r/Biohackers: rules, karma requirements and posting culture

Who posts here

Peptide and nootropic threads throw around compound names, doses in mcg and reconstitution terms with no explanation. On the same page, someone asks how to sleep longer or which supplements everyone should take, and gets answered without being told off. The rules say ordinary health tips do not belong here, but in practice a basic question stays up and just gets fewer and shorter replies.

• Supplement and stack hobbyists comparing what they take and what bloodwork shows.
• Peptide and hormone users asking about dosing, sourcing worries and side effects.
• Young men after better focus, sleep, testosterone or gym results.
• People with a chronic or unexplained problem looking for something their doctor has not tried.
• Science readers who post and argue over new studies, plus a few verified experts with flair.

Karma and account requirements

What it takes to get a post through in r/Biohackers.

What you can post

What happens to a new post

Where the most recent posts ended up. Sample size: 400.

• Stayed up86%
• Removed by Reddit's filters12%
• Removed by moderators1%
• Deleted by the author<1%

Reddit counts a removal by the subreddit's own AutoModerator rules as a moderator removal, so that share is not all human. Held by AutoModerator means the post is waiting in the mod queue.

What happened when we posted here

We have posted here ourselves. This is how our own posts and comments fared.

Stayed up

97%

Removed by Reddit's filters

3%

Removed by moderators

0%

Period

January 2026 to August 2026

The rules, in the mods' words

1. 1

   No Medical Advice

   Only clinical professionals (physicians, nurse practitioners) may give direct medical advice to others. A. Direct medical advice is anything that directly advises someone on a specific treatment for a specific indication. For example, “take X, it will treat Y” - only clinicians can say this. B. Indirect medical advice is allowed by all users. For example, “I read/conducted/tested X treatment and found it is effective for Y condition, here is the information, you should consider it.

2. 2

   Include safety information

   Recommendations that aren't medical advice should supply safety information for procedures or compounds.

3. 3

   Always include sources

   Always include a source if you're stating something has been proven in the scientific literature.

4. 4

   No pseudoscience

   No Pseudoscience; unsubstantiated claims of curing something with "X" should be removed. See rule 2. A. Pseudoscience: Things in direct contradiction to scientific consensus without reputable evidence. B. If such comments are deleted, mods should provide a clear reason why.

5. 5

   Repeated rule breaking will result in a ban.

   Implementation of a 3 strike system unless the subject is clear advertising/spam or breaking Reddit content policies, resulting in an immediate ban.

6. 6

   N=1 studies must be marked as such

   N=1 Studies should be ID'd as such with flair and not overstate the findings as factual.

7. 7

   No off-topic posts

   This subreddit is for biohacking - the use of experimental biological science to improve one's own health on a DIY basis. Mundane health improvement methods, like using mainstream vitamins for mainstream purposes, do not belong here. We are a place for pushing hard on the limits of biology, not talking about regular health tips.

8. 8

   Legal Disclaimer (Please Read)

   By viewing this subreddit, you agree that no affiliate of the r/Biohackers community is to be held accountable for your actions as a direct result of, or in relation to, the content of this sub. Anything you do is performed solely at your own risk and liability.

These are the rules as archived in January 2025. Rules change. Check the sidebar before you post.

The culture

r/Biohackers started as a DIY biology forum and the old sidebar still points to community labs. The room today is something else: about 910,000 people talking about supplements, peptides, sleep, hormones and longevity. It moves fast, around 63 posts a day, and a typical post gets ten comments.

Two kinds of post dominate. The first is the short personal question: about 77 words, close to half with a question in the title, asking whether a stack makes sense or whether anyone has fixed a specific problem. The second is the research share. Text is about two thirds of posts and links a fifth, but the top of the subreddit is mostly links and crossposts of studies and health news, often with a joke for a title.

The fault line is evidence. The rules ask for sources and ban pseudoscience, and the comments do a lot of that policing themselves: someone will point out a study's funding, a small sample or a mouse model. At the same time peptides are the largest flair, much of that talk runs on personal reports, and people write about "researching" compounds they are plainly taking. Cannabis studies reliably start a fight.

What lands

• A new study or piece of health news with a short plain summary and the catch stated up front, such as results only shown in animals.
• A self-experiment with before and after bloodwork, the doses and the time period.
• An open question the whole room can answer from experience, like the one supplement that changed things for them.
• A common, nameable problem described simply, such as waking fully alert a few hours after falling asleep.
• A warning that protects the community, like a post exposing an account spamming dangerous advice.

What gets removed or ignored

• Posts from accounts under 15 days old. AutoModerator removes them on sight.
• Posts from accounts with too little comment karma, which AutoModerator labels as likely spam with no appeal.
• Clear advertising or spam, which the rules say earns an immediate ban instead of a strike.
• Moderator removals are rare, about 1% of the sample, and the few we saw were link posts and a peptide sourcing question. Our data does not show the reasons.
• Unsourced cure claims. The pseudoscience rule says claims of curing something with a compound should come down.

The unwritten rules

• Give your details. Age, sex, doses, how long, and any bloodwork. The welcome message says effort in gets effort out, and the replies bear that out.
• Say "this worked for me" and not "take this". It keeps you inside the medical advice rule and it is how regulars talk.
• Expect short, blunt comments, about 17 words, and almost no links. A product link in a comment is conspicuous.
• Readers are alert to funding and motive. A study paid for by a company that sells the compound will have that pointed out within a few replies.
• Pre-mixed blends and "I found this product" posts get read as ads even when they stay up. Listing ingredients and doses yourself reads better than naming a brand.

Self-promotion

There is no detailed self-promotion rule. The submit page says to make sure a post is not spam or you will be banned, and the rules exempt clear advertising from the three strike system: it is an immediate ban. In practice the main defence is the account gate, not the mods, and a few thinly disguised product posts do sit in the feed. They get little out of it. A founder or brand does better with a sourced research post or a documented self-experiment, an account that already has comment history here, and no link.

How people write here

Typical post length

77 words

Typical title length

8 words

Titles phrased as a question

45%

Typical comment length

17 words

Comments that include a link

1%

Posts that carry a flair

99%

The regulars

The accounts that showed up most in our sample. Worth reading before you post: they set the tone, and they are usually the first to reply.

Top keywords

The words and phrases that show up far more often here than in other communities, from recent posts in r/Biohackers.

• sleep 48 posts
• peptides 25 posts
• blood 27 posts
• dose 27 posts
• supplements 26 posts
• body 35 posts
• testosterone 14 posts
• biohacking 14 posts
• taking 43 posts
• supplement 22 posts
• effects 24 posts
• reta 21 posts
• creatine 16 posts
• peptide 14 posts
• vitamin 18 posts
• energy 22 posts
• anxiety 24 posts
• bpc 9 posts
• mcg 11 posts
• male 15 posts
• side effects 13 posts
• health 28 posts
• bloodwork 10 posts
• fish oil 9 posts
• stack 22 posts
• inflammation 11 posts
• metabolic 8 posts
• diet 16 posts
• caffeine 10 posts
• iron 10 posts
• muscle 12 posts
• calcium 7 posts
• blood sugar 7 posts
• tirzepatide 8 posts
• effect 14 posts
• magnesium 11 posts
• mots-c 8 posts
• brain 17 posts
• nad+ 7 posts
• liver 8 posts

Posts that did well

• 9/10 dentists probably won’t recommend this 💀2.7k upvotes · 270 comments · 🗞️ News
• If he suddenly has hair, go buy shares 📈1.2k upvotes · 248 comments · 🗞️ News
• 263 Legally Deceased "Patients" are In These Dewars Awaiting Future Revival - Cryonics783 upvotes · 300 comments
• What was the Closest Thing You Found to "the Vitamin"779 upvotes · 251 comments · 💊 Supplements & Stacks
• Vagus nerve stimulation shows promise as a way to counter Alzheimer's disease‑ and age‑related memory loss739 upvotes · 41 comments · 🧠 Cognition, Mood & Nootropics
• Belly Fat, Not Age, May Be The Bigger Driver of Low Testosterone623 upvotes · 82 comments · 💉 Peptides & Hormones
• An estimate of how much running is optimal for all-cause mortality580 upvotes · 213 comments · 💪 Exercise, Fitness & Recovery
• Methylene Blue moment579 upvotes · 341 comments · 🧠 Cognition, Mood & Nootropics

Common questions