© Jefferson Graham
Welcome to California, folks. This is biohacking central.
The Bulletproof Coffee stores will sell you more than just alternative caffeine. The in-store chairs omit an electromagnetic field, the lighting changes by the time of day, and a panel on the floor is specially designed to decharge guests' static electricity.
Dave Asprey, the author, tech investor and podcast host just opened his second Bulletproof Coffee location here and plans to open at least one more outside of California before the end of year. The goal: to bring the concept of biohacking to the masses.
As fans of the podcast know, Asprey vows to live to at least 180 years old due to biohacking.
And what is biohacking, you ask?
"The art and science of manipulating your environment to get the best results possible from your body," he says.
His beliefs are controversial, and not shared with some in the medical community.
"For him to make that claim [that he'll live to 180] isn't based on any evidence because he can't point to any one or any group of people who have done what he's talking about, and it's not testable," says Dr. Steven Barrett, the founder of Quackwatch.com.
Asprey says he's spent over $300,000 to "hack his own biology," which includes a cryotherapy lab at his home in Canada. He's built a large following online. His podcast has over 20 million downloads, and he has over 300,000 followers on Facebook and 135,000 on Twitter.
Coffee, at a price of $4.25 for a small standard cup, is the main star of his mission. The pair of shops in Santa Monica and the Downtown LA Arts District are the result of Asprey's aim to repurpose coffee with the intention of turning it into a "performance-enhancing substance." Asprey says he found ways to eliminate the parts of coffee that didn't benefit him, including the jitteriness and the "crash," as well as maximizing the potential goodness of the brew.
Venture capital firm Trinity Ventures, investors in Starbucks and Jamba Juice, gave Asprey $9 million to help him build his Bulletproof-biohacking vision into a brick and mortar reality.
Dan Skolnick, a partner at Trinity, says that no one has impacted his health and life in general more in the last 10 years than Asprey.
"I always grab a cup of Bulletproof coffee when I go in there, and I couldn't tell you if it's the coffee I'm feeling the most or the lighting or the electromagnetic waves. One thing you'll notice once you get into biohacking is that people feel things in very different ways," Skolnick told USA Today.
Asprey, who is a former entrepreneur-in-residence at Trinity, has no medical training, but credits his computer-programming background as a big motivator in finding ways to elevate the 'hardware' behind human health.
The coffee is just the start. Consider:
- The couch and chairs omit a gentle electromagnetic field. Asprey's reasoning behind this is that magnets influence the way cells make energy, and the fields released from the café's seats are designed to increase the blood flow in the body. "So you're sitting in a chair and going I don't really know why but I feel really good," says Asprey.
- The lighting changes with the time of day. "If you're in a brightly lit café at night with those blue LED lights everywhere, you're not going to make melatonin for four hours and your sleep quality will be diminished very meaningfully." (Asprey's iPhone has a protective screen on it that mimics this effect.)
- A long metal panel that's been electrically grounded on the floor of the café is specially designed to reduce inflammation that builds up from the rubber soles in most shoes, as found in another National Center for Biotechnology Information study.
- The "Bulletproof Vibe," an elevated square pedestal right by the cash register that guests are invited to stand on as they wait for their drink to be prepared. Asprey claims that the Vibe tricks the body into thinking it's moving at 30x the rate it actually is, making it an ideal spot to assume a quick lunge or yoga pose while waiting around for a drink.
© Jefferson GrahamPatrons at Bulletproof Coffee enjoy their java at a grounded table, which is said is like walking barefoot on the beach.
He adds a pat of grass-fed butter and dash of upgraded-MCT oil, derived from coconut oil, which Asprey calls "brain octane oil," which provides ketones - or fat-energy - to the brain.
"I have two-sources of energy, so it's like I'm a hybrid and gas-powered at the same time. And it's completely changed my life," said Asprey.
Still serving it up with the WIFI field, though.