Bryan Johnson, a 45-year-old multi-millionaire is attempting to slow down his ageing process. The software developer follows a rigorous routine to achieve this. He also spends a whopping $2 million every year to forever look young.
He feels that regular blood transfusions will keep his internal organs young. And now he's enlisted his 17-year-old son, Talmage, as his personal 'blood boy' in plasma-swapping, which is known to be a controversial practice.
The US-based entrepreneur along with his 70-year-old father Richard went to a clinic near Dallas in Texas for a unique tri-generational blood-swapping treatment. Johnson often receives plasma from anonymous donors who have been carefully chosen to ensure they have an appropriate BMI, a healthy lifestyle, and are disease-free, reported Bloomberg.
However, this time something different happened as son Talmage offered a litre of his own blood, which was then converted into separate batches of liquid plasma, red and white blood cells, and platelets. Talmage's plasma was put into Johnson's veins after his blood was extracted, increasing the contentious process. Johnson's father, Richard, arrived at the end and underwent the same operation.
For the unversed, the whole idea of using plasma as an anti-ageing technique gained prominence when scientists performed experiments on mice, the human-based data remains limited. To shed light on the task, young and old mice were brought together to share a circulatory system and the older rodents improved in cognitive function, metabolism, and bone structure, whilst the younger ones benefited from regular blood donation. However, the efficacy of plasma-swapping as a human longevity treatment remains uncertain, prompting many academics to be dubious.
While expressing his opinion on plasma-swapping, Charles Brenner, a biochemist at City of Hope National Medical Center in Los Angeles said, "We have not learned enough to suggest this is a viable human treatment for anything. To me, it's gross, evidence-free, and relatively dangerous." The old use of blood plasma includes offering it to patients experiencing trauma, burns, shock, severe liver disease, and clotting deficiencies.
Johnson, who is popularly known for his stupendous achievement in selling his payment processing company Braintree Payment Solutions to eBay for $800 million in cash at a young age of 30, has been vocal about his fight against time.
Project Blueprint, his anti-ageing initiative, aspires to change the quantified biological age of each of his 70 organs. To achieve this, Johnson goes through an ultra-strict routine that includes a multitude of supplements, rigorous exercise, a low-calorie vegan diet, and even a carefully calculated teeth-brushing regimen. Besides that, he also keeps a track of his sleep patterns by using a machine that also keeps count of his erections through the night.
Inspite of the sceptics, Johnson maintains that his costly procedures have resulted in a heart that performs like a 37-year-old and skin that looks like a 28-year-old. His passion for longevity has also prompted him to establish Kernel, a company that manufactures $50,000 brain-measuring helmets. These helmets monitor brain signals and assess the effectiveness of meditation and medication therapies for chronic pain.
The whole idea of doing this is to ensure that his internal organs work in a way it used to happen in his teens.
Johnson wrote in his Blueprint that the project was born “after feeling helpless to stop myself from overeating to soothe the pains of life. Despite my successes: raising three kids and selling my business Braintree Venmo for $800 million; when 7pm rolled around, there was nothing I could do to stop myself from engaging in this self-destructive behaviour.”
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