The Illusion of Health-Maxxing
As a child in the late 1900s, I spent long summers in Spain. There, I often woke up late, ate late, stayed up late and walked a TON. My friends, family and I also danced together, played games together, bathed together, ate lots of bread and sugar together, hiked together, swam together and sang together. There was a ubiquitous affinity for simply living a good life, not an obsession with “optimizing” it.
Today, in the United States wellness has taken quite the departure with mitochondrial cell vitality tests, orgasm enhancement for female billionaires, antiaging longevity drinks for male billionaires, nootropics, vagus nerve stimulators, peptide therapies, brain training EEG headsets and twenty supplements before breakfast. Every heartbeat, blood sugar fluctuation, orgasm, telomere length, and cell’s health can now be meticulously tracked in pursuit of “optimal” health. Bryan Johnson, the tech entrepreneur and longevity investor who creeps me OUT is a key player in this field.
Welcome to the era of healthmaxxing.
This viral internet trend treats the human body like a machine that can be endlessly optimized. The goal isn’t simply to be a healthy human—it’s to maximize every measurable biological process. Ugh I’m overwhelmed already. Ironically, it’s often marketed under another trendy buzzword that I can’t stand: biohacking. There is no such thing as biohacking. So here’s the question: what exactly is being hacked? Most “biohacks” aren’t hacking the biological “main frame” at all. They’re simply presenting instagram viewers with methods on how to access NORMAL human physiology. It’s physics, mathematics and chemistry. Like the Atkins diet or, oh, I don’t know, how nasal breathing breathing produces nitric oxide which is a vasodilator, enhances O2 uptake, is a natural anti-inflammatory, aids in creating new bone and won molecule of the year in 1992. Nitric oxide is OLD news, but it’s having a shiny resurgence among biohackers. Often, “biohacking” is just old wisdom or normal run-of-the-mill biophysiology wrapped in new marketing.
The irony is that many healthmaxxing practices are rooted in good intentions. Sleep matters. Protein matters. Exercise matters. Fiber matters. (Remember Family Matters? What a great show.) And of course, tracking necessary health metrics for a patient can be very helpful. The problem isn’t the habits—it’s the obsession and new expectation. When wellness becomes another performance metric, health can quietly become anxiety. One reason healthmaxxing resonates with so many people, especially the wealthy, is that our healthcare system is often reactive instead of proactive. Too many patients don’t receive meaningful medical guidance until disease has already developed.
Centuries ago, Chinese physician, Dr. Zhang Zhongjing, emphasized recognizing imbalance early and intervening before illness progressed. Across East Asian medicine and Ayurveda, health has traditionally been viewed not simply as treating disease, but preventing it in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, modern medicine has achieved extraordinary things, but we’re forgetting our traditions THAT WORK. As someone who experienced metastatic thyroid cancer and underwent a six-hour radical neck dissection in 2021, my recovery taught me healing doesn’t have to be either Western medicine or traditional medicine. It can—and often should—be both.
The therapies and activities that supported my post-cancer recovery were:
Dr. Peggy Huddleston’s mind-body technique, Prepare for Surgery Heal Faster
Joy and positivity in absolute supported by a tight selective circle of friends and family
Functional Medicine and nutrition (Montserrat Corsino, LAc)
Daily walking with my dog, 5-10 miles per day all throughout Brooklyn
Massage weekly (Charles Michener, BC Massage)
Meditation
A Course in Miracles
Dating
Hobbies like ceramics, gentle skateboarding, volleyball, TONS of reading in coffee shops and journaling
Acupuncture and herbs weekly (Sally Rappeport, LAc)
Buteyko breathing & myofunctional therapy to help facial, neck and shoulder nerve damage
Red light therapy
Energy healing (Charles Michener, Victoria Dennis, RN)
Psychotherapy & spiritual counseling with a gay rabbi, weekly
and all with qualified traditional and modern practitioners, including a shaman alongside my medical team. This isn’t about rejecting science. It’s about embracing evidence-based practice in its MOST COMPLETE sense. Evidence-based medicine was never meant to rely solely on randomized controlled trials. It combines the best available research with clinical expertise and the individual needs of the patient. And let’s be real, sometimes we can’t (and shouldn’t) wait a decade for the perfect study before helping someone with a therapy that has demonstrated undeniable benefits in clinical practice and carries an appropriate risk profile. Research should continue to grow, but thoughtful clinical judgment and acceptance should never be dismissed simply because the evidence is still evolving. This is what cutting edge healthcare is about.
Functional or holistic therapies such as orofacial myofunctional therapy, Buteyko Breathing Method and traditional Chinese medicine, along with routine preventive health screenings all have roles to play when used appropriately and integrated into comprehensive dental and medical care. The future of healthcare isn’t choosing between East and West. It’s recognizing that prevention, lifestyle medicine, and conventional medicine are strongest when they work together. There is a Chinese proverb by philosopher Zhu Xi over 800 years ago imploring, “Don't wait until you're thirsty to dig a well”, meaning, don’t wait until you’re sick to start taking care of yourself.
Health isn’t built through forcing perfection, concierge healthcare, or chasing the latest wellness trend. It’s built through consistent simple habits, proactive prevention, self-edifying exploration, and a willingness to care for your body long before it asks for help. So RELAX, eat well, dance, sleep, explore, love someone and HAVE FUN. And hey, when it’s appropriate bathe together too.