Billionaire who injected son’s blood plasma to live forever has incurable disease

Billionaire biohacker Bryan Johnson, the man determined to live forever, has revealed he has an incurable autoimmune disease.

The American entrepreneur, 48, has made headlines for his outlandish anti-ageing techniques, spending millions of dollars in a bid to extend his life and reduce his biological age to that of an 18-year-old.

Johnson refers to his Benjamin Button-esque ways as ‘Project Blueprint’, meticulously taking 54 supplements a day, eating every meal between 6am and 11.30am, and following a strict exercise regimen.

In 2023, he even underwent six monthly one-litre plasma transfusions, one of which was donated by his son.

Cancer

Despite his efforts, Johnson has now discovered that immortality may not be in reach.

Johnson was unaware of his condition, but he is now trying to find a cure. Currently, it only has treatments to manage its symptoms.

In his lengthy X post, he explained that, as a child, he ‘gobbled down fast food’ and consumed sugary drinks.

After ‘a few healthy years’ in his 20s, he found that ‘juggling the stress and grind’ of building a business and becoming a father saw his health ‘slip’.

‘Within a few years, I’d fallen into a deep, chronic depression.’

‘Somewhere in that timeline, my body began developing an autoimmune process affecting my thyroid and then my stomach lining,’ he added, sharing the condition’s name, called autoimmune gastritis (AIG).

After being diagnosed with hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid) at 21, which he ‘successfully managed with common treatments for nearly three decades’, Johnson noticed signs that ‘something else was going on’.

But it was only in May this year that he was told of his AIG, a chronic, immune-mediated, inflammatory condition.

‘I’m unsure how long I’ve had it. AIG causes irreversible damage: nutritional deficiency, anaemia, and over a long horizon, elevated cancer risk,’ Johnson wrote.

He found that such issues were ‘explained away’ while other stones were left ‘unturned’.

The businessman went on in his post, saying he only received a diagnosis when he ‘overhauled’ his personal medical team to ‘lay the groundwork’ for a $1million-per-year longevity scheme called ‘Immortals Care’.

What is autoimmune gastritis (AIG)?

According to the Global Autoimmune Institute, it’s estimated that 0.5%-4.5% of adults worldwide have autoimmune gastritis.

It is a chronic, inflammatory condition of the stomach lining. The body’s antibodies attack the acid-producing cells that make up the stomach lining.

The condition can go untreated or be misdiagnosed since its symptoms tend to be non-specific. In many cases, a formal diagnosis isn’t made until later on.

‘Modern medicine has normalised too many conditions that erode our health, function, and comfort, shrinking the goal to monitoring and management while a cure is rarely even attempted,’ his essay concluded.

‘Most of these verdicts were handed down decades ago, in an era that predates nearly all of our current tech and science, and they have gone largely unchallenged.

‘We want to change that. In the age of AI, multiomics, and custom-built DNA, proteins, and cells, no condition should be presumed incurable simply because no one has yet tried to cure it with today’s stack.’

He signed off on a more personal note, reminding his followers how health can be ‘easily forgotten’ in the ‘noise’ of everyday life.

‘I wish all of you the very best. Care for yourself, care for others, care for the planet and care for our animal friends. Care for life as it’s the most precious gift there is.’

Does science support it?

Of course, several elements of Johnson’s lifestyle are scientifically supported for basic healthy living – objectively. These include a consistent sleep schedule, daily physical activity, stress management, and calorie control.

However, his more experimental efforts, such as injections and other therapies, are not yet scientifically supported.

Johnson has also been criticised by experts, who say that science may not yet be capable of providing the results he is seeking.