Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Bryan Johnson
Gerrard Kaonga
Biohacker Bryan Johson has explained an error he and his team made in his quest to slow down his aging and questioned whether he will suffer any long-term effects.
Johnson is a clear indicator that even attempting to live longer costs a fair bit of money, as he reportedly spends around $2 million a year to slow down his ageing.
Just so you know how serious he is about his goal, some of his efforts to turn back his biological clock have included 'editing' his DNA and sharing blood with his 19-year-old son - which he recently stopped doing in favor of 'total plasma exchange' instead.
As well as this, he's also been taking a mixture of supplements and drugs, however, in a new video, Johnson admitted that he made a serious mistake, and this issue might have been rubbishing much of the work he was doing.
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In a video posted to his YouTube channel, he spoke about how he had taken a drug called rapamycin and how it may have been slowing doing his progress.
The drug is typically used to treat conditions such as cancer or lung diseases, but has also been studied for its anti-ageing properties.
Johnson also said that the drug had previously been used for those who received an organ from a donor due to its immunosuppressive properties, ultimately reducing the bodies attempts to destroy the foreign organ.
He had started taking the drug as previous studies showed benefits that seemed to outweigh the drawbacks. This included a 2009 study which showed that when it was given to mice, it seemingly increased the lifespan by 14 per cent for females and nine per cent for males.
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Meanwhile, a 2023 study reported that of 333 people taking it under a doctor's supervision, 65.5 per cent believed it had effective anti-ageing properties, while 44 per cent said their health had improved.
However, for Johnson, he said he had taken the drug for five years and was constantly mixing up the doses in order to reap the benefits without the drawbacks - but ultimately saw no improvements.
He did state that he was experiencing some negatives, which included 'canker’s in his mouth, a wound wouldn't heal fast enough, [his] blood report showed he had cholesterol disruptions and his blood glucose levels spiked a little bit'.
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Johnson added: "Then perhaps the thing that was most painful for me, it increased my resting heart rate, which as you know, is the most important biomarker I track every single day because it is the most influential thing determining my sleep quality."
Speaking about a new study from last year, Johnson said it conflicted with previous ones. Yale researchers found that the drug accelerated the biological speed of ageing in humans across 16 epigenetic markers instead of slowing it.
Ultimately, this means that he may have been making himself older rather than younger.
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Johnson said the irony isn’t lost on him, however, and admitted to those laughing at home, he was laughing with them and has since stopped taking the drug.
He concluded his video by noting that it was important to try things and talk about the success and failures of his attempts to decrease his biological age, as this was the way everyone learns.