Daymond John has amassed an estimated $350 million fortune, invested in dozens of firms on Shark Tank, written 5 best-selling books, and helmed his personal trend model, FUBU, by hustling more durable than the subsequent particular person.
However today, John is simply as targeted on outliving his competitors as out-negotiating them. After a thyroid most cancers analysis in 2017, he has turned himself right into a biohacker—stacking 40-hour fasts, red-light mattress remedy, chilly plunges, and hyperbaric oxygen classes right into a schedule that already consists of working firms, filming successful TV present, and elevating three daughters.
“I realized that I was taking my life as a joke,” John advised Fortune, recalling how 5 years after he had been cleared of most cancers he was heavier than earlier than. That wake-up name reframed every part: dropping pounds and main a more healthy way of life was much less about wanting good in an outdated Shark Tank go well with and being his “fighting weight” of 175 kilos, and have become extra about strolling his daughters down the aisle sometime.
“And then my wife is a big biohacker, and we started doing [red-light therapy] beds, and we started doing cold plunges, started doing all that stuff, and then we just went down this rabbit hole,” John mentioned.
One of many largest adjustments got here when he gave up alcohol, but it surely was one which helped him see probably the most vital adjustments.
“Dry January [never] worked,” John mentioned. “I had to abstain from it. And right then, all the weight dropped.”
Nonetheless, John’s total success with biohacking has to do with the actual fact he’s targeted on longevity fairly than vainness, and the way he’s dedicated to doing what “I knew what I needed to do.”
John is one in all many high-net-worth people targeted on bettering their longevity and are self-proclaimed biohackers. On the intense finish of the spectrum, there’s Blueprint founder Bryan Johnson, who spends about $2 million a 12 months on a biohacking protocol that features a strict eating regimen, 100-plus dietary supplements, fixed testing, plasma transfusions, and full‑physique gentle remedy. It’s all in an effort to be 18 once more and make loss of life elective, he beforehand advised Fortune’s Eleanor Pringle.
Different tech founders, together with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and PayPal’s Peter Thiel, are additionally reportedly biohackers, taking part in cryotherapy (excessive chilly remedy) and different longevity regimens. And biohacking is a development that’s more likely to develop: It’s presently an almost $25 billion business, and is anticipated to achieve $69 billion by 2030, in line with Grand View Analysis.
“What often began with niche experimentation in Silicon Valley has become a global movement powered by data, diagnostics and technology once reserved for hospitals and elite athletes,” wrote Lindsay O’Neill-O’Keefe—CEO of Wellness Everlasting, creator of the Biohacking Index, and host of the Optimize WE podcast— in December.
Inside Daymond John’s biohacking routine
The readability John gained from his battle with most cancers and experimenting with weight reduction previously has hardened right into a strict weekly routine.
Each Wednesday, after one meal, John begins a 40-hour quick and doesn’t eat once more till Friday afternoon. He solely permits himself black espresso and water, aiming to set off autophagy: the method of clearing out broken cells, which additionally reduces irritation.
He had tried intermittent fasting earlier than, but it surely didn’t stick. Consuming alcohol was the blocker, he mentioned, as a result of nightly drinks drove sugar cravings that made fasting insufferable.
John additionally swears by chilly plunges to scale back irritation and kick-start his mornings. He additionally lies in what he calls a “red bed,” or red-light remedy, to help restoration, and spends time in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, a remedy that includes respiratory 100% oxygen in a pressurized chamber.
Whereas it usually treats situations like continual wounds, carbon monoxide poisoning, and decompression illness, John and different biohackers use it to boost the physique’s pure therapeutic and infection-fighting skills. Hyperbaric chambers can fluctuate significantly in value, usually starting from about $5,000 to $100,000, relying on dimension, construction, and model.
On high of all of these practices, John additionally routinely undergoes extracorporeal blood oxygenation and ozonation remedies, which primarily serves as blood filtration—type of like dialysis. The method, which he does each few months, detoxifies, oxygenates, and filters blood.
Annually, John additionally books an “executive physical” at Fountain Life, the Tony Robbins-backed preventative care firm that makes use of superior imaging to search for early indicators of illness.
He even shares his lab outcomes on social media, alongside along with his total biohacking journey, so individuals “can laugh at me when they see me eating some disgusting food,” he mentioned. “Keep me honest.”
For all of the {hardware}, John insists he’s not making an attempt to play physician on TV.
“Am I one of these scientists with the great body? No,” he mentioned. “I’m the guy who could lose a couple of pounds, short, old, busy, love sugar, carbs, New Orleans fried food. I’m going to tell you in very simple ways what I think you should do.” He mentioned he tries to be good about what he eats about 80% of the time.
This persona is central to why John has taken his well being journey so public. He shares his experiments—and the missteps—with the expectation viewers will then crosscheck them with their very own docs and even with AI instruments.
John submits his complement stack to AI to see if it could possibly monitor what overlaps, what cancels out, and when he ought to take every capsule. And as for his enterprise connection to biohacking, he’s invested in Lotus, a startup that ties collectively years of medical information and wearable information. He’s additionally invested in Regenerate, which develops regenerative injectables utilized by UFC athletes.
John’s dedication to biohacking has had sudden negative effects at house, too. Lots of his gadgets, like a “biocharger” that emits electromagnetic frequencies, require him to maintain his telephone at a distance. That pressured disconnection, he mentioned, has deepened his relationship along with his spouse, Heather. They sit by means of classes collectively, speaking with out screens, and she or he has change into his fiercest accountability companion.
“I got to know her recently,” John mentioned. “She’s a good person, you know. There’s so many different advantages you find in some of these things.”
He’s additionally upfront about making room for pleasure—and junk meals. He limits fried meals to as soon as every week, goals to eat grass‑fed beef and lamb with fermented meals between 3 p.m. and seven p.m. most days, and scans his visceral fats (physique fats saved deep inside the belly cavity) each few months.
However when his household is on trip in Europe, he eats the pasta and bread.
“We’ll just have to pay for it when we get back,” he mentioned. “If I’m going to enjoy it, I’m going to enjoy it with somebody I love.”
