LOS ANGELES — “Ready, three o'clock,” Jamie Love told hikers as they gathered for a photo. “One two three…”
“Don't die!” they shouted.
A dozen strangers were gathered on the Temescal Canyon Trail along the Pacific Coast in Los Angeles one morning in mid-December. Several of them, including Love, 38, who had organized the outing, wore black T-shirts with “DON'T DIE” in large white letters.
The hikers had a shared goal: to prolong their lives through diet, sleep, exercise, and whatever technology might emerge.
Bryan Johnson, the gathering's spiritual leader, internet celebrity and tech founder-centimillionaire turned longevity guru, was not present.
Johnson arguably took the lead last year in the race among the big tech rich who go to extremes in a quest to live forever. He's now turning that mission—and the bad online reputation he's earned for it—into a lifestyle business, selling supplements and packaged meals. The walk was one of more than 30 “Don't Die” rallies around the world that day.
In 2021, Johnson began spending $2 million a year to measure every aspect of his body, from lipid levels to urination rate to brain plaque, with the goal of reversing his aging process. He called it Project Blueprint. Every day, between 7:00 and 11:00, eat the same three vegan meals: “Nut Pudding” (a mixture of nuts, seeds, berries and pomegranate juice), “Super Veggie” (black lentils with broccoli and cauliflower) and a third dish that varies from vegetables, roots and nuts. He exercises for an hour every morning and takes up to 111 pills a day.
Johnson claims his “protocol” has slowed his rate of aging, giving him, at age 46, the maximum heart rate of a 37-year-old, the gum inflammation of a 17-year-old and the facial wrinkles of a 17-year-old. 10 years, their website says. His “biological age,” he claimed until recently, is 42.5 years, according to a measurement of changes in DNA over time. He's spent about three years erasing—maybe—a little more than three years.
Johnson also describes Project Blueprint as preparing for humanity to thrive in a world dominated by artificial intelligence. Hence the motto: “No Morir”. He said he didn't care what people today thought of him. “I'm more interested in what people in the 25th century think of me,” he said. “Most opinions now represent the past.”
Now, after three years of self-experimentation — what he called “Phase 1” — Johnson said he is ready for “Phase 2”: helping others replicate his process. Late last year, he started selling Blueprint brand olive oil. This month, more products went on sale, including vegetable powders and pill supplements. Johnson also announced a “self-experimentation study” in which participants can pay for a starter pack of Blueprint products, as well as blood tests and other tests to track their results. The 2,500 places were sold out in 24 hours.
For his fans this moment is an exciting opportunity to spread Johnson's gospel. For his detractors, it is a cynical attempt to monetize his popularity. Or, even worse: they call it pseudoscience that could harm the health of his followers.
When asked if he was building a religion, Johnson said yes.
“Every religion has tried to offer a solution to 'not dying' — that's the product they've generated,” he said.
If there is a spectrum between scientific rigor and pure marketing, many experts maintain that Johnson is on the promotional side.
Nir Barzilai, scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research, said Johnson's methodology is far from that accepted by the scientific community: clinical studies with large groups of people. To date, Johnson has only experimented on himself. And Barzilai said Johnson sometimes combines markers of health, such as lung capacity, with markers of aging.
Barzilai was also not particularly impressed with Johnson's results. He himself is taking only metformin, a diabetes drug whose life-prolonging potential he has studied, and does intermittent fasting. But when Barzilai, 68, met Johnson in 2023, they had a blood test and “they were both about three years younger than our age,” he said.
Andrew Steele, a biologist and author who writes about longevity, said there was no evidence that Johnson's products would help people live longer.
“None of them have conclusive data in humans that say this supplement or additive will improve life expectancy,” he said.
As a nod to his skeptics, Johnson plans to change the name of his olive oil to “Heal-All Oil.”
By: CHRISTOPHER BEAM
The New York Times
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/7082414, IMPORTING DATE: 2024-01-23 19:22:03
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