Bryan Johnson, the 45-year-old software millionaire who went viral for revealing his expensive medical regimen to be 18 again, has now spoken about his controversial quest. The tech millionaire recently found himself the subject of scrutiny after the publication of a Bloomberg article titled 'How to be 18 Years Old Again for Only $2 Million a Year'. The piece chronicled his efforts to regain his youth through a rigorous plan that he and his team of doctors call "Project Blueprint".
The article included a number of claims, such as Mr Johnson's suggestion that he wants to become 18 again. He revealed that he is following a daily regimen that he claims has given him the lung capacity and physical endurance of an 18-year-old, the heart of a 37-year-old and the skin of a 28-year-old. He estimated that he spends $2 million a year on his efforts to slow and reverse ageing.
Now, speaking to The Independent, the 45-year-old offered an explanation behind his quest. He started from the beginning and recalled being in a "bad spot" just 10 years ago while he was building his startup. He said that, in addition to the pressures that came with being a founder, he was also struggling with depression and the challenges of being a father to three young children.
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"A combination of things that make life challenging," Mr Johnson said, adding that he blamed himself and what he described as "self-destructive behaviours". "I would routinely commit self-destructive behaviours, and specifically in the evening at seven o'clock, I would try to soothe my stress by eating food," he recalled. "And that caused me to gain a lot of weight, and that caused me to not sleep very well, which then caused me to not feel very well in life," he added.
Mr Johnson then eventually decided to make a change. He revealed that what started as a simple way of taking control of his own life led to something more rigorous. The tech millionaire came up with the idea of creating a system that would take care of his health better than he could. He hired a team of 30 doctors, who work collaboratively across all his body's functions.
"We use whole-body ultrasound to look at my lungs and my heart and my tendons and ligaments and muscle and all that kind of stuff, and so we need sonographers to work the ultrasound machines that specialise in the heart, and sonographers that specialise in the lungs," he explained, adding, "And so the team is a group of specialists that do a given thing. It's a team that works collaboratively across all these different functions."
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Mr Johnson said that he has been following his rigorous plan for the past two years and as a result, his epigenetic age, or biological age, has been reduced by five years. "It sounds more intimidating than it actually is," he admitted, before revealing that the "core" of the plan hinges on the importance of prioritising sleep, getting exercise, and eating healthy foods such as vegetables, berries and nuts.
"The data is compelling that if you do these things and you do these things well, you can slow your rate of ageing," the 45-year-old told the outlet. "I've never been happier. I've never been healthier. I've never had more energy. I've never been more stable. I've unquestionably never [been] better," he said. "This system is helping me be more healthy and happy than I could by myself," he added.
Mr Johnson's treatment plan relies heavily on medical data and evidence. It is led by Oliver Zolman, a 29-year-old regenerative medicine physician who received his medical degree from King's College in London.
