Inside the Luxe Biohacking Capital of the Pacific Northwest

In a culture that spends tens of billions of dollars on anti-aging and avoids discussing mortality like an incriminating family secret, wellness fads are practically an American pastime. Our fixation on youth is the reason why we can’t stop talking about Bryan Johnson—known for his somewhat medieval intergenerational plasma exchanges—and why, 10 years ago, every millennial ordered a Bulletproof latte enhanced with butter at the recommendation of Dave Asprey.

Plasma transfusions and keto coffee may not have much in common by way of technique, but they’re both examples of biohacking, a full-body practice of optimizing diet, sleep and exercise, often using technology, to help a person look, feel and seemingly become younger. Johnson and Asprey have each produced their fair share of content on longevity, including Johnson’s 2025 Netflix documentary, Don’t Die.

To really understand biohacking, though, you have to experience it first-hand. The place to do it is in Bellevue, Washington, one of the healthiest cities in the nation and an ever-advancing capital of human vitality. I spent three days trying out what the city has to offer, and getting a sense for how the community promotes wellness. Here, where a passion for human health optimization meets the bottomless well of tech wealth, anything is possible.

Infusing Health Into Infrastructure

Bellevue sits 10 miles east of downtown Seattle, but locals affirm it’s not just another suburb—and they’re right. This former bedroom community is one of the most expensive suburbs in the U.S., home to the offices of Amazon, OpenAI, Meta, ByteDance (TikTok), Expedia and more. Microsoft arrived in 1979, and though the company has since moved to neighboring Kirkland, it remains an economic driver for the region. Bill Gates and his Microsoft successor, Steve Ballmer, live just a few minutes from downtown.

The city’s wellness focus really started to stand out when I heard the gentle hum of a BellHop, Bellevue’s free, on-demand rideshare program powered entirely by electric vehicles and sponsored by Amazon. Anyone with a smartphone can use the Circuit app to request a complimentary ride (tips are welcomed) to work, the grocery store, the gym, or anywhere else within the six-mile operating radius.

This program is just one example of how Bellevue stays among the healthiest cities in the country. Research shows that expanding access to grocery stores, for free, helps people make healthier food choices. In turn, this combats the consequences of health inequity, from elderly Americans suffering malnutrition to the food deserts contributing to diet-related disease. Since its launch in August of 2023, BellHop has also saved 22,196 gallons of gas, the equivalent of 197 metric tons of CO2, helping to clean the city’s air. They’ve moved 219,025 passengers over more than 116,000 miles.

People can take a BellHop to one of the city’s many green spaces—another urban feature that helps combat air pollution. A few standouts are Meydenbauer Bay Park at Lake Washington’s edge, and the Bellevue Botanical Garden, a popular place to try the disease-preventing practice of Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing. 

Biohacking the Bellevue Way

At the Bellevue Club Hotel, I found a cozy sanctuary filled with opportunities to rejuvenate at every turn. The spacious lounge areas, comfortable beds and high-tech water bottle fill stations were all delightful perks. The main draw, however, was the sprawling Bellevue Club—a 200,000-square-foot athletic center with a basketball court, an indoor track, tennis courts, four workout studios and two indoor pools. Hotel guests get access to dozens of guided weekly programs, so I dropped into a gentle morning Pilates class that left me feeling tall and energized.

Next, I headed to Upgrade Labs, a biohacking center with nine locations across the U.S. and Canada. Started by Asprey, the “Father of Biohacking,” Upgrade Labs is like a gym, but instead of weights or treadmills, it’s filled with high-tech equipment such as a red light therapy bed, PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic field) blankets, lymphatic massage pants, a cryotherapy chamber, AI adaptive bikes and strength-training machines, a BioCharger “health optimization platform” that emits four different types of energy, and more. Deborah and Kevin Delashmutt started the Bellevue branch of Upgrade Labs after meeting Asprey on a retreat.

Each new customer at Upgrade Labs starts with a free cell-health analysis, which evaluates biomarkers such as body fat and skeletal muscle mass, among other things (Asprey’s own metrics serve as the ultimate goal, for a score of 100). I stepped barefoot on a metal platform resembling a doctor’s scale and held very still while the machine did its work. 

A few minutes later, my results were in: My weight, skeletal muscle mass, and body fat percentage were all acceptable, but my ECW/TBW Ratio (inflammation score) and phase angle (cellular battery level) were sub-par. My visceral fat levels were concerning, but according to the results texted to my phone and interpreted by ChatGPT, I could hack my way to better health using the suite of tools available according to my personalized protocol. This included strength and sprint workouts, lymphatic drainage massages, cryotherapy, red light therapy, bouts on a vibration plate, a supplement stack, and PEMF sessions, where a specialized blanket emits low-frequency electromagnetic pulses to stimulate cellular repair, boost circulation, combat inflammation, and relax tense muscles.

Upon touring the facility to learn about the equipment, I entered the brain upgrade room, where people can undergo neurofeedback sessions to promote mindfulness and mental clarity. There, Deborah explained, a strip of reflective material lined the windows to deflect the energy of the memory care facility next door, where people were suffering dementia. Next, when Deborah and Kevin introduced us to the vibrating plate, they described local businessmen coming in on their lunch breaks to stand on it, still in their suits and ties, because a few minutes equates to a 30-minute walk. Biohacking is about efficiency, after all.

How very American, I thought, that standing here vibrating, the businessmen can see the stars and stripes of our country’s flag fluttering in the wind; and beyond that, the Louis Vuitton store in the Shops at Bravern, a luxury fashion mall. In the U.S., wellness always comes with a side of capitalism.

Finding the Best Food and Fuel in Bellevue

Both biohackers and informed consumers understand that, despite the importance of fruits and vegetables in our diet, they can carry pesticides. Increasingly, public concern over microplastics has us worrying about packaged foods. Even if we succeed in buying pesticide- and plastic-free, don’t we need supplements to reach ideal health? Bellevue’s culinary scene addresses these modern consumption conundrums in more ways than one.
For instance, Conscious Hospitality Group is an investment firm that scales healthy, sustainable food and beverage brands. They founded Just Poké, a clean bowl brand with 32+ locations in the Pacific Northwest. Another more recent project is Sano, a fast-casual, health-focused café serving items like egg toasts and energy bites. It's impossible for diners not to make a healthy choice at Sano, which only uses fresh, organic and seasonal ingredients, seed oil-free.

Sano addresses the concern of microplastics, too, by partnering with Nothing, a compostable package brand. The founders of Conscious Hospitality Group, Norman Wu and Danny Brawer, are particularly concerned with the plastic lining inside to-go coffee cups, which can be degraded by the high temperatures of hot beverages, inviting microplastics to leech into drinks. Sano recently switched to serving coffee in Nothing’s plastic-free cup, which becomes compost in 180 days, but it’s been a hurdle explaining to customers why the cup looks different.

Nearby, Old Bellevue’s charming downtown is home to another Conscious Hospitality brand, Matcha Magic, which has a wide selection of tea drinks, including options to add boosters such as ashwagandha, collagen, and a suite of functional mushrooms. There’s also a new AI-powered matcha shop in town, where a machine brews the perfect drink in just seven seconds.

Beyond these eateries, you can find delicious Vietnamese-inspired vegetarian dishes and mocktails at Chay Concept, while Araya’s place has been serving fresh vegan Thai since 1987. The biohacking community has mixed feelings about plant-based diets—Johnson has championed a meat-free diet while Asprey is outspoken against veganism—so there’s also Black Bottle, a 21+ gastro tavern serving both meat and veggie-forward small plates.

Staying Forever Young in the Silicon Valley of Human Vitality

My last stop in Bellevue was a session at Von Sauna, and in one of their floating saunas on the shores of Lake Washington, my partner and I were joined by two kind, retired tech executives, one from Amazon and one from Microsoft. They seemed so young to be at the end of their careers; and fundamentally happy and healthy. 

Between sauna sessions, I mustered the bravery to try a natural cold plunge in the lake’s frigid waters, accessed by a simple ladder off the dock’s edge. Climbing down, I couldn’t help but think I’d just visited a world vastly different from the one most of us inhabit. A world where corporations invest in the well-being of ordinary people; where shortcuts to better health are not only available in limitless supply to those who can afford them, but also, in some cases, accessible for all. 

Bellevue is a real place, but it’s also an ideal that demonstrates the power of using wealth and innovation to power community health. Of course, some of the biohacking protocols available in places like Bellevue won't be for everyone (or be legit). But better health is still a worthy pursuit, and being immersed in a wellness-inspired environment could be the real catalyst for change. Visiting Bellevue is a fascinating way to experience the world of biohacking—and bring a few key findings back home.

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