Science has been searching for the elixir of youth for centuries, and now one biotech CEO reckons he's close to cracking the secret – but unfortunately it involves a lot of money and motivation.
I have neither of those things, but Bryan Johnson certainly does.
Thanks to his data-driven experimental program Project Blueprint, the 45-year-old claims to have the lung capacity and fitness of an 18-year-old – and he's hoping to reach that biological age with all of his bodily functions.
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A new feature on Bloomberg details the intensive program, which involves the help of 30 doctors who monitor every part of his body in a bid to essentially reverse the ageing process.
Last year, when Johnson hadn't quite achieved the biological age he has now, the software entrepreneur opened up about the process in a Medium post.
"With my world-class team of doctors, researchers and clinicians, if I am able to reverse my measured biological age by 1.01 years for every one year that passes, that is evidence that we have reached the first stage of ageing escape velocity where life expectancy increases faster than passed time," he wrote.
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"As for the magic pill, it appears that for the foreseeable future, achieving and maintaining peak wellness is just going to be a lot of really hard work."
And he's not exaggerating, as Bloomberg explains that the team of doctors, led by regenerative medicine physician Oliver Zolman, have Johnson on a strict vegan diet consisting of just 1,977 calories per day.
As for his fitness regime, he works out for at least an hour a day, including three high-intensity sessions a week.
Perhaps most important of all is his sleep cycle. Johnson goes to bed at the same time each night after spending two hours wearing blue light glasses.
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What's more, he continuously monitors his vital signs and undergoes numerous medical procedures each month, with the outlet describing some of them as being 'quite extreme and painful'.
The results of these are explored with blood tests, MRI scans, ultrasounds and colonoscopies.
An intern on the team named Jeff Toll told the outlet: "I treat athletes and Hollywood celebrities, and no one is pushing the envelope as much as Bryan."
So for anyone hoping to essentially rewind their body clock in the same way Johnson appears to have, there is no quick fix.
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It's not all that surprising that your body functions work well when you treat it exactly how it wants to be treated.
As for the financial side of things, Bloomberg reports that Johnson has spent $2 million on the program over the past year.
Right now, that rules out a majority of the population. But at the very least it's been worth it for the fitness fanatic.
Medical professionals say Johnson's tests show he's managed to reduce his overall biological age by at least five years.
This includes his heart function, which is currently at the age of a 37-year-old. Meanwhile, he has the lung capacity and fitness of an 18-year-old and the skin of a 28-year-old.
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Toll added: "All of the markers we are tracking have been improving remarkably."
Despite these successes, Project Blueprint is a long way off from completion – whether it breaks into the mainstream or not is yet to be seen.
But even when it does, there's no saying the average person will have the funds nor time and energy to take part.
Still, good for Johnson for Benjamin Buttoning himself.
Topics: Health, Science, Technology, Weird, Fitness