He's 45, Spending Millions to Have an 18-Year-Old's Organs

Go inside Bryan Johnson's wild quest
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 28, 2023 10:45 AM CST
He's 45, Spending Millions to Have an 18-Year-Old's Organs
18 inside? That's the goal. (With the skin of an 18-year-old too.)   (Getty Images / Dr_Microbe)

"He wants to have the brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, tendons, teeth, skin, hair, bladder, penis, and rectum of an 18-year-old." It's just one of a number of incredible lines in Ashlee Vance's piece for Bloomberg Businessweek on Bryan Johnson, a 45-year-old software entrepreneur who is worth hundreds of millions and using some of that fortune to turn back the clock. He's dubbed the effort Project Blueprint, and he's doing it with the assistance of 30 doctors. They try the most intriguing new treatments on Johnson and obsessively track the results using everything from whole-body MRIs to blood draws. It's all on top of a rigorous framework (a 1,977-calorie vegan diet, an extremely specific brushing and flossing routine). If you think he's crazy, "This is expected and fine," he says. The crazy part is, it's working.

"Johnson’s body is, as they measure it, getting medically younger," writes Vance, who cites the biological age of his heart (37), skin (28), lung capacity (18), and gum inflammation (17). Among the ways he's gotten there: by directing electromagnetic pulses to his pelvic floor to boost muscle tone in tough-to-access places, with weekly acid peels to counteract sun damage, and via sound therapy to better his hearing. But he shirks some of the anti-aging tricks pushed elsewhere, such as resveratrol and ice baths. Leading the charge on all this is 29-year-old regenerative medicine physician Oliver Zolman, who is far more nonplussed: "We have not achieved any remarkable results. In Bryan, we have achieved small, reasonable results, and it's to be expected." (Read the fascinating full piece.)

Stories to sink your teeth into.
Get our roundup of longform stories every Saturday.
Sign up
Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X