Biohacking sounds like a futuristic transformation that will help you transcend your physical body's limitations, but in reality, biohacking itself is any attempt to change your body's reactions and abilities through items and procedures that look like shortcuts. Have you ever increased your iron intake to see if it helps with brain fog? You've just done some basic biohacking. Have you implanted a microchip in your cat for easier identification? You've just biohacked your cat.

Despite these seemingly everyday actions, the full range of strategies that is biohacking isn't that mainstream yet. If you're interested in doing more biohacking, you should ease your way in so you get a feel for what a safe and successful hack is for you.

Start with Simple Experiments

Always start slow. If you were out of shape and beginning a weight-lifting program, you'd start with 5-lb hand weights and work your way up, not grab the nearest 100-lb barbell. The same advice applies to biohacking. Start with a nutritional change, for example, or a 30-day experiment with a form of exercise you don't usually do. While these sound like super-simple things that you may have already done in your life, going back to the basics lets you observe how the change makes you feel, as well as how to identify when things are going well (even if you're having a down day) and when an experiment needs to be stopped immediately.

Always Do Your Research

No matter what hack you try, always research it first. Look in reputable sources like journals or on mainstream websites; look at who funded research and who reviewed the articles you've read. You want to avoid sites that are designed to sell you the products they're writing about or that seem dedicated to fearmongering.

Any time you try to make changes to your body, you need to know the limits associated with the change so you can both use or implement the change correctly, and so you can decide whether you really want to go through with it. For example, if you want to try a supplement to enhance some health factors, you need to know safe dosages, the upper tolerable intake limit, signs of toxicity, side effects, drug interactions, the minimum needed to see effects, and so on.

Track Your Tests and Results

Finally, you need some way to track what you do and what the results are. This can be as basic as making notes on paper, or you can find software and biohacking apps to help you track what you do and how you feel. Review your notes or the app every few days to spot patterns and see if there's a need for adjustment.

Biohacking sounds like a fad at first, but it's been around for a long time—only the strategies have changed. If you want to get started, start tracking what you do and take it slowly.