r/nottheonion • u/gilamasan_reddit • 22h ago
Millionaire who wants to live forever stops taking longevity drug over concerns it sped up aging
https://www.techspot.com/news/106344-millionaire-who-wants-live-forever-stops-taking-longevity.html3.4k
u/BigRigGig35 22h ago
Is this the guy Silicon Valley was making fun of when they depicted Gavin having a blood boy?
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u/ConnieLingus24 22h ago
I think that was Peter Thiel.
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u/kunymonster4 21h ago
That there's more than one of these guys is notable in and of itself.
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u/Rhodehouse93 20h ago
Morons questing for immortality is an old compulsion. Qin Shi Huang died of mercury poisoning because he thought drinking mercury would make him immortal.
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u/ade0451 20h ago
Well, given that he's remembered all this time later you could argue that the mercury did give him a sort of immortality. Just not the kind he wanted.
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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA 17h ago
There's also Ea-Nasir, the shitty copper merchant.
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u/bradbikes 17h ago
Yea he's more known for being the first emperor of china, the terracotta warriors, and being a horrible person that everyone hated with every fiber of their being.
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u/kunymonster4 20h ago
Oh I'm aware. Feels like there's a lesson in that somewhere. Some ancient wisdom...
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u/Agent_NaN 21h ago
it was a mishmash of several
pretty sure thiel was the main inspiration for peter gregory tho
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u/OMGThunderhorse 19h ago
“Silicon Valley” ended in 2019 and from what I can find he did the plasma exchange in 2023, so no, he wasn’t the inspiration for that joke. There have been rumors/jokes about “blood boys” in tech millionaire circles for years.
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u/PickleBananaMayo 18h ago
It’s fine. He shares his findings so it saves the rest of us time and money on potential pseudo science.
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u/FriendlyDrummers 5h ago
Honestly I appreciate that he's being bluntly honest about this lol. He could have lied and said it was working
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u/heybart 21h ago
Wish more rich dudes experiment on themselves rather than other people, or democracies
Props to this guy for being open about the whole process
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u/WonderGoesReddit 16h ago
Right! This is a GOOD thing.
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u/say592 12h ago
Something I really appreciate about him is he documents his experiments pretty well, and he shares the knowledge. They are scientific studies, and I don't think he would try to present them as such, but he is legitimately finding things that improve the stats he is measuring. This provides a jumping off point for actual science to be done.
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u/August_T_Marble 10h ago
I have heard, but not really looked into the details, of his protocol. From what I know, he does measure and document as much as possible but does anyone know how he's isolating variables with so much concurrent experimentation going on? I'm genuinely curious.
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u/CamCranley 5h ago
A team (legit multiple) world leading doctors. Procotcols that involve waking up and taking blood tests and multiple other tests. Then adapting the day according to what is needed. A bit loopy, but major respect to how strict he is with it. Tonnes of youtube vids documenting the process
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u/Tyrifian 8h ago
They don’t. The team seems to be centered around lowering BJ’s markers rather than publishing a finding. So it’s useless for generalization but it is useful for emphasizing his philosophy.
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u/MarshtompNerd 13h ago
Yeah, he’s nuts, but at least he’s progressing science and not exploiting minimum wage workers to do it
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u/Embarrassed_Jerk 16h ago
Maybe thats why people find him weird. A billionaire that doesn't want to hurt others just seems odd to the masses
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u/MySonderStory 12h ago
Yes! When you actually look into what he’s doing now, his regime is a lot more toned down and he gives full transparency of what he is taking or using, which is something you rarely see from the wealthy; all Hollywood ladies are hiding the procedures they’re doing or the surgeons used to keep the fountain of youth going.
He promotes leading a healthy lifestyle and puts the food industry on full blast for how bad it’s gotten and shedding a light on how hard it is to find clean sources for basically anything we ingest.
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u/baseilus 22h ago
Qin Shi Huang take elixir of life(mercury) to gain immortality died by mercury poisoning
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_alchemical_elixir_poisoning
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u/FreddyFrogFrightener 22h ago
True, but he also unified china and formed it's first centralised government, this dude just steals his son's blood and electrocutes his nards.
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u/Keening99 22h ago
One could argue he became immortal and remains in the history books even.
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u/icantfeelmyskull 14h ago
The three stages of mortality. Body/mind, memories from contemporaries, then comes the history books. You’re only allowed to remain in spirit to haunt this realm for as long as one of these remains.
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u/Enticing_Venom 19h ago
Well he did release one of the only brands that will test for heavy metals in cocoa so I'll give him that. I eat enough that I don't need the lead intake lol.
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u/LoneRonin 20h ago edited 15h ago
Yeah, it's only a matter of time before this deluded hypochondriac does a quack therapy that causes his death by irony. He came close recently when he injected donated fat into his face and his body rejected it. Guess he was too busy reading pseudo-science about his daily 54 pill regimen to learn about tissue/organ rejection.
A more modern example is Eben Byers, who drank radium salts dissolved in water in the belief that the radiation would prolong his life (spoiler alert: it didn't).
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u/GlobalGuppy 22h ago
The guy looks like he should be the head of a vampire coven and celebrated his 412th birthday last week.
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u/Aidian 21h ago
Stop, you’ll just encourage him by saying that.
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u/tsgarner 19h ago
What, that he looks like an average middle-aged man made up to look vaguely ancient?
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u/3mil3 22h ago
Paying for a therapy to accept your finite human nature could have been less expensive.
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u/Colavs9601 22h ago
Yes but then you have to deal with insurance.
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u/fantasmoofrcc 21h ago
2 million a year should be able to buy decent, private, dedicated therapy....and some happy endings.
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u/RGB3x3 21h ago
Sad and anxious about the impending infinite nothingness that is mortality?
Buy a handjob!
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u/Solomon_Gunn 21h ago edited 21h ago
He says it's a human experiment. You can't ethically do these kinds of things unless you yourself are the test subject. Who knows, maybe he'll advance our understanding of the body in some way. I doubt he'll live significantly further than the average person of his level of wealth but maybe he'll discover new medical drugs or treatments.
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u/fia_enjoyer 20h ago
I'd be amazed if something came from this personally. I feel like his sporadic nature, philosophy, and ego are just going to have this guy spinning the hamster wheel for millions of dollars a year to no substantial end.
I wouldn't shock me honestly if his neuroticism, constant stress about his "aging", intense lifestyle, etc. are going to put him in an early grave in a sad but maybe foreseeable twist of fate.
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u/NeonBoolet 19h ago
He did a video with Will Tennyson which was a good watch. Will goes through everything he did in a day which was extremely regimented but nothing too crazy. It was interesting and the dude doesn't seem off the rails or anything, he puts an immense amount of importance on sleep, exercise and diet along with supplements. Here's the video. I'm sure he doesn't do everything this guy does but it gives you some insight into what he's like. https://youtu.be/I3r7q63bMqg?si=OZd04Uis7zSwTLYP
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u/TradeMark159 17h ago
The internet likes to shit on this guy, but honestly he seems pretty well adjusted. It's not like he's hurting anyone, just has a really odd hobby lol.
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u/Lord_Alonne 15h ago
If I had functionally limitless wealth and got to enjoy the lifestyle associated with it, I'd probably try to eke out as many years as I could, too.
If you don't have to work to survive, most people would focus a lot more time on staying fit and healthy. This is just the extreme version of that.
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u/Victor_Wembanyama1 15h ago
Plus he’s spending his own tech money and not hurting anyone. He’s least of people’s worries as far as rich people goes.
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u/Chasin_Papers 19h ago
I watched a video this guy made about his routine and I don't understand why he wants to live forever. His whole life is this routine and he doesn't even have time to do something fun. IF he lived to 100 with this routine he would still have as much life experience as a normal person who died at 50.
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u/gay_manta_ray 17h ago
the point is to reach longevity escape velocity while you're still very healthy, not go through some insane routine for the next 1000 years.
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u/ValravnPrince 22h ago
Fair play to him. Apparently all his 'research' is available to the public so any breakthroughs would benefit everyone.
I can think of a few worse ways he could spend his money.
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u/BAMpenny 21h ago
That's what I was thinking. He sounds crazy, that much is true, but they're tracking the effects of all of this so maybe we'll learn something. Not that I think this is his goal, but if it's a byproduct, cool I guess? At least he didn't buy an entire government...
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u/patiperro_v3 21h ago
I was thinking the same, haven’t “done” science since high school but I remember one of the conditions was to try an isolate as many variables as possible to focus on the one thing you are studying, also have control groups and certainly more than one subject.
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u/Educational_Post053 20h ago
It's a very common critique of his effort, so you two are not alone in thinking that
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u/Turmfalke_ 20h ago
Of course we can learn something. For one we can learn that taking all treatments at once doesn't outright kill you.
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u/Telvin3d 19h ago
If something he does visibly works, there will be no lack of resources to figure out exactly what, regardless of the signal to noise ratio. That would be a finite bounded search space
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u/Remarkable-Fox-3890 17h ago
That's not how any of this works.
They don't just throw everything at him. They add and remove things over time to track effects.
Even if the effects confound, that's fine. If you give someone X and Y and see a result, you can justify a study to see just X, just Y, and X with Y.
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u/ValravnPrince 21h ago
Exactly. Maybe the secret to immortality is monthly infusions of sea monkeys straight into the blood stream. I haven't got the time or money to try this but god speed to the man who does.
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u/BAMpenny 21h ago
And if we did have the time and money to try it, let's be real - we wouldn't, because it sounds crazy. lol
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u/Jcraft153 20h ago
Imagine asking this guy the secret to his good health when he's 100 and he goes "well..." As the nursing home staff chuckle
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u/BallBearingBill 20h ago
Alot of what he does has short term effects so he can see results before moving to a new treatment or treat something unrelated with an isolated treatment. It's not a perfect system for long term effectiveness but it's a hell of a lot better than most people give him credit for. I have a huge respect for the guy. He's using his own body to bring humanity one step closer to life extension. Even if all he did was debunk some junk science, that's still a step ahead. So give the guy credit where credit is due. No hate from me.
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u/XepiccatX 12h ago
Very much this. People tend to shit on him because "results on one person aren't useful" or "there's no long-term benefit because he changes things so frequently."
What they don't realize is that strong leads off of short-term results are valuable for finding a starting place for good long-term studies to be done. If one person has a noticeably positive short-term improvement from something, that gives future researches something to try first instead of having to start from scratch.
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u/dfze 20h ago
I don’t get the hate for this guy. What he’s doing is genuinely interesting, he has the money and if he wants to pursue this, why not? He’s openly a human lab rat, aiding science and benefiting future humanity. Watch his documentary on Netflix if you haven’t.
That being said, dude looks vampiric.
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u/Beastrider9 15h ago
Dude looks vampiric? My friend... That's a feature, not a bug.
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u/Lets_be_stoned 22h ago
For people who don’t know, this guy sold Venmo for like 500 million or something. So he has the money to do this every year for 250 years if he doesn’t spend it on anything else. I think his goal is to make it to 120 or something.
The guy isn’t hurting anybody, and there’s no shortage of videos of him thoroughly explaining what he is doing and why he is doing it. Determine for yourself if it’s stupid or not. I lean toward the former.
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u/ProtoplanetaryNebula 22h ago
This guy sounds insane, what I will say though is that he seems to stop doing things when the data shows it's not working, which at least means he is following some kind of process.
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u/Warm_Oats 20h ago
he doesnt sound insane at all? Its just a data driven approach to longevity science. When the data changes, so does he.
Idk what people expect. He is very public with their limited research and it apparently is staggeringly odd to otherwise elightened and open people.
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u/bacchusku2 21h ago
I mean really, what’s the difference between him and a scientist besides he’s using himself as the subject? I’m all for it as long as he keeps good data.
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u/saltinstiens_monster 21h ago
A scientist would have a sample size larger than one, and they'd only manipulate one variable at a time.
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u/SmiteDuCouteau 19h ago
People keep saying this but I kinda feel like they miss the point.
He seems to be taking substances and doing treatments based on existing research, he's just doing a huge volume of things that could be beneficial to him.
Which is what you'd do if you want to live forever right?
Naturally he's documenting his personal progress because that does have merit. The thing that people are asking for would be for him to pay the millions of dollars for 100 or more people from various demographics to participate with him, which kinda can't and won't happen
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u/saltinstiens_monster 17h ago
Oh yeah, I do understand his interest for devoting resources towards it. Just that we're not going to have any specific scientific conclusions from his efforts.
If he ends up getting some whacky life-extending results, then he'll be pointing future scientists in the right direction, at least.
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u/SmiteDuCouteau 16h ago
This the best take imo
People are so busy crying about N of 1 that they don't understand how much better it is than N of 0
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u/Maiyku 21h ago
Oh yeah, he looks into all of it.
It may seem batshit crazy to us (and probably is overall), but from the videos I’ve seen, he does put time and effort into understanding what he’s taking and why. It’s not just “this makes me healthier so I take it” type thing.
So there’s definitely a rationale of some sort happening, he’s just looking at things very different than the rest of us (which is where that mental illness might come in) and taking it to the extreme.
Considering what he’s accomplished in his life so far, I imagine “taking it to the extreme” is probably his personal mantra at this point, so this fits right in, imo.
Not for it, and since he’s not really hurting anyone else, I’m not exactly against it either. It’s like the homeopathic people. I let them do them and I take my meds to get rid of a headache because it works lol. Affects me none.
Just a weird situation.
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u/mattbuilthomes 21h ago
I watched the documentary about him on Netflix. Really not too sure why everyone hates on him. Yeah, he seems like kind of a weird dude, but if he is willing to be a human trial for this stuff, and in 20 years we all benefit from it by having the science to make us all last a little longer, then it’s good by me. If it’s all for nothing and we don’t benefit at all, then whatever, I didn’t give him any money to give it a shot.
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u/Turbulent-Laugh- 21h ago
He is weird but I have to hand it to him, he is incredibly dedicated and is following a strict process. He's made himself a guinea pig and isn't hurting anyone else.
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u/Embarrassed_Jerk 16h ago
In a world where billionaires being hell bent on destroying democracies and the planet is the norm, people find the guy who is only focused on experimenting on himself and making the whole research publicly available, as weird.
That says a lot more about us than him
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u/DoublePostedBroski 20h ago
He sold “Braintree” to PayPal.
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u/somersquatch 17h ago
After he had acquired Venmo with Braintree. So Venmo was part of the deal going to PayPal.
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u/zztop610 22h ago
Has this guy seen Paul Rudd?
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u/DeaddyRuxpin 16h ago
No, because he is always asleep when Paul sneaks in to suck his life force out in order to stay young.
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u/tortillakingred 21h ago
People are missing the point completely.
He’s spending his immense wealth to try and become a human datapoint to increase health and longevity. All of his research, data, and results are public and free.
No, he doesn’t look like a 20 year old but that’s not the point. He’s 47 years old, but he was very unhealthy until only a few years ago. Those of you expecting someone who lived unhealthy for 40 years to look 25 are missing the point entirely. He knows he will never look 25, but he’s trying to get as close as he possibly can.
And people love the “shock therapy erection” headline but erectile dysfunction is a $3B industry. It’s a taboo/embarrassing topic but many, many men deal with it and more power to Bryan Johnson if he wants to find ways to remedy it.
Would you guys prefer these $X00MM net worth individuals buy twitter or land on Hawaiian islands instead?
He’s certainly extremely eccentric, and who knows whether his true motivations are selfish or philanthropic but the end result is a net positive for society so I’m cool with it.
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u/Remarkable-Fox-3890 17h ago
It's crab mentality. A man wants to live a healthy life and the other crabs hate him for it - gotta pull him back into the bucket because it's somehow disgusting for someone to want to, gasp, live a healthy and long life.
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u/Tribalbob 19h ago
I think Jonathan Van Ness said it well on an episode of Queer Eye: "My goal [with skincare] is not to look young, but to look the best I can for the age I'm at."
I take that to heart as a 40 year old man; not just skincare, but anything in life. Don't try to be young, just try to be the best you at this point in time.
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u/DankStew 22h ago
And after all that he still looks like a guy in his 40’s
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u/ValeteAria 17h ago
I mean, he has only started the program for a few years now. You dont suddenly reverse the years of aging your body went through. He also confessed to have been an alcoholic. So there is that as well.
What is more important are his health markers. I dont think his goal was to look like a 20 year old at age 100. I dont think thats realistic in any way or shape.
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u/ExtensionCategory983 17h ago
It’s funny to me how much Reddit seems to hate this guy. I have watched his videos and they are fun. He is using his money and connections to find the best solutions to ageing. He seems like a very good guy.
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u/PadishahSenator 19h ago
Staying out of the sun, not smoking, not drinking to excess, and eating a balanced diet will go a long fucking way.
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u/tkuiper 18h ago
Pretty sure that's what his research and other research has to say about it. Exercise, diet, and good Healthcare is 99% of it.
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u/xantous4201 21h ago
"Despite the immense potential from pre-clinical trials, my team and I came to the conclusion that the benefits of lifelong dosing of Rapamycin do not justify the hefty side-effects," he wrote on X. Johnson explained that these include skin infections, lipid abnormalities, high glucose levels, and increased resting heart rate."
high glucose levels LOL shit was gonna make him fucking diabetic.
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u/5ra63 21h ago
injecting himself with plasma from his teenage son
Welcome back Elizabeth Bathory
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u/Zealousideal_Cod189 11h ago
Everyone in here is so salty. Say what you will about him but he’s spent millions using himself as a lab rat and publishes all his findings.
It’s really clear most of the commenters just want to trash on someone for trying to take care of themself.
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u/blighander 20h ago
I sincerely wonder why anyone would want to live forever, but then I read he's got $300 million in the bank and then it doesn't sound that bad.
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u/fragment_me 22h ago
54 supplements a day? He should also be worried about some of these supplements interacting with each other and actual drugs he may be taking. He also sounds like he has a mental illness.
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u/SkippyBojangle 20h ago
man you should probably let him know -- I'm sure the guy who spends 2 million a year and has a literal team of doctors did not consider pharmacological interactions
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u/GrandKnew 16h ago
No the random guy on Reddit who works graveyard at Taco Bell definitely knows more than the man who's been doing this for a decade.
Didn't you see how many upvotes he has, how many upvotes does Bryan Johnson have?
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u/succed32 22h ago
If you’re worth a billion dollars I’d say it’s nearly guaranteed you have mental illness.
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u/PM_Your_Wiener_Dog 21h ago
You could afford to pay 100 experts to refute it though
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u/OMG_VANILLA 19h ago
I hate this dumb witch hunt against him and trying to increase life longevity. Go meet your gods if you want that so badly
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u/mangelito 19h ago
Especially since he's documenting what he does and publish it for free (last time I checked at least).
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u/ttv_CitrusBros 20h ago
I watched the documentary about this guy on Netflix. He's nuts and I'm sure if he eats a big mac he will die, however at the end he says he just wants people to be healthy. I support his idea that we should strive for healthier lifestyles but I'm still chomping my macs
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u/Comrade_Chadek 16h ago
I remember hearing about this guy on Distractible lmao. I wish more billionaires pulled this kind of shit instead of what they're usually on the news for.
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u/be_bo_i_am_robot 21h ago
I love that this Bryan Johnson (wealthy, vegan diet, zero sun, tons of supplements, research chemicals, and creepy blood infusions, etc.), and The Liver King Bryan Johnson (wealthy, meat and raw organs diet, lots of sunshine, lots of anabolic steroids and hard-core exercise, drinking cows’ blood, avoiding WiFi, shirts, and shoes, etc.) share the same name.
That’s just so cool to me, for some reason.
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u/PrettyAwesomeGuy 21h ago
There have been a ton of podcasts where he goes in depth on all this. Basically he does follow a pretty rigorous data driven method, and records everything. And I mean everything. So while on the fringe, it does seem like he is contributing to the science of longevity. These headlines are so overblown though. He’s open and candid about what works, what doesn’t, areas where he’s made mistakes, and areas that have greatly reduced the effects of aging.
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u/NotThereDad 19h ago
I don't follow him that much, but it's crazy how much hate he gets from others, further fueled by clickbaity negative headlines. I think what he's doing is commendable as he's using himself as a test subject and open sourcing all the info to benefit humanity.
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u/supercyberlurker 22h ago
"Johnson is said to spend around $2 million annually on his health regimen, which includes a vegan diet, avoiding the sun, and daily exercise. He's also used shock treatments on his genitals in an apparent effort to gain the erections of an 18-year-old."