Dave Asprey is to biohacking what Geoffrey Hinton is to AI. We caught up with the ‘father of biohacking’ to find out what he thinks 2026 has in store
In a trendy pop-up in the heart of Shoreditch, Dave Asprey sits on a stool and checks his microphone. It’s a discreet event organised by 1N Labs, a company developing high quality, low-strength nicotine lozenges (but more of that later).
Dave is wearing the orange-lensed blue light-blocking TrueDark glasses that have become an integral part of the uniform for the discerning biohacker. He is calm, controlled and in excellent shape – a world away from the 300lbs twenty-something version of himself with cognitive fog and chronic health issues.
“I ended up buying disability insurance when I was in my mid-twenties because my brain was so cooked,” he confides. “Even though my career was taking off, I was faking it every day.”
His transformation, a journey that has taken in drinking yak-butter tea in Tibet through countless biological experiments, has laid the foundation for the modern biohacking movement. His latest venture – Danger Coffee – is mold-free (mold toxins zap your brain!) lab-tested coffee which promises clean energy, plus 50-plus trace minerals and electrolytes to power your cells.
Indeed, when the term was officially added to Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2018, it included a reference to Asprey’s influence – something he recalls with pride on more than one occasion (“I didn’t trademark it on purpose because I wanted it to become a new word in the English language,” says Asprey).
Today he is here to share his vision on nootropics (or ‘smart drugs’) – substances, including supplements, herbs, and prescription drugs, claimed to improve cognitive functions like memory, focus, creativity, and motivation. He has already identified clean nicotine as one of three biohacking trends for 2026. Today’s event is part of a month of immersive sessions in biohacking, breathwork and mental fitness (to see details of other events click here).
Research suggests that pharmaceutical grade, low, clean doses of nicotine can enhance adult cognitive function and may help slow or even reverse cognitive decline. “Maybe 2026 is the year more people use nicotine gum or patches (or lozenges like those from 1N Labs) not just to quit but to boost performance,” says Asprey. “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!”
But it’s darkness which he suggests should be everyone’s best – and oldest – friend. “The best free biohack is darkness to allow your body to recover,” he says. “There’s a lack of healthy sunlight in the UK and, because of that, we have bright white lights and they’re on until we go to sleep.
“Your body’s systems, especially your mitochondria, relies on darkness to know when your whole system recovers. So, if we could dim our lights or get candlelight – and return to the levels of light that we used to have – or just turn off lights, this would have a profound effect on the quality of our sleep. Make it dim at night – and your whole system changes.”
How do you know what’s right for you? With biohacking, says Asprey, the first step is to set a goal, whether that’s longevity or better consciousness, higher libido or simply better hair. And then you can selectively pick the right biohack for the job, whether that’s nootropics or red-light therapy.
“If you don’t have a goal, or you just want to make a difference to your body, I would pick a very low level biohack that affects everything – and that would be a multi-mineral supplement. Most of the food that we eat is grown in soil that’s been growing plants for a long time, so there’s no minerals left in the soil.
“And we’ve also started eating a lot of these weird, super foods that pull minerals out of the body, not put them in. At the same time, we’ve cut down intake of red meat, which is the most mineral rich food, so people are almost all mineral deficient.
“If you’re low in minerals, your meditation will be less effective; you’ll be less able to pay attention; your athletic performance will go down; your thyroid will stop working; and your testosterone will go down. A broad-spectrum mineral supplement is the most effective, low-cost biohack across every domain,” says Asprey.
• Dave Asprey is a 4x NY Times bestselling author, longevity expert and creator of the biohacking movement. For more, visit https://daveasprey.com/
