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photo credit a British GQ article (not cited or summarized here) |
Not so long ago I read an article on Bryan Johnson (probably the Bloomberg version), a internet company millionaire (said to be worth around $400 million in multiple sources, but who knows), who is trying to stop his own experience of the aging process. Longevity isn't a new theme; it has been a popular topic for awhile. David Sinclair, a related researcher, went on the Joe Rogan podcast three years ago discussing the topic; a guest appearing there is a normal enough milestone for public perception uptake.
Writing here relates to seeing more on Bryan Johnson and this theme based on a Chris Williamson YouTube interview. A second Youtube interview with Tom Bilyeu covers slightly different scope, based on differing interview style and background interests of the two Youtubers.
This can't really serve as a summary of what Bryan Johnson is attempting, because it's too complicated to summarize in a standard 1500 words of writing, and those other references already get to that. I'd like to "react" to it, to offer an impression of the theme, approach, and points Bryan made, which will double as a very incomplete summary. If the subject is of interest looking up more information is easy enough; Bryan's Blueprint website covers what he's doing, drugs he's ingesting, measurement steps identifying outcome and helping refine approach, his diet, and so on.
Before going further, one might naturally wonder if any of this actionable, short of spending the $2 million per year he does on this venture, going through countless tests and treatments and taking dozens of compounds and supplements daily. For example:
Acarbose 200mg (Rx)
BroccoMax 250mg
C 500mg
Ca-AKG 1 gram
Cocoa Flavanols 500mg
EPA 500mg
Garlic 2.4g equivalent
Garlic 1.2g (kyolic)
Ginger Root 2.2g
Glucosamine Sulphate 2KCL 1,500mg
Hyaluronic Acid 300mg
Lysine 1g
L-Tyrosine, 500mg
Metformin ER 500 mg (Rx)
N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC) 1,800 mg
Nicotinamide Riboside 375mg (6x wk)
Turmeric 1g
A lot of that is just standard supplements, like vitamin C, or garlic. I think Metformin is a standard longevity drug, the kind people into that "body hack" interest theme often take. Nicotinamide is probably what it sounds like, the drug you ingest smoking cigarettes. There are plenty of starting points for improving supplementation, and diet, in what he's doing, so of course some review is potentially helpful, even without sorting it all out, the approach and measurement themes.
Anyone could be skeptical that the entire project makes sense, or how he portrays it, or about any one input, but surely most of it is well-grounded, whether or not it adds up to a way to stop aging. Or to extend his final life-span; it's not clear that the two are exactly the same thing.
Again this will be my impression, partly informed by reviewing longevity related content and issues over a period of years. I'm not a great reference for deciding any single point, but at least I've been exposed to a broad range of ideas.
Does it probably work?
Let's back up further; could this work, is he extending really slowing aging and extending life-span, or just becoming quite healthy? What evidence can he show that it's working at all? "Science" has developed a range of different markers and metrics for approximating biological age, and of course that's the kind of thing Johnson and his team are optimizing. If you accept that these measurements work well then he is surely succeeding.
The one interviewer, Tom Bilyeu, thinks it's worth considering since Bryan looks like an elf. Really? He's the subject of a complex and multi-layered skin conditioning and regeneration program, using drugs, moisturizers, and treatment processes that includes laser therapy (zapping blemishes?). I think he looks unusual related to holding a 5% body fat, so he lacks the normal level of fat under his skin, looking a bit gaunt, pale, and frankly odd.
That brings up an aside worth considering: he lives at a permanent calorie deficit, per his description offered in discussion. I didn't catch how that's supposed to even be possible, or could make sense, since ordinarily that just means that someone is in the process of losing weight, and he's not. By definition he can't be living long-term at a calorie deficit and remaining at the same weight, unless "deficit" here relates to a gap below a conventional norm, not taking in less than he is expending (the normal meaning).
Related to that broad array of age and health related markers, part of his story is that he's essentially a 18 year old, related to the story all those tell, even though he's in his 40s (45). Or probably different markers tell different stories, so maybe secondary claims that he has delayed aging and experiences it at a slower rate (a rate which he cites) or has rolled back identified age by some time-frame, per varying age-marker measurements.
It all must be real enough. It's hard to really accept that his health must be optimum, or to extend all this to concluding that he's likely to live to be 100, or any other milestone. I've seen 120 mentioned as a target upper limit age, but if that's not from him (or his team) it's not even tied to their ungrounded speculation. He might end up killing himself taking up such an artificial and extreme diet and drug regimen; stranger things have happened. But I can easily accept that a lot of his organ functions could be operating at a relative optimum. He makes the point in one interview that if longevity treatments become more effective over the next few decades, which seems possible, then he doesn't need to live to over 100 based on adjusting this current protocol, he only needs to minimize aging impact until better treatments replace it. Fair enough.
His philosophy
This isn't just about optimizing aging, restricting aging process to an absolute minimum. That is the main driving goal, of course, the principle he's based his life on. It's important to consider why he is doing that, and what it means to him.
His explanation might not be interpreted as adequate. It's framed as a relatively natural goal, that if someone likes life they would naturally pursue living more of it. Then it factors in that if longevity pursuit progresses over the next few decades someone would need to still be around then to benefit from it, so a 46 year old would naturally want to slow the aging clock as much as possible, to get in on that. He broke up with his girlfriend when she developed breast cancer, per news stories (so allegedly; who knows really), which raises two points, with only one relevant to this main theme. That experience, along with prior conditioning, could have triggered a concern over mortality in him. And it paints a picture of him as a narcissistic and poorly socially conditioned individual, if he did drop a life partner in a time of need based on filtering centered on self-interest, which may or may not apply broadly.
From that basic start he portrays it all as about having a vision, doing this project as research, using himself as an n=1 research study to suspend the aging process. It's for his own benefit, of course, and also for others who can parallel and further the same research goal. I guess that works? For sure he's already selling whatever it is related to this pursuit, not just developing it towards what he can profit from, but paralleling the profit-taking to compensate for or overtake the $2 million annual spend on this project. Again all fair enough.
The parts about comparing his personal vision to other geniuses seems a bit much. There are lots of longevity-interest practitioners out there; he is just better funded, takes a different approach, and he might be considerably more dedicated to the goal. This doesn't seem much like Steve Jobs driving Apple's progress, the case of a guy trying to live longer, drawing on a broad and deep range of ongoing research, and tons of "expert" input. His team probably is pretty good, but it would take a lot of doing to review that. The spending and the claims are the interesting parts, and it's really not easy placing the latter.
The relation to vampirism, and range of other practices
Per Bryan's own communication he is using his son's blood as an input to offset aging. Creepy AF! Maybe this isn't as questionable as it sounds, since it's voluntary on his son's part, and normal enough for people to donate blood or plasma, but him having unusual degree of leverage in this situation changes the optics, him possibly passing on his fortune to his son, or maybe not, especially since he plans to not die on a normal time-frame.
It brings up a larger question: just what range of treatments and inputs is he undergoing, beyond supplements, diet, exercise and drugs? Some seem to clearly be cosmetic; he has had cosmetic surgery in the past, use of fillers if I remember right, and dies his hair, which is probably going grey. Then he is also maintaining low body weight, undergoing lots of testing (which isn't a treatment, more monitoring and feedback related), laser treatment and extensive other treatments for skin, and that blood transfusion process. And what else? He's on a vegetarian diet, framed as an ethical decision, not necessarily an anti-aging input.
It's interesting what isn't included. He doesn't use heat or cold treatments, the now popular sauna and ice bath combination. There is no clear explanation for why not; in interview questioning he simply states that he goes by the recommendations of his team of experts, not attempting to try out everything out there, or whatever is popular, so he isn't concerned if he doesn't get to some range of practices. It's odd range to omit though. It doesn't sound like he's experimented with this range in the answers, and it seems feasible that cold treatment really could adjust hormone balance and inflammation.
He's not fasting. Per interview discussion he claims that earlier diet input was based around a one meal a day approach (OMAD), but that the same calorie input (around 2000) caused him to drop to 3+% body fat, an unhealthy level, and that switching that to eating over a 5 or 6 hour window allowed him to move back to 5% instead. Is that ok, living at 5% body fat level? I don't know, but I've certainly experienced living out a calorie deficit myself related to wrestling in high school, and it's not pleasant.
A couple of related thoughts come to mind. People into fasting claim that there are substantial benefits to pausing eating for 4 days or so at a time, autophagy and such (a switch-over of body functions to recycle damaged cells, which may or may not occur in ways that match popular conceptions). Here one would either accept that Bryan's experts are probably as good a reference as anyone on whether or not that's worth pursuing, or could instead guess that he's arranged for a half dozen doctors (or however many) to promote whatever they are inclined towards, so all of this is probably a bit random.
Related to the low body weight input, and vegan diet, I've always guessed that this input may have slowed my own aging input. I was a vegetarian for 17 years or so (not vegan; it was hard enough balancing diet with limited dairy and eggs input), and was fairly underweight through most of my 20s and 30s, only moving above 150 pounds or so at the end of my 30s (at 5' 8", if that helps place it). I'm not visibly aging normally, without developing skin wrinkles, grey hair, and muscle tissue loss. It's hard to say how that relates to other internal organs, or my brain. Exercising a good bit across that time may have helped too, but I quit routine exercise in my 40s, picking it back up at 50 as a running habit, and I still haven't developed much grey hair. Which I can't place as a general age marker, of course; the point is to connect unusual personal experience to these themes as best I can.
Comparison to other longevity research and practices
This extends beyond what I can cover reliably, but I have ran across some interesting input for this, so I'll share some thoughts. I really liked catching some of the Leo and Longevity content creator perspective on these themes, even though he doesn't seem to be accepted by the "longevity community" as a spokesperson, or representative of normal perspective. Leo's Youtube channel is here (no longer updated, he died in a likely murder, an odd twist given that theme of extended life-span), and a Reddit longevity sub (group) is here. Reddit groups can be a little rough, a short step towards Twitter for negative exchanges coming up, but that one seems grounded and civil. A Reddit group related to fasting isn't bad either, another subject I've brought up, but it talks about personal experience and guidance most, not discussion of research claims for benefits.
It's my take (do I need to keep placing that?) that conventional longevity research and uptake relates to drug use first and supplementation second, to researchers identifying compounds that relate to links in normal life-experience and bodily response that relate to longevity, and using those as drug inputs to try to approximate or enhance conventional experience. Fair enough; all that matches the modern medicine paradigm, and the standard interest form of "body hacks." But fasting is something else, adjusting a life-experience input towards a similar end.
Here is where I add that I can't describe what I've heard about researched compounds enough to do any justice to presenting them, so I'll drop most of what would be informed, practical discussion. Bryan Johnson and David Sinclair, the best known anti-aging researcher, both discuss use of drugs for this purpose, so further research into that wouldn't be difficult based on their claims or discussion, which others in different related groups or review articles and videos could help place.
That Youtube creator, Leo, experimented on himself, taking a lot of different compounds over time to try to determine effectiveness. Maybe far too many, since he was not only interested in longevity, but also earlier on in body-building (use of steroids and growth hormone), in healing compounds (peptides and SARMs and such), in nootropics (mental function boosting drugs and supplements), and in sleep experience adjustments, trying to stay awake for extended periods of time, in addition to helping maintain sleep. He was also into fasting, and experimented with exposure to cold, and surely many other inputs. All that couldn't be healthy. And he couldn't really isolate inputs, varying practices like that. He did use routine blood testing to analyze outcomes, to the extent he was able to, but had to do so without the benefit of a panel of supporting doctors and a $2 million / year budget.
Where does this lead, or end?
Bryan will either live to be 120, as intended, or die in a reasonable late 80s / early 90s span, which is good, or else complications will come up and he'll probably scale all this back. I doubt he'll kill himself by going to an extreme, but maybe. I saw a post that leads to that consideration in a Youtube status, which I found again on Twitter:
Started NDGA today. 50mg daily to begin. It ranks 36th in wild type mouse lifespan studies, 13% medium lifespan, 7% maximum lifespan increase. Nordihydroguaiaretic Acid is a type of lignan, a class of organic compounds found in certain plants. A potential autophagy enhancer.
It has been used in a randomized controlled trial for prostate cancer at 2 g a day dose, but doses as low as 100-500 mg may cause sub-clinical liver or kidney damage which we will be monitoring for to prove long term safety. Unclear safety stacking with rapamyicn, metformin, aspirin and other autophagy enhancers, which we are assessing for too.
It's probably fine, but there must be some risk in trying out a number of new drugs or extra supplements that are probably fine.
All this must sound negative, but I really admire and feel positively about his conviction, approach, resolution, that all-in attitude. Even the "strange guy" theme is fine, whether or not it's contrived. I tend to like unusual people better; to me that's a good reason to see what else is going on with someone, not a queue to avoid them, or feel negatively, or judge their ideas more harshly.
For almost everyone I think approaching health conventionally would make a lot more sense; cleaning up diet, to an ultra-clean level, exercising, drinking plenty of water, going on limited vitamin input, getting plenty of good sleep, doing some fasting, stretching, meditation, spending time outside, and so on. Other experimentation seems reasonable, but really why go that far? It's possible to push good health to higher and higher levels, to make a primary interest and life pursuit out of that.
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