Featured Image Credit: Full SEND Podcast
Topics: Bryan Johnson, Ozempic, Health
William Morgan
A man whose entire life has been overtaken by the pursuit of immortality may sound like some old cautionary tale, but 'biohacker' Bryan Johnson is convinced that he will be the first person to 'live forever'.
Johnson is not planning on doing this by keeping some aging portrait of himself in the attic, as in Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, but by minutely tracking and changing the levels of every hormone and chemical flowing through his body.
The health fanatic has tried just about every treatment and supplement out there to lower his 'biological age', which he claims is five years lower than his actual age of 48. But despite all his experiments, he could have just waited for drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro to hit the market.
After trialing the groundbreaking GLP-1 based drugs, Johnson explained: "If you have a food addiction problem that's impossible to solve, a GLP-1 solves it." Though he did add that he had observed some negative consequences after taking the now commonly-prescribed medicine.
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He told the Full SEND Podcast: "There are some side effects. For example, the dose I'm on raises my resting heart rate by two or three beats, which is a big deal for me, but the benefits are great."
Clearly won over by the innovative drugs, the immortality-obsessed 'biohacker' could not have heaped more praise on the group of drugs that were first developed to treat diabetes, but which have since found a number of other positive health impacts from their use.
Reflecting about the impact they had on his biomarkers, he said: "GLP-1s are the first legit longevity drugs”
These 'GLP-1s' have been the biggest breakthrough in popular medicine in decades, mimicking a hormone produced by the body that tells it when its full, Glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1).
This reduces feelings of hunger and also helps to better regulate blood sugar levels. They can even help people who are perfectly healthy, Johnson claimed.
“I am as healthy as a person can be and I still benefit from GLP-1," he said. This is even backed up by scientific studies, beyond the bizarre experiments Johnson tries out to boost his longevity.
An early study published in Frontiers of Endocrinology that explored the drug's impact beyond its known benefits in the pancreas and in weight loss found that GLP-1 helps a number of organs in addition aiding weight loss and controlling blood sugar.
It found that GLP-1 drugs also reduces inflammation in the brain, promotes nerve growth and improves heart function.
This was reflected in Johnson's results after taking the drug, with the biohacker telling the podcast: "It has metabolic effects and good neuroprotective effects.
"If you compare my blood glucose management to an 18 year old’s, I'm better than 99 out of 100 18 year olds."