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The Bryan Johnson Blueprint to Reduce Bioage

The Bryan Johnson Blueprint details a multi-millionaires unwavering focus on reducing his biological age and living the long and strong life. Can you join him? No. Can you get many of the benefits with much, much less money, effort and complexity? Yes. Here’s how.

With his Bryan Johnson Blueprint program, Bryan Johnson, 45, has one goal: To have the brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, tendons, teeth, skin, hair, bladder, penis and rectum of an 18-year-old — and he’s willing to spend $2 million this year to make it happen.

Yep, that’s his aim, and to do that he’s unrelentingly following his “Bryan Johnson Blueprint” that he conceived along with his medical doctor and coach, Dr. Oliver Zolman.

Is he crazy, or just very ambitious?

I’d say “very ambitious” sprinkled with large doses of hope.

Although many of the anti-aging interventions in his Blueprint are unproven, some show promise. What I’m going to attempt to separate in this post is which of Johnson’s interventions you can reasonably duplicate in your own quest for immortality (umm, I mean, healthspan), and what you can ignore, unless there’s nothing else you want to do with your millions.

Here's what I cover in this post:

Background info on Johnson and longevity science
The Bryan Johnson Blueprint for longevity
Can you do the Bryan Johnson Blueprint?
Bryan Johnson and Dr. Oliver Zolman shop talk
Your takeaway

Let’s dive in…

 

Background Information on Johnson and Longevity Intervention

Bryan Johnson is a technology entrepreneur and founder of Kernel, a company that aims to enhance human intelligence and extend human longevity through the development of neural implants. Before Kernel, he created a payment processing company called Braintree Payment Solutions LLC that he sold to eBay in 2013 for $800 million in cash. Burned out, overweight and depressed, he decided to focus on his health, apparently, obsessively.

The Bryan Johnson Blueprint is a collection of various technologies, therapies, and lifestyle changes that he and his doctors believe can help him live a longer, healthier life.

One of the main components of the Bryan Johnson Blueprint is the use of genetic engineering and CRISPR technology to target and repair specific genetic mutations that are associated with aging and age-related diseases. He also advocates for the use of regenerative medicine and stem cell therapy to repair and rejuvenate cells and tissues that have been damaged by aging.

In addition to these medical and scientific approaches, Johnson also emphasizes the importance of lifestyle changes, such as regular exercise, healthy eating, and stress management, as well as environmental and societal factors that can impact aging and longevity.

While there is some scientific evidence to support the potential of some of the technologies and therapies that Johnson highlights in his Blueprint, it’s important to underscore that much of the research on these topics is still in its early stages and more studies are needed to fully understand their safety and efficacy. Additionally, it’s important to note that aging is a complex, multifactorial process, and it is likely that no single approach or technology will be able to fully “cure” aging or extend lifespan to a significant extent.

With that in mind, let’s get into the nuts and bolts of how Johnson’s is spending his millions to regenerate himself.

 

The Bryan Johnson Blueprint for Longevity

According to Johnson’s Blueprint website, the activities of the Blueprint program are focused on identifying and developing new technologies that can extend human healthspan and lifespan, including:

• Regenerative medicine and stem cell therapy, which aims to repair and rejuvenate cells and tissues that have been damaged by aging.
• Genetic engineering and CRISPR technology, which aims to target and repair specific genetic mutations that are associated with aging and age-related diseases.
• Neurotechnology, which aims to enhance human intelligence and cognitive function, potentially slowing the decline of mental abilities that comes with age.
• Lifestyle changes, such as regular exercise, healthy eating, and stress management, as well as environmental and societal factors that can impact aging and longevity.
• Research in other related fields such as aging biology, longevity science, and geroscience.

The website states that the program is working with leading scientists, researchers and institutions in the field of aging and longevity, but it doesn’t provide any specific details of the research or studies that are being conducted, nor any results or progress of the program.

I’m going to list some specifics about Johnson’s Blueprint program, and as you read them consider what you could see yourself doing. For me, this distills down to lifestyle changes.

Dubbed “Project Blueprint,” the program includes strict guidelines for:

• Diet — 1,977 vegan calories per day.
• Exercise — one hour per day, with 25 different exercises, and high-intensity three times per week.
• Sleep — at the same time every night, after wearing blue-light-blocking glasses for two hours.

The picture below shows the food that makes up much of Johnson’s daily calories: broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, hemp seeds and lentils. He blends them up into a mush before consuming.

(Note: Learn more about his diet here.)

In the interest of fine-tuning this program, Johnson constantly monitors his vital signs. Each month, he also endures dozens of medical procedures, some quite extreme and painful, then measures their results with additional blood tests, MRIs, ultrasounds and colonoscopies.

Bryan Johnson’s results:

• Biological age — minus 5 years (40)
• Heart age — minus 8 years (37)
• Skin age — minus 17 (28)
• Lung capacity/fitness — minus 18 (28)
• Body fat — between 5f and 6%

Johnson’s lead doctor, Oliver Zolman, told Bloomberg News:

“My goal is to prove through biostatistics a reduction of aging of 25% across all 78 organs by 2030. It’s an extremely hard and crazy idea.”

For beginners, says Zolman (and I would add, for anyone that’s not wealthy and supremely devoted), his treatment focuses on the basics of improving diet and exercise.

Johnson starts each day at 5 a.m., when he takes supplements and medicines, including:

• Lycopene for artery and skin health
• Metformin to prevent bowel polyps (a strange use for a diabetes drug)
• Turmeric (probably for the curcumin content)
• Black pepper (probably to help with assimilation)
• Ginger root for liver enzymes and to reduce inflammation
• Zinc to supplement his vegan diet
• A microdose of lithium for brain health

(Note: These are a small fraction of the approximately 100 supplements he takes daily. See here and here.)

He then works out, followed by a green juice concoction full of creatine, cocoa flavanols, collagen peptides, and more.

Each month, Johnson does many medical procedures, including blood tests, MRIs, ultrasounds, and colonoscopies, some of which happen in his medical suite in his home.

As mentioned, he will spend at least $2 million this year on his Blueprint program, which includes more than 30 doctors that monitor his bodily functions with the aim to reverse the aging process in every organ.

 

Can You Do the Bryan Johnson Blueprint?

I don’t have to go far out on the limb to say, “no”, you can not (or will not) do the Bryan Johnson Blueprint program.

But how much of it could you do, or be willing to do?

In order to enable you to answer that question, I’m going to put together a two-column table, the first column of which will show Johnson’s Blueprint program, and the second will show what you can do now to get much of the longevity and health benefits that he enjoys.

After the table, I’ve embedded a nearly two-hour video of Johnson and Dr. Zolman discussing the program as they view video of Johnson going through his program.

Bryan Johnson Blueprint	What You Can Do
Eats 1,977 vegan calories per day. This plant-based diet provides polyphenols and flavonoids shown to have healthspan/lifespan benefits.	If overweight, reduce calories by 500 calories/day. Focus on a Mediterranean Diet like the Blue Zoners eat.
Exercises one hour per day, with 25 different exercises, and high-intensity three times per week.	Exercise is the preeminent “anti-aging” intervention. Beginners aim for 150 minutes of cardio/week plus two 20 minute strength training sessions. See my exercise posts.
Sleeps at the same time every night, after wearing blue-light-blocking glasses for two hours.	Sleep tends to get disrupted as we age, compounded by the blue light that emanates from screens. It’s essential that you make your sleep restorative. See 7 Sleeping Tips, and if needed, get blue-light blocking glasses.
Supplements taken upon waking Acarbose 200mg (Rx) Ashwagandha 600mg B Complex .25 pill M/Th BroccoMax 250mg C 500mg Cocoa Flavanols 500mg D-3 2,000 IU DHEA 25mg E 67mg EPA 500mg with vitamin E 5mg Garlic 2.4g equivalent Garlic 1.2g (kyolic) Ginger Root 2.2g Glucosamine Sulphate 2KCL 1,500mg Iodine as potassium iodide 125 mcg Lithium, as lithium orotate, 1mg Lycopene 10mg Lysine 1g Metformin ER 1,500 (Rx) Nicotinamide Riboside 375mg (6 x wk) N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC) 1,800 mg Turmeric with piperine 1g Taurine 1g Ubiquinol 100mg Zeaxanthin (20mg Lutein, 4mg Zeaxanthin) Zinc 15mg	That’s a long list. Before taking any of them, I recommend you learn about them at Examine.com.
Regenerative medicine and stem cell therapy, which aims to repair and rejuvenate cells and tissues that have been damaged by aging.	You can get stem cell therapy, but it’s very expensive, may not do anything and many practitioners are basically charlatans.
Genetic engineering and CRISPR technology, which aims to target and repair specific genetic mutations that are associated with aging and age-related diseases.	As far as I can discern, your only chance for this currently is to be in some experimental trial.
Neurotechnology, which aims to enhance human intelligence and cognitive function, potentially slowing the decline of mental abilities that comes with age.	Some start-ups are working on getting this tech to the public, such as Bryan Johson’s newish company, Kernel.

 

Bryan Johnson and Dr. Oliver Zolman Shop Talk

 

00:00:00 Introduction 

00:00:30 Routine Measurements 

00:18:53 Skin Health 

00:30:16 Brain Health 

00:32:46 Heart Health 

00:37:56 Lung Health 

00:40:54 Gastrointestinal Health 

00:42:56 Hair Health 

00:48:52 Eye Health 

00:52:13 Ear Health 

01:01:31 Oral Health 

01:06:05 Sleep Is A Lighthouse 

01:07:13 Supplements / Senolytics / Rx 

01:09:20 Diet 

01:16:24 Fitness 

01:28:20 Summary & Results

 

Your Takeaway

You can quickly get overwhelmed simply by trying to track what Bryan Johnson is doing with his longevity blueprint program, let alone trying to emulate it.

The good news is that you don’t have to do what he’s doing to get much of the healthspan benefits that he’s getting.

Just do this:

• Focus on eating like the Blue Zoners,
• Get some regular cardio and strength exercise, and
• Make sure you get between seven and nine hours of restful sleep every night.

Of course, the details are important, and perhaps that’s why you subscribe to this website.

Questions or comments?

Just scroll down to the Comments section and have at it.

Last Updated on January 28, 2023 by Joe Garma