More than 30 doctors, scientists, physiotherapists and nutritionists are at his side every day to optimize even the smallest adjustments to his body. We are talking about the American entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, who has dedicated himself to eternal life with his "Blueprint" rejuvenation program.
He wakes up at 5 a.m. every morning, works out up to three times a day, eats a strict vegan diet that contains about 76% of his daily calories, and to slow his aging he takes over 100 supplements a day.
At Bryan Johnson Blueprint, everything is questioned and tested. Be it nutrition, sleep, blood values or fitness, everything is measured and compared with the latest research. Based on the vast amounts of data, the researchers draw up a detailed plan - initially "only" focused on Bryan Johnson. He is therefore the guinea pig in his own project. He describes himself as a "Professional Rejuvenation Athlete" and as "the best-studied person in the world".
The remarkable thing about all his work is his openness. He shares all his routines, his fitness exercises and his supplement protocols for everyone to see on his website.
Danger of confusion! Brian Johnson (with an i instead of a y) sounds very similar, but two people could hardly be more different. Brian (with an i), known on the internet as the "Liver King", eats raw offal and injects himself with steroids, while Bryan (with a y) follows a vegan diet.
October 2021 - the start of a new way of thinking
Bryan Johnson was not always as health-conscious as he is now. As an initially hapless entrepreneur, he made his breakthrough with companies such as Braintree and Venmo. The sale of the two companies to Ebay and PayPal catapulted the tech CEO into the ranks of the world's richest people. In 2023, his fortune is estimated to be around 400 million US dollars.
However, his entrepreneurial success came at a price. Due to the enormous stress levels, Johnson slipped into depression, neglected his own body and became increasingly overweight.
The beginning of Bryan Johnson Blueprint
All that changed radically on October 13, 2021, when he announced his Blueprint project. The goal: to achieve maximum rejuvenation based on the latest scientific findings. No opinions count in this project, only facts. Today, Johnson employs a total of around 30 people and spends a lot on the project. According to his own statements, the 45-year-old spends over two million dollars a year on the Longevity project.
Bryan Johnson Blueprint - evidence-based, rigorous, transparent
In order to increase his credibility, Bryan Johnson publishes all of his test and laboratory results without exception. This not only increases transparency, it also makes it possible to verify the results of his methods more precisely. This makes Bryan Johnson practically a "transparent person".
Weight, body fat, muscle mass, oxygen saturation, sleep, temperature, blood sugar and air quality are measured on a regular basis. But that's by no means all. While some people don't like going to the doctor at all, Bryan Johnson undergoes full-body ultrasounds and MRIsalmost every week in order to detect structural changes (z.B.: cancer) in his body immediately.
Bryan Johnson is known for his iron discipline in various areas. He has improved his sleep with several tricks. His bedroom has no natural light and he always tries to go to bed at the same time. In addition, there is no "screen time" 2 hours before going to bed and he wears special glasses that block blue light .
Sleep is actually an underestimated means of promoting health and longevity . Numerous regeneration processes are stimulated during sleep. Depending on the sleep phase, different parts of the body are regenerated.
A look into the supplement jungle
Central to his eternity efforts are dietary supplements and also selected medications. According to his own statements, he takes the incomprehensible amount of 111 supplements daily . The number varies slightly because everything is always optimized according to need.
All these nutritional supplements have one purpose: to help Bryan Johnson reduce his biological age. Bryan Johnson started out in 2021 with one goal. He wanted to break the world record for 'biological rejuvenation'. And by his own account, he has succeeded impressively. He has the heart of a 37-year-old, the skin of a 28-year-old and a lung capacity that is otherwise only found in 18-year-olds .
Along with a special, spermidine-rich greens drink, he swallows the 54 capsules and pills that are on the breakfast menu. The spectrum ranges from plant extracts (ginger, turmeric, garlic) to well-known longevity supplements (calcium alphaketoglutarate, glucosamine, vitamin D3/K2, omega-3 fatty acidn), up to medications (lithium, metformin).
Lunch is then scheduled for 11:00 a.m. every day. The menu includes, for example, "Super Veggie" - a creation made from black lentils and various vegetables and spices. Alternatively, Johnson also names "Nutty Pudding". As the name suggests, this is a kind of nut pudding with a berry variation. Of course, the main meal, like breakfast, is accompanied by a lot of supplements. The tech entrepreneur takes a second dose of some molecules at lunchtime - new additions include hyaluronic acid.
Bryan Johnson Blueprint Diet - every single calorie is counted!
In addition to the supplements, which are all tailored to his personal needs, Bryan eats a very specific diet in which every single ingredient fulfills a "biochemical" purpose. So with Super Veggie and Nutty Pudding, the nutrient composition is not left to chance - quite the opposite.
The basic principles that Johnson follows in his diet are called caloric restriction and intermittent fasting. He eats only about 76% of the calories, measured against his daily basal metabolic rate, to slow down his ageing. This value corresponds exactly to 1977 calories. He eats these calories in a window of 6-8 hours. Consequently, he fasts for 16-18 hours a day.
The number of calories results from the green breakfast drink, Super Veggie, Nutty Pudding and a third meal a day, which is comparatively variable - depending on which nutrients he needs at the time.
In the Japanese region of Okinawa (one of the five Blue Zones), people practise a similar diet and on average live significantly longeras a result. Meanwhile, researchers have been able to identify some of the aspects behind fasting and why it can be beneficial for your health. The American Valter Longo has invented his own mock fasting diet and the British singer Adele has lost weight with the Sirtfood Diet .
Fasting and diet, for example, have an effect on the Hallmarks of Aging . The Hallmarks of Aging are 12 different "markers" for health in old age. Scientists Carlos López-Otin and Guido Kroemer have analyzed more than 200 different studies. If you want to know more, you can read the detailed reports on the 12 different "markers" in our magazine.
Back to Bryan. In addition to caloric restriction, the recipes are about providing Bryan's body with enough protein. To do this, he eats a large amount of lentils and pea protein every day. It is also important that his blood sugar does not fluctuate too much. Bryan therefore tracks his blood sugar with a continuous glucose sensor. The aim is to prevent type 2 diabetes mellitus and its precursor, insulin resistancez.
Gadgets
To complement his diet and measurement routine, Johnson undergoes a whole host of rejuvenating treatments. Every day he "bathes" in red lightto activate his mitochondria and promote recovery after intense workouts. A laser cap, which looks like a helmet on the outside, in combination with a specifically formulated tincture is said to stimulate hair growth and restore color to individual grey hairs.
Bryan Johnson's team also pays a lot of attention to his skin. Specially tailored phototherapy, microbotox, microneedling and much more are designed to restore youthfulness to the skin. You sleep on a special mattress that regulates the temperature and prevents night-time stress caused by temperature fluctuations.
Bryan Johnson's community "Don't die"
Bryan Johnson is now a well-known personality not only in the longevity scene. His radical lifestyle and provocative videos/posts on social media have turned the American into an internet phenomenon.
He has long been selling his own olive oil or his famous "Nutty Pudding" at proud prices. You can see him on Instagram with some world-famous stars, such as DJ Steve Aoiki, Andrew Huberman or the Kardashians. He invited the latter to his "Don't die" dinner.
Under this slogan (in German: "Stirb nicht") he unites a community of like-minded people. On his website, he describes the beliefs of this community. It almost seems like a religion with Bryan Johnson as the savior at the center.
Wusstest Du?
Bryan Jonson comes from a Mormon community in Utah. After leaving school, he spent two years as a Mormon missionary in Ecuador. Until the age of 34, he belonged to the church, which calls itself "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". At the same time as leaving the church, he divorced his then wife and sold his company for 800 million dollars.
Cerebrolysin - better than coffee?
On Bryan Johnson's Instagram, you can find a video of the tech millionaire sticking a syringe more than 3 centimeters long into his butt and injecting himself with a cloudy liquid. The molecule in this syringe is cerebrolysin. In the same video, the American raves that this molecule is better than coffee and that he feels clearer than ever.
Cerebrolysin is a neuroprotective drug consisting of hydrolyzed porcine brain proteins. It contains a mixture of peptides and amino acids that have potential neurotrophic and neuroprotective effects. The drug has been studied for the treatment of neurological disorders such as stroke, Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury. The researchers suspect various pathways through which cerebrolysin may act, including protection against apoptosis, improved metabolism in the brain and also increased neurotransmission, i.e. improved communication between nerve cells.
What is behind the claim
Should we all give ourselves a shot of cerebrolysin instead of coffee now? Not too fast. The Cochrane Collaboration , a global network of scientists and physicians that compiles systematic reviews to evaluate medical therapies, took a closer look at the evidence on cerebrolysin. They looked at one specific question: does the use of Cerebrolysin after a stroke provide an advantage over standard therapy? The clear answer was that Cerebrolysin offers no advantage. Bryan Johnson, however, refers to other animal studies and experimental approaches. Ultimately, everyone has to decide for themselves whether this pays off.
Wusstest Du?
In some pictures on Instagram, Bryan Johnson can be seen with painted fingernails. According to his own statement, this is his protest against the Mormon church, of which he was a member until the age of 34. There, any form of embellishment of the body was considered a blasphemous sin. Painting his fingernails was part of his "religious liberation".
Bryan Johnson and Blueprint - all the power of AI
If you're wondering how Bryan Johnson decides what to try next to prolong his life, you might be surprised to learn that, when in doubt, he doesn't decide for himself. Rather, the tech millionaire believes that AI is superior to humans. Instead, he sees himself as a test subject for artificial intelligence in order to get the best out of his cells. However, he is no longer alone in this. Some time ago, Bryan Johnson jokingly created a profile of his dream woman. It included some absurd rules (go to bed at 8.30 p.m. every day, sex by appointment only). Bryan Johnson does not have a new girlfriend (as of June 2024), but pictures of a female person with Bryan Johnson keep popping up. DThe woman behind Blueprint is Kate Tolo, 27 years old and responsible for marketing Blueprint. She is also the first woman to take part in Project Blueprint and for this reason she is jokingly called Blueprint Project XX
Hormone therapy - not without controversy
In addition to his food supplements, strict diet, training plan and all his gadgets, there are other ways that Bryan Johnson is trying to stop ageing. Some of them are not without controversy.
This is how the American substitutes testosterone. Potential benefits of this therapy include an improvement in sexual function, an increase in muscle mass and bone density, an improvement in mood and well-being, as well as an increase in cognitive performance. According to his website, his testosterone level is more than 700 (although no information is given here for the unit).
A blind increase in the male sex hormone is not without risks. A potentially increased rate of heart attacks, strokes and red blood cell counts are among them. In addition, Bryan Johnson takes 17-alpha-estradiol because it has been shown to prolong life in mouse studies.
Wusstest Du?
Bryan Johnson wears a so-called Adam Sensor every night, with which he can measure the duration of his nocturnal erections. Using shockwave therapy, he says he has been able to increase the duration to an average of 2 hours and 12 minutes per night. His goal is more than 3 hours per night.
Gene therapy: another step for Bryan Johnson
For one of his most daring experiments, the American flew to Roatan, Honduras, to undergo follistatin gene therapy . According to its own statements, this method ranks 7th among life-prolonging measures. But what is it all about
Follistatin is a protein that occurs naturally in the body and plays a role in regulating muscle growthby inhibiting myostatin. Myostatin, in turn, is a protein that slows down muscle growth. Gene therapy with follistatin aims to increase the expression of this protein in order to increase muscle mass and potentially slow down ageing.
Follistatin gene therapy involves the introduction of the follistatin gene into the patient's cells using a viral vector. This vector transports the gene into the cells, where it begins to produce the follistatin protein. The increased production of follistatin inhibits myostatin, which can lead to increased muscle mass and possibly improved overall physical function.
Follistatin - not without risk
Follistatin therapy is highly experimental and has not been approved in Europe or the USA. As with any gene therapy, there are potential risks and side effects with follistatin gene therapy:
- Immune response: The body could react to the viral vector carrying the gene with an immune response, which could lead to inflammation and other immunological problems.
- Uncontrolled muscle growth: Excessive inhibition of myostatin could lead to uncontrolled muscle growth, which could lead to further health complications.
- Tumor formation: There is a theoretical risk that the introduction of foreign genes could promote the growth of tumors.
- Accuracy of gene integration: If the follistatin gene is integrated at undesired locations in the genome, this could lead to genetic mutations and undesired effects.
Bryan Johnson (and his father) nevertheless opted for the therapy and proudly presents his results on Instagram:
- His ageing rate has dropped to 0.64
- His muscle mass had grown by 7%
- And his blood follistatin level was 160% higher after gene therapy
Ergebnisse
Paced days, a strict vegan diet, over a hundred supplements a day, numerous anti-ageing treatments, spending millions - is it all worth it? Definitely, Bryan Johnson would probably say. Let's let the numbers speak for themselves:
According to his website, all blood markers are in the absolute ideal range -whether liver values, blood sugar, kidney parameters or blood lipids. Initially, he was able to reduce his biological age by eight years (from 44 to 36). The fold density on his skin corresponds to that of a 10-year-old, while his physical performance (measured using VO2max) corresponds to the capacity of 18-year-olds . The body fat percentage is comparable to 16-year-olds and its current rate of ageing (measured with Dunedin PACE) is just 0.69. To put it more graphically, this means that it only "ages" for 277 days per year (365 days). As a reminder, the American is currently 45 years old.
Whether all his efforts will ultimately lead to eternal life is something we will not even experience. Or maybe it is?
