Kayla Barnes, a 33-year-old wellness CEO based mostly in Cleveland, was keen to select up her date from the airport one spring night final yr. It could be the primary time she would meet Warren Lentz, who lived in Los Angeles, in particular person, and the subsequent step in a month-long burgeoning relationship that included numerous FaceTimes, texts—and, most notably, an in depth change of non-public well being data.
After assembly Warren on Raya, a personal, membership-based relationship app, and earlier than their first date, Kayla requested his well being labs—together with a intestine well being check and a complete toxin check, measuring ranges of heavy metals and environmental toxins within the physique, plus a slew of different assessments, of nutrient ranges, irritation, and a spread of biomarkers. Warren dutifully had all of them carried out by a neighborhood California clinic with out hesitance. And Kayla knew, nonetheless unromantic, that each his compliance and his outcomes would present greater than every other relationship compatibility check or unusual deal-breaker query ever might.
“He did all of them with out query,” she tells Fortune. And good factor, she provides, explaining that it was essential to have a associate who appreciated and inspired her strict way of life—and admitting it might “by no means work” to have a person who got here house, drank beer, ate chips, and watched TV.
“Well being outcomes are so significantly better when we’ve got an awesome assist system round us,” she says. Fortunately, his labs appeared good, with some room for enchancment to strengthen and optimize his intestine well being, she says. Most significantly, he was additionally wanting to see the outcomes and to get more healthy along with her.
He handed different exams, too—together with Kayla asking her suitor if he frequented L.A.’s elite natural meals retailer Erewhon (he did), in addition to shortly stalking his Instagram to ensure he was following an ample variety of well being influencers (he was).
“I had by no means had anybody ask me for my well being labs within the context of relationship,” says Warren, 36, the chief income officer at a advertising company and former founding father of a expertise company for Gen Z influencers. “However I favored how she was assured about the truth that that was essential to her.”
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Kayla has all the time chased perfection. As a child, she labored to hone her gymnastics abilities; as a younger grownup, to review vitamin and obtain a mind coach certification from Dr. Daniel Amen, a neuroscientist identified for giving rich public figures mind scans.
And now, as an entrepreneur, it’s a part of her job: She’s host of the Longevity Optimization podcast and co-owner of LYV the Wellness Area, an as much as $1,000-a-month membership precision well being and longevity clinic headquartered in Cleveland, the place novel expertise and well being trackers are usually not solely inside attain, however profession necessities.“I all the time had tremendous excessive ambitions for myself, and I simply wished to turn into the very best model of myself,” she explains.
Right here’s only a glimpse of how she goals for that now: strict 8:30 bedtimes, set meal occasions of solely natural meals with by no means a drop of alcohol, morning power classes, weekly physique composition measurements, chilly remedy, purple gentle remedy, sleep monitoring, grip power exams, strolling conferences, routine blood and toxin exams, and quarterly stem cell therapies for preventative functions.
She admits her way of life and values are usually not in the slightest degree relatable. However whereas some might name her a well being nut or health fanatic, in right now’s lexicon, Kayla is the epitome of the trendy biohacker: somebody with a pure dedication to experimenting and optimizing well being by utilizing information, expertise, and way of life interventions. Within the age of longevity, the place extra individuals are wanting to spend within the identify of residing longer, we’re accustomed to many novel biohacking way of life selections. However there’s a brand new frontier we’ve but to listen to about: the biohacking relationship market.
Kayla says she trusts the science of protocols like stem cell therapies to sluggish growing old, particularly as a result of she’s interviewed so many within the area on her podcast. Nonetheless, she acknowledges that that is her private protocol and doesn’t contemplate herself a well being supplier for the broader public, regardless of co-owning a long life clinic.
However naturally, she yearned for a associate who does greater than put money into a high-end gymnasium membership, gulp down a inexperienced smoothie, and attempt to eat natural. Discovering an appropriate biohacking mate, she realized, would show to be an entire completely different feat.
However then got here Warren, who ignited Kayla’s craving for connection and her want to have a associate who would slot in along with her way of life.
An atypical first date
Following their first encounter on the Cleveland airport and a stroll, Kayla confirmed Warren her house, the place it was onerous to overlook the quite a few “well being robots,” as Warren nicknamed them, distributed all through. A $7,000 sauna shared her bed room, together with a $2,500 Faraday cage to guard towards electromagnetic pulse, a $45,000 PEMF to scale back muscle fatigue after train, and $2,000 purple gentle panels on the again door of her closet to scale back pores and skin growing old (based on the Cleveland Clinic, whereas small research present promise in low-level red-light remedy, longer-term analysis is required to name it a viable remedy for treating the pores and skin).
“Being wholesome as a way of life not as a burden was positively on the forefront of her life,” Warren remembers about observing her cupboards, which resemble pharmacies moderately than houses for boxed pasta and paprika.
“I knew straight away he was gonna be in or out as a result of most likely not daily that you simply go to fulfill somebody you’re relationship do you open up the fridge and see syringes [full of peptides to reduce skin aging],” Kayla says.
On the primary assembly, Kayla additionally gave a tour of her longevity clinic and the pièce de resistance of the date: an hour-long session for 2 in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber—a therapeutic tube for the physique initially meant to deal with individuals with carbon dioxide poisoning and to extend oxygen in scuba divers after stress modifications, based on the FDA. And there, albeit not throughout from one another at a candle-lit dinner, the 2 had on a regular basis first-date conversations, concerning their pursuits and way of life values, all whereas enclosed in a Again-to-the-Future-esque tube.
Their chemistry was evident to each.
“We had been fairly intentional, which I beloved,” says Warren, who was health-conscious already at that time, albeit to not Kayla’s stage. “If different individuals heard [about the date], it may not sound tremendous romantic, however it was so thrilling to us. It was what we had been ready for.”
Kayla Barnes-Lentz
A fast however essential notice about biohacking
Whereas the $27 billion longevity market is embraced by many, its particular practices are usually not all the time scientifically backed, FDA-approved or physician-recommended—a incontrovertible fact that Kayla and Warren perceive and are snug with, however which newcomers may wish to parse out on their very own.
Nonetheless, the trade has amassed a cohort of loyal followers, from Silicon Valley’s Bryan Johnson to researcher David Sinclair and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis. Girls like Kayla are additionally main the way in which in taking preventative measures for his or her well being to stay longer, more healthy lives. And inside that dialog, the necessity for social connection is seldom talked about—regardless of sturdy proof that it’s the power of our interpersonal relationships that almost all usually predicts our happiness, and which in flip prevents stress, anxiousness, and despair, all accelerants to growing old.
Biohacker Marriage ceremony Bells
After simply three months of relationship, Kayla and Warren received engaged whereas long-distance within the mid-point of Austin, Texas—though she jokes, she would have beloved it to be at their go-to date spot of Erewhon.
Courtesy of Kayla Barnes
On the marriage ceremony lower than six months later—an affair the place 150 friends loved bone broth, natural grass-fed, grass-finished meat, and an natural keto cake—the hitched Lentz and Barnes-Lentz sported matching Ranges Dexcom steady glucose displays, seen on every of their arms.
They now stay collectively in L.A., and disclosed they make seven figures, making it attainable to spend within the low six figures on their longevity protocol. Whereas she is aware of her protocol isn’t accessible to the lots, Kayla admits that no-cost way of life modifications are an important in making individuals more healthy and in addition hopes to affect individuals to make a fraction of the modifications she makes. Since shifting in collectively final yr, Warren has adopted Kayla’s lead in consuming a purely natural weight loss program, going to mattress by 8:30, and limiting all so-called responsible pleasures allowed with the famend 80-20 rule, an age-old precept that champions being disciplined 80% of the time and giving your self wiggle room the opposite 20%.
Kayla Barnes-Lentz
Earlier than assembly Kayla, Warren would keep up previous midnight and indulge within the occasional ice-cold Food regimen Coke or Dr. Pepper, although he admits it was a trait she hated, prompting him to offer it up.
“It’s most likely one of many hardest issues, sadly, that I did or had or needed to do for the betterment of us as a pair. However man, a Food regimen Dr. Pepper,” he says, seemingly dreaming of 1 nonetheless. “Kayla is all in, 10 out of 10 the healthiest particular person I’ve ever met,” he says, admitting that “doing longevity as a pair is exclusive as a result of there’s all the time going to be one one that could be pushing more durable than the opposite.”
That’s Kayla, in fact—one thing Warren says makes him a fortunate man. Now, he calls his spouse the “chief well being officer” of their household. For instance, Kayla has reduce out microplastics, refusing to drink from a plastic cup, although Warren nonetheless makes use of them often.
It’s a nickname welcomed by Kayla, who admits, “I knew that it was going to take somebody actually distinctive to suit all the things that I used to be on the lookout for,” she says. “However being married has been one of many largest biohacks I’ve ever carried out.”
Masha Maltsava
Being married has been one of many largest biohacks I’ve ever carried out
Kayla Barnes-Lentz
A lot as they assess their bodily and psychological well being, the biohackers have a month-to-month marriage optimization assembly to make sure their partnership is optimized, too. “It’s created an area for her to inform me, ‘Hey, whenever you eat previous 8 p.m., that doesn’t make me pissed off or act out of the blue, however it makes me unhappy as a result of I would like you to be your finest.’” Additionally they make area to go with one another, and each agree it strengthens their emotional bond.
FOMO? By no means heard of it
After all, the duo has to forgo social plans if they’re too late into the night and intrude with their bedtimes. And no, they inform Fortune they don’t have FOMO, primarily as a result of they’ve one another. The sport they’re taking part in is just too enjoyable, they usually wind down their nights by studying or watching a present on the sofa.
Nonetheless, they attempt to make some social plans work by leaving them early, consuming earlier than a cocktail party, or providing an alternate. “I’m turning into somebody like Kayla who doesn’t get pleasure out of consuming meals that’s not natural or grass-fed completed,” Warren says. “I’d moderately have glowing water with some lemon than a cocktail,” he says, including his household is curious but accepting of their way of life.
On the marriage ceremony, Warren’s sister paid homage to the distinctive pairing. “His sister stated I used to be essentially the most ‘unrelatable particular person,’ however I beloved it. It was one of the best,” she says. Now, Warren’s relations all come to Kayla’s clinic to get their very own exams.
Masha Maltsava
With biohacking collectively comes the truth that, if all holds up effectively and the protocols work, the 2 might spend much more time collectively than the typical married couple—maybe one other half century until loss of life do them half. “I don’t know to the extent we might push 200, however I believe it’s a extremely thrilling time to be alive proper now,” Warren says. “We’re in it for the lengthy haul.”
Regardless of preliminary changes, Warren says adhering to this strict routine was a “no-brainer” and has helped him really feel more healthy—all within the identify of affection.
“I’m positively all in,” he says. “Only a few individuals go the additional mile to get an ideal rating, and that’s what she’s been doing.”
Since assembly Kayla, he shares, his testosterone, the intercourse hormone accountable for libido and sperm manufacturing, has gone up 200 factors (a wholesome vary is from 300 to 1,000 nanograms per deciliter), and he has not craved sugar fixes like he used to.
Says Kayla, “I wish to stay so long as my husband does, in order that implies that I must prioritize doing all the things in my energy with all my assets, entry, and data to optimize his well being. For an optimum marriage, we each must be operating on the similar velocity.”
The couple is making ready to financial institution their stem cells for rejuvenation down the street, for once they get sick and for emergencies, all of which Kayla plans to put up about on her private web site and social media accounts.
“We’ll proceed to take a look at biomarkers to see what’s enhancing, and that’s sort of the entire identify of this recreation,” she says.
And with that, the couple hopes to introduce a brood to their abode—5 to seven kids, to be actual, whom Kayla hopes will likely be biohackers, too. “I’m excited that we’re going to have the ability to have the healthiest kids ever,” she says, noting that a part of the plan consists of investing in a biohacking house outdoors of the town. There, whereas curating a wholesome way of life for her kids, she plans to stability the next: “How onerous will we push into [health optimization], and the way onerous will we allow them to discover their very own path?”
For Warren’s half, he says that Kayla pushes him in the fitting route—and will seamlessly achieve this for his or her youngsters, too. “That is somebody who would clearly not simply be an incredible spouse,” he says, “but additionally an incredible mother.”
