Dr. Molly Maloof - The Spark Factor

I WANT TO DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO MY INCREDIBLE PARENTS AND MY FOUR SISTERS FOR THEIR UNCONDITIONAL LOVE THAT HAS HELPED ME UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF LIFE.

Contents

Dr. Molly and I met onstage in 2019 as we were participating in a panel on biohacking. The press dubbed me the Father of Biohacking because I started the movement more than a decade ago. Today, what was once fringe has gone mainstream Merriam-Webster has even added the word biohacking to the dictionary.

Im forever curious about how far we can upgrade our human hardware and software to extend our capabilitiesand even our lifespansbeyond their natural limits. Ive spent millions of dollars experimenting with the latest innovations, tools, and techniques that put my body into the maximum longevity zone (which is closer to two hundred years than it is to one hundred years, and possibly a lot more) and increase mental performance and resilience. If somebody out there is biohacking at a high level, I probably know about them.

And yetI hadnt heard about Dr. Molly Maloof. Who was this new young doctor on the stage next to me? The first thing I noticed about her was her keen mind. I was impressed with how much she knew and (as it turns out) how much younger she looks than she actually is. She was proof of concept! She was biohacking like a pro, and I wondered why I hadnt heard of her before.

At the time, she was working as a concierge doctor in Silicon Valley. She wasnt out promoting herself; she was helping other people improve so they could promote themselves . She was consulting for tech companies who were getting all the glory. Meanwhile, she was quietly operating behind the scenes, picking up knowledge like a sponge, teaching students at Stanford how to optimize their health for maximum performance, and putting all the pieces into place so that when she was ready, she could step into the spotlight, with her own company, and with her own book.

Thats what shes done nowstepped into the spotlightand thats exciting. Molly has one of the most open, curious, questioning, and critical sensibilities Ive met, and even though she is a biohacking expert, shes always on a quest to learn more, to tackle the next big question, to put into practice the latest discoveries. When I learned she was writing a book, I was thrilled. Most interesting to me was that she had teased apart the differences in how various interventions affect men and women differently. Men are not larger versions of women, and vice versa. And we are all unique, which makes biohacking both an art and a science.

In almost a thousand episodes of The Human Upgrade podcast, Ive interviewed dozens of women in the biohacking field. Many of the biohacks that work for men work for women too, but there are some disparities. Different hormone profiles require different interventions, and the fluctuating, cyclical nature of female hormones makes biohacking all the more complex and interesting.

What Dr. Molly has done in her groundbreaking bookthe first mainstream biohacking book for women that Ive seenis take the tools, principles, and innovations from the sometimes esoteric and inaccessible world of professional, high-level biohacking, and transform them into something people who may never have tried biohacking can understand and engage with. She starts out with a basic but little-understood principle from biohacking: energy powers life. She sheds new light on whats going on inside your body, especially for those who dont remember much from high school biology about mitochondria. This is the spark after which she titled her book: that spark of energy in the cellular batteries that powers your life. Treat your mitochondria right and you treat your body right.

How do you do that? Molly shows you exactly how. Those cellular batteries do so much more than hold a charge, and youll learn how to charge them, how to use them, and how to really plug them in. One of the coolest things about this book is that, while readers will learn how to biohack their diet and exercise for maximum energetic capacity, The Spark Factor also teaches how to combat the draining effects of stress, which is something that runs down everyones batteries. Molly sheds new light on foundational stress from childhood trauma and unsafety signals, as well as all the ways hormones exert themselves in a womans life (and how to hack them), along with all the stuff about relationships and sex that you were afraid to ask your doctor about. This book is truly a comprehensive guide.

Everyone can learn something here. Whatever it is that interests you about healthyour diet, your microbiome, your ideal workout, your sex life, your hormonal transition, your psyche, or your spiritualityMolly can discuss at a high level; she can explain it in easy-to-understand terms; and she can give you a lifestyle prescription to address it, fix it, or take it to the next level. Thats a rare skill. Not many genius-level brains belong to warm and approachable people, and she certainly has that spark the book talks aboutthat spark we all seek to capture and harness. Shes an innovator, entrepreneur, and a futurist (and it takes one to know one!). I like how her mind works. She sees whats coming, and she has the knowledge to back it up. She consults with many of the most forward-thinking tech companies working for the betterment of human health, so she has the insider information youll want to know about right now.

Whether youre just getting into biohacking, or youre a veteran biohacker, or you havent even heard the term before, The Spark Factor can help you get the results you seek. It can help you heal chronic conditions or push the envelope of human achievement. It will be exciting to see what kind of impact this book has on the biohacking world and beyond. I wholeheartedly recommend this book as a must read for women seeking to live at their full potential. Dr. Molly Maloof is on her way to becoming the matriarch of biohacking!

Dave Asprey

There is a spark of life inside each of your cells that powers your body with electricity. Some call it chi, or prana, or life force. Its a concept that exists in every culture and mythology because it is universal, but its not a myth. All life arises from this spark.

But for many of usand especially for womenthe demands of life have begun to dim that spark. We feel crushed by chronic, unrelenting stress. We live in an environment polluted by environmental toxins. We eat processed food that increases inflammation, interferes with hormone balance, destabilizes blood sugar, and disrupts our microbiome health. Life is so convenient that we dont need to get physically active. Many of us live sedentary lives, sitting at desks all day and in front of televisions or computers all night, and pay for it with disrupted circadian rhythms that interfere with sleep quality. We communicate digitally and dont spend as much time face-to-face, in person, with the reassuring and supportive influence of eye contact and physical touch.

Life as we know it moves by in a flash and feels lonely, and all of this contributes to a dimming of the spark that energizes our lives. This isnt just a metaphorical dimming. It is a measurable reduction in the energy output from our cells. Without that spark, we cant live as long or as well. This quelling of energy production at the cellular level threatens to reduce the bright spark that should animate us all.

But what if I told you it was possible to reignite your spark? You could have the energy to go for your dreams. You could have all the energy you need, during whatever life stage you are currently in, and you could extend and expand the best years of your life, remaining vibrant and sharp as you age. You could maximize your quality of life, increase your happiness, and reduce your risk of developing chronic disease. Harnessing your spark is the key to reaching your physical, mental, and spiritual potential, and biohacking intentionally manipulating your biology to optimize your healthis a method for doing just that.