Biohacker who spends $2m a year to get 18-year-old’s body says he has ‘no plans to die’
A 45-year-old tech mogul is spending $2 million (£1.6 million) every year in an attempt to stay young forever, has said he has 'no plans to die'.
Bryan Johnson, who sold his payment processing tech business, Braintree Venmo, to PayPal for $800 million (then £492 million) a decade ago, has called his anti-ageing quest 'Project Blueprint' with the aim of biologically becoming 18 again.
His team of over 30 doctors, headed by Cambridge-based anti-ageing expert Dr Oliver Zolman, closely monitor his blood, heart, liver, kidneys, brain, blood vessels and sexual health and have captured a seemingly unnecessary 33,000 images of the inside of his guts - because: science.
His gruelling regime involves downing 80 vitamins and mineral supplements every day, alongside a very precise 1,977-calorie diet consisting of 70lbs of mushed veggies a month as well as almond milk, walnuts, flaxseed and berries - yummy.
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Johnson claims the thought of a burger or glass of wine makes him 'feel sick'.
His strict lifestyle also includes exercising for at least an hour a day and hitting the sack at precisely 8.30pm every night as well as wearing blue-light-blocking glasses, lasering away skin sun damage, 'placating' the vagus nerve (to control stress) with a clip on gadget and zapping his pelvic floor muscles with electromagnets.
Two years into Project Blueprint the 45-year-old - who calls himself a 'professional rejuvenation athlete' - claims he has the heart of a 37-year-old, the skin of a 28-year-old and an 18-year-old's fitness levels and libido.
"I currently have no plans to die," he told the Daily Mail - though, I'm sure many of us don't have it pencilled into our diaries, either.
Johnson has previously been labelled a 'narcissist', a 'vampire' and even been compared to American Psycho's Patrick Bateman for doing the world's first 'multi-generational blood plasma exchange' last month.
The experiment was inspired by scientific tests on rodents showing that older rats were rejuvenated by blood infusions from younger squeakers.
It involved his 17-year-old son, Talmage, donated his youthful blood to his age-defying dad.
Johnson then donated plasma to his 70-year-old father, Richard.
The biohacker claims it's 'too early to tell' if this first test on humans was successful.
Johnson started Project Blueprint after selling his company, going through a messy divorce and gaining 60lb (27kg) on a diet of cookies and pizza, which led to depression, suicidal thoughts and violent mood swings.
"It took me years to remove that internal demon," he admitted.
"We are quite literally mad as a species. We are addicted to junk food, to alcohol, drugs, cigarettes.
"All these things which make us feel bad. We are at war with ourselves. How can we hope to save the planet, to survive as a species, if we can't make peace with our own bodies?"
Johnson added: "I had done a lousy job of looking after myself so I thought, what if I let my body decide how it wants to live? What if data, not emotions, managed how I eat and sleep?"
Speaking previously about his extreme health regime, Johnson revealed that he has seen some marked improvements in different parts of his body.
"My left ear is 64, my fitness tests say I'm 18, my heart is 37, my diaphragm strength is 18," he told the BBC, admitting that some parts of his body are older than others.
"I playfully say I'm trying to become like, an 18-year-old. My son is 17, so I always tease him and say, 'When I grow younger, I wanna be like you'."
Topics: Health, Technology, Weird
Amelia Jones