Bioethical Considerations

I have always been interested in the field of Bioethics and this interest influenced my decision to do a double major in Genetics and Legal Studies during my undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I plan on pursuing Bioethics in the future and earn a JD.

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Due to this academic interest, I have always been conscious of bioethical issues that I encounter in my life. My biohacking odyssey also brings about many bioethical questions. Just like every ethical question, these questions do not have a clear right or wrong answer. However, there is value in acknowledging the questions and attempting to be mindful of the impact they might cause. 

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I understand that some people might get influenced by the information that I have provided on my website. Hence, I have mentioned multiple times on this website that all of the visitors should look at my lifestyle as solely something that suits me. This is entirely my journey which I have undertaken because of the safety bubble that I possess in the form of access to routine blood tests and the constant data that I get from my biohacking tools. Having constant feedback from my tools is what allows me to ensure that nothing goes sour in my journey and that I maintain a healthy lifestyle. I understand that not everyone can have such a safety bubble and hence, would like to make it clear that I am not prescribing any lifestyle habits, products or supplements to anyone who might be reading my website. Everyone is different. Every body has unique needs. Hence, in my biohacking odyssey my n=1 (sample size = 1) as it is a jouney to personalize my healthcare. Personalized medicine is "personalized" because it is meant to serve that one specific person and their body's individual and unique needs. What might suit me, might not suit another person. Interestingly, what might suit me right now, might not suit me in the future in the context of unforseen or unavoidable life changes. 

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There is a lot of information available on the internet regarding various diets, healthy lifestyles, supplement routines and so on and so forth. Not all the information available is accurate. There are many instances of misinformation and conflicting information available in the media. Some of this misinformation is caused by lack of education (in the field of healthcare and nutrition) while some is caused due to ulterior motives. The most significant example that I can think of is the demonization of fat in the 1960s by scientists, who were paid by sugar industries to "show" that fat caused obesity and health issues and not sugar. The money that these scientists received was a major bias in their research, which caused misinformation about fat and caused people to fear fat. Even now, in grocery stores, we get dairy products which are "skimmed", when it has been shown that full fat dairy is healthier than skimmed dairy.

 

One needs to be extremely cautious while navigating health related information available. As someone who has read multiple research papers and is conducting research in the field of diet, metabolism and epigenetics, I can't stress enough the importance of the Discussion section in every research paper. People usually read the title, abstract and the conclusion and draw their own interpretations on the basis of what those three things say. They often forget to read the discussion section of the research paper wherein the researchers analyze their findings, explain if some other factors can explain the results, consider certain biases or confounding variables, discuss further experiments that can be used to validate the results and so on. In this way, the discussion section of the research paper, reveals a lot about what the conclusion of the paper might actually indicate and whether the conclusion of the paper should be taken at its face value. 

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I believe that one needs to read the whole paper, understand what it truly means, understand what the conclusion truly implies, evaluate if the sample size and sample is representative and if it is applicable to the reader, and then consider the quality of the experimental approaches of the paper, resources used and the sources cited. Now, after saying all this, I would like to acknowledge that going through this entire process has become second nature to me due to my educational background in sciences. However, someone who is not well acquainted with research and research writing process cannot be expected to understand what the right approach to reading a reasearch papers is. Thus, I would just like to caution people that they should not just follow something because a research paper's conclusion said so or because a news paper article cited and interpreted a research paper and concluded that a particular habit or supplement would be beneficial. In this situation, a mandatory research course in high school or university might be beneficial as it might help in equipping people with skills needed to understand what a research paper is trying to say. 

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In line with the ulterior motives that I discussed in an earlier paragraph, I would also like to discuss the do-it-yourself healthcare products, tools and tests currently available in the market. Many a times, we come across advertisements for these products and we see influencers on social media listing out the advantages of using certain products. One needs to be aware that majority of the times, these posts are sponsored and the people are getting paid to promote the products. I personally like to try a lot of these products but I am extremely vary about the fact that the products might be a complete sham, and hence I do a lot of research about the product and the science that the product claims to use, before deciding to purchase it. I am also extremely cautious about subscribing to certain supplement regimes and only try out something when the science makes sense, there is sufficient literature supporting the science, and I am planning to get blood tests done soon, in order to see the impact of things I am putting into the body. Hence, I would like to underline the importance of evaluating the motives behind sponsored content and taking informed decisions while planning to buy certain products. It is also important to consider accessibility to routine health check-ups like blood tests while making big lifestyle changes as it is important to understand how your body is reacting to the changes being made.