changed five years ago.

Lesson 7: Be Careful With the Story You Tell About Your Own Body

Johnson has publicly speculated that his condition might trace back to a childhood diet heavy in fast food, sugary cereal, and soda.

It’s a compelling narrative—cause and effect, wrapped up neatly.

But the gastroenterologists and pathologists who study this disease have been candid that there’s no specific evidence linking early diet to autoimmune gastritis; one called the theory “highly speculative.” The actual cause remains unknown, likely some combination of genetic susceptibility, environmental triggers, and chronic inflammation.

I’ve always believed in food diversity. Reading about Bryan’s diagnosis made me even more convinced that dietary monotony deserves much more scientific attention. Notice the nuance: I’m not claiming it caused his disease. I’m saying it made me reflect on a broader scientific question. That’s exactly how a scientist thinks—curious about the pattern, honest about what’s actually been proven.

Share

What This Story Changed For Me

Not what I already do. What Bryan Johnson’s diagnosis made me think about.

It made me think about how much of medicine still depends on someone—a patient, a doctor, a pathologist—refusing to let an unexplained number go.

Johnson had extraordinary resources on his side.
Most people don’t have a team combing through years of lab trends.
And yet even with all of that, the diagnosis still took years, because the disease is genuinely hard to catch, and because “normal” hemoglobin is a reassuring number that can quietly mislead.

It also made me think about what happens after the diagnosis.
There’s no cure for autoimmune gastritis.
Current treatment mostly means correcting the iron deficiency, watching for vitamin B12 deficiency, and undergoing regular surveillance for the cancers associated with the condition—which is precisely why Johnson says his team is now looking at experimental approaches, CAR-T therapy among them, still early and unproven for this disease.
As one researcher who studies the condition put it, no one can fully “biohack” their way out of disease, or out of death. Measurement extends the runway. It doesn’t cancel the flight.

A Checklist Worth Keeping

• If ferritin runs persistently low—even once “corrected” with supplementation—ask whether the underlying cause was ever actually identified, not just treated.

• Don’t let normal hemoglobin or hematocrit talk you out of investigating low ferritin further. They measure different things.

• If you have one autoimmune diagnosis, ask your physician whether screening for related autoimmune conditions makes sense for you.

• Know your screening ages. Colon cancer screening now starts at 45 for most people—not 50.

• Treat an unexplained, persistent lab abnormality as a question, not a nuisance to normalize away.

• Be skeptical of tidy causal stories about your own body, especially the ones you tell yourself.

Your body almost never starts by screaming.

It starts by whispering.

The question is whether you’re listening.

ps : Interestingly, this announcement also comes as Bryan is launching a premium longevity concierge service. Whether the timing is purely coincidental or simply reflects a particularly eventful period in his journey is impossible to know and I will let you (and the future few months) be the judge of it.

Share

References after my signature.

Valérie Orsoni

Biohacker since 1998 | Longevity Expert
Instagram : Valerie Orsoni
My fave brands + super promo codes here ==> ValerieOrsoni.com
My made-in-the-usa, clean, no fillers supplement line ==> ZellNova

🎙 Life Summit— Berlin (29-30 mai 2026)
🎙 Corsica Biohacking — Corsica (6-13 juin 2026)
🎙 Biohackers World Conference — New York (juin 2026)
🎙 RAADFest— Sedona (4-6 septembre 2026)
🎙 Healthspan Summit — Los Angeles (2–4 oct. 2026)
🎙 Reclaiming Health & Longevity Symposium — El Salvador (8–9 nov. 2026)

Disclaimer: This article reflects one individual’s personal experience, research, and interpretation of scientific information. It is not medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis or treatment. Health conditions—whether metabolic, hormonal, digestive, neurological, cardiovascular, immune-related, or otherwise—can vary widely in severity and may require urgent or specialized medical care. Always seek advice from qualified healthcare professionals before beginning, changing, or discontinuing any medication, supplement, lifestyle protocol, or therapeutic approach. Personal experiences described here, including mild or atypical presentations, are not representative of all clinical situations or of serious or acute medical conditions requiring immediate attention.

References

• Todd, S. “Bryan Johnson’s diagnosis shines light on hard-to-detect disease.” STAT News, July 8, 2026. statnews.com

• “How did Bryan Johnson end up with an autoimmune disease?” Northeastern Global News, July 6, 2026. news.northeastern.edu

• “Autoimmune Gastritis: All about the ‘incurable’ condition Bryan Johnson is diagnosed with.” The Week, July 7, 2026. theweek.in

• Lenti, M.V., et al. “Autoimmune gastritis.” PMC, National Institutes of Health. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5065578

• “Autoimmune gastritis, with or without pernicious anemia: epidemiology, risk factors, and clinical management.” PMC. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8414617

• “Relevance of pepsinogen, gastrin, and endoscopic atrophy in the diagnosis of autoimmune gastritis.” PMC. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8913737

• “Iron deficiency workup reveals high incidence of autoimmune gastritis with parietal cell antibody as reliable screening test.” ScienceDirect. sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0037196318300532

• “Frontiers | Autoimmune gastritis: a comprehensive review of pathophysiology, risk stratification, and management.” Frontiers in Immunology, 2026. frontiersin.org