A 45-year-old tech tycoon who spends upwards of $2 million per year to bio-hack his body into aging backwards said he eats dinner at 11 a.m. to achieve an 18-year-old physique.
Bryan Johnson — who also has said he uses a machine to count his nighttime erections and has taken steps to make his rectum perform like a teenager’s — made his fortune in his 30s when he sold his payment processing company Braintree Payment Solutions to EBay for $800 million in cash.
In addition to swapping blood with his teenage son and taking more than 100 supplements a day, Johnson said his daily routine also includes consuming all of his food for the day before the clock strikes noon.
Johnson responded on Twitter to a commenter who quizzed him over his eating schedule.
“Is this a typo? Can you clarify?” tweeted Twitter user Martina Markota, who wondered whether the tech mogul actually ate his dinner before noon.
“My final meal of the day is at 11 am. I eat between ~6-11am,” Johnson tweeted.
Johnson is a practitioner of “time-restricted eating,” also referred to as “intermittent fasting,” which means cramming meals into a window so as to allow for longer periods of digestive rest.
The practice, which has been made popular in recent years by celebrities, has been touted for its purported health benefits, including increased energy, weight loss, and greater mental focus and cognition.
Johnson became a social media sensation earlier this year after a report detailing his extreme daily ritual which is aimed at getting all of his major organs — including his brain, liver, kidneys, teeth, skin, hair, penis and rectum functioning as they were in his late teens.
In May, it was learned that Johnson enlisted his 17-year-old son, Talmage, to be his personal “blood boy” by providing transfusions in an hours-long process whereby plasma is fed directly into the dad’s veins.
Using plasma as an anti-aging technique caught the attention of wellness junkies when scientists literally stitched young and old mice together so they shared a circulatory system, Bloomberg reported.
The older rodents showed improvements in their cognitive function, metabolism and bone structure, while the younger subjects showed that frequent blood donation could have positive effects.
However, there is little human-based data, leaving many researchers to view plasma-swapping longevity techniques as inconclusive, according to Bloomberg.
Known as Project Blueprint, Johnson adheres to a strict vegan diet totaling 1,977 calories per day, a one-hour-long exercise regimen, high-intensity exercises three times a week, and going to bed at the same time each night.
What I do may sound extreme, but Im trying to prove that self-harm and decay are not inevitable, Johnson told Bloomberg News.
Johnson wakes every morning at 5 am, takes two dozen supplements, works out for an hour, drinks green juice laced with creatine and collagen peptides, and brushes and flosses his teeth while rinsing with tea-tree oil and antioxidant gel.
Before bedtime, Johnson wears glasses that block blue light for two hours. He also constantly monitors his vital signs and undergoes monthly medical procedures to maintain his results, including ultrasounds, MRIs, colonoscopies and blood tests.
While sleeping, Johnson is hooked up to a machine that counts the number of nighttime erections. He also takes daily measurements of his weight, body mass index, body fat, blood glucose levels and heart-rate variations.
Johnson’s part of a trend that has become fashionable among Silicon Valley tech executives who have vowed to crack the code on aging and longevity.
Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder, has invested millions of dollars into a nonprofit that seeks to make “90 the new 50 by 2030.”
Close to its many restaurants, food delivery riders are congregating on their bikes.
The area is packed with shoppers and workers.
PC Paige Gartlan is approaching with other officers. She’s on the lookout for illegally modified e-bikes – and she knows she’ll find them here.
“You can physically tell by looking at the bike that it’s generally going to be illegal – the battery pack is taped on to the sides and generally the size of the motor that’s on the back wheel,” she explains.
Sky News has been invited on an operation by West Midlands Police to find these bikes and get them off the streets.
PC Gartlan has been hit by one before. She’s had to tackle a rider to the floor after he drove into her.
More on Birmingham
Related Topics:
Within minutes, she’s spotted a suspicious-looking bike. The rider makes a run for it – followed by plain-clothed officers.
PC Gartlan tests the bike – it’s showing a top speed of 52km/hr on the speedometer – just over 30mph.
Image: PC Paige Gartlan with a seized e-bike
The speed limit for e-bikes in the UK is 15.5mph when using electric power for assistance.
I look up the street and another two riders have been detained. In less than an hour, officers have confiscated four bikes – all were being ridden by fast food delivery drivers.
The commotion is attracting a lot of attention.
“They are dangerous,” Sandra, who has just finished work, tells me.
Image: Demoz had his bike taken by police
She’s stood watching the riders being questioned. She says she’s had near-misses herself and is worried for the safety of the elderly and children.
It’s not just West Midlands police officers here – immigration officials are carrying out checks too. They’re involved in a nationwide operation, which has seen more than 7,000 arrests in the last year – a 50% increase on last year.
Matthew Foster, the immigration enforcement lead officer for the West Midlands, tells me they’ve already found one individual who has entered the UK unlawfully.
“He’s been detained,” he says, “to affect his removal from the UK.”
Further down the street, police are loading illegally modified bikes on to a van – they’re destined to be crushed. One of them had belonged to Demoz.
He’s on his way home, carrying a big box with the logo of one of the main fast food delivery firms on it.
He tells me he used to have an illegal bike, but he thought his new one was legal.
“I make a mistake, I have to say sorry, I will do better for the future,” he says.
I get in touch with the big delivery firms; Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat.
Their representatives say they constantly remind workers of their safety obligations, and that they’re all working closely with the government to increase security checks on riders.
As he leaves, Demoz, now bike-free, tells me he’s thinking of changing his job.
Watching pictures of Prince Harry in Angola this week took me back to 2019, when we were there for his first visit following in Princess Diana’s footsteps.
The pictures on Wednesday looked so similar; his effortless interactions with people who face the daily dangers of landmines, and his obvious passion to help a charity that he cares deeply about.
Of course so much has happened in the six years since then, but with other headlines this week, I couldn’t help but feel like we could be looking at the beginning of a reset for Harry.
It started last Saturday night, as the story emerged of a meeting between the King’s communications secretary, Harry’s new London-based head of PR, and Harry’s most senior aide in America.
The pictures of the get-together were being sold for thousands of pounds by the paper that ran them, just one indication of the global fascination about whether father and son may be on the road to reconciliation.
Neither side are willing to go there when you ask what exactly they talked about, although I suspect some of it was much more practical than about trying to mend this fractured relationship.
More on Prince Harry
Related Topics:
Things like trying to avoid unnecessary negative stories, for example, the kind where Harry is accused of snubbing his father because they just happen to be doing jobs on the same day.
Image: Prince Harry meets landmine victim Sandra Tigica in Angola in 2019, who Princess Diana met on her visit to Angola in 1997
It’s tricky for Harry’s camp to avoid such a situation when they don’t have sight of the King’s diary.
There’s also been the chatter about who may, or may not, have leaked the meeting.
There has been speculation around why they were out on a balcony, and who spotted the photographer in the park.
But whether it was a leak, or just a really good spot from a journalist or photographer, it’s not a bad thing for either side that we’re now all talking about whether father and son may be close to patching things up.
It did however raise other questions, about what it means for Prince William and his relationship with his brother.
So far there have been no indications of any meeting between William’s team and that of his brother.
The feelings of William also, you may think, a consideration for the King.
Image: The King and Prince Harry in 2018. Pic: PA
The unexpected headlines around Harry just kept coming, as on Tuesday he popped up in Angola.
His second visit there, this time with no press pack in tow.
So why the surprise visit?
Harry has worked with the Halo Trust for some time, and it’s clearly still a priority for them to highlight the dangers faced by those living with the potential dangers of landmines in Angola.
But it also feels like part of a push to get Harry out on more public engagements.
I’ve been told that since moving away from the UK he has continued to have regular contact with those charities with which he’s maintained ties, but being on the phone or a video call, isn’t the same as physically being there in person.
We saw something similar with his trip to China with Travalyst earlier this year, some may argue not the best choice of destination, but another example of wanting to get him physically out on visits to reinforce publicly those connections with causes that matter so much to him.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:51
Prince Harry follows in Diana’s footsteps
For some months now it’s felt like Meghan has regained an element of control over how she wants to be seen.
Just look at her social media accounts and the success of her “As Ever” brand.
Whether Harry for the first time would step on to the social media scene with his own public account we wait to see, although the idea of his own commercial project is more likely, with suggestions something may be in the pipeline, we wait and see what.
After a constant flow of stories in recent months relating to court cases or his ongoing row with his family, this week has felt different.
A lot has been made about Harry and Meghan establishing a new “court” and what lies behind their decision to hire new people, five years after they stepped away from royal life.
There are of course elements of the recent past that it is impossible to erase, even Harry, in his recent interview talked of how he would “love reconciliation with my family” but added, “Of course, some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book. Of course, they will never forgive me for… lots of things.”
But it does feel like their new team are tentatively attempting to push the reset button; getting Harry out on more engagements just one way they hope to focus our minds back on to what he has always done best.
On Friday, Paola Paiva waited in a hotel near Caracas airport, nervous but giddy with excitement to be reunited with her brother, finally.
For five months, Arturo Suarez has been detained in a notorious prison in El Salvador.
“I am going to wait for my brother to call me,” she told Sky News, “and after giving him a hug, I want to just listen to him, listen to his voice. Let him talk and tell us his story.”
Suarez was one of the more than 250 Venezuelan migrants who had been living in America but were arrested in immigration raids by the Trump administration and sent to El Salvador, a showpiece act in the president’s promise to deport millions of migrants.
Image: Paola Paiva holds a vigil for brother Arturo Suarez. Pic: Reuters
Most of the men had never even been to El Salvador before. Their detention has been controversial because the White House claims the men are all part of the dangerous Tren de Aragua gang but has provided little evidence to support this assertion.
The only evidence Paola had that Suarez was still alive was a picture of him published on a news website showing the inside of the maximum security CECOT jail.
He is one of dozens of men with their hands and feet cuffed, heads shaved and bodies shackled together.
More on El Salvador
Related Topics:
Now he is returning to his home country, one of the bargaining chips in a deal that saw the release of ten Americans and US permanent residents who had been seized by the Venezuelan authorities.
Image: Venezuelans arrive back in home country after being detained in El Salvador
Paola had tried to go to the airport to greet her brother as he disembarked a charter plane bringing the men back from El Salvador but authorities told her to wait at a nearby hotel.
“They told us they are taking them all to a hotel to rest,” she said.
“But I managed to get someone to give my phone number on a piece of paper to my brother, so I am expecting his call tomorrow, as soon as he can access a phone.
“We heard they are going to perform some medical exams on them and check their criminal records,” she added. “I’m not afraid; I’m not worried since my brother has a clean record.
“I am so happy. I knew this day would happen, and that it would be unexpected, that no one was going to notify us. I knew it was going to be a total surprise.”
Image: US citizens released from Venezuela. Pic: Reuters
The Trump administration had paid the El Salvador government, led by President Nayib Bukele, millions of dollars to imprison the men.
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem visited CECOT last month, posing in front of prisoners for a photo opportunity.
But Cristosal, an international human rights group based in El Salvador, says it has “documented systematic physical beatings, torture, intentional denial of access to food, water, clothing, health care,” inside the prison.
A video which was seemingly filmed aboard the charter flight bringing the Venezuelan migrants back to Caracas shows Arturo briefly talking about his experience inside.
He looks physically well but speaks into the camera and says: “We were four months with no communication, no phone calls, kidnapped, we didn’t know what (the) day was, not even the time.
“We were beat up at breakfast, lunch and dinner,” he continues.
Sky News interviewed Arturo Suarez‘s brother Nelson near his home in the US in April, weeks after Arturo – an aspiring singer – had been arrested by immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) agents while filming a music video inside a house.
Nelson said he believed Arturo’s only crime was “being Venezuelan and having tattoos.” He showed me documents that indicate Arturo has no criminal record in Venezuela, Chile, Colombia or the United States, the four countries he has lived in.
Now Nelson is delighted Arturo is being released – but worries for his future.
“The only thing that casts a shadow in such a moment of joy is that bit of anger when I think that all the governments involved are going to use my brother’s story, and the others on that flight, as political gain,” he said.
“Each of them will tell a different story, making themselves the heroes, when the reality is that many innocent people suffered unfairly and unnecessarily, and many families will remain separated after this incident due to politics, immigration and fear.”