Featured Image Credit: bryanjohnson_/Instagram
Topics: Bryan Johnson, Health, US News, Weird, Science
Kit Roberts
Topics: Bryan Johnson, Health, US News, Weird, Science
A self-described 'biohacker' has shared how he travelled to a remote island in order to undergo a procedure to 'live forever'.
The old adage may say that nothing is certain in life but death and taxes, but clearly no-one told millionaire 'biohacker' Bryan Johnson, who wants to 'live forever'.
Johnson lives by an extremely strict regimen, including using his own son's blood, in order to try and and increase his life expectancy.
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In addition to his restrictive lifestyle centred around diet and exercise, Johnson also frequently shares the latest 'treatments' that he is undergoing.
The latest of these has seen the millionaire travelling to an island in Honduras to undergo a treatment called 'gene therapy'.
He shared the story of the procedure in a video on YouTube with a title straight of a Bond film: 'I Edited My DNA On A Secret Island (To Live Forever).'
But why does Johnson want to change his DNA?
In the video, he explained that this is because of how long human beings can generally live.
Johnson explained: "Humans have a 120-year ceiling and so far no one can punch through it - gene therapy might be the answer.
"I never imagined I would be doing gene therapy on an island off the coast of Honduras."
He added: "Their target: follistatin gene therapy. A pioneering technology with the potential to improve muscle and strength [and] slow the speed of aging and many more benefits."
The millionaire explained that the procedure involves an injection in the stomach and in the buttocks.
It also costs $20,000, so not exactly cheap.
The co-founder and CEO Mac Davis explained that the procedure involves using a plasmid.
No, that's not the thing from the video game Bioshock, it's actually a molecule of DNA which can replicate independently within a cell.
Davis said: "We designed was a plasmid, a circular loop of DNA, that was easy to subcutaneously inject, easy to manufacture and could be loaded with any gene that we wanted to add to the human body."
Johnson explained that he has previously avoided treatment involving DNA due to concerns around cancer.
He said: "If a therapy caused say cancer in my body there'd be nothing I could do to reverse the process."
Johnson added: "What makes Minicircle therapy different is that it has a built-in kill switch if my body reacts badly I can take the antibiotic tetracycline instantly killing and deactivating the DNA molecules I've been injected with."
As for why he travelled to Honduras, it's because the treatment is not actually FDA approved in the US.