By Charalampos Karouzos,
“La persistència de la memòria”, the most recognizable work of surrealism, also known as the melting clocks of Salvador Dalí, a painting that explains so very clearly, by using no words, the relativity of time. Time, a central part of humanity even before the discovery of precise ways to measure it, a condition that was an absolute truth for humans. Time and simultaneously time-alive was known to be limited, with eternal youth only available among Gods. Although death is still the destiny for humans, the idea of growing old every year, a basic and inevitable principle humanity has grasped on for its eternity, is being challenged in today’s world. Supporting this contradiction is the idea behind a groundbreaking project, project Blueprint, an idea that is now practically exploring the potential of science to counteract aging. In fact, Bryan Johnson, the owner, and human being behind these data is now growing old slower than the average 10-year-old!
To start, let us use the more well-defined biological term, growing old refers to the progressive and irreversible process of biological and physiological changes that occur in living organisms over time being a complex phenomenon that affects all living beings, including humans and other animals. Aging, however, is not limited to general terms such as biological and physiological changes and can be clearly observed at cellular and subcellular levels (Telomere shortening, gene methylation, etc.), the explanation of which is far from the scope of this article. In simple terms, the same cells present in a young person and an older individual, both characterized by good health, are molecularly different due to the effect of time on them. And that is the basis of rejuvenation science, how can we force cells to either not age or not age as fast? Indeed, a great part of the scientific community has focused on a different approach, using pluripotent stem cells, which are cells that differentiate into all the specialized cells, thus having a constant stream of new young cells.
But why is Bryan Johnson part of this conversation? Bryan Johnson was a very successful entrepreneur that sold his company Venmo to PayPal for 800 million US dollars. Apart from a very rich individual, however, he is also the man behind Project Blueprint, an ambitious project aiming to maximally reverse the quantified biological age of over 70 of Johnson’s organs. It may sound like a scenario from a sci-fi movie, but the project lies on a solid foundation. The basic idea behind the project is to utilize the best currently available scientific data to establish a lifestyle that not only supports health but also compared to the average human achieves slower aging.
Data revealed by Bryan Johnson himself and backed by Rejuvenation Olympics, a company that aims to provide a public forum to share protocols and validate results for age rejuvenation, are very interesting as the man is growing very slowly. According to, data available in May 2023, Bryan Johnson is aging at a rate of 0.69 compared to the average human. In other words, 1 biological year for Johnson is equal to 1.31 chronological years, or simply placed one year of age is equal to 478.15 days for him. The result sounds groundbreaking and indeed it is, achieving such a drastic improvement from the baseline, different for every individual, Johnson’s being around 15% improved, is a concept that seems to deny physiology.
Many would argue that data are false or at least improved to describe a perfect image, however, the man is very transparent about everything he is doing. The transparency in his rejuvenation journey is surprising as he is offering all the knowledge and data collected by his scientific team for free, expecting nothing in return. His goal apart from personal health improvement and potentially beating the biological clock, is to create a protocol composed of rigorously and scientifically proven decisions for better health. It is true that since the beginning of the project, available data regarding such a holistic and strict diet and medical treatments to establish longevity was never publicly available. However, the rate of aging is not the only marker used, but most importantly Johnson has many biological biomarkers in the optimal range not only for his age group but in the best range for a human. Furthermore, the assessment of his health, as anticipated, is excellent, however, excellent as a world is insufficient to describe his results compared to the average human of his chronological age of 45 years old.
Transparency about his everyday life along with the incredible results of the project have attracted the attention of public opinion with many making comments and some even trying to adapt to the same routine. Johnson has made that possible by freely and fully providing his lifestyle on his website with every detail included. He follows an almost 100% vegan diet, apart from the collagen supplements he takes which are animal derived, which is composed of the same meals every day, consuming specifically 1977 calories daily. In addition to the meals, he is consuming many supplements daily, that according to him have been and still are constantly measured for their efficiency and benefit for his health. In addition to the food he is consuming, the exercise plan and the treatments he is talking about are all available and well explained both written on the site and also presented by Johnson in his YouTube channel.
Stay tuned for the following part where we will explore how many have argued that living such a constrictive lifestyle would be a living hell.
References
- Salvador Dalí. moma.org. Available here
- The tech entrepreneur betting he can get younger. bbc.com. Available here
