Sanjeev Pathak: How I knocked 10 years off my biological age – and you can too

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Biohacking uses science, technology, and self-experimentation to improve physical and mental performance. Photo / 123rf
OPINION
Sanjeev Pathak is a health and mindset coach and the host of Let’s Grow Young Podcast

My meltdown at Finchley Road train station is still a bit of a blur. It was around the end of the second Covid lockdown, and I was working for one of
the biggest banks in the world as a director. I was also home-schooling our boys as (my wife) Sonia was a key worker and she had to be on call for the seriously ill.

At work I was under a lot of pressure, plus I pushed myself to be on a treadmill of “get the bigger job, get the bigger house, get the better car”. I’d been expecting a significant promotion, and when I didn’t get it, I was crushed. What’s more, I grew up in a culture where men are encouraged to be masculine and stoic; opening up about emotional matters isn’t something we generally do. So even though I felt completely maxed out, I kept my head down and stayed quiet.
On the morning of my collapse, I knew I wasn’t feeling well. I hadn’t been sleeping, I was drinking a bit too much, eating badly, not exercising and disengaged with the everyday. I felt little value in going to work at a place where I felt let down. Mentally I was in a very bad place.
I was standing on the station platform, and I recall seeing the information board saying my train would be arriving in two minutes. The next thing, I’d blacked out and collapsed to the ground. I don’t remember much, other than waking up and feeling nauseous, and staring at the crowd around me who were trying to help me up.
Unbelievably, I refused a paramedic, and after a while, I dusted myself off, got on the next train and continued my journey to work. I never went to my GP or had any tests – I didn’t want to create a fuss, even though I’d had a major panic attack. But the overriding outcome of that significant day is that I knew beyond any doubt that I needed to change my life drastically.
I wanted to leave my job (and that did happen later) but I had bills and a mortgage to pay. So, for the foreseeable future, I had to continue in my role, but there was a major shift in my attitude towards corporate life, and I knew that at my age, it was probably my last chance to try something new.
I am an avid reader of self-help books and at that time, I’d been listening to Jay Shetty, the author, podcaster and life coach. I started to question everything about myself and the lifestyle I’d been living. I’d been wasting so many hours watching Netflix and scrolling through social media; I wanted to take this time back and use it to develop a path in coaching. The flip side of just accepting my fate for the next 20 years was too difficult to imagine … I had to have a go at shaking things up.
So, outside of the day job, I immersed myself in a reputable online coaching course with the Jay Shetty Certification School. It involved hundreds of study hours, exams and coaching sessions, which I loved. In December 2022, I became a qualified life coach.
I hadn’t felt this excited about something in years. After being immersed in the stressful world of climbing the corporate ladder, I was determined just to enjoy the process one step at a time without worrying about the outcomes. Emotionally, I was beginning to feel stronger.
I’d been researching so-called experts who specialised in biohacking, but I soon found that there was little back-up science to their theories. If this was going to be my thing, I wanted to be reputable, knowledgeable and highly qualified. So I embarked on another online course, in well-being, health and nutrition, at Harvard Medical School. This took me deeper into the world of well-being and lifestyle medicine, and drilled home to me that simple hacks into your everyday lifestyle can create massive changes. When we talk about ageing, there is something called lifespan and something called health span. I focus on the latter. In the UK the average lifespan is about 81 years but only 66 of those years are relatively healthy.
Biohacking may sound like a confusing area, due to the plethora of social media content that makes amazing claims but lacks any scientific evidence. But it’s actually a very simple concept, and various Eastern and Mediterranean cultures have been living a certain way – without calling it biohacking – for decades to optimise their health. It basically means “hacking your biology”, making incremental changes to your body, mind and lifestyle to improve well-being. This may come about through accessing natural support from things such as the sun, breath, exercise and nutrition, but it can also use technology, science and data to monitor the body’s performance.
There are many companies and influencers out there who claim their expensive products can improve your health. I wanted to debunk the nonsense so I started my own podcast, Let’s Grow Young. My research has thrown up some resistance – when certain “experts” realise I am going to give them a grilling and hone in on the science, they refuse to come on my podcast. I’ve got no time for those people!
I believe that by making changes and sticking to healthy habits, you can reverse your biological age and increase your healthy years. I’ve done this, and my biological age has been estimated to be 37 – 10 years younger than my real age.
There are plenty of testing kits you can buy to specify your biological age; most use markers found in your blood, stools or urine, then an algorithm works out the model. For me, effective biohacking is about increasing the number of healthy years for a person. That can happen through making even basic adjustments, such as going to bed earlier, hydration, putting your screen away, eating fresh food, cutting back on booze. For example, if you stop smoking, the body improves after nine hours.
One of the most significant changes I’ve made since that fateful day at the train station is to simplify things in my head. I’ve discarded the desire for material gain, I’ve got rid of some social connections – such as those who are selfish or negative – and I’ve allowed myself to accept that life doesn’t always go to plan. My personal biohacking routine is simple but I have researched everything I do, and I believe in the science. The potential to heal yourself is within your control.
5am
Being a family man with two kids, a wife and a dog, the only time I have to myself is when everyone else is asleep, so I wake up at around 5am. I try to remain device-free.
I drink a mushroom coffee in the morning because it doesn’t give me the spike and crash of typical caffeine, and I sit in the garden for 30 minutes to connect with nature and start my day in a peaceful way.
5.45am
I begin my breathing exercises for four to seven minutes to increase oxygen levels and manage my cognitive and emotional wellbeing, then I start to wake the kids up for school.
7am
I take the dog out – no devices allowed.
7.45am
I drink a pint of water with my supplements: vitamin D for bones, teeth, energy, mood and cognitive health; vitamin D12 for production of blood cells; vitamin K for healing; and turmeric for anti-inflammation. NAD supplements are also important for anti-ageing.
8am
I don’t eat breakfast but I prepare everything I need for my lunch. We humans have introduced this concept of breakfast, and the term “breakfast” was used to describe the “break” from your “fast” from your evening meal the night before. I generally wait 14-16 hours before I eat. Morning fasting has been shown to improve brain function, sleep, blood sugar levels, and help with weight loss.
9am-12pm
I’m usually in work meetings or doing some work. I regularly hydrate with either water or green tea.
12pm
I exercise at the gym or on the treadmill at home.
1pm
Lunch is protein, complex carbohydrates and vegetables. If I am working from home, I sit in the garden and eat. This helps me focus on what’s on my plate and the environment around me rather than scrolling a screen.
1.45pm
Continue with meetings until about 5pm, then it’s family time. In the afternoon, I’ll have a snack of Greek yogurt, walnuts and organic honey.
6pm
Dinner and another dog walk.
7pm
A 15-minute sauna and maybe a three- to five-minute cold plunge in 8-10C water. Essentially, this helps to tackle our senescent genes which cause inflammation in the body and can lead to various problems. Saunas and cold plunges speed up healing, improve circulation, relieve muscle soreness and, if done in the evening, aid sleep.
8pm
From around 8pm, I spend time with my family and then begin my sleep routine by drinking a rooibos tea and taking a magnesium supplement to control my cortisol levels and reduce stress.
9pm
I go to my bedroom. No devices. I read for about 30 minutes – often, I have three books on the go – and then I sleep at about 9.30-10pm. I try to ensure the room is at a cool temperature and completely dark to encourage quality sleep.
7am
I go to the gym early, but the weekend is much more about family time, so I try to get the hard work done while everyone else is asleep. I take the dog out, maybe visit a cafe, and I treat myself to some food. By the time I get home, the kids are up, so I spend the morning with them.
12.30pm
At around lunchtime, the dog gets a long walk – it sometimes involves a stop at a local pub, where I might have a glass of wine (a little alcohol and not too often). Later, the family might go out for dinner, or we watch a film together.
At least every three months, I have red light therapy for energy and skin rejuvenation, a massage for relaxation, and I get my blood markers checked to monitor that all the variables are heading in the right direction.
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