Davinia Taylor is well and truly in her second act.
The 46-year-old mother of four is feeling healthier and better than ever and, in this exclusive interview with HELLO!, she reveals how she's found a positive way to hit the dopamine highs of her 20s without reaching for alcohol or unhealthy foods.
"I've always been dopamine-chasing," says Davinia, who shot to fame in Hollyoaks and was one of the Primrose Hill set in the 1990s, alongside Kate Moss and Sadie Frost.
No stranger to a destructive lifestyle, she lived her younger years on a hedonistic rollercoaster.
"I had everything, but inside I felt as though I was drowning," she says. Stints in rehab saw Davinia, who was married to football agent Dave Gardner from 2003 to 2010, cut out alcohol. However, still craving the high she got from a drink, she turned to sugar.
When we catch up with her at London wellness hotspot Rebase, she admits she went off the rails aged 35, when her mother died. She sought solace in food and struggled to get out of bed.
"Boredom drove me to drink and then to eat unhealthily. I don't want to go into my 50s feeling bored, so I had to find another way to get the dopamine I crave."
What is biohacking?
It was this search that led her to overhaul her eating habits and discover biohacking, a practice that uses lifestyle changes to get our bodies back into balance. But what exactly is it?
"Put simply, biohacking is cracking the code for self-enhancement," says HELLO!'s wellness columnist Hattie MacAndrews, who is a confidence and mindset coach. "It's a term that encompasses many different elements of wellness and can include anything from monitoring your sleep patterns to modifying your diet or making sure you drink enough water.
"The fancy name feels intimidating, but it's likely that if you're already on a path towards better health, you're practising biohacking in some way."
In Davinia's case, the approach sees her cutting out inflammatory foods, practising cold-water therapy and doing breathwork exercises.
While living in an altogether more zen way, Davinia's life is not without stress. "I have two exes," she says, laughing. "When legal letters come through, I practise breathwork to calm down. It's the fastest way to get rid of stress."
Davinia's biohacking tricks
1. Sauna sessions
Saunas are a key part of Davinia's biohacking toolkit. "Being in the sauna releases oxytocin. I immediately find myself bonding with people in the sauna and I love the feeling of us all getting better together."
She also has an infrared sauna session each night before bed. "It changed my night-time routine. I no longer feel as though I need a glass of wine because the sauna has replaced that," she says.
2. Cold-water therapy
Another essential component of Davinia's biohacking is cold-water therapy, but she takes a realistic approach.
"I don't do it every day because my body would get used to it and the dopamine hit wouldn't be as high," she says. "You have to keep the body guessing, so I flip a coin to decide if I'm doing it."
If you do feel your body adjusting like this, Davinia has some sage words of advice, telling us: "As long as it feels awful, it's working. Doing hard things gives us a self-esteem boost – and this is hard every time."
3. Breathwork
"It's the fastest way to get rid of stress," she says, adding that she takes calming breaths to try to calm down every time she encounters a stressful situation, from legal letters to traffic during the school run.
4. Supplements
Passionate about supplements, Davinia has created her own range, WillPowders, which includes bone broth, collagen, protein and MCT (medium chain triglycerides, a healthy type of saturated fatty acid).
"If I don't have my morning keto creamer and collagen, I'm going to end up binging on croissants or brownies," she says of the supplements. "It's how I'm wired after my 1980s upbringing!"
"But I now know about replacing glucose as an energy source for my brain with ketones and amino acids," she adds. "And all of a sudden, I can say no to temptation. It's a miracle."