Your Body Already Runs on Electricity: Biohacking, Longevity, and Wearable Stimulation
BIOELECTRIC TEXTILES · 04
Your heartbeat, your muscle contractions and your nerve signals all run on electricity. That is not a hypothesis but established science, used clinically for more than a century. As biohacking and longevity culture have spread, approaches that manage the body electrically — EMS, vagus nerve stimulation, wearable vital monitoring — are drawing attention again. The catch is that electrical stimulation has stayed tied to bulky devices, gel pads and tangled wires, and Wave Company is working on putting that electricity into the most natural form there is: clothing, through the conductive silicone material ElecSil™.
While you read this sentence, your heart is beating on electrical signals. The muscles moving your eyes contract on electrical signals, and the neurons making sense of these words are passing electrical signals between them. It can sound like science fiction, but it is the opening chapter of a physiology textbook. We tend to think of the body as chemistry and metabolism, yet the signal that actually makes it work is electrical.
How literally true is it that the body runs on electricity?
Nerve and muscle cells generate an electrical signal called an action potential through ions moving across the cell membrane. That signal carries information from the brain to the fingertips and contracts the heart muscle in a steady rhythm.
The electrocardiogram (ECG) used to examine the heart and the electromyogram (EMG) used to assess muscle are both instruments for reading that internal electricity. None of this is a trend; it is science that settled long ago.
The classic work that fixed the idea in the public mind is The Body Electric (1985) by the orthopaedic surgeon Robert O. Becker. The notion that the body runs on electricity is anything but new.
Why did electrotherapy never leave the clinic?
Stimulating the body with electricity has long been part of hospital and rehabilitation practice. The familiar scene is a rehab room after ankle surgery, with pads taped to the skin.
The obstacle was the format rather than the effect. Large, heavy devices, gel pads that leave residue when peeled off, cables that tangle. Because the experience was cumbersome, electrical stimulation stayed inside clinics as a special procedure and never became something you reach for every day.
Why is electricity getting attention again now?
Over the past few years, books on biohacking and longevity have filled bestseller lists in the United States and grown into a culture of their own. Ben Greenfield's Boundless and Peter Attia's Outlive are representative of this body-optimisation genre.
Within that current, electrically based methods such as EMS training, vagus nerve stimulation and wearable vital monitoring are being revisited. Not all of their effects are scientifically settled. The more accurate description is that attempts to manage condition by engaging the body's electrical nature have become a clear trend.
The table below separates the approaches bundled under the phrase managing the body electrically. They share a label, but they do not share the same scientific standing.
Approach | How it handles the body's electricity | Where it stands today |
|---|---|---|
ECG and EMG measurement | Reads the electrical signals the body produces | An established clinical standard |
NMES and EMS | Sends current into muscle to produce contraction | Long used in rehabilitation; effects for general training still under study |
Dynamic FES | Times stimulation to the moment a movement happens | Still research-stage, but most often linked to strength measures |
Vagus nerve stimulation | Engages autonomic pathways electrically | Cleared as a medical device for some indications; wellness use is still accumulating evidence |
Wearable vital monitoring | Records bioelectrical signals continuously in daily life | Widely available as consumer products; interpretation accuracy varies by product |
Conductive fabric | Makes the garment itself the electrode that reads and delivers | The material is commercialised; stimulation applications are in development |
Why is wearable electricity the next frontier?
If the body already runs on electricity and people are returning to electrical stimulation, the next question follows naturally: in what form should that electricity sit close to the body?
The answer is simpler than expected. Make the clinic's device and gel pad as ordinary as the clothes you put on each morning. If the electrodes are already inside a training top, the step of finding and sticking on a pad disappears. Once it starts like getting dressed, electrical stimulation moves from special procedure towards daily habit.
Where does Wave Company fit into this?
Wave Company is a smart textile company with a mission of slow aging through exercise. It received a CES 2024 Innovation Award in digital health.
Two things exist today as consumer products. WaveWear is a sportswear brand combining kinesiology taping with compression, and TracMe is a smart exercise solution pairing motion-sensing supports with an AI fitness app, currently sold to consumers.
ElecSil™ is the material technology one step beyond that. Conductive silicone is printed directly onto fabric, and the printed area becomes both a biopotential electrode and a conductive trace, so the garment itself can read the body's electrical signals or deliver stimulation. No gel pads, no cable bundles; because the fabric is the electrode, the construction stays seamless and light. By the company's own estimate, it can be mass-produced at a far lower cost than conventional sensor approaches.
That said, a finished product carrying stimulation functionality is still in development. What is commercialised and on sale is WaveWear and TracMe, while ElecSil™ is supplied as a material and through technology partnerships. Building a bridge between the old science that the body is electric and the current wave of biohacking and longevity — what Wave Company makes is the material for that bridge.
Frequently asked questions
Does electrical stimulation actually work?
That muscle contraction and nerve signalling run on electricity is established science. The effects of specific applications such as EMS or vagus nerve stimulation are, in many cases, still under study. Reported outcomes differ by purpose and protocol, so it is more accurate to look at them area by area than to draw one conclusion.
What is ElecSil™?
A conductive silicone material developed by Wave Company. It is printed directly onto fabric so the garment itself works as a biopotential electrode and conductive trace, and it is supplied as a material rather than a finished device.
How does conductive fabric differ from the conventional approach?
The fabric acts as the electrode, with no gel pads or separate wiring. That means fewer seams, less weight, and a design that can assume washing and everyday wear from the start.
What exactly is biohacking?
A cultural movement around observing and adjusting your own body and health using everyday habits, exercise and measurement technology. It is closer to a lifestyle concept than a medically defined category of treatment.
What kind of company is Wave Company?
A smart textile company with a mission of slow aging through exercise, recipient of a CES 2024 Innovation Award in digital health. It sells WaveWear and TracMe as consumer products and supplies ElecSil™ and TracSil™ as materials and technology.
Related reading
Handling the electricity that moves the body in a form you can wear is the direction Wave Company is working in. There is more on ElecSil™ and our products at wavecompany.net, and the contact page is open if you want to discuss an application.
This article is for general information and is not medical advice. Please consult a qualified professional about your own health.
