A 45-year-old software developer has opened up about his quest to regain his youth through a rigorous plan that involves a strict diet, medical procedures, and treatments, and which costs him around $2ma a year.
Bryan Johnson made his fortune when he sold his company, Braintree Payment Solutions, to Ebay’s PayPal in 2013 for $800m in cash. Since then, Johnson has turned his attention inward, with the 45 year old now focused on reversing the aging process.
To reach his goals, which include achieving the “brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, tendons, teeth, skin, hair, bladder, penis and rectum of an 18 year old,” according to Bloomberg‘s feature: “How to be 18 Years Old Again for Only $2 Million a Year,” Johnson employs a team of more than 30 doctors and health experts, who monitor his “every bodily function”.
The treatment plan, which is overseen by Oliver Zolman, a 29-year-old regenerative medicine physician, and required an investment of “several million dollars,” according to the outlet, also meant building a medical suite in Johnson’s Venice, California home.
As for what the regimen, called Project Blueprint, entails, Johnson revealed that he wakes up every morning at 5am and takes two dozen supplements and medicines, including zinc to supplement his diet and a microdose of lithium for “brain health”. He also follows a strict vegan diet of 1,977 calories a day, works out for an hour each day, and goes to sleep at the same time each night, after wearing blue-light glasses for two hours beforehand.
According to Bloombergeach month, the millionaire tech entrepreneur also “endures dozens of medical procedures, some quite extreme and painful, then measures their results with additional blood tests, MRIs, ultrasounds and colonoscopies”.
“He’s taken 33,537 images of his bowels, discovered that his eyelashes are shorter than average and probed the thickness of his carotid artery,” the outlet reported. “He blasts his pelvic floor with electromagnetic pulses to improve muscle tone in hard-to-reach places and has a device that counts the number of his nighttime erections.”
Johnson also undergoes weekly acid peels and laser therapy, and has fat injected into his face to build a “fat scaffolding”. According to Johnson, the procedure is different from regular fillers because, as he “regenerates,” the new fat will “create fat on its own”.
“The body delivers a certain configuration at age 18,” Johnson said Bloomberg. “This really is an impassioned approach to achieve age 18 everywhere.”
Now, more than a year into the experimental treatment plan, Johnson’s doctors say the process has been paying off, with Jeff Toll, an internist on his team, telling the outlet that “all of the markers we are tracking have been improving remarkably”.
According to the group, this means that Johnson has “reduced his overall biological age by at least five years,” and that he now has “the heart of a 37 year old, the skin of a 28 year old and the lung capacity and fitness of an 18 year old”.
Others, such as Zolman, who received his medical degree from King’s College London, are more realistic about Johnson’s results thus far, with the 29 year old claiming the team has not achieved “any remarkable results,” but rather “small, reasonable results, ” which he said are to be expected.
As for Johnson’s thought process, the 45 year old said he’s trying to “prove that self-harm and decay are not inevitable”.
He also acknowledged that others may not understand, or believe in, his approach. “This is expected and fine,” he said of the criticism.
On social media, Johnson’s quest to reverse his age, and the extreme lengths he goes to to do so, have sparked a debate, with many questioning the end goal.
“Obsessed with rich people realizing money isn’t the point and then just floundering around with ideas like ‘maybe I could just… live forever,'” one person tweeted.
Another said: “I’m at a loss for words with this story. All the money he spent on tests, procedures etc could have gone towards enjoying the pleasures of life while living healthy and aging naturally.”
“This level of self-love is not healthy,” someone else alleged, while another questioned the “point” of Johnson’s efforts. “What’s the point? In my opinion, this seems like a pretty unfulfilling life – no matter how long it lasts,” they wrote.
Others found the exorbitant amount Johnson spends on his self-care regimen to be out of touch, considering many cannot afford basic life necessities. “We have a society where some people terrified of being their age can just spend $2m a year on nonsense chasing the fountain of youth, while a whole lot more people can’t afford housing and decent food,” one person wrote.
Although the majority of readers were critical of Johnson’s goal, there were some who applauded the millionaire for his dedication, whether it is successful or not.
“There’s a flock of people criticizing and mocking @bryan_johnson for going to great lengths to reverse aging. I don’t know him, but I respect anyone on a mission, willing to walk their own path, and share their journey so openly,” one person wrote, adding: “I hope he succeeds.”
Someone else summed up Johnson’s impassioned efforts to become young again as “pretty cool”.
As for his response to the criticism, Johnson joked on Twitter that the replies to the feature were “surprisingly tame,” before claiming he was “looking forward” to hearing the “zingers, take-downs and insults” from his “haters.”
Johnson also shared a few of his favorite responses thus far, which included one individual’s claim that he “sounds like a total weirdo,” and another from someone who asked: “Should we tell him he doesn’t look 18?”
The Independent has contacted Johnson for comment.